Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - CROSSOVER THURSDAY - Titans v Chiefs: Tannehill's Status, Trench Matchups & Game Predictions

Episode Date: November 3, 2022

The Tennessee Titans take on the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football in Week 9! Chris Clark of Locked On Chiefs stops by to talk about the game! First, will Ryan Tannehill play and what it means for the Titans chances and how will the new pieces in Kansas City fit for the Chiefs. Next, what matchups will be key in this game! Jeffery Simmons and the Titans pass rush unit will be crucial against Kansas City while the Chiefs run defense will have to stand up to the task of stopping Derrick Henry! Finally, Tyler & Chris give their predictions and neither of them are expecting a very close game.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, a big primetime matchup awaits on Sunday night football between the Tennessee Titans and the Kansas City Chiefs. I'm taking you behind enemy lines. We're going to talk to Chris Clark from the Locked on Chiefs podcast to go over the biggest storylines for both teams, the biggest matchups in this game, and give our game and score predictions. So all of 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. This Crossover Thursday is presented by our friends at PrizePix.

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is crossover Thursday. Time to go behind enemy lines and get ready for this big time,, prime-time matchup happening on Sunday Night Football. I am Tyler Rowland, host of Locked on Titans, here with Chris Clark, one of the esteemed hosts of Locked on Chiefs. Absolutely one of the best podcasts that we have on the entire network. Chris and Ryan do a great job. So excited to get into this conversation. The biggest storyline for each team heading into this matchup.

Chris, the Chiefs are coming off of a bye, so I'll let you go first. What is kind of the vibe right now with the fan base? What's everybody talking about? You know, honestly, it's the trade deadline. It's Caderius Tony, the trade for Kadarius Tony and trading away Rashad Fenton was something that was really surprising to me. I saw that late last night. I'm actually funny enough. I'm sitting here recording this in a hotel in Nashville as we speak. Truly behind enemy lines. Yeah, truly. Yeah. When you said that, I was like, yeah yeah I'm really truly blind in me lines right now uh I'm in Nashville for work but it's it's just interesting because Kadarius Tony could be

a guy that could come in and it's a boomer bus type trade if if it works out and they are able to get him to be productive as a wide receiver uh maybe not this season but even you know he's got two more years on his rookie deal uh and then you're also looking at a situation where maybe he's a guy that is going to be a special team's guy this year, and that's where his role is going to be. And they've really struggled at punt returners. So the trades for Kadarius Toney, not going out, giving an extra pass rusher, I think, is the other big storyline for Kansas City. And I know that a lot of people are talking about that. And then they traded away Rashad Fitton and bring back Marcus McDuffie so a couple of different storylines but all centered around that trade deadline yeah they're definitely moving in pieces

it looks like Kansas City's trying to prep themselves for a Super Bowl run and be ready for that just a quick follow-up question on that do you think Kadarius Toney is going to a play in this game and do you see him being a factor in any Toney is going to, A, play in this game, and do you see him being a factor in any way? I do think he's going to play in this game. I don't know what he's going to do in this game. I don't expect that he's going to have a ton of things in offense or on offense for him to do, but they could get him in as a returner.

If they get him in as a punt returner, if he breaks one in this game, that's a huge deal. And regardless of whether or not he breaks one, Sky Moore's got two punt muffs this season. And you can't have that in the NFL when you're trying to win games. And you look at this Titans team and the Chiefs are playing them. It's tough to beat teams if you play down to your competition. And I don't mean that against the Titans necessarily,

but more of look what happened with the Indianapolis Colts. They have that huge issue of a muffed punt, and then all of a sudden everything falls apart. And you can't do that. You have to be in a situation where you're going to compete every week, and Kansas City needs to be coming back off the bye and be focused in this game. 100%, especially, you know, you think about that's a similar situation with the Titans.

The Titans don't have a good offense right now. They're ranked 32nd in some categories. And if the Chiefs hand them easy scoring opportunities, it can totally change the momentum and the feel of the game. And that would obviously swing towards the Titans advantage. The Titans don't want to get in a high-flying matchup. They want to keep it as a boxing match in a telephone booth. But I think that leads us to the biggest storyline for the Titans.

And it's really all about can they get Ryan Tannehill back in this game. Tannehill missed the last game against the Texans. He even said himself, yeah, he had an illness late in the week, but it was the ankle injury that he suffered against the Texans. He even said himself, yeah, he had an illness late in the week, but it was the ankle injury that he suffered against the Colts that kept him out of that game against the Texans. Tannehill was able to practice today, and they're hoping that he's going to be ready to go. I do think that Tannehill will play in the game,

but here's what I'll tell you. Despite the fact that the Titans were able to win that ball game last week against the Texans with Malik Willis at quarterback, that's because the Texans are one of the most despicable teams that I've ever watched. I've been covering the Titans in depth for four seasons now, watching film every single week, multiple times, and I have yet to see a team lay down and die the way that the Texans were. It was embarrassing, quite frankly.

I was embarrassed for their fans. The Chiefs ain't doing that. The Chiefs ain't doing that. The Chiefs aren't that kind of team. The Chiefs are one of the most well-coached teams in the NFL. They're going to have a great game plan, and I feel like Kansas City is motivated because they remember getting trounced by the Titans last season. Patrick Mahomes mentioned it already this week that they weren't ready to play the Titans and they came in and they kicked their butt. So the Chiefs are going to be motivated. They're going to be ready.

They're going to have a good game plan with the coaching staff. So the Titans aren't going to be able to survive running the ball to Derrick Henry 30-some times and running for 300 yards. It's just not going to be the case. So the Titans are going to need Ryan Tannehill back, and they're going to need him to be at his best because they're going to have to, even if the Titans find a way to force turnovers, even if the Titans play well on third down on defense, they're still going to need at least 24 points to win the game. I would imagine they're not going to completely blow out Kansas City

like they did last year. They simply don't have the offensive weapons to do that. So can Ryan Tannehill come in and give the Titans some semblance of a passing offense so that they can keep pace with Kansas City, even if the defense plays well? I think that's what everybody is talking about and what everybody's worried about going into this game. But we're going to move into the matchup portion of our show. What are some matchups out there on Sunday night that are going to determine the outcome of the game and we'll cap off the show with our game and score predictions.

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Promo code LOCKEDON. Chiefs fans, Titans fans, time to continue our crossover Thursday. I am your host of Locked on Titans, Tyler Rowland here with the host of Locked on Chiefs, Chris Clark. Make sure you make Locked on Titans, Locked on Chiefs your first listen every day. It's free and available on all platforms Monday through Friday. Also for your second listen, check out Locked on Sports today. It's basically all the biggest sports stories in America in under 25 minutes every single day.

So you're going to get caught up on your team with Locked on Chiefss or locked on Titans. Get caught up on all the national news with locked on sports today, free and available on all platforms. But looking at the matchups in this game, Chris, I'm going to start us off here. The number one matchup that I'm watching for, and I'm going to hit back on what I was mentioning in the first segment. Everything about this game comes down to the Titans' defensive line, at least from the Titans' perspective. If the Titans' defensive line

doesn't absolutely dominate up front, they're going to have a hard time winning this game. And you look at a guy like Trey Smith at guard, who Tennessee people will remember very well. You look at Creed Humphrey, who's one of the better centers in the league. Those are guys that are good players in Jeffrey Simmons, Tierra Tartt,

Danico Autry. Those guys who line up and pass rush from the interior for the Titans, they're going to have to win those matchups all day long. How susceptible do you think they may be to that Titans pass rush? I agree with you. I think that the defensive line in Tennessee is going to be a big factor in this game for Kansas City

and for the Titans. I do like what you said about Simmons. I think he is a stud and that's going to be a very key matchup when you start talking about how this is going to play out in this game. The big question I have going into this game and the big matchup for me is how do the Titans match up and how do they attack Kansas City's passing offense? Because to me, if you look at where the Chiefs have struggled, it's when they are giving up pressure on the edges. And that is going to be a big question, is can they get a guy, can they have people that are getting pressure on Patrick Mahomes? Because at this point, Patrick Mahomes was leading the NFL before the fight with yardage and with touchdowns, and he was being very effective as a passer. So if the Titans can get pressure on the tackles specifically,

that's going to be a huge problem for Kansas. So my big question is, and this is the key matchup for me, can Kansas City's tackles keep the Titans' rushers off Patrick Mahomes? If they can do that, this is going to be a game that I think Kansas City is going to be in good shape. Well, I think it'll be interesting to watch because the Titans in previous weeks, recently with Houston and Indianapolis, they were vulnerable on the inside. So the Titans' stunts were targeted at going after the guards in the center. I think they may have to do some different stunts now with Jeffrey Simmons

looping outside and having the twist kind of the, the I keep calling it a pick on my show for basketball, just to keep it simple. Basically the defensive end would crash in towards the guard to pick the guard. And they're hoping that Simmons can loop around the defensive end towards the outside, towards the tackle and the tackle will be confused by having to come in with the defensive end towards the outside, towards the tackle,

and the tackle will be confused if I happen to come in with the defensive end and it'll open up for Simmons. So I would imagine the Titans will find a way to run more stunts that are trying to attack the outsides rather than what they've been doing recently. Another matchup that I'm really watching for, and it's something that I'm a bit worried about, is how the Titans deal with Travis Kelsey.

Amani Hooker, the Titans' starting safety, who is a better pure cover guy than Kevin Byard, the first team all-pro safety. Byard is the better player, no doubt about it. But Hooker is much more suited for man coverage and one-on-one pass coverage. So I would expect Amani Hooker to be playing against Travis Kelsey one-on-one. I think the Titans will run a ton of man coverage against the Chiefs. That's what they did last year. I think they'll keep doing that. But the key to that is who guards Kelsey. And if Amani

Hooker, who missed practice on Wednesday with a shoulder injury and came out of last Sunday's game early with that injury, if Hooker isn't available, well, that means you're going to get somebody like an Andrew Adams or a Lonnie Johnson, who Chiefs fans will remember, who will be tasked with handling Travis Kelsey one-on-one in man. And I'm a bit worried about that matchup personally. Is there one more matchup that you're looking at in this game? Yeah, and I just want to add something really quick. I know you have faith in Hooker, and that's great.

I still think Kelsey is going to have a big game this week. Titans have killed the Titans this year. I mean, Mo'Ally Cox made the Titans look like garbage against the Colts. He did the same thing to the Chiefs. Yeah, he did the same thing to the Chiefs. Right, right. You know, when I look at this, the other thing that really is always going to stick out to me when it comes to be the Titans, the one key, and before I get to my last matchup,

the one key that is so different this year than it's been in the past, obviously no AJ Brown that changes everything from the Titans offense perspective, sorry, but the key is still going to be what can I do with King Henry? Henry yeah Kansas City has done okay with him in the past I'm not going to say it's always been great it's been bad at times too but their defensive line has been playing better against the run this year and so I am really curious to see that match up not necessarily because I think it's going to be a huge factor in this game although it could be if he goes off for 200 yards obviously but with the way they've been playing you would think that that means that they're more capable of stopping the run and that they're going to be in a good situation to be able to at least

slow him down to where he doesn't go off for 150 yards. Yeah, that's going to be something to watch, absolutely, because like you mentioned, A.J. Brown went for seven for 91 last year and caught a lot of passes on third downs to keep Titans' drives going, to extend their time of possession, all of that. So without that part of the offense, it will be interesting to see how the Titans

find a way to keep drives going when everybody's looking at Derrick Henry. The Chiefs have the third-best rushing defense in the NFL right now. I'm sure some of that is they're up by a lot on teams and they have to pass, but obviously it's not a run over defense like the Titans saw with the Texans last weekend,

but we will move forward to the prediction section of this crossover Thursday. We're going to give you our game and score predictions for this matchup. Before we get into them though, I do want to tell you guys about BetOnline. BetOnline is your number one source for all your college football and NFL betting needs this fall. Also, the start of the NBA season and NHL season is here. They have everything you need on that as well. Player developments, team matchups, news, in-depth analysis on every game. BetOnline remains your continued source

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we've gone over our biggest storylines. We've gone over our matchups to watch. Now we do need to get into our game and score predictions. And Chris, I'm just going to kick it off here. I know that the Titans have played well against Kansas City in the regular season.

They've beaten Kansas City quite a bit in the regular season with the cores that we're still seeing. Ryan Tannehill and Patrick Mahomes. We've seen that. You can go all the way back to 2017 when the Titans shouldn't have won that game where Mariota threw the pass to himself,

but Jonathan Ciprian knocked out Travis Kelsey with a concussion in the first half, and then the Titans found a way to come back. So without that concussion, that's not another win for the Titans, but the point remains the Titans have had some good luck against the Chiefs, but I think that luck runs out. I said when it happened, I've said it all season, to the dismay of Titans fans

who don't want to hear about it anymore, but the Titans don't have A.J. Brown now. And yeah, they beat the crap out of the Texans and the Colts twice and the Commanders and the Raiders. These are terrible teams. Okay? So...

Thank you for saying that. Yeah. Titans fans are going to say that I'm just national media who doesn't believe in them. But they played nothing but terrible teams. They've looked pretty poor while doing it as well. I don't believe that the Titans are a good team. And I don't think that they can beat good teams this year

like they have in the past because they don't have a Jay Brown. So I'm going to pick the Chiefs to win this game 24-13. The Titans, through their own volition, the Titans have killed any chance that they can be a potent offense in the NFL by trading the best player on their team and giving him to Philadelphia so that they can go undefeated and win the Super Bowl this year. So without having a passing offense of any kind, the Chiefs are a smart enough coaching staff to find a way to prevent Derrick Henry from going for 200 yards

and beating them single-handedly. So I'm going to say 24-13. I don't think it's very close. The game won't feel very close. It might be 24 to 3 or something, and then the Titans get some garbage points. I think this is a handily easy win for the Chiefs, 24-13. You know, I look at what your record is, and I agree with you.

If you just look at the record and you don't realize who they've played, you kind of look at it and you go, the Titans are a pretty good team and I mean no I'm not trying to throw shade at your team but you're right about who they played and I was looking at that before we started this it is not a schedule that has a lot of hard games in it and this is the part of the schedule where or it had been the part of the schedule where they went through a lot of soft opponents now you're going to be facing Kansas City coming off a bye where Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid are fantastic coming off of a bye. And they're getting a new weapon in Kadarius Toney. Travis Kelsey has been playing out of his mind again this season. And they're still just getting,

they're still just scratching the surface, I truly do believe, when it comes to guys like Juju Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdez-Scantling. And Sky Moore hasn't gotten involved in the offense yet. And McCole Hardman had a great game last week, but he had, what, 10 yards on his three touchdowns? Well, no, one of his touchdowns was 25 yards, but on the other two it was less than five yards. They're all like jet sweeps, right? Yeah, right.

So, you know, I think this offense is going to play well. It looks like they're going to be healthy. They're going to get Trent McDuffie back. I said that earlier. That's going to be huge for them. But I also like what Kadarius Toney could bring to this offense. If he plays, I think they'll have some packages for him. But I also think that they're going to use him on special teams.

I think that could really help Kansas City. Because the biggest thing that you can't do if you're the chiefs is I'm not worried about them overlooking this game. I'm worried about it. There being a situation where they do the same thing that they did with the Colts and they beat themselves in, in a way that you just can't do.

You turn the ball over a couple of times, any given Sunday, right? And that's the reality of it. I still think Kansas City wins. I think that the score is going to be maybe even a lot more lopsided than what you're suggesting. I would go 34-17 Kansas City.

You think the Titans are going to score 17 points? Man, that would be awesome. Garbage points count as points. They do. They do indeed. Yeah, I mean, the Titans were only able to score 17 against the lowly Texans. So I would be pretty happy if they were able to put up 17 points against Kansas City. But I do want to mention one last thing here.

I wish so desperately that the Titans would have got Juju Smith-Schuster. I think he just blocks. blocks, he's physical, he's run after the catch threat. A lot of people don't like him, you know, just him and the TikToks and all that, so they don't want him on the football team and all that. But, man, this Titans team would be a lot more competitive in these upcoming matchups, in my opinion,

if they had a guy like Juju to go with Robert Woods. If they just had a real NFL wide receiver, to go along with Robert Woods' 30-year-old off an ACL self, they just need a real NFL wide receiver, and they don't really have one right now. So Kansas City will soak up all the benefits of that. Yeah, and I will say this about Juju. I think that it is going to be more evidence after this season is over that

him coming to Kansas city was one of the best decisions he could have made from what I've seen from him on the field. I think that he is in a position to have a season as long as he stays healthy. And that's all, that's always the caveat with players. As long as he stays healthy, he could easily go over a thousand yards. I think that that's possibly a reality. Maybe he gets to seven or eight touchdowns. And I that that's possibly a reality. Maybe he gets the seven or eight touchdowns. And I know those numbers sound high based on what he's done so far,

but it's chemistry. You got to get, you got to have time with the players. You got to get them all on the same page. And I think that's a thing with MBS too, but I will also say this. If he plays well enough, I will not be surprised if Kansas City doesn't try to bring him back next year. Now, will he be outside of what they could pay him? Possibly. But I would not be surprised if Kansas City brings him back if he plays well in this offense because I think that you are looking at a situation where Travis Kelsey is still getting older

and they're going to have to replace a playmaker at some point. Yeah, and especially a physical guy who can make catches over the middle of the field and create yards after catch opportunities. Although he's not a tight end, he could be a nice replacement for Travis Kelsey long-term. You know, in fairness, like you said, Kansas City is probably the best place that he could have picked to go. Well, in fairness, the Titans would have been like the worst place because he basically would have been playing wide receiver for Army or Navy at that point. So probably a good call for Juju on that one. But just a little recap for you guys.

My biggest storyline for the Titans is whether Ryan Tannehill will be healthy enough to play in this game so the Titans can have some semblance of a passing offense and hopefully find a way to stay competitive in this matchup if the defense allows them to do it. Matchups for me, it's all about Jeffrey Simmons, T. Air Tart, Danico Autry against the interior of the offensive line of the Chiefs because that's where the Titans like to attack.

And then you've got to watch out for safety Amani Hooker or Kevin Byard if Hooker can't play. Whoever's going to be guarding Travis Kelsey one-on-one, that will be a matchup to watch. And then my prediction for the score is 24 to 13 Chiefs. Yeah. And a quick recap of mine. I think that the biggest story for Kansas City is the trade deadline and what they did do and what they didn't do. Lots of moves it's played in that scenario. Then you start looking at what the matchups are going to be. For me, it's always going to be the

Chiefs tackles. They've just played poorly at times this year and it's really hampered their offense at times. Although it's kind of funny I the Chiefs tackles. They've just played poorly at times this year, and it's really hampered their offense at times. Although it's kind of funny I say that, and I look back at the scores, and they're still scoring 30 points a game. So it's hampering them, but it's not stopping them. They're finding their way through it. And then you look at the other matchup is just this. How do you stop Derrick Henry?

How does this team go up against derrick henry how does this defensive line handle a guy like henry and it's not necessarily like i said it's like it's not that it's about henry it's about can you stop the running game because that is going to become more important when you get towards the playoffs i'm not saying it's going to be the most important because i think everything is going to go through the bills bills don't really run the ball that much so you're gonna have to be able to stop the pass, but you still need to be able to stop the run when you get into the postseason.

And then for me, I think Kansas City wins this game, and I think it's 34-17, and maybe it's not that close. We'll see. Yeah, it'll be interesting to watch. Titans fans are punching their screen right now telling me the Titans always find a way to beat the Chiefs or keep it close or whatever. And, you know, we've seen some good battles between these teams.

We have. But I just think the Titans lost a key piece that allowed them to be competitive in those games. And that's, you know, maybe a top three, top five, best wide receiver in the entire NFL to replace him with nothing. It's going to make it hard to stay on that level. So the Titans finally play a good team. The Chiefs play a tough physical team.

I think both teams have questions to be answered. Can't wait to watch this matchup. Chris Clark of Locked On Chiefs, Tyler Rowland of Locked On Titans. Hope you guys enjoy the game and check out our game preview episodes coming out on Friday on both channels. But football fans, we'll be talking to you guys after the game.