Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - CROSSOVER THURSDAY - Titans v Bengals: Confident Offenses, Struggling Secondaries & Game Predictions

Episode Date: November 24, 2022

The Tennessee Titans and the Cincinnati Bengals matchup on Sunday in a game of two of the AFC's best. The Titans look to keep their newfound offense momentum going while the Bengals look to add their top weapon back to the mix! Also, the trenches will have a lot to do with who wins this one. Can the remodeled Bengals O-line hold up against the Titans battered pass rush and how do the Titans hold off the Bengals talented WRs with the injuries in the secondary! Finally, who will win this matchup? Tyler & the hosts of Locked On Bengals, James Rapien & Jake Liscow, give their thoughts.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNFL to learn more.BlueNileMake your moment sparkle with Blue Nile. Go to BlueNile.com and use code lockedon to save fifty dollars on your purchase of five-hundred dollars or more.BetterHelpThis episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn and get on your way to being your best self. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it's Crossover Thursday, and that means Jake Lisco and James Rapian of Locked on Bengals are joining the show to preview this big-time matchup on Sunday between the Tennessee Titans and the Cincinnati Bengals. First, the biggest storylines for both teams. Is this Titans offense for real?

Then we'll look at the matchups in this game. Can this Bengals offensive line keep the Titans defensive line at bay this year? And finally, we'll give our game and score predictions. So all that and more on a crossover Thursday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Crossover Thursday, we got a big AFC matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Tennessee Titans.

I'm Tyler Rowland, host of Locked on Titans here with Jake Lisko and James Rapian of Locked on Bengals and the Tennessee Titans. I'm Tyler Rowland, host of Locked on Titans here with Jake Lisko and James Rapian of Locked on Bengals. We're going to be breaking down this matchup. The biggest storyline for each team. I'll let you guys kind of take the lead on this one. What's the big buzz around Cincinnati right now as we get into this big matchup? It's Jamar Chase. What Jamar Chase is eating for breakfast.

What Jamar Chase is eating for breakfast, what Jamar Chase is eating for Thanksgiving. If Jamar Chase is playing video games or watching football on Thursday, what he's doing on Friday during practice, after practice, before the game, after the game, will he play in the game? It's all about Jamar Chase. And obviously there are other parts of this. The Bengals have won six of eight, much like the Titans after starting 0-2. They've rebounded. But all eyes are on Chase and whether or not he can return. The Bengals are 2-1 without him. The offense has found a way to succeed in recent weeks without him. But with him, well, we know they're a much better football team. So that's certainly the storyline. Will Jamar Chase play or not? And he looked pretty good on, on Wednesday when we saw

him, Joe Burrow hinted at, uh, at chase returnings that he expects Jamar to play. So we'll see Zach Taylor a bit more tight to the vest, but yeah, Jamar chase plays. I think that that's a huge storyline going into it. And then obviously all the AFC ramifications between the Titans and Bengals is they're both two teams that expect to be playing deep into January. Well, Jake, we have two hosts for the Bengals, and I'd love to take advantage of both the beautiful minds that we have here from a Bengals perspective. So if you could build off that, what's the vibe with the fans in Cincinnati and what they can do in the playoffs? I know they're behind Baltimore right now,

but it seems like Cincinnati's got a pretty good team that can challenge Baltimore. Well, what are the expectations, I guess, for this Bengals team right now? I think expectations for fans have been adopted from the fearless leader, Joe Burrow, who said, we've shown that we can beat anybody. They went out and did it last year, at least in the AFC.

They fell a little bit short in the Super Bowl, obviously, but they feel like they can beat anybody. They went out and did it last year, at least in the AFC. They fell a little bit short in the Super Bowl, obviously, but they feel like they can beat anybody. Obviously, it's in any given Sunday league this year, more so perhaps than I can recall in recent history anyway with some of the weird results we're seeing on a weekly basis. The Bengals suffered some of those weird results early in the season with Joe Burrow playing by far the worst game I think we'll see from him this year in week one coming off the appendectomy against Pittsburgh since that time he's been generally speaking very good the last five weeks in particular very good so there's a chance that they're hitting their stride for the playoff stretch and they do need to win a lot of these games where their schedule gets harder. So for the Bengals, the road ahead of them is,

can you take some games off these other contenders in the AFC to put yourself in position to make a deep playoff run? Because they have to go through those other AFC playoff teams or likely AFC playoff teams to get there. On the other side, Tyler, Tennessee, after perhaps a slightly rocky start to the season, maybe they seem again to be the class of the AFC South, a division that never fails to impress me with its ineptitude year in, year out. But taking advantage of it with, as some of the players and coaches have pointed out in Tennessee, a very different crew than the Bengals faced in the playoffs last year.

Obviously, some of the core is still there, but Mike Vrabel pretty impressive in that approach. What's the biggest story going on with Tennessee as the season goes on? Well, I think you're right about a lot of stuff in there. The thing about Mike Vrabel is he's going to make sure that this team is prepared. Like they're never going to get outsmarted and outclassed by a large amount on either side of the ball. They're always going to have a smart, sound plan. Whether it works or it doesn't work is a different thing because execution is different

than having the plan. But Mike Vrabel is always going to ensure that they have a pretty solid plan. But for the Titans right now, I think the big story and the big question for fans is, was the offense we saw against Green Bay for real? The offensive line had one of its best pass-blocking performances of the season. We saw the Titans for the first time in a long time have a healthy complement of wide receivers out there with Traylon Burks, the first round rookie who can clearly be a game breaker. He clearly has the talent to elevate the Titans receiving core from what it was without him.

So if you put Traylon Burks out there as a dynamic threat, you have Robert Woods who slides into a more comfortable number two position, a guy who doesn't have the full attention on him at all times. Then you have Nick Westbrook-Akina go into a third role, a tertiary role, where he's not asked to be one of your top two receivers, and everything kind of falls in line from there. It kind of cures a strong ill that the Titans offense had throughout that middle portion of the beginning of the season.

So the question has to be, is this Titans offense for real, the one we saw against Green Bay? And I think the real question behind that is, how do the Titans look against a good team? Because so far, depending on how you feel about the Green Bay Packers, the Titans haven't beaten a good team. The only teams with winning records they played this year, they've lost to. So Cincinnati is a good team.

We know that. And will this offense be this offense against a good team so that the Titans can compete against the good teams this year? That's clearly the biggest question going forward for the Titans. As far as storylines go, it's been brought up here and a few players have been asked about it. Obviously the playoff game in January, revenge factor, anyone in Nashville entertaining that saying that this one means more from Ryan Tannehill on down, or are they dismissing it and giving us the regular football answers that you would probably expect? I am expecting that I heard this week about what you guys heard this week. Mike Grable did an exercise.

Raise your hand if you played against the Bengals in the playoffs. And there's less than half, you know, of course, a small amount of guys who actually played in that game. And everyone's towed the company line of it's not a revenge game. But, guys, it's human nature. And we know that there are no more skilled liars than professional athletes and professional sports coaches. I mean, they know how to give us the coach speak or a half-truth, I guess you could say.

And I think that while there is merit to saying that the teams have turned over quite a bit and all that, I think at the end of the day, we know that the main players on this team remember that game remember the last few games that these teams have played against each other that have been close and hard-fought battles and i think it's denying human nature to act like they don't think a little bit more about the result of this game because they're still human beings i would be i mean i would be if i'm ryan tanhill yeah i mean he's he's had a couple rough outings against the Bengals, including the playoff game, and he talked about that.

I would want to go out there and outperform Joe Burrow, and it would motivate me a bit. It just would. I agree with you. Well, and you think about the way the Titans reacted to that loss in the playoffs as a one seed. They were incredibly disappointed. I do not buy for a second that there isn't at least some thought of

we let's try to reclaim some pride here, right? After the way they responded, the post game comments, the comments coming out of Tennessee in the week after the game, that really feels like it is a story to me, but they're going to downplay it of course, all week until maybe after the game, we'll see there. The one other question I have, I'll let you weigh in on that a little bit more as well. We're watching the health of Joe Mixon and of Jamar Chase, a couple of big offensive weapons in Cincinnati. Is there a similar watch for Christian Fulton and Danico Autry? Do you have a feel for those guys, or is it just not as big of an issue?

I would be shocked if Danico Autry played in this game. Fulton, I think that's up and down. I honestly, if I had to tell you, gun to my head, I don't think Fulton plays. I am positive that Danico Autry won't play in this game. I would just be absolutely shocked. And Mike Grable said earlier in the week that he'd probably miss some time,

but it doesn't seem like it's going to be long-term. So for him to say that early in the week and then him actually playing a game on Sunday immediately after, that would still be a little bit of a stretch. So I wouldn't expect either of those guys to play, but Bud Dupree, Amani Hooker, Elijah Molden, other key pieces to the Titans defense, Ben Jones at center, I would expect those four starters to be back for the Titans,

but Autry and Fulton, I would not expect. But with that in mind, starting to kind of zoom into some individual players, we'll get into the matchup portion of today's Crossover Thursday. Before we get into it, do want to let you know that today's show is brought to you by BetterHelp Online Therapy. Guys, life doesn't come with a user's manual. And sometimes it's just not working for you. And it's normal to feel like you're stuck.

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let's keep things rolling guys by diving into some key matchups and we mentioned jamar chase a little bit um let's start there who if christian fulton is out would be matched up with jamar chase and t higgins and tyler boyd and obviously we know the bangles have weapons on the outside yeah and i think that's the primary concern know the Bengals have weapons on the outside. Yeah. And I think that's the primary concern for the Titans. It's a, it's the perfect matchup to start with because just to set the stage, the Titans defense,

I know the numbers will say the past defense hasn't been good, but you have to look beyond the numbers with the Titans defense. They are a very good defense and they've been doing it with a bunch of different pieces in and out. But at the end of the day, defense. They've been doing it with a bunch of different pieces in and out. But at the end of the day, the one thing that has hurt the Titans defense the most is just losing one-on-one contested catch situations on the boundary. Mack Hollins went for like 10 and 150 and a couple of tutties for the Raiders in week three. Alec Pierce had a four catch 80 yard game. I know him well.

Alec Pierce had a four-catch 80-yard game. I know him well. Yes, and Christian Watson both had literally catches that were big for the Packers in that game in those exact moments. Christian Watson's touchdown, the first one, and then Lazard gets a catch into the red zone. So on the boundaries, when the Titans play that cover one man where they have that safety lurking to the middle as the robber, they have their linebacker be the intermediate zone guy with one deep safety and they play

man coverage. That's what they like to do when the chips are on the table. And you could do that. But when you don't have Fulton and you have a rookie and Roger McCreary is your top corner, you're putting your guys out to dry if you do that against this Bengals team. They are ideally tailored to take advantage of the Titans' main weakness on defense. So if Fulton doesn't play, I don't think that they will have a guy shadow chase or stick with chase. I think they'll just have Roger McCreary on one side, Trey Avery on one side,

Elijah Molden on the inside on early downs and then on passing downs McCreary on the inside and then they'll have Trey Avery or Terrence Mitchell and Greg Maben on the outside I mean just listen to what we're saying here if the Titans don't play too high safety and stick in cover four and cover two they're gonna they're gonna get roasted on the outsides and the Bengals are built to do it and the Titans are built to be taken advantage by it. So that is the number one matchup. I think that will decide the game. Is, is that something that Mike Vables defense is going to do? Are they going to do what they do and play single high? Well, what's their track record tell you? Because last time these teams played, it didn't really matter what Tennessee did in the secondary. I mean, it did obviously,

but ridiculous production from the defensive front. Obviously we'll be different players in this game with Harold Landry and Danico Autry unavailable, but still really good players. And Jeffrey Simmons just got praise from Brian Callahan on Wednesday as being right up there with Aaron Donald as the most dominant interior defender in the

league. The Bengals currently going through a stretch of Cam Hayward, Jeff Simmons, Chris Jones in back to back to back week. So that's fun for a rookie left guard Cordell Wilson. But structurally speaking, is that something where Vrabel has shown the matchup flexibility or seen one of those guys that likes to do what they do? Well, I, you know, Mike Vrabel actually isn't the Belichick coaching tree. If we're like doing it technically, even though people kind of associate Mike Rabel with Bill Belichick because of the playing career.

But in this way, he is very Belichick. So the Titans will do what's best to beat their opponent. Now, you make a great point in the previous matchup in the playoffs. Titans just play man coverage if you're going to get pressure that quickly. I mean, what's the point of even playing zone and allowing things like that to happen? But in this game, like you said, without the Titans having probably Danico Autry and then, of course, Harold Landry,

I just don't think that they can rely on getting pressure like that. I don't think you can count on getting nine sacks again without the other two key pieces of the pass rush. And who knows how long Bud Dupree will actually play in the game from what we've seen recently before he goes out again. So putting a lot of pressure on Jeffrey Simmons, they have in the past few weeks. And I think because of that and not having the stack pass rush that you had last year, you have to play differently. And that's why I think even though the Titans love to play that cover one man, I think Vrabel will be smart about this,

and he'll go to those two high coverages, play that cover two invert, play standard cover two, play cover four, palms coverages where they split the field and kind of divvy things out in a half and half basis. So I think the Titans will do those things. I hope they do those things rather than playing that cover one. I would imagine on third and short situations, they'll still try to do it. But that kind of leads me into my question for you guys in a matchup that I'm watching.

And that's that remodeled Bengals offensive line that if you look at the raw numbers, 34 sacks, they're in the bottom five but that a lot of that was at the beginning of the season and that Steelers game the Cowboys game so far at least in my opinion this Bengals offensive line and pass protection at minimum has really gelled and they're playing some pretty good football it uh, the only weakness may be Jonah Williams. He's given up the nine sacks. Um, seems like he's, you know, I believe he's given up more than twice as many sacks as the closest guy, um, with nine. So what's going on with Jonah Williams? And do you think that maybe I'm giving the Bengals offensive line too much credit by saying that they're playing so well,

or is that real? Let's start with Jonah. He might've had his best game of the year against the Steelers, and it has been a bit up and down for him. And he played through a dislocated kneecap earlier this year, so that might be part of it. But he certainly overall, certainly during the bye, we were saying that he was a disappointment in the first half of the season. They come back from the bye, he plays well against Pittsburgh. So we'll see. Coming into the year, I think we all expected him to be a stabilizing presence at left tackle, and it's been a bit up and down.

As far as the offensive line, I think they're okay. I don't think they're as good as maybe Joe Burrow states when he said, and he said this now for multiple weeks, that they've been one of the best units in the league recently and he's just throwing praise upon praise upon praise on them so i wouldn't go that far but they also aren't the unit that titans fans saw in january and and that's the more important thing because i think they're good enough to where this offense can function and function even if a tj watt like last week is on the other side with a cam hayward and a guy like alex highsmith on the other side right multiple pass

rushers that can really wreck a drop back passing team and they were able to hold up enough to let joe burrow do what joe burrow can do when he's seeing the field well so it's it's going to be an interesting test especially a guy like jeffrey Jeffrey Simmons literally wrecked the game and the Bengals obviously escaped, but wrecked their offense. It was not a happy offense at the end of that 19 to 16 win. It's a really good test for them. So they've been better, maybe not up to the expectations coming into the season, but they've been better in recent weeks. And if they continue to trend upward, obviously sky's the limit for this offense. But this is going to be another tough test,

especially on the road. I would add on to that as well by saying that I think Joe Burrow has covered some things up. And we talked about this a lot on Locked on Bengals yesterday when we did our film takeaways. His timing against the Steelers the second time around was nearly perfect.

There's so many instances where he's getting the ball out accurately, on time, right before he gets hit. There's some other games earlier this year where you see him getting sped up a little bit. So there's still a lot of pressure, I think. And I think in this game, it's Jeff Simmons and Bengals rookie left guard Cordell Volson. I think that that is a very positive matchup for Jeffrey Simmons and a big test for Cordell Volson, who wasn't quite as good as I thought. I thought he held up okay against

Cam Hayward last week. Then I watched the tape and it wasn't so pretty. So I do think that that is the matchup to watch. The Bengals have had a lot of issues though with edge guys. And so when you talk about Jonah Williams, three sacks against Cleveland, miles Garrett, two sacks in week one, and a whole, whole bunch of pressures had a bad time with Alex Highsmith in week one. Outside of that, he's been pretty okay for the most part, but it's been up and down for him, like James said. So we'll see how that goes this week. Well, the last thing that I wanted to ask you, you talked about doing a film review.

So I guess we'll just do this quickly before we move on to kind of predicting what we might see in the game. Jesse Bates seems to own Ryan Tannehill. Every time they play, he gets an interception. The Bengals, where they have been dealing with injuries, some in the secondary. So you have Cam Taylor Britt out there, correct? And then, of course, Eli Apple on the otherals, where they have been dealing with injuries, some in the secondary. So you have Cam Taylor Britt out there, correct? And then, of course, Eli Apple on the other side,

who he's a polarizing guy in the NFL sphere. So what are the Bengals doing in coverage with these, with Cam Taylor Britt in there and some injuries? Are they doing anything different, or what are they doing coverage-wise that could confuse Ryan Tannehill? Go ahead, Jake. Yeah, so I don't think they've necessarily changed things a ton. I think that like the Tennessee Titans,

they're going to be a team that is going to be very match-up dependent. You look at their week-to-week coverage breakdowns, if you're charting their defense, it's going to be very different on a week-to-week basis. And it might be even different from a half-to-a-half. Against Kenny Pickett and the Steelers last week, the Bengals started the game with a lot of blitzing, a lot of simulated pressure, a lot of creepers,

trying to confuse Kenny Pickett. Didn't go very well. Second half, not so aggressive with the blitzing. Kenny Pickett maybe is the kind of quarterback who has to see it open. And the productivity for the Steelers' offense falls off in the second half. So the Bengals are going to come out there probably prepared again to deal with Derrick Henry as they were in the playoffs last year. We saw what their approach was in that game schematically. And you can correct me if I'm wrong on this. It doesn't seem like the Titans are

a terribly different offense this year, just in terms of Derrick Henry still makes things go. There's still going to be a play action in the passing game. So for Lou and Arumos guys, I think it's the same idea. And for the Bengals, a lot of that from a matchup perspective falls onto DJ reader shoulders again. And I think he's still trying to get his feet back underneath him coming off of an injury that caused him to miss some time. He just returned from IR last week, but I know he has a lot of experience playing the Titans and he'll be up for this one, but guys, let's get into some of those predictions. It's a little bit early in the week and it's tough. Playoff rematch. Let's talk predictions coming up next. But first a word from BetOnline because BetOnline is a one-stop

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That's simplysafe.com slash locked on NFL. There is no safe like simply safe. With the news that Jamar Chase might play in this game, maybe your perception of how the game will go has changed. I don't know. I'm going to ask you guys. Tyler, let's start with you. How do you see this game going?

This is going to be at least two out of three straight years of Bengals will play the Titans in Tennessee because they travel to Tennessee next year in the regular season as well. That's already an assigned game. So in number two of at least three, they might play in the playoffs as well. How do you see this game going? Well, I think that the Titans offense is improved from what we saw early in the year. So some of what we saw on offense against Green Bay is real, but I think the reality is this Bengals defense is a lot better than maybe some people know. Their ability to make adjustments at halftime is just top tier.

Lou Anarumo, am I saying that correctly? Yeah, you can also call him Mad Scientist Lou if you want. I'll leave that to you guys in the Locked on Bengals podcast. But no, he does a fantastic job. And I think the Bengals had a pretty good plan against the Titans before. If the Titans go heavy personnel, they run 6-1 and bring a safety up. And if the Titans go three wide receiver at all, they're still going to leave five on the line of scrimmage a lot of the time.

And make it tough for the Titans to do those double teams on the line of scrimmage and get to the second level, kind of squeeze the interior while also having cutback and edge protection on both sides. It just makes it tough. It's kind of similar to what the Packers have tried to do to the Titans and make it tough for them to run the ball. I guess the reality of what it comes down to to me is the Bengals secondary is going to be able to execute a lot better than the Packers secondary. So if the Titans don't dominate on the ground, the Titans passing game is going to have to step up and win. And I'm just a little worried about that. On the other side of it, the Titans don't have the pass. The Titans got nine sacks in the playoffs and still couldn't finish Joe Burrow. You know what I mean?

So at the end of the day, with a lesser pass rush and a banged up secondary, that's more hurt than in the playoff. The defense is worse in the pass rush and in the secondary than it was in the playoff game. And the Bengals offensive line is a little bit improved. So you'd put all that together. And I don't see how you could come out thinking that the Titans will be able to hold the Bengals to 19 points or fewer.

And I don't know if the Titans on this Bengals defense can score more than that. So I don't mind to go out there now. I'm going to take the Bengals 24-17 in this game. I think the Bengals are able to get a few turnovers on Ryan Tannehill, and it kind of gives the Bengals a good opportunity to get some scores, get over 20 points like a lot of people haven't been able to do against the Titans since the Bills game. And I think the Bengals do end up winning the game. It should be close. I could see it not being so close as well, but I think 24-17

feels about right for me. Yeah. I think you hit on some of the main things there and throughout the pod, you've mentioned Jesse Bates and I go back to 2020 when Bates had the interception in the red zone on Ryan Tannehill, they were playing in Cincinnati at Paycore stadium. And it was early on the, the Bengals had, yeah, the Bengals had one win and, you know, it really gave them the momentum to beat the Titans. And the Titans obviously had way higher expectations than the Bengals that season. And afterwards, Jesse Bates talked about tells little tells that Ryan Tannehill had on film.

And then when you go back to last year, first play interception again. So if you ask Bengals fans, whether it's fair or not, I think a lot of them, especially with this contract situation would say, Oh, Jesse Bates, he's underachieved this year. And I don't necessarily think that's the case,

but that's what some would say. This is a big Jesse Bates type game, because as you were talking about the secondary, man, they missed Chittabay-Woozie. That's just, we have Eli Apple on one side, Cam Taylor-Britt on the other.

Mike Hilton, you feel really good about him. But it's just, it's not the same unit without Chido. And so is this the Bates game where he's able to step up and make plays. I think that that's certainly an interesting storyline. How the Bengals handle Derrick Henry obviously goes without saying. I think Bates is going to have to make a couple big plays, I guess, if the Bengals – I guess that's what I'm saying, if the Bengals are going to win this game. Flip side, I think it's unrealistic to expect Jamar Chase

to go from load management, essentially, with crutches. He wasn't like – when people hear crutches, they hear like leg up and stuff. He was never doing that. It was just to help that bone heal quicker. But that load management stuff that he was doing on crutches for the past four weeks to go from that to being a game breaker on Sunday. That being said, he's a freak and maybe he does that. Right. That's what I'm thinking. Right. Like he's certainly capable. I mean, the last time we saw him, he was dominating Atlanta secondary a week after dominating

the Saints secondary. And that was after he suffered the injury, at least partial, a partial injury. So I think that part of it's going to be interesting because this offense is gelling without him right now. Do they use him as more of a decoy? How does that work? But Joe Burrow's cooking, and does that translate on the road? It should in a hostile environment. I mean, that was such a crazy game, and it takes me back to January. I'm having flashbacks just thinking about it and talking about these two teams matching up. So it's, it's tough. If I had to make an official prediction right now, I told myself I've been picking, especially the first half of the season, the Bengals underachieved the first half of the season. And I was picking them to win because I thought they were going to win these games

and half of them, they lost, right? This game is more of a toss-up to me i was leaning titans coming into the week i'm not sure exactly how i'm leaning now with the jamar chase potentially playing news because i honestly up until monday i didn't think it was necessarily going to happen and then monday right you get a little intel and it feels like it could so we'll see there but i i was leaning titans coming into the week so i'll off. I think it's going to be a field goal game either way. So, uh, who's Randy Bullock's backup, whoever Randy Bullock's backup is get ready because it's money Mac. Yeah. It's looking like it's going to be undrafted free agent. Uh, Caleb should've from Iowa. He does have a bigger leg than, uh, than bulletproof Bullock is I like to call him bulletproof bulletproof Bullock. Bulletproof Bullock, baby.

Oh, man. Yeah, he's got a bigger leg, but he is a rookie kicker coming off PUP. So I think you'd rather have the consistency of Randy over the unknown. Consistency? Hey, man, he has not been bad for the Titans. Just don't ask him to kick more than 48 yards. Or in the clutch, right? You know what we the Titans. Just don't ask him to kick more than 48 yards. Or in the clutch, right?

You know what we call him? We call him leg cramp. He's made some game-winning kicks for the Titans, though. You know, I got to mention it. He's not an all-pro, but he's been good. My calf is cramping just listening to you talk about bullets. That's what he's out with, calf injury. So, flashbacks. Is he really?

Oh, my God. Yes, it's not both of them this time, though. You know what? I wish Randy well. We're making some jokes at Randy's expense here. I mean, he was anti-clutch for the Bengals, so it is what it is. Yeah. Man, he just missed another game winner with you talking, Jake.

I think that this is going to be an interesting game for both teams. The interesting thing for me about the Bengals offense in this game is the Steelers defense. Good on paper, the Titans defense. Good collectively, maybe not statistically, but just a disciplined group.

The results are there for them on a points per game basis. Like you talked about Tyler. So. And the Bengals keep their offense rolling, not against the Steelers who are awful, even if they have good players on defense and not against the Steelers who are awful, even if they have good players on defense and not against an AFC South or sorry, NFC South opponent, which is where they've scored 30 plus points and three out of their last four 30 point games. So that

part's really interesting to me on the other side, Tyler, you're expressing some doubt in the Titans offense and for the Bengals, they need to bounce back on defense because of the units of the Steelers, the offense is a putrid one. That's why that team is so bad. And they just gave up 23 points while the game was in contention, but 30 points total to the Steelers. And all that's essentially in the first half. So this is a game to me where you give up 21st half points. Maybe you're not in a position to be a second half team and get yourself out of it the way they were against the Steelers

where they were comfortable in the second half getting to that win. And the entirety of this game is going to feel pretty important to me. I think it is a game where you're going to have to play four quarters and the winner of the game could come down to that sort of thing. I think it's going to be a grinded out type. I remember seeing Burrow. Could be. of thing. I think it's going to be a grinded out type. I remember seeing Burrow could be just like after that. And obviously you get sacked nine times and you're harassed the whole time.

So they make it tough. The defense does a good job of making it tough. No matter who you are, we saw them limit the chiefs to only 20 points. And that was with the Titans backup quarterback and an offense that couldn't sustain a drive whatsoever in the second half. So I think it's definitely going to be a fantastic game. And I think both these teams, if we're honest about it, and you look at who they've beaten, both of these teams don't have a murderer's row for their wins. They haven't beaten a lot of good teams. So I think this will be a nice chip for whichever team wins.

Not only did we beat all these other scrubby teams, a nice chip for whichever team wins is, Hey, you know, we, not only do we beat all these other scrubby teams, but we beat a really good team as well. So I think that'll be important. But with that fantastic crossover conversation, always good when the Titans and the Bengals meet and some of the smartest people in the entire network here,

James and Jake from locked on Bengals. Thank you guys for, for having this conversation. Hopefully, anybody who's celebrating Thanksgiving had a good Thanksgiving as well, but that's going to do it for us. Enjoy the weekend of football and everybody be safe.