Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - 10/2/17 Locked on Titans: Recapping Titans vs. Texans

Episode Date: October 2, 2017

The Titans were destroyed by the Texans on Sunday. Where do we go from here? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Again, that's MyBookie.eu. I'm your host, Jimmy Morris, joined by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing all right, Jimmy. That was a hard game to watch today. Yeah, it's been kind of a brutal weekend, football on O for you especially. Just real quickly, so Terry and I are taking over Lockdown Titans. We're very excited to get this started. Terry and I write taking over Lockdown Titans. We're very excited to get this started.

Terry and I write for musiccitymiracles.com, so you can check out that website as well. We'll have a lot of stuff about the Titans every day on there. Today we're going to be recapping the beatdown that the Titans took at the hands of the Texans. Unfortunately, there's not really anything positive to say about the game from today, and there's not a

whole lot of information to get out there it was just kind of an ugly one and uh you know i'm sure they'll go back and watch the tape but this is going to be one of those classic times where they really need to observe the 24-hour rule because it is just one loss regardless of the score at the end of the day so there's one loss in the loss column and it doesn't it doesn't ruin the season but it does uh raise some red flags, some things that I think we've been concerned about, but they really came to the forefront today, and we'll kind of start there with the problems that this secondary is still experiencing. Deshaun Watson was able to do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted in this game today.

And, you know, Watson's been good. I mean, I think that, you know, you and I talked before the season started about how we, we thought Watson would have a chance to be good. And, you know, kind of hoping that it took a little bit longer than this, obviously for the Texans to get him in there and for him to be playing well.

But I mean, today he goes 25, 34, 283 yards, throws four touchdowns, runs for another Titan, secondary receivers running free all day long. You know, and just some things that we saw last year

and that we kind of hoped had gotten fixed. But today, I mean, that secondary looked almost exactly like it did last year. Yeah, it was a burn the tape day. It's a game you just want to forget. 57 points. That's got to be the – I haven't looked this up, but it has to be the biggest loss since that New England game. And it's the most points the Titans have ever scored.

Yeah, franchise record. Awesome. Just unreal. They had a chance for 60, but kicked a field goal, thankfully. So you don't see that too often in the NFL, and it's a reevaluation day if you're a Titans fan. You're feeling pretty good going into this today, and me and Jimmy were expecting a win. I'm sure a lot of you were, but it just didn't happen today.

Offense was a slow start again. It's been a theme dating back to last year. I don't have an answer for you. I don't know why. I don't know why they can't come out firing, but they can't. Marcus Mariota was shaky in the passing game. He got a little bit going at the end of the first half, but two picks really doomed the Titans in the first half.

I believe the score was 31-14 at halftime. Marcus got some stuff going on the ground, but then he got hurt. So Titans still need Marcus Mariota. He's still the key to their success. But obviously he's got to be healthy, and he went down with a hamstring issue today. So we're awaiting an MRI tomorrow. But, Jimmy, how do you feel about this team potentially

without Marcus Marietta for the next few weeks? I mean, it's a disaster. We saw Matt Castle today, and, I mean, his numbers, he was 4 of 10. You know, and the defense was so bad that the offense wasn't on the field enough really to get in the rhythm, and obviously they couldn't do much when they were on the field. But, you know, Matt Cassel dropped back, I guess, 12 times, got sacked twice, threw two picks in his 10 passes. So, I mean, just, you know, he's fine as a backup.

He's fine for a one-week fill-in. And, I mean, can they go beat the Dolphins with Matt Castle at quarterback? Maybe. I mean, the Dolphins are pretty bad. So, you know, I'm not sure that, you know, you just go ahead and automatically write next week off, even with Matt Castle back there. But long-term, Matt Castle's not going to take this team to a division title.

You know, they need Mariota. This whole offense is supposedly built around him. You know, I have some questions about some things that they do and how much they're building it around him. But we saw today, I mean, the two touchdown plays are both designed. Well, the second one wasn't really maybe a designed run, but it was obviously the option was there. I mean, once Mariota got outside and saw that he had the corner, he it so i mean i think that well that wasn't necessarily a designed run i think

that's that's you know clearly one of the first options of that play but so they do a lot of that kind of stuff um and so you know you kind of got to redo what you do offensively without mario to without mario to back there but i mean i i just if they don't have him, you know, for a couple weeks, then they're going to have to try to find something else. Now, you know, we're not going to get into necessarily just yet who's out there and what they should do until we find out the severity of the injury. But, you know, obviously without him there, this team takes a huge hit.

And I don't even think we're in the division without him back there. No, I don't think they will. And obviously we're still waiting to hear. It might be nothing. There's a chance Mario might be back next week. You know, we've got to wait and see. But if you're Matt Cassel and you're coming into this ballgame, it's mop-up duty.

And obviously he's trying to make things happen. But you've got to take care of the football. I mean, that pick he threw, he threw two picks. My fault. He threw two picks. The pick six was just dreadful. I mean, it was a crossing route. He threw it high.

He threw it behind him. I'm not sure what happened with Delaney. But you can't be too excited with this team, with Matt Castle steering the ship. And, you know, to go beat the Dolphins next week, you've got to run the football. And, you know, the Titans have been a little inconsistent. We've seen it with a couple of big plays against Seattle. We saw the second half against Jacksonville. But, you know, you come out today,

and you really didn't have a chance to establish anything on the ground. So you've got to be able to run the football with Matt Castle steering the ship. And, you know, they've been so inconsistent. I just don't know how you have any confidence in it. Yeah, and a lot of your, you know, a lot of the run plays that they have designed, obviously, part of the reason they're successful when they are is because the threat that mariota has where he can run too and we've we've seen you know how much better it is for running backs when you have a quarterback who's a threat to run um you obviously don't have that with with matt castle back there so you know that's an issue but we need to get back to defense

real quick i mean the secondary i don't really understand how they're still so bad i don't under here's the question i have for you why in the world did they not put logan ryan on deandre hopkins i know that dick laboe hasn't shadowed since he's been here i don't know what he did in pittsburgh i'd have to go back and watch that i'm quite honestly not going to do that but um he hasn't shadowed at all with the titans but you know they talked in the in the offseason after they drafted Adore Jackson about how they were going to match up some on receivers. And when you had the smaller, quicker guy, you would ideally put Adore on him. When you have the bigger, more physical guy, you would put Logan Ryan on him.

And I had a post on museummiracles.com earlier this week about the success that Logan Ryan had last year with the Patriots against DeAndre Hopkins, and then about the numbers that Hopkins has put up against the Titans in his career. And he's averaged like 116 yards per game against the Titans. And, you know, he didn't quite hit that today, so I guess you'd call that a success. He only had like 107. But, you know, 10 catches on 12 targets. They could get it to him whenever they wanted to.

I just didn't understand why you don't make that adjustment. Get Logan Ryan over there. At least get a guy that can match up with him a little bit. Maybe you take that away and make them find something else. And obviously, Will Fuller had a big day. I mean, there were other things they were able to do. But it seems like if you could have taken away one thing, maybe that would have helped everywhere else at least a little bit.

Early in the year, Logan Ryan has played almost all of his snaps from the slot. And, you know, I really didn't see that coming. I know he played a lot of slot in New England, but I think he's got the second most snaps out of the slot in the NFL coming into this week. So they clearly like him there. And for whatever reason why, they felt comfortable with Bryce McCain on him, which was just, I mean, staggering.

I was floored. It's almost like they were working to get that matchup. So that was interesting to me. Hopkins just ate him alive. And you saw Hopkins play against Adoree, but for the most part it was Bryce McCain. I know he was working on McCain during his touchdown. So it was just odd. That's really odd.

You know, the Titans went with three pass rushers today. Kevin Dodd was down. Josh Carraway was down. So they really didn't establish a pass rush all day. There was no blitz. There was no pressure on Watson all day long. They got to him a couple times, didn't finish the play.

It was just an absolute dumpster fire. I'm not sure where you go from here. You want to see the pressure on the quarterback. You want to have, you want to have some corners that can step up and cover a guy like Hopkins. I'm just not sure the pieces are there right now. And so I guess, I mean, the theory behind, you know, only rushing three,

you drop people back into coverage. You make Deshaun Watson read coverage. I mean, I guess Dick LeBeau thought that was where the Titans had the advantage, try to force him into some mistakes. The problem is when guys are running wide open, you know, he didn't have to make a lot of quick decisions today. He could just wait for somebody to pop open and throw the ball to him. So, I mean, I would have liked to see them, you know, change that at some point and kind of try to get after him. I mean, obviously, there's the fear that in that scenario, he beats you with his legs,

and there's some things you can do to combat that. But I don't know. I mean, I think for me the biggest concern now is, you know, obviously the number one chief concern is Marcus Mariota's health because, like we said from the beginning, if he's not able to go, then this team's done anyway but you know long term but secondly the secondary doesn't appear to be any better than it was last year I mean it's better than probably the Paris Cox days but um you know after that they got a little bit better once they cut him I don't know how much

better they are right now than than that unit was the end of the year last year and then too I mean the the pass rush has to be a concern. Where's Terrell Casey been? You know, you haven't seen him pop up and make a play. You didn't see Morgan and Rakpo. I mean, they were back there a couple times, but they just weren't able to get any pressure on Watson all day. He had all day to sit back there and throw.

And, I mean, any quarterback, any NFL quarterback, is going to be able to pick a defensive part if that happens. But, again, it's not even like he was back there five, six, seven seconds, you know, just waiting, waiting, waiting. I mean, the ball was out of his hands pretty quick because guys were wide open. And I think that has to be the biggest concern as far as, you know,

on the field play going forward. Watson was fantastic today. And we're not taking anything away from him. Yeah, absolutely. He was spot on. I mean mean decisions were quick they were precise he was accurate he was attacking he was great uh it's everything you didn't want to see if you were a titans fan but i think we need to have this conversation

what about dick lebeau i mean it seems like we've been here It seems like we're not getting better. I think a discussion needs to be had. I'm not sure where you would turn if you went a different direction. But I just feel like this group keeps trying the same things. We keep seeing the Titans put in similar spots. I don't know if malarkey would make a change. I don't know if a change is needed. But I think it's a conversation worth having.

What do you think about LeBeau at this point? Yeah, I mean, I think it's funny. Week in and week out, people are calling for Terry Urbiski's head. That's the thing that you constantly see on Twitter and Facebook. Everybody wants Urbiski fired. But Dick LeBeau has been the bigger issue while he's been here now i don't i i can't see them making a uh a move during the season just because you know i dick lebeau is a hall of fame guy um you know and i think that i i just can't see them getting rid of him mid-year i i don't see that that's a way i don't think that's a way that mike malarkey would go um you know and so that's

not something that i see happening but i think the question is fair and i think that there are times where it does seem like that maybe the game is passing by and i hate to say that because that sounds kind of dumb on one hand but i don't even know if it's maybe the game is passing by, and I hate to say that because that sounds kind of dumb on one hand, but I don't even know if it's maybe the game is passing by or he's just stubborn and he's not able to make the changes that he needs to make on the fly and make adjustments that he needs to make in order to get them in a better spot.

Now, I mean, the last couple of weeks he's done, well, really the Jacksonville game, they did a good job of fixing some things and really shutting the Jaguars down. The Seattle game, I mean, the defenseville game, they did a good job of fixing some things and really shutting the Jaguars down. The Seattle game, the defense was still bad. I think I tried to excuse it as, well, it was kind of garbage time when it wasn't really. I think I tried to make myself feel better in that. You actually were the one that was saying, hey, look, this defense is still bad.

It's something that we need to be thinking about. But two and one, nobody really wanted to talk about that. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's a fair question, and I think they do need to reassess the way some things are done. Now, is that a thing that John Robinson can go talk to Dick LeBeau about and say, hey, I mean, I don't know if he steps over Mike Malarkey and all that stuff. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's a fair question that can be asked at this point.

And, again, like I said, it's just funny the crowd is always yelling about, we need Robiski out, we need Robiski out. I would say through a year and four games, the bigger issue has been the defense and the bigger issue has been Dick LeBeau.

Maybe not the bigger issue, but the more consistent issue for sure. And it's hard to put it all on LeBeau because he just doesn't have the pieces. And I'll be the first to say that. You know, it's hard to call a defense with Parrish Cox on one side like he did last year. And it's still hard with Adore Jackson.

You've got a rookie out there. You've got LaShawn Sims. He's a second-year player. And, you know, Logan Ryan's been okay. I don't think he's been great. It's hard to call a defense when you can't get a consistent pass rush with four guys. And I think that's the underlying issue here.

I don't think the Titans are good enough on the edges. And Derek Morgan, Brian Arakpo, they flash the greatness but I just don't see the consistency out of them. It's really hard to call a defense when you can't rush the passer consistently without bringing extra guys and to LeBow's credit he's blitzed some this year and had a success. You know Wesley Woodyard's been a great blitzer up the middle. He's been really productive. But I don't know. It's just frustrating because you see the moves the Titans have made on offense. You feel like that part's going to be okay. They scored 14 points.

They were pacing for 28 points. That's going to win you most games you play. But you see this defense, and you kind of have flashbacks to last year. So I don't know like i've said all along titans are going to be in the market for a pass rusher this this draft season and hopefully hopefully that'll that'll fix some things but i don't know if if what bow is is the answer anymore but so they've been in the market for a pass rusher for the last like five draft seasons and haven't taken one. I mean, Kevin Dodd.

And that's probably the biggest bust so far of the John Robinson era. I mean, I guess that was the pick that was supposed to address this problem. But we've been having this conversation for years, even back prior to John Robinson. conversation for years, even back prior to John Robinson. You know, because look at it. I mean, Derek Morgan is, I mean, I can't remember even now how long it's been since they drafted him, but he's the last guy that has been, you know, a high draft pick besides Kevin Dodd. 2008, I think.

Yeah, I'm looking. And so, you know, it's something that you just got to wonder when they're actually going to address it. And I think that, you know, you've seen a pretty clear plan on what John Robinson wants to do. I mean, he's obviously been building the offense first, and they did take a door in the first round this year. But he's been more concerned with getting weapons around Mario than anything else, and that makes complete sense.

But it's tough. 2010 was when Derek Morgan was drafted. You know, and since then they signed Brian Arakpo, and both players were good, but they don't have any depth behind those guys. And, you know, it's just been an issue year in and year out. So at some point they're going to have to invest some resources, free agency, the draft, that kind of stuff.

You're going to have to see them do that. And, I mean, obviously they will eventually, but that just seems to be a glaring issue for this team every single year and something that they kind of refuse to address for whatever reason. Yeah, you're exactly right. It feels like we've said watch out for a pass rusher. The Titans are a dark horse to take the pass rusher, and they never do. So, Kevin Dodd, you know how I feel about Kevin Dodd.

It's just not happening. He was inactive today, and I think it says something, that they would rather have him inactive and roll with three pass rushers. He's just not – he doesn't even play special teams. So at this point, I'm not sure what the Titans are doing with him on the roster, and it's unfortunate. You know, if you hit that pick, that's huge. You know, you get a future pass rusher out of the deal.

But it's still an issue. I don't know how long Morgan and Arakpo have left. So you're definitely looking at edge rusher in the next couple of drafts and free agent cycles. Yeah, and probably more than one, really. I mean, it'll probably go back to kind of the same conversation we had about corners last year about how they needed to get more than one free agent to the draft, all that stuff.

So, yeah. I mean, and so that's the thing to watch, I think, going forward is, can this defense rally and be better than it was this week? And, you know, we'll get into the Dolphins this week, obviously, because that's the Titans play this coming Sunday. But, you know, they looked terrible today against the Saints defense. It's not really any good. I mean, we know Jay Cutler, he can go out there and be really good,

or he can go out there and, you know, be smoking Jay Cutler. Did you see the play today where they were the Wildcat? He had his hands on his hips. He did not care. That was awesome. That's Jay Cutler, man. That was awesome. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see.

And then, you know, so you've got Dolphins, Colts, Browns, I think, right? The Browns the week after the Colts. So you're not going to see another high-powered passing offense. I mean, the Dolphins have got the guys. So, again, it depends on which Jay Cutler you get. He could torch them, him you know if he feels like it that day but um you know so it may be a while before we see this really crop up again but it's something to watch going forward and kind of really the biggest concern i have about

this team right now um anything else we need to touch on from today's game uh you know it's hard to it's hard to say much about the offense i just saw mike clay tweet out that they got 41 they ran 41 plays today which is just a ridiculously low number for a team and obviously that's a combination of not being able to pick up third downs and the defense not being able to get off the field but it's really hard to take away much from anything that that specific guys did other than the quarterbacks because they just weren't on the field long enough for anybody to really make an impression. Yeah, Mariota was Mariota this year. It's just he's really consistent to start these games. I don't know what happens in the first quarter, but the Titans can't come out and play, and

Marcus Mariota is a big problem in the first quarter. I don't know if you'd agree with that, but he came out and he threw two picks and put the Titans in really bad spots, and things kind of snowballed from there. But he came back and scored 14 points. I felt pretty good about the offense going into the half. Obviously they were down big. I didn't think they were going to be able to come back and win or anything like that.

But I didn't come away feeling like the offense was a problem. But the only problem I see is coming out and getting off to a fast start. And the inaccuracies. I don't know what's up with Mario to start, but he starts off really inaccurate and then kind of settles into a groove. So that's something that he's got to improve going forward. Yeah, and like you said, the slow starts have been a thing all year. Now, luckily, in the last two weeks, it didn't matter because the defense held up enough

to keep the Titans in games, and they were able to settle in and take control of the second half. When the defense didn't get off the field like they weren't today, they're unable to do that. And so then you find yourself in a big hole. And they just – I mean, even if Mariota would have stayed in today, I mean, I just find it hard to believe that they would have been able to climb out of that hole.

I mean, how many points would they have had to score? And, you know, turn the ball over five times, you're not going to win a game in the NFL. It's just not going to happen. So, I mean, some of that's due to that. So there's a lot there. Special teams, you know, the big kickoff return after that second touchdown was just kind of a gut punch too because you kind of felt like

how many times they've gotten back into this and then they give that up. So, you know, and then Mario was hurt. Looks like he's not stepping into his throws sometimes, but something I kind of noticed early in the game. You know, something else we'll get into more as we go along here, but I'd like to see them do some things differently early in the game. You know, something else we'll get into more as we go along here, but I'd like to see them do some things differently early in the game, maybe to settle Mariota in so that maybe it's not the second half before he gets ready to go. But that's kind of a conversation we can have at a different time.

But, you know, today obviously was a very frustrating loss, something that, you know, they really could have taken control of this division if they went down to houston and won you know now you've seen these two teams play each other i mean i think that depending on when andrew luck comes back and you know that's that still remains to be seen but um the the titans and the texans are one of those two teams is probably going to win this division and just judging on what we saw today the tit Titans have a long way to go to get to where the Texans are. Now, it's just one game. You know, even everything from we're just four games in,

small sales and all that stuff. But you've got to have a lot of concerns about this team after what you saw today with the team that you figure to be the biggest competition for the division. And just knowing how kind of being a Titans fan works, you know Andrew Luck is going to come back for that game in two weeks and probably beat the Titans, you know, because that's just how Andrew Luck rolls.

The Titans haven't beaten him yet. So it's kind of trending. Like, that's the feeling I get. But we'll see. Jacoby Brissett looks okay, too. So we've said it all along, the Titans have to win in the division before we can crown them a playoff team. And, you know, they did it in Jacksonville,

but today was just a big step back. Yeah, absolutely. All right, so that'll be it for tonight's episode. We appreciate you joining us. And, again, we'll be back about four times a week to talk about things. And obviously the news we'll be waiting on tomorrow will be if we get anything from the MRI on Marietta's hamstring. I would imagine that'll be done first thing in the morning. Mike Malarkey will have a press conference in the afternoon.

Don't know if they'll have the results at that point or how much they'll know. We'll obviously be keeping an eye on that. But anyway, so we'll be back here. We're excited about taking on this Locked On Titans. So we'll be bringing you a lot of great content. We'll get guys on to preview upcoming games and all that stuff too. So, Terry, anything

else on the way out? I got nothing. We'll see y'all tomorrow. Alright, sounds great. So for Terry Lambert, this is Jimmy Morris saying thanks for listening to Locked On Titans and we'll talk to y'all tomorrow.