Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Brian Daboll stepped to the podium Thursday for the first time since his offense managed just 10 points in the Week 1 loss to the New York Jets. 

The Titans scored their lone touchdown with under three minutes remaining, trailing 23-3, a garbage-time score that belongs in its own category when evaluating the offensive performance as a whole. 

Now Tennessee prepares to host the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2, and Daboll faced 15 questions from reporters. Zero were about Philadelphia. All 15 centered on the putrid offensive showing against New York.

Daboll either delivered a masterclass of coaching clichés at the podium or skated past the real issues without offering anything of substance. I struggle to know which side is the right one to be on.

Brian Daboll’s 8 types of clichés, 36 times in 15 questions

By my full count, Daboll deployed eight different types of coaching clichés a total of 36 times across those 15 answers. That averages out to 2.4 clichés per response, which is pretty wild.

The breakdown: grouping the use of “better,” “improve,” or “not good enough” (without any specific fix attached), that single category appeared 11 times. 

Taking responsibility but spreading it across the entire offense rather than pinpointing one player or unit came up five times. 

“Keep working,” “stay consistent,” and “trust the process” language showed up five more times. 

The “some good, some bad” framing popped up four times. Expressing confidence in his players hit four times. 

Using “execution” as a vague catch-all answer appeared three times.

Referencing plays they wish they had back came up three (maybe five) times depending on how you count it. 

And “it all ties together” made one appearance.

Daboll’s strongest answer of the press conference

The closest Daboll came to a real answer was on the second question, when he was asked about the run game.

“I could do better job with that relative to calling them, and we’re going to have some that are two, three, four yards, or two yards, one yards that, you know, stay committed to it. If the game calls again, the first half, three possessions, one drive for three points, really not good enough. Came out and changed a little bit of what we were doing relative to some of the injury situation that (the Jets) had with the secondary. But at the end of the day, didn’t do a good enough job.”

He took accountability there. “I could have done a better job calling them” is a real admission. But even the best answer of the day contained multiple versions of “not good enough,” which tells you everything about the tone of this press conference.

Don’t let your eyes glaze over

Everything after the run-game answer felt like eyes-glazing-over territory. When asked how he could help Cam Ward trust the pocket as a young quarterback, Daboll pivoted to the team doing some things well. When a reporter asked about receiver spacing, Daboll rerouted to plays moving quickly and landed on another general point. When asked why the offense didn’t respond after halftime with an opportunity to get back in the game, he answered by explaining what typically makes good offensive football without addressing what actually failed.

That specific answer was almost comedic: “It comes out, you know, a good game plan together, going out there, calling a good game, and executing the plays.”

Hey Coach, why didn’t you adjust? Here’s a vague description of football. Very funny overall.

Calvin Ridley gets brief vote of confidence

Toward the end, Daboll was asked about wide receiver Calvin Ridley receiving zero targets and how to get him engaged. Daboll has a documented relationship with Ridley from their time together at Alabama. He held his tongue for a beat, then simply said:

“I’m very confident in Calvin.”

That’s how the press conference ended.

“Masterclass” or skating by the issues?

I understand the tension here. Daboll wants to protect the fixes. The goal of a Thursday press conference is not to be the most transparent person in the building. The goal is to fix what went wrong on one Sunday and do a better job the next Sunday. If he tells the media exactly what the corrections are, that spoils it for Philadelphia’s game plan preparation.

But did he actually show accountability, or was this just coach speak dressed up as accountability? Here’s the question I’m going to leave dangling out there for everybody to chew on: if Cam Ward had this same exact press conference, how would the fan base, the local media, and the national media respond to that?