Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Crossover Wednesday - Titans vs Chiefs Pt. 2

Episode Date: January 15, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is an AFC Championship edition of the Crossover Wednesday event. We are going to have Chris Clark from the Locked on Chiefs podcast back on our show to talk about how these teams have changed since their last meeting and what we can expect on Sunday. Remember, this is step two of our three-step game prep that started on Tuesday with our statistical foundation that we set for the Chiefs offense, defense, and special teams.

Today, with our conversation, we are going to add context to that in step two. Before we jump into our conversation with Chris, though, we are going to talk about some awards that were given out and some particular Titans who qualified for those. The Pro Football Writers of America gave out their All Pro, All AFC, All NFC, and All Rookie teams this week, so we will talk about which Titans were able to make it onto those lists first. With that in mind, we have a lot to get to, so let's get it. The Pro Football Writers of America are announcing all of their regular season awards this week. They have already announced their All-NFL, All-AFC, All-NFC, and All Rookie teams. We are going to talk about whether or not any Tennessee Titans made those lists.

There are some obvious choices that we want to make sure are on there. So we will start with the all NFL team announced by the Pro Football Writers of America. That has, of course, running back Derrick Henry as the lead rusher in the NFL this year. It is a shoo-in that he made this. Now, this is his first selection for the All-NFL team for the Pro Football Writers of America, so a really nice accolade there for Derrick Henry. Also, punter Brett Kern made the list in the special teams section. This was his first selection for the All-NFL team for the Pro Football Writers of America as well. Taking a look at just the AFC though, this is Derrick Henry's second selection.

He was on this team last year due to the back half of his season. And Brett Kern for the AFC, this is actually his third straight selection starting from 2017 until this season. So some tremendous honors there for Derek Henry and Brett Kern who quite frankly were the best players on the team consistently throughout the season. Taking a look at their all-rookie teams, obviously A.J. Brown made this list as the number one wide receiver out of all of the rookies. You saw some other candidates on here who will be fighting for Rookie of the Year with A.J. Brown, but a tremendous honor to see him put on this list. He definitely deserved it as well. One thing worth mentioning, they did go ahead and announce their 2019 Offensive Rookie of

the Year, and the Pro Football Writers of America actually awarded that to Oakland Raiders running back Josh Jacobs, despite the fact that he missed quite a bit of time at the end of the season with injury. One thing to mention here, this is the Pro Football Writers of America. This is not the Associated Press awards that the NFL typically will prop up and go off of and use for their record books. will prop up and go off of and use for their record books. But this community, the Pro Football Writers of America, are just football writers who are professionals scattered throughout the United States.

Most of the top writers that we follow as NFL fans and that are on the ground with all the different NFL teams are contributing to the voting here. So these are still prestigious honors that the Titans have to be very, very happy with receiving. To have anybody on these type of all NFL, all rookie, no matter what the outlet is that's presenting that, that means that the team was successful. It also means that these players are showing up and showing out.

And as Titans fans who know that the Titans don't get a lot of national recognition, out and as Titans fans who know that the Titans don't get a lot of national recognition and you can have two players who play exactly the same in terms of caliber and quality but if one player is on a bigger market team like a New York or a Chicago or a San Francisco they're obviously going to get a lot more love than if they had the same production as a player on the Titans and the only way to defeat that is for players to play so well and go so far beyond the expectation that it is impossible to deny them. Almost like this Tennessee Titans team in the playoffs. Week after week, people want to say that the favorite is going to win, the Titans don't have a chance, and consistently the Titans go above and beyond and force them to

talk about this football team. As Derrick Henry said, we're the ones they're talking about now. So I think it's very important to notice these honors to make sure that people realize that the top writers for football in America are recognizing Titans players and giving them the accolades they deserve. If you guys want to check out the full list and the full teams that include all of the players that were awarded, feel free to go to the Pro Football Writers of America Twitter account.

That is at PFWA Writers, and you can see those complete teams. That will lead us into our Crossover Wednesday conversation with Chris Clark from the Locked On Chiefs podcast. We are going to talk about how these teams have changed since their last matchup and what we should expect on Sunday. And we are back with another Locked On Chiefs, and this is a Locked On Titans crossover episode, and Tyler Rowland is here with me. Tyler, how are you doing today?

I'm doing fantastic, Chris. Thanks for having me on. Ready for a rematch here for us. Yeah, and I know Kansas City's ready for a rematch. Let's go ahead and dive into this game because I have to admit, going into the last part of the season, no offense, I had no thought that it was going to be your Titans that we'd be facing in the AFC championship game. Well, no, I definitely understand that. We started two for four,

a quarterback change, a lot of questionable pieces that a lot of people weren't very familiar with. So it makes all the sense in the world that a perennial front runner, you know, a top team in the AFC consistently, like the Chiefs didn't expect to get this far and see someone like the Titans. But we relish that as a community, as a fan base. So I understand where you're coming from, but happy to be the case. Well, hey, I'm happy for you guys. You guys have been playing phenomenal football. Let's get down to your game against the Baltimore Ravens for just a second. Derrick Henry really took over that game. And what you've seen from that offense on the Titans is Tannehill has not had to do much in the playoffs so far.

Do you think that that's going to be something that they're going to continue to try to do, obviously against this Chiefs team, to take Mahomes off the field? And if Tannehill has to do something, do you expect he'll be able to get something done well I do think that despite what happened in the last matchup between these two teams where you know Tannehill made some plays in the air right now it's the playoffs and we can say it's cliched and old style and I know the analytics don't point to this and run first the running backs matter community online uh you know, loves this Titans team because of their approach. And it kind of proves that it does still work during the playoffs. And I expect the Titans to continue that regardless of what happened in the last matchup. So they're going

to keep feeding Derrick Henry. He had 188 yards last time too. So I don't expect them to go away from what's working so well. And it's going to be cold, apparently, in Kansas City. You can elaborate more on that. But it seems like this Titans team is going to be in a good position with the weather as well to continue that game plan. So I don't expect it to stop. What have you really seen? I mean, obviously, Derek Henry has gone off for some major games in the playoffs already.

What have you really seen from him? He is on a tear in these past six to eight weeks. What have you seen from him, and what have you seen from the offensive line that has made them so effective? Well, the offensive line has been fantastic and that's where it starts. Derek Henry is a fantastic talent, but he couldn't possibly be doing this without a productive offensive line in front of him. And the Titans gave up a lot of sacks this year. So the offensive line has some questions, of course, from the general general fan base but they've coalesced in the last back half of the season just based on chemistry and reps together getting Taylor LeJuan back from suspension getting rookie Nate Davis put into the

right guard position getting everybody comfortable with each other and Derrick Henry is taking advantage of some huge holes but it's not just the offensive line he should get all the credit that he is getting because there are a few plays, especially in that Baltimore game where he's hit specifically on one third and one third and two, he gets hit about two yards behind the line of scrimmage powers through both. Those guys gets to the second level and now it's a 63 yard game because of the speed speed that he has combined with that size. So everyone is doing their part in this run game, but of course the offensive line has been great. Taylor LeJuan, Jack Conklin, Roger Saffold at guard in the two tackles. They are one of the highest graded offensive lines in the NFL per pro football focus so far in the

playoffs, having top three, top five linemen every week overall. So the offensive line is doing their part, but Henry is special as well. Well, and you start looking at what Derrick Henry brings to this game and the way he runs. He runs angry, and I love watching him run because you're right, he does run over people, and that is a big thing going into this game because he did run over Kansas City the first time they played. Real quick, before we flip it over to the defensive side, I understand it's a little early in the week.

We don't really know a lot about injuries, but are there any big injuries or anything that you think that are players that could be injured going into this game that the Titans might be without? Well, the big one would be linebacker Jayon Brown. He's a pass coverage specialist, but he's also turned into one of the better three-down linebackers in the NFL this year.

He got hurt during the Patriots game. He wasn't available during the Baltimore game. He is crucial to the defenseots game. He wasn't available during the Baltimore game. He is crucial to the defense. Typically, he helps out with calling the plays, takes the majority of that responsibility. So getting him back is obviously going to help. But we saw this Titans defense is deep enough with somebody like David Long, who's a rookie out of West Virginia, who's been fantastic as a six-round pick. And then a veteran like Wesley Woodyard, who's been around the NFL for a decade. Both of those guys can kind of work in in that second linebacker position with Rashawn Evans,

where Jayon Brown would be, and do enough for the Titans defense to stay where it's at. But if they were able to get Jayon Brown back, it would be very helpful. According to coach Mike Vrabel right now, it's still to be determined. He's not really giving any information on whether Jayon Brown is going to be available or practice or anything like that. So we will see, but I think the Titans can compensate for that. And that's really the only major injury that they happen to be dealing with at this moment in time, other than, you know, the guys on IR who aren't coming back no matter what. Yeah, right. And Kansas City has quite a few of those guys themselves. So you look at this game and you look at the Titans defense and you see what Kansas City did to Houston on Sunday night or Sunday afternoon.

What do you think the Titans defense is going to do to try to slow down this Chiefs offense? Well, I think that's a complicated question because the answer is everything. For this Titans defense, now that they have a Dory Jackson back and Tremaine Brock has really blossomed into a starting level cornerback for them after he was picked up off waivers late in the season. So now that the Titans defense has a solid secondary again,

like they did in the beginning of the season, what they're so good at is disguising coverages and doing so many multiple things, bringing blitzes from so many different places, giving you so many different looks pre-snap, rolling into things post-snap. That's what the Titans defense is best at. They are a disguised defense. So now that you have comfort in your secondary, which the Titans didn't have at the back half of the season with all the injuries and all the newcomers and people off the practice squad, now they feel more comfortable playing different kinds of coverages that weren't

available to them at the beginning of the season when the titans played the chiefs earlier in the year it was primarily man coverage and that's been the formula to give the chiefs trouble if you can lock them up and man coverage if you have someone who can match up with tyree kills someone who can match up with travis kelsey which is hard to find but if you can do that that's the recipe for kind of slowing down that offense well i think the tit Titans will do a lot of man coverage because I would imagine that's what the Chiefs are expecting. It's all a chess game this late in the season. I think the Titans will mix up coverages a little bit more than they did in the first matchup, just to try to confuse Patrick Mahomes and make him think he's going to see what he saw before

and try to do things differently now that they're more comfortable with the personnel. So that's what I would expect them to try to do to slow down this offense. Quite frankly, the weather is really going to help this Titans defense if it does happen to be 20-degree weather, things like that. Drops, speed goes down, things like the weather just can really affect the passing game more than the running game historically. So if the weather is like that, that may play into the advantage of the Titans and help the Chiefs' offensive playmakers make more mistakes

just because no one likes to play in cold weather. Well, not everybody does. No, and I absolutely agree with that. I think that's a great point. I do want to go – I do like what you guys have done on defense. I like what I've seen from the Titans so far. What I do want to ask though, and it seems to be a little bit different for Tennessee,

at least over the past couple of weeks, you don't seem to really kick field goals and special teams has really taken a little bit of a backseat in that regard. Do you think that's going to continue or do you think that, because when you're looking at this game and you're right, it looks like it's going to be about 30 degrees in Kansas city for that game. Do you expect them to be able to take field goals or do you think that because when you're looking at this game and you're right it looks like it's going to be about 30 degrees in Kansas City for that game do you expect them to be able to take field goals or do you think that they're going to go for it more on fourth down when they get close enough well I think that ultimately the answer to that question is no they were they will try

everything possible to not kick field goals um 8 for 18 on the season, five different kickers in the building. It was a travesty. It's one of the worst kicking seasons we've seen in the modern NFL. They were about 20 percentage points lower than the second worst team. And at the end of the day, as a coach, any competent coach can just not allow that to be the deciding factor in whether his football team succeeds or fails. So I think it'll be a combination of it's not a good environment to kick field goals,

with the weather, with Arrowhead being the crowd, and just the type of stadium it is, and the wind, being outdoors, just there's a ton of different environmental factors that'll make it not a good setting to kick field goals. Having a guy like Greg Joseph, who really hasn't kicked a lot in his NFL career, just brief stint with Cleveland last year, you can't rely on him. So with Mike Rabel being a solid head coach who won't let that be the deciding factor, Greg Joseph being a relatively unknown and unproven kicker, and then the general environment

they're going to be in. I don't see the Titans kicking field goals. They're going to go for it on fourth down because quite frankly, you got to score points if you want to beat the Chiefs. So like we saw from the Texans, you know, Bill O'Brien had those decisions backwards. He's got to go for it on fourth and inches in the red zone and punt on your side of the field, just baffling. So I don't expect Mike Vrabel to make those mistakes the Titans are going to try to score touchdowns at all costs no matter what like we've seen them do all postseason because that's how you win games against teams like the Chiefs so I would say they're not going to kick field goals whatsoever

for all of those reasons and they all make sense yeah no and I really agree with you on that and I and that doesn't surprise me based on what I've seen from you guys so far this uh during the playoffs and really late in the year uh we will be right back and when we get back we're going to flip it around and tyler's going to ask me questions about the chiefs We are back with our Crossover Wednesday conversation here with Chris Clark of the Locked on Chiefs podcast. Once again, Chris, as we talked about in our first segment, you kind of asked me some questions about the Titans and their attack. I want to do the same here in our first segment you kind of asked me some questions about the titans and their attack i want to do the same here in our third segment chris this chief's offense just

did one of the most miraculous things we've ever seen in playoff history football history however you want to categorize it obviously they're explosive and patrick mahomes is back healthy playing his best football what could possibly from from this Titans defense that's been successful in the playoffs, of course, but what could the Titans possibly do here to slow down this offense that just seems to be rolling? It's a great question, and I'm not sure I have a great answer for it. You know, I think it starts with, or at least in this past game, it started with Travis Kelsey. When the Houston Texans had no answer for Travis Kelsey, even when they were double teaming him in man-to-man coverage,

the Chiefs just went up and down the field. And honestly, Kelsey was the only one that had more than three catches in that game. I think he had 10 catches for 134 yards. And as a tight end, having 13.4 yards per catch is pretty impressive so I do like what they were able to do with Travis Kelsey and honestly they really didn't get Tyree Kill going in this game they didn't really need to he got a couple of catches early and then really wasn't used that much because of the way that they were scoring very quickly I mean you look at what happened in that game they got down 24-0 in the early

second quarter, and then they get the ball back, and McColl Hardman, after Houston kicks a field goal, and you alluded to this in the first segment where they kick a field goal where it was fourth in inches, they kick a field goal, and then they kick the ball off to McColl Hardman. He returns at 58 yards. Kansas City scores two plays later. Then they kick the ball off to McColl Hardman. He returns it 58 yards. Kansas City scores two plays later. Then they kick the ball off, and Houston goes for a fake punt, and it's stopped, and Kansas City scores again two plays later. They scored three touchdowns in three minutes and 24 seconds at game time. I don't expect that to happen, obviously, against this Titans team because I don't see the Titans doing the same thing that Houston did

to shoot themselves in the foot. But when you look at what this offense does and what they're capable of doing, they look for mismatches, and Andy Reid is a genius when it comes to route combos. And Patrick Mahomes has done a lot better diagnosing where to go with the ball early on. So I think that's a key in this game is can Tennessee confuse him at the line of scrimmage and make him make throws that he really shouldn't have been throwing to begin with.

Yeah, yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think if you just line up and play Pat Mahomes, which we saw from the Texans, they just run cover on man or cover one man robber the whole game. And Mahomes just ate them alive with that. So I definitely do agree. Looking at this running game, that's really where I think if the Titans have been great against the run, that's been the hallmark of them shutting down both these offenses that they just played in the Patriots and the Ravens. But if the Chiefs are able to run the ball somehow against the Titans,

I think that could really unlock the game in this cold weather environment. Who would have to step up for the Texans or the Texans, the Chiefs, or who Titans fans should look at on the Chiefs who could help this run game? I know Damian Williams, but any of the offensive linemen, any tight ends that we should be looking for if the Chiefs come out and look to run the ball? You know, honestly, I think the running game begins and ends with the interior offensive lineman for Kansas City. I think you look at Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz as your stalwart guys at tackle, and I think they do a fantastic job, and they can play in the running game and in the passing game, but you look at that interior three, and they've just struggled the entire season, and what you saw late in the game against the Texans was Kansas City started running to the edges.

They would do pitches. They would shift and use wide receivers coming across on what was really a pass, I guess you would say, because Holmes is throwing the ball forward technically, but it goes to a wide receiver that's crossing the field. So it's more like a running play, and it's more of a sweep type motion than it is anything else. Kind of a jet sweep type thing. So I think what you're going

to see from Kansas City is they may try to run the ball, but I expect that they're going to try to score as many points as they possibly can and do it quickly because if they score enough points, it takes away what Tennessee likes to do, which is run the ball. And I think that's where Tennessee wants to play this game. They don't want to get in a shootout because getting in a shootout with Kansas City, if you have to run the ball, if you're wanting to run the ball, is not going to work out well for you. Yeah, I think even though the Titans were successful a little bit in a shootout before, I don't think that's going to be their approach here.

So I do agree right now with the way the Chiefs are rolling. You don't want to get in a shootout with them. Well, I'm going to move the conversation to the defense. That was fantastic insight. Be looking for the pitches and outside runs. That's fantastic. So the Chiefs are adjusting their run game. So we'll move to the defense though. The Chiefs were able to get plenty of pressure on Deshaun Watson, five sacks in the game. Frank Clark looked fantastic with three. The Chiefs have obviously been better in the back half of the season with their defense and getting pressure on quarterbacks. But who should the Titans be looking for other than Frank Clark

who could wreak havoc in the backfield? Well, honestly, the big question, and this is kind of injury-related for Kansas City, is is Chris Jones going to be available? If he's available, that completely changes the ball game for this team. I think he is more of a pass rush guy than he really is a run stuffer, but he has had a lot of plays that he's blown things up in the back field. And I think that could be big for Kansas City. The real question though, is, is how are they going to play this game? Because when you watch the Tennessee game, the first time when Kansas City played them, they did not have Mike Pinnell on the field.

They set him that game. That was a huge mistake on their part, and honestly, it cost them the game in my opinion. And I'm not saying that Mike Pinnell was going to win that game by himself, but what I will say is that he changes the way that that defense plays run defense. And he is a guy that is very stout against the run, and they're going to need that on Sunday against Derrick Henry. There's no way he's not playing in this game, so obviously that's going to be a big change from the last time they played.

But you also start looking at Chris Jones. If he can play, that's going to help. But the bigger thing for me is looking at the snap counts from this past game against the Houston Texans, most of the defensive linemen only had 12 to 13 to 15 snaps because they were mostly in nickel, and that's what Houston was running. Now, granted, Tennessee might try to run more to where they're in three wide receiver sets or maybe use two tight ends and Kansas City is going to go heavier, but the defensive linemen having that many snaps that they didn't have to play,

I think is going to help in this game. Well, in some way, it's almost like they got a little bit of a buy having such limited snaps and the type of game flow that they had and the way that the Texans play the game. So, you know, that obviously helps. My next question was going to be about Chris Jones. What do you think is the likelihood that he plays in this game after missing last week?

They were trying and they were telling people they thought he could play this past week. He was not able to go out there and push off on it, so it was an obvious thing to sit him. If he doesn't play, it's a huge loss for Kansas City. I'm not saying they can't get it done because I think they have the talent to be able to win in this Titans game. I'm not saying it's going to be a blowout. I'm not saying that at all. But I think Kansas City has the ability to beat

this Titans team. You know, you're looking at, if you look at the last time they played, they didn't have Eric Fisher. They didn't have a healthy Pat Mahomes. He was hurt and just coming back from injury in that game. And I'm not trying to make excuses for why Kansas City will win, but I do think that Chris Jones is going to be a piece. Is he going to be the game changer? He could be, depending on how he plays. But if he's not healthy, I think they need to sit him. Right now, I would say it's probably 50-50 right now. I don't expect that he's going to practice much this week. I think he's going to either be not practicing at all or very limited, and they're just going to give him time to see if he's going to be able to play on Sunday. Yeah, he's quite the disruptor on the interior defensive line.

It seems like how the Chiefs' defensive line plays and who's available might be the key to them having any success stopping this running game. I feel like that's a safe assumption. Well, and I think one of the bigger things to me is really, and this is what really flummoxed me is, I guess maybe the best word, going into this or watching this Houston game is you can't do what they did against Houston to this Tennessee team. You will get whooped. Tennessee has a much better defense than Houston does, so you cannot have a chance of doing what you did and think you're going to survive it again. So I expect Kansas City is going to be very focused in this game,

and I think they're going to be ready for this Titans team. The big question to me is, who starts with the ball and how does it go? Because if you get in a situation where Kansas city is up more than one or two scores early in the game, I don't know how you're going to, I don't know how that's going to play out in Tennessee's favor. I don't think it can quite frankly, that's not the way that they want to play football so that it's going to be very,

it's I know that everyone on the Titan side will point to the last matchup and say that, you know, we can win in a shootout, but I just don't think that things are the same anymore. I think the most interesting thing about this matchup is the fact that although both teams didn't play incredibly long ago, they're going to be playing so different based on where the teams are now.

It's like a completely different version of both teams on defense specifically. That's going to totally change the way that both teams game plan for this matchup compared to the last one. So I do find that very interesting going into this huge AFC championship matchup. Well, Chris, I appreciate the conversation. It's been fantastic. Another matchup between us.

We joked about it before and here we are. So hopefully we get a good football game on Sunday. I'm with you. I fully expect that this is going to be a good football game on Sunday. I'm with you. I fully expect that this is going to be a good championship game. And I would wish you luck, but I really couldn't mean it at that point. That is fair. That is fair. I like that.

I'm sure you understand. That is going to do it for our Crossover Wednesday conversation with Chris Clark from the Locked on Chiefs podcast. That was step two in our three-step game prep plan to get you ready for Sunday's AFC Championship game. I will be back tomorrow for our third step to step into the film room with a little Tic Tac Titans film breakdown. I'm going to be sending some videos up onto my Twitter account on Thursday evening as

well to match up with tomorrow's show. So make sure that you are following me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans to check out those visuals. Please subscribe to the show if you aren't already and I will be back with you guys tomorrow. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.