Robert Saleh - Head Coach, titans Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-20 | Full transcript (primary source).
Robert Saleh, Head Coach of the Titans, addressed the media during a press conference following a challenging game on September 20, 2026. The discussion focused on the team's performance, particularly their struggles in the first half and the execution during critical moments of the game.
Transcript
Saleh: One, but they converted quite a big deal of them. What do you think of that? First half wasn't good enough. I thought we played really well in the second half, minus that last drive. But you're right. We had a lot of opportunities in the first half to get off the field, a lot of things that we can improve on. I hear what Keller was, that Calvin penalty. All the way throughout the entire game. That was my message to the team that felt like we outplayed and there's certain moments in the entire game where execution reigns supreme, being disciplined reigns supreme, and they executed better in critical moments.
Saleh: How far do you lose a game like this? It sucks. Whether you lose by 100 or lose by in the last second, it doesn't matter. They all suck.
Saleh: In the end of the first half, was it mindset to go for three there? Because you call it a run play and it seemed like you had 30 something seconds left. You could have taken a couple of shots toward the end zone. Well, it was third and really long, and finished a half with the ball, finished a half with points. Last thing we wanted to do was, and that was my call. Last thing we wanted to do is have the clock stop, kick a field goal, and they have time to go get three points of their own.
Saleh: Do you guys as an operation offensively have to account at all for how many opposing fans were here? No, I think it was pretty manageable. We were able to stay within our cadence.
Saleh: What keep that final drop for them in your eyes? It's going to come down to execution. When we watch it, like I said, they executed and we didn't.
Saleh: What did you make of Cam's performance overall today? I thought offense as a whole improved as the game went on. Like I said, I thought the second half was really good. Credit Jalen Carter made a really good play on what we thought. We thought we had a really good play right there, and Jalen just blew it up on that first and goal from the nine. But no, I thought our offense improved as the game went on.
Saleh: Was that feeling going into the locker room kind of similar to last week where you would have bet that this game was going to come out better? I thought last week was going to play out like this week, where we came out and controlled the tempo of the game, and our offense was able to possess the ball, and the offense was able to get some three and outs. Like I said, overall, I thought we really outplayed them, but they executed better than we did in the final minutes.
Saleh: No, there's no moral victories. There's going to be things that we've got to improve on. Like I told our team, we're going to be sick when we watch this tape, because we should be one and one right now. But we're not, and that's credit to Philly. They executed.
Saleh: The one big touchdown drive in the second half seemed like really found something there. How hard is it to obviously prove difficult to kind of get the ball back and sustain that? You know, Philly's one of the best defenses in the league. And to be able to do those things consistently against a team like that's difficult, it just is. I do think, like I've told you, we're going to get better every week. We're going to find more consistency every week. We're going to be better at executing every week. And I've got a lot of faith in the group we have. Like I said, we've got a really cool young group of guys. They're getting better every week. They're learning something new every week. And, you know, the consistency will come. The execution will come.
Saleh: But yeah, you'd love to go down the score every single time, you know, Paul. But like I said, Philly, they get paid on that side too.
Saleh: With you, I don't want to be in the defenses like the head pros. How personally do you take this loss with the game winning drive coming against the team? No, for sure. I take it personal regardless of, like, you know, whether the offense stalled or whatever it is, it's a loss is a loss. We win as a team, we lose as a team. I'm just sick of the way we lost in terms of all of it was right at our fingertips. But like I said, it comes down to execution.
Saleh: And definitely could have called a couple of things better. It wasn't every drive, especially in the second half. But for a large part of the game, it kind of felt like there was a disconnect with the secondary as a whole, especially when you guys were in zone. Is that a fair assessment? What do you think? Yeah, you know, like, we just got to understand situations and execute better.
Saleh: Like I said, you know, on one of the third and longs, we got, you know, we're playing a cover two principle. And we're playing low on the down instead of high. You know, playing more, same thing happened in a two-minute situation. You know, they're deep over that score to touchdown. Again, they're simple principles that we need to be better at and executing and understanding how teams attack us.
Saleh: You know, I think as our players grow in the system, they're going to learn that what they see every week is the same. It's the same thing every week. They might change the formation. They might change the look. They might change. We call it window dressing. But at the end of the day, the distribution of routes are always going to be the same. And our players, as they learn the system, will start figuring out how to play all those.
Saleh: What was it like to do on the player to pick that pick that only he took back and how much did it support that game? That was awesome. I thought Armani did a really nice job in terms of understanding the route distribution. Because it is a split decision that he has to make. And there's a lot of moving parts in that one where the mike linebackers got to play fast and be decisive so Armani can get the read he needs. And then Armani just slides into that next window and scores or hot intercepted it. So really well executed play in that regard.
Saleh: How's it going to go last year? Invisible the way Ridley was through a game and a half to making two big plays on that, your biggest driving pan? I don't have that answer. You go out and you play. And you work as hard as you can. And you play as hard as you can. And you execute the way you need to execute. And when your number's called, your number's called. And that would be my explanation.
Saleh: Has Rush seemed better in the second half and seemed like her for a long time in the first half? Was that an adjustment that you made? Was it guys just being fresher and able to go or what? A little bit of both. Understanding what they were trying to do protection wise, changing some of our looks, changing some of the fronts. And then at the end of the day, you still got a one year one on one. I thought Jacob showed up a lot in the second half. I know Jeffrey, he saved us on the second interception in the Marcus. I think he took a little air off the ball, which allowed Marcus to fall underneath it. But I thought, look, it's a four quarter game, 60 minutes. And like I said, I thought in the second half we played really well, minus the last five minutes.
