Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - A Must-Win Game in Atlanta?? Injury Report, Tic Tac Titans & Rowland's Rewind

Episode Date: September 26, 2019

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. It is the beginning of the football week. Thursday night football is tonight with the Eagles against the Packers. Really excited to get that appetizer in my belly to get us ready for the main course on Sunday. Speaking of that, is Sunday's game against the Falcons a must win? Jarrell Casey thinks so.

We'll talk about that in our first segment and go over the injury report for both teams. In our second segment, we'll do a little bit of Tic Tac Titans, and I'll talk about some things schematically that I expect to see on Sunday, or at least from the Titans' perspective, hope to see that should give them an advantage against Atlanta. And in our final segment, we're going to do a little Rollins Rewind and take a look at the last time the Titans played the Falcons, just for nostalgia's sake. Ready to get into all of it with you guys. Once again, kicking off the football week. I couldn't be more excited. Let's get it. Jarrell Casey came out with some strong comments after Tuesday's practice.

He basically called Sunday's game against the Falcons a must-win. I'm going to read you guys a quote that he had to say so that we're on the same page. Here it goes. To finish out the quarter 1-3 isn't the way we planned this, not the way we see it. So to finish out the quarter 2-2 to go into the second quarter is going to be good for us. So we make sure we get this win. It is a must win because nobody wants to start off the first half of the season like this. Now, he's essentially saying that it's a must win because nobody wants to feel bad and that would be a bad start. But I'm saying that he's right and for a different reason. This is a must-win game for the Titans.

Their division opponents all had wins in Week 3. They are 0-2 in the division. And Taylor LeJuan returns after this game. I think looking at the beginning of the season, if you didn't tell the Titans fans who we won against and who we lost against, and you said, after the first four weeks, you guys will be 2-2 with Taylor LeJuan coming back. You would say, oh, we survived. You would probably think we lost to the Browns and lost to the Falcons

instead of losing to the Jaguars and the Colts with backup quarterbacks. But if they're able to pull out a victory in Atlanta and go out of the first quarter of the season as 2-2, then it's the same thing, ultimately. They're in the same place. The star left tackle is returning. One of the biggest things that has gone wrong so far with the Titans season has been the offensive line play.

I've been the first person to say that it's everyone's fault. Some of the wide receivers have not run good routes. Corey Davis has been pushed off his route a few times, has been not on the same page with Marcus and what I think Marcus made the right decision. I've been very upfront about the decisions that Marcus has made and the throws that he's made. And I've also criticized Arthur Smith for some of the play calls and Mike Rabel for some of the situations that he's put the offense in. So I'm not saying, like I said, Taylor LeJuan isn't a cure-all, but if you come out of that first four games at 2-2 with everything that's going on

and just the feeling that everybody has about the team right now, I feel like that's generally going to be considered a success. If you looked at the schedule at the beginning of the season playing in Atlanta, when most people considered Atlanta to be a pretty good ball club. They've had the Super Bowl run. They have a good quarterback, Julio Jones, a defensive coach who had success in Seattle. Typically, people think that the Falcons are going to be a viable team. They're going to be a competitive team, 8-8, 9-7 at the minimum. Well, that may not be the case. Some of the performances that the Falcons have

put on in the first three weeks have been pretty alarming. Matt Ryan has six interceptions, I believe. They're minus four in the turnover margin. So there's a lot of mistakes that the offense has made. The defense is banged up. Keon O'Neill, their star starting safety, just went down within Achilles as we discussed yesterday on Crossover Wednesday. So this team is vulnerable right now. They're one and two for a reason. They just lost to the Colts just like we did by an extra point. They lost by three. We lost by two. Clearly the Colts are a good team at this point. So the Falcons are probably not as good of a team as the Colts. Neither were we, and it was very close, both stages.

So I think right now the Titans are much closer to a team like Atlanta than maybe we thought they would be preseason. Some of you are maybe screaming right now, oh, I thought they were going to beat the Falcons anyway, and that may be the case. But when I looked at the schedule, playing in Atlanta on the road without Taylor LeJuan made me think, oh, there's a good chance that Matt Ryan will be able to pull that off at home. So now that we have an opportunity, Atlanta is not playing great. Their offensive line is really struggling right now. PFF, now for what

it's worth, they had the Titans offensive line in the top 10, so I understand you take all these analytics with a grain of salt, but PFF had the Col they had the Titans offensive line in the top 10, so I understand you take all these analytics with a grain of salt. But PFF had the Colts offensive line ranked 27th in the league right now. They haven't been able to run the ball. As I said yesterday in Crossover Wednesday, 74 yards a game right now on the ground. Everything that Atlanta is struggling with right now plays into the Titans' strengths. The Titans are best on defense in the secondary. Well, Atlanta has a stud wide receiver that's carrying their offense to a point with a veteran quarterback

who's able to do the same thing. So everything that the Titans have as a strength goes against Atlanta's current weaknesses. So hopefully the Titans are able to use some of that to their advantage and pull out this ball game. like Jarrell Casey said two and two is going to feel and be a lot different than one and three it is a must win on Sunday okay let's talk about the injury report and update that for right now for both teams the Titans injury report looks like Delaney Walker Darren Bates and of course Kevin Panfield did not practice today Delaney Walker is dealing with a little bit of a knee issue. It does look like he is going to be playing though. I know that he's banged up, so it makes sense that he would not participate, but I think if we needed him to, he would be able

to practice and he's definitely going to play. This is probably just smart maintenance and making sure that an older veteran player has the necessary rest he needs. So good decision by Mike Vrabel. I would always lean with someone like Delaney Walker or Cameron Wake or anyone in their later stages of their career, or Roger Saffold, to give them more rest. They should be ready to play. Rashawn Evans was limited. We saw him get dinged up a little bit in the game.

His left wrist seems to be giving him some trouble, but he was in a yellow jersey to avoid the contact, but he was able to practice today, so that is a good thing. David Flewellen back, full participant. Nice to see Chris Milton, the cornerback, back from a collarbone injury. And Wesley Woodyard, who was inactive on Thursday night, was a full participant as well. On the Atlanta side of things, talented defensive lineman Grady Jarrett did not participate today with a knee injury. Same defensive talent on the line, Tachris McKinley. He was limited with a knee. Dan Quinn did say though that both those guys are trending up, so I would most likely

expect to see them out there there Calvin Ridley on the offensive side of the ball was limited with a hip but he did play in practice he was just limited Falcons backup running back Ito Smith did not participate with a concussion anytime you see a concussion it's probably unlikely he's going to play if he's unable to practice and that is pretty much going to wrap it up for anyone of note on the Falcons or the Titans hopefully both teams are relatively healthy going into the game based on this injury report obviously the Falcons lost Keanu Neal for the season after this game we know that I talked about that earlier so both teams other than their you know expected injuries and the people who they

knew were going to be out of the game looks like they're going to be relatively healthy going into the game. Excited to see that. Can't wait for this game. That's going to cover the injury report, Jarrell Casey's statement about this game being a must win. In our second segment, I'm going to do a little bit of Tic Tac Titans and just talk about some things schematically that I want to see on Sunday from the Titans perspective and some things I think the Titans can take advantage of

that Atlanta has been doing so far this year. We'll get to that. Of course, in our third segment, we'll do Roland's Rewind, and we'll talk about the last time the Falcons and the Titans played. Before we do, I just want to remind you guys that with Blinkist, you get unlimited access to read or listen to a massive library of condensed nonfiction books, all the books you want and all for one low price.

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Let you know how I think those stats will manifest themselves schematically on the field. And some things that we should look for in the game Sunday to see if the Titans are taking advantage of the Falcons where they need to. So we're going to start by looking at the Falcons offense and what the Titans might need to do to shut them down. Speaking about the running game, Matt Ryan has excelled in his career off of play action. The type of offense that the Falcons are running is somewhat similar to what the Titans are trying to do in terms of getting the zone running scheme going, getting play action, moving the pocket a little bit. Matt Ryan's been successful in that kind of offense throughout his career, but when you're unable to run the ball like we see with the Falcons so far, 74 yards per game on the ground, the Titans are 21st in run defense. The Falcons are able to have a successful offense without being able to

run the ball whatsoever. And the reason for that is because right now they're third in the NFL and getting a first down on first or second down. So to give you the percentage there, 31% of the Falcons first downs this year have come on on first or second down, third best in the league, which means they aren't even getting a third down. The Falcons are taking advantage of a defense, pushing the ball down the field. They're not running the ball, as I just explained, so they're using the passing game early and often. They're throwing on first down, throwing on second down, the opposite of run, run, pass, run, run, run. Some things Titans fans complain about, which is understandable.

But like I said, the Falcons aren't even getting the third down. They're converting on first and second down. That's going to be a problem for the Titans schematically because what the Titans like to do is disguise their coverage, bring some blitzes and some pressures from areas where you don't know it's going to come from. If the Falcons are successfully converting on first and second down, that means that they're not in a lot of third and longs. They're probably not in a lot of second and longs. And when the Falcons have their entire playbook open to them on short downs or they're ahead of the chains and they can do more on offense, it limits what the Titans can do and what kind of risks the defense can take

and the type of pressures and coverages that it can run. So what the Titans need to do is stop the Falcons from converting so quickly. They have to force the Falcons into third downs. And the reason for that is the Falcons right now have only given up five sacks on the year, even though they're 1-2 and not playing their best football. They've been pretty successful on offense throwing the ball. Now, if they have the 27th ranked offensive line per pro football focus and they're completely unable to run the ball at 74 yards per game, then how is this offensive line not giving up a bunch of sacks? It's because the Falcons are staying ahead of the chains.

Like I just said, they're converting on first and second down. They're never letting the defense get comfortable enough to call the type of plays they want to call. They're always dictating the pace to the defense at that point. They're putting up some points, and they're losing games, but this offense is a threat, and we see it in these numbers right here. Five sacks, the Titans are going to have to find, the Titans have eight sacks on the year as a defense. They're going to have to find ways to put pressure on Matt Ryan, stop the run game, which should be easy to do. And the Titans are 21st in run defense, so this sets up perfect. The weakness of the Falcons is their run game on offense. The Titans' weakness on defense is their run defense, so that sets up well for the Titans.

If they can stop the run, stop the early down passing, get Matt Ryan into some third down situations that the Falcons haven't been in so far this year, and get some sacks, they're going to be able to make an impact, and the defense is going to be able to do the job that it's been doing every single week. Tough task when you're playing the Falcons at home, but some of these numbers and some of the schematic things that are setting up here actually do favor the Titans, especially on defense. When we're looking at the Titans offense and the Falcons defense, that's where the Falcons are weakest in terms of either side of the ball. Clearly, we know the weapons they have on offense, but on defense, Dan Quinn was known as a defensive guy. He came from that vaunted Seahawks defense

from the Legion of Boom era, and the Falcons defense just hasn't been able to stay healthy enough to be consistent and make plays. They do have some playmakers out there, some that we talked about during the injury report segment. Tack McKinley and Grady Jarrett are really solid on the front line. Deion Jones is a really rangy, good middle linebacker. They have Isaiah Oliver, who's a young corner from Colorado who looks like he's growing into a very solid player we know on the other side Desmond Trufant is there he's a

very good player he has their two interceptions so far this year so they do have some playmakers on defense but this is where some things do line up for the Titans so the Falcons defense has given up 100 rushing yards a game that's 12th worst in the NFL right now the Titans. So the Falcons defense has given up 100 rushing yards a game. That's 12th worst in the NFL right now. The Titans obviously are at 112 yards rushing per game, 12th best in the league. So that lines up for the Titans. The Falcons defense has been okay against the run, but if they're giving up 100 yards per game, that's something that the Titans have to look at and get going. The Falcons don't have great edge defenders, at least in terms of run defense. They tend to be a little slight on the outside.

Somebody like Tack McKinley, more of a speed to power rusher, not somebody who's really going to focus on run defense a lot, more concerned with rushing the passer. And that's what they want from their defensive ends in Atlanta's scheme. They want them to be quick and get up the field. So the Titans should be able to have success doing some of those zone runs. If you remember in Tic Tac Tuesday two weeks ago, we covered some of those short tosses that Derrick Henry was getting. I really like the look of those. It was in the Colts game. Some of those short tosses off tackle should be super effective. You're going to be able to use the aggressiveness of the defense against them,

and same thing with the screen game. The Falcons don't bring a lot of pressure. They do sit in zone coverage quite a bit, but their defensive ends and their defensive linemen are really big on penetrating. So they want to get up the field as quick as possible rather than some defensive lines who want to have gap integrity and kind of stay where they're at and hold things up. The Falcons want to come across the line quick and penetrate. to stay where they're at and hold things up.

The Falcons want to come across the line quick and penetrate. The Titans should be able to use the screen game as well as some of those delayed outside zone runs to help take advantage of the aggressiveness of the Falcons' defensive line. That's one area that I want to see mostly just get the run game going there because the Falcons aren't a great run defense. On another flip side, talking about that pass rush for the Falcons aren't a great run defense. On another flip side, talking about that pass rush for the Falcons, they've only been able to produce five sacks this year. One of the reasons is because they do sit back in zone coverage, play cover three, cover four sometimes, and they just rush four primarily. Now, most teams, like a team like

Jacksonville, who is primarily zone on defense, they went to man and blitzed a lot on Marcus. That could just be because Marcus doesn't handle those things very well at this moment in time. And with the deficiencies on the Titans offensive line, it makes sense for a team to do that. But that would really be a tendency breaker for Atlanta and get them out of what they do best. So I would expect to see some of that mixed in, but they will go back to their roots and

rush four and play a cover three zone for a lot of the game. In those situations, the Titans have to be able to hold up and pass protection. Adam Humphreys should not have to stay in and chip a lot in this game, which will open him up to do some of the things that we talked about in Tic Tac Tuesday this week. Get into those zones, those hidden spaces in the zone.

Settle down. Marcus make an anticipatory throw to him tic-tac Tuesday this week get into those zones those hidden spaces in the zone settle down Marcus make an anticipatory throw to him as he settles down in a cover three or cover two or cover four in the hole in the zone where they need to be those kind of things that we talked about on Tuesday when I said we could take those forward throughout the rest of the year that's what I meant so Adam Humphries is going to have to have success against the zone coverage that's something that we need another factor here like I said is that he's is going to have to have success against the zone coverage. That's something that we need. Another factor here, like I said, is that he's not going to have to chip. The Falcons only have five sacks. The Titans offensive line should be able to hold up against this pass rush to help the passing game, you know, get a little bit of rhythm earlier on rather than

just in the second half in this game. And finally, I do want to point out that the Titans are the seventh worst team in the NFL on third down on offense, converting at a 30% clip. Anybody who's watched the games can tell the Titans are bad on third down because they're consistently behind the change. Which means basically the opposite of what Atlanta is doing on offense, throwing the ball early, getting ahead of the change. The Titans are doing the opposite of that right now. But the Falcons defense is third worst in the NFL right now, giving up 53% conversion rate on third down. So like I said, a lot of weaknesses for the Falcons and Titans weaknesses line up. Hopefully the Titans can take advantage in those areas because the Falcons defense is giving up a lot of third down conversions, whereas the Titans are struggling to do that.

Will be interesting to see if the Titans are able to get ahead of the chains because the run game is an easy area of opportunity for the Titans. Like we said in the first stat on offense, the Falcons are not giving up a bunch of sacks, which should help the Titans not lose a bunch of yards and get behind the chains. And then they're not good at stopping teams on third downs, which should help the Titans and give them that extra boost. So that's going to do it for Tic Tac Titans on this Thursday. I'm going to go ahead and do some Rollins Rewind real quick in the third segment,

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Dave.com. Slash. Locked on. rollins rewind okay guys so i went back in the vault to 2015 to take a look at the last time the titans played the atlanta falcons and boy was it fun so we're talking about Marcus's rookie year October 25th 2015 unfortunately the week before that and I'm sure you guys will not be surprised to hear this Marcus was injured against the Miami Dolphins an MCL injury to his knees. So Zach Mettenberger played, and boy, he was great. Anyways, Mettenberger threw two picks, one of them being a back-breaking interception in the final drive when the Titans were only down by three.

The game ended up being 10-7. Atlanta, although having a really good offense that year, just could not get anything going. The Titans' leading rusher was Antonio Andrews. Watching some of the Titans' cornerbacks out there going up against Julio Jones was miserable. He had a touchdown. Matt Ryan threw the ball to him 17 times. There were a couple of third- down conversions where he just absolutely mossed the Titans defensive backs. I don't even want to say names because they make me shudder still

to this day. Hey, throwback. David Bass had a pick. Matt Ryan actually threw two interceptions. Justin Hunter had a big drop. It was a quintessential pre-John Robinson Titans football game. It was really incredible to go back and see exactly what we had to deal with as Titans fans at that time. Mettenberger ended up with 187 yards, did throw one touchdown, threw two picks. Delaney was still balling, seven catches for 55 yards. Atlanta is one of those teams that the Titans only play every four years, basically. It seems like we never really

match up due to how the NFL does their scheduling with where you finish in the division a lot of that has been because Atlanta's finished so high in their division the last few years and the type of success that they've had so that is one thing that that I will say playing Atlanta is unusual it's not something that we do a lot we can't really correlate anything from the last time we played them to now. It was four years ago, completely different team, new coach, plenty of new coaches in between, new general manager and things like that. But it is fun to always go back and just relive some of those things. Think about where we were as Titans fans.

I know days get dark at this moment in time and we want the team to do so well. I know days get dark at this moment in time, and we want the team to do so well. But those 2014-2015 seasons were pretty rough on my soul. If I had gray hair at all, I would have to attribute it to those games. So really fun going back and taking a look. That was Roland's Rewind for this week. Guys, we went over Jarrell Casey's statement about this game being a must-win. We went into the film room, talked about some stats and how they

manifest themselves schematically this week with Tic Tac Titans. Then, in our third and final segment, we relived that wonderful 2015 home loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Really appreciate you guys hanging out with me on the kickoff day to the NFL week. I cannot wait for Sunday.

Tomorrow, of course, we'll do our game preview and some more predictions. I will do my beautiful dark twisted fantasy, hoping to have a couple more options for you as I hope the Titans do score some more points this game with Atlanta's defense being what it is. And then we will do keeping it plus 100 and go over all the gambling aspects to the game as we always do every Friday. Can't wait to see you guys then. Of course, I am your host, Tyler Rowland,

and this is Locked on Titans.