NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Brian Callahan had it right at the start.
Take the issue head-on, admit he botched it, take the lumps and get out of it as painlessly as possible.
He lost a 23-yard catch by Elic Ayomanor in Denver on a third-quarter first-and-20, where the rookie receiver landed elbow-first and then went out of bounds because he failed to challenge it. Callahan explained after the game that he didn’t throw his red flag because, in addition to the elbow, Ayomanor needed to get a foot down.
But, by rule, an elbow is sufficient.
“Look, ultimately, my interpretation of the rule was wrong, I’ll own it, we should have challenged the play,” Callahan said Monday. “And that’s pretty much all I can say about it. I’ll own the mistake, we should have challenged it and that’s where it stands.”
Callahan wasn’t going to pass on any blame. But the person assigned to counsel him also failed. The Titans’ director of game management and strategic initiatives, Rob Riederer, didn’t convince Callahan to challenge the play either, or maybe he talked him out of it. Riederer’s is the voice Callahan hears, but he works during games with director of football strategy Scott Cohen.
That was the best Callahan was going to do, I think.
The trouble was when the questioning continued.
Because then he changed course and tied himself into a bit of a knot later when it came up again.
He switched from misinterpreting the rule to misspeaking about it after the game, which are two very different things.
“At the end of the game, I was worried about a lot of things that went wrong in the game and in the heat of the moment and in the frustration of it after the game in the press conference, again, I misspoke,” he said. “I’m well aware of the rule. I understand how it works. And the way I articulated it afterwards was incorrect and I understand the rules of this game pretty well."
What does Callahan think his players should take from his error? Here’s the boss not knowing a rule. What are they to think?
“The same thing that I ask from them too: To take accountability for a mistake of for a play they didn’t make or didn’t do right and make it right," he said. "And that’s my job as a head coach, and I’ll make it right.”