Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Going off the Rails on a Hype Train - Victory Monday

Episode Date: September 9, 2019

The Titans derailed the Browns' hype train on Sunday. Today, we revel in the Titans victory, play Titan Up/Titan Down and go around the AFC South to update the division Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is Victory Monday. I couldn't be more excited to go over the game with you. What an incredible experience it was being there live in the stadium in Cleveland to see the depression of the Browns fans as they flooded out of the stadium. The Titans did win by 30 points over the hype juggernaut that was the Cleveland Browns. What an incredible win. Obviously, I had a good time. As you can hear in my voice,

a little bit of a struggle for me. I'm on the struggle bus, as they would say, but we'll get through it. Such a fun game. I regret nothing. Also, just want to mention that this is a culture win for the Titans. I'm gonna explain that more in our first segment. In our second segment, I'm gonna do a little tighten up, tighten down. Practically everyone played well in this game, so I'll just do a quick highlights. Aren't really any significant

tighten downs, but I do have two I wanna cover with you guys. And in our third segment, we're gonna take a look around the division and see what happened with some of the Titans counterparts, see how the A some of the Titans counterparts. See how the AFC South shook out yesterday. So really excited to get into it. Let's get it.

Culture win for the Titans. I think this is pretty significant. Since John Robinson has come to the Titans and then when he hired Mike Vrabel, it furthered it more. This team wants to be prepared, smart, and finish. Everything that the Browns exemplify, hype, stars, conversation, attention, all those things, it looked like they are that type of team when they got on the field. Penalties, undisciplined, not following their responsibilities on offense or defense,

giving up easy plays, turning the ball over. The Titans are all about the opposite of those things. Yeah, the Titans don't get the national attention. Yeah, there's not a lot of big-name stars that everybody knows and wants to watch and talk about. But the Titans are disciplined. They don't commit penalties. We saw that last season.

One of the least penalized teams in the NFL. That'll probably be the case this year as well because Mike Rabel preaches accountability and discipline. Do not react. Do not retaliate. That's the guy that'll get hit. And on multiple occasions, the Browns were that guy. And that's why the Titans were able to stem

the early excitement in the stadium because the Browns were that guy. And that's why the Titans were able to stem the early excitement in the stadium because the Browns were shooting themselves in the foot with penalties. The Titans don't commit penalties. Intelligent with their scheme. So versatile up front. Changing coverages throughout the game. Cover four, cover two, cover three. Showing man and turning it into zone. Flipping that on its head, doing the opposite, finishing the game, being accountable to your teammates. Corey Davis had zero catches for zero yards, but was one of the most important players on the Titans offense yesterday because he was blocking for his teammates on both the A.J. long catches and runs and Derrick Henry's screen.

That's the type of culture the Titans are building, and it was on full display yesterday. A piece of that is playing complimentary football. Brett Kern had a 70-yard missile of a punt. The Browns commit a penalty. Next thing you know, we're able to get a safety. Two points on the board. The crowd is shell-shocked, and it totally changes the momentum and the feel of the game in the stadium.

Things like that go so well together. Everyone on the team, everyone in the building in Nashville knows that they serve a purpose and their role is important no matter how small, no matter how big. And you see that by the way that everyone takes their job seriously. Brett Kern is the best punter in the league possibly. He knows how important his field position flipping is to the team. The special teamers know. Isaiah Max rotating in as a backup defensive line. Brett Urban is getting rotated in for full series. We're rotating in Woodyard. Imani Hooker's a rookie who's being used as a safety

in big nickel packages. Rashawn Evans is getting to rush as a defensive tackle. Everyone has a role and is so versatile and just does their job consistently and it's a culture thing the last thing I do want to say is I have to point out the geezers on the team Delaney Walker and Cameron Wake might have been the best players on the field yesterday both of those guys are in their late 30s how impressive is it and back to the culture the reason they're able to do that is because of the kind of guys they are, how hard they work, how serious they take their body and their craft. And those type of players have made the Tennessee Titans into this kind of team.

Cameron Wake is already a leader on this team because he fits so well in with the culture. Yesterday was a culture win for the Tennessee Titans, and having someone who's the exact opposite of them culture-wise, like the Cleveland Browns, even puts a bigger spotlight on that. I couldn't be more proud to be a fan of the Tennessee Titans after the display they had yesterday in Cleveland, Ohio. In our second segment, like I said, we're going to do a little tighten up, tighten down. Not a lot of tighten downs. Actually, the two tighten downs didn't even play yesterday. Everyone played well yesterday for the most part. Everyone did a good job in the role that they were put into.

But we'll get into some tighten up and tighten down, talk about some specific people going forward. In our third segment, we're going to go ahead and take a look at the division, go around the AFC South, and see what happened to the Titans' biggest rivals. Since Houston plays tonight on Monday Night Football, we obviously won't be able to get to talk about their result until tomorrow. But if you're hungry while you're watching the Texans game tonight on Monday Night Football, then open up the DoorDash app.

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Dean Pease consistently confused Baker Mayfield. Often they would have five men across all five offensive linemen dropping back into coverage. You don't know who's coming. One of the linemen, Daquan Jones routinely dropped into coverage while Logan Ryan or Malcolm Butler came on a blitz. Confusing Baker Mayfield all day. A great game plan by Dean Pease.

Mixing up coverages. Cover four, cover two, as I mentioned. Changing everything up all the time. Given Baker Mayfield different looks causing confusion, it turned into turnovers. Arthur Smith, same thing. Really great game plan. Often he had calls that looked like they were perfectly set up to take advantage of what the defense was doing. On the first drive, Deion Lewis dropped the pass on third

down, but the Browns were bringing a blitz from the other side. The call was perfect. A screen to the other side with a corner blitz coming from the Browns. It was the perfect call. Now Deion dropped the pass, but it was the right call. And Arthur Smith did that numerous times throughout the game. Even in the first half, he called multiple shot plays to get Titans chunk yardage, which is important for this offense. Seemed like all the screens that he called were perfectly timed. So really impressed by both the coordinators there.

Another Titan up is going to have to be the O-line. As a whole, I want to point out Jack Conklin. He's been fantastic, and he's a favorite to be my Tic Tac Titans segment highlight for tomorrow. Jack Conklin looked as if he has returned to his rookie season form. He looked fantastic yesterday. I'll cover that more tomorrow, most likely.

Jameel Douglas stepped in for Kevin Panfield late in the week and was fantastic. I mean, Jameel Douglas is a backup guard. He is not an all-pro or a pro bowler or any of these things, but he did his job so well yesterday. Stepped up when he had to. He didn't give up any bad plays. Seemed to communicate well with Conklin. I think that there is a chance that he actually stays with the starters. I'll cover that

more a little bit later on, but the O-line was great. Dennis Kelly got some help with Myles Garrett. Myles Garrett still had some good plays and was able to make an impact, but for the most part, you could not ask for more from Dennis Kelly, who I'm starting to believe is possibly the best backup swing tackle in the NFL. Another tighten-up has to be A.J. Brown. He got great opportunities, but watching him run with the football, it makes it obvious how he was able to break records at Ole Miss. The guy's a truck, 220 pounds, all muscle. He has an instinct about him where he understands how to get away from guys.

Couldn't be more impressed by A.J. Brown with some of the early injuries in the preseason for him. I was worried maybe he wouldn't make an impact until later on in the season, but it appears that he's ready to go. He was out there in our first set with two wide receivers. The Titans used a lot of heavy tight end formations, probably to help with the offensive line,

but A.J. Brown was out there. A.J. Brown in a one-wide receiver set was out there, so clearly the coaches trust him, Marcus trusts him, and he'll be a big part of what the Titans offense does going forward. The last Titan up that I'm going to go over, everyone played so well, so if you have somebody in mind, I'm sure that they are worthy as well, but we only have 30 minutes to talk about the game.

The secondary. The reason that Dean Pease is able to be so complex with his coverages, run cover four, run cover three, run cover two, run a man, run cover six. The reason he's able to do so many different things is because the Titans defensive backs literally don't have to come off the field. Logan Ryan and Kenny Vaccaro could practically play linebacker if you needed them to. Logan Ryan is an excellent slot corner that can tackle. Same thing with Kenny Vaccaro. He can come down, play linebacker, play safety, play slot, wants to tackle. Malcolm Butler is physical and can press. Adoree Jackson has speed over the top. Kevin Byard is the do-all, be-all.

The versatility in the secondary is what allows this defense to be so complex. Last year, they had issues getting pressure with just four, the four down linemen. So we had to run blitzes, all these elaborate stunts to try to get pressure. While we're still gonna do that on defense because this defense is a disguised defense in its essence we want to disguise coverages and disguise what we're doing and change things after

the snap but the titans were able to get pressure with four guys yesterday on baker mayfield quite a bit and when you're able to do that and combine it with all the pressures and the coverages that we're changing it has the makings to be one of the best defenses in the NFL this year, which it was last year. This year, there's a chance the Titans defense could be dominant this year with the way things are going and how comfortable everybody is in the system. The secondary is what allows all that to happen with their versatility and just their high skill level. This is a very talented secondary and they all do a lot of different things well and it allows everyone around them

to be put in a better position. I don't want to spend too much time on tighten down. Not a lot of criticisms coming out of yesterday's game. You can nitpick certain things, but I choose to just revel in the beautiful victory that it was because there were not a lot of mistakes, quite frankly. So my two tightened downs on that note are just going to be people who weren't able to play.

Ryan Suckup. I talked about special teams earlier, and I should have mentioned Cairo Santos. Two field goals, including a 50-yarder. The coaching staff and the players on the team already trust Cairo Santos to do his job, and it looks like he may have a little bit of confidence as he was so successful trying out for the position

and going into this game. Has to feel good for Cairo Santos, and I personally feel comfortable with him as our kicker. The reason this is a tighten down is because if Cairo Santos, for some reason, is excellent through the first eight games, having a good season as a kicker, has been reliable,

is hitting the kicks that we need him to make. I'm not asking him to be perfect and make every single one, but if he's consistent enough to where he's not hurting the team, I mean, I think there's a chance that we stay with Santos throughout the rest of the season.

Some may find that crazy with the commitment made to suck up contract-wise, but kicking is so volatile. It's all about confidence. It's all about mentality. It's all about being comfortable and being in a rhythm. And if the Titans are doing well through the first half of the season with Santos being a consistent kicker,

how can we disrupt that for our loyalty to suck up? I don't see how that could be construed as being better for the team. At that point, there's no need to fix something that isn't working. If Santos is missing kicks, if he's not accurate, if he's costing us, then of course it's not even a question. But if the guy's doing well through a half of a season and the team is doing well with him as the kicker, it'd be hard to change that formula. So tighten down for Ryan Suckup

just because his replacement looked pretty solid. Still more to see. In that same vein, the last tighten up is Kevin Panfield. Unable to play and Jameel Douglas played well enough that as I said earlier, I think there's a chance he competes to stay with the ones. Mike Vrabel mentioned something about that in his press conference today, that they're just going to put the best combination possible out there

at all times. But Jameel Douglas played well enough to be a legit starter in this offense. He's in the conversation for sure already and has been since the preseason. But now, after having an actual good performance out on the field in a critical game, I'm sure that the coaching staff and his line mates and the other players on his offense trust him much more. Some guys are just gamers.

You can see it in practice, but you gotta see somebody do it in a game before you truly trust them. I believe that. So now that Jameel Douglas has put some positive play on tape and shown the coaches and his teammates that he can step in and be a starter for this team, I think that it's a likely outcome.

If Panfield doesn't come back soon and the chemistry develops more, I could see the Titans putting a couple victories together here. Similar to my point on Santos, I don't believe there's any reason to change the formula. Obviously, we're popping LeJuan back in the lineup. The talent disparity there makes that not even a question, of course. But with Jameel Douglas and Kevin Panfield, I don't see a difference in talent to justify taking out Douglas and putting Panfield in if the Titans are able to be

successful on offense like they have been and put together a couple victories. So that's tighten up and tighten down. In our third segment, we're going to take a look around the division, see what happened. Looks like the Colts lost to the Chargers and the Jaguars lost to the Chiefs. So we'll talk about a little more of that and see how that impacts the Titans going forward in the next couple of weeks. If you found $100 on the street, would you pick it up or keep walking? Of course you'd take the money. So why do you keep picking winners but not betting on them? That's why I go to MyBookie. It's fast, it's easy, and they pay you when you win. Let's face it, where you're betting is just as important as who you're betting on. And I wouldn't be telling you guys to bet if they weren't the best. So do the smart thing. If you're gonna bet football this season, bet with my bookie. Did you guys know

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You play, you win, you get paid. some specific aspects of the game that I thought were really positive and just a few tightened downs for some people who didn't get to play. In our final segment, I do want to go around the division and kind of inform you guys on what happened in some of our rivals games. The Jaguars lost to the Chiefs by a score of 40 to 26 at home in Jacksonville.

The reason that that game is so noteworthy, for Titans fans at least, is because Nick Foles did break his collarbone. That means when the Titans play the Jaguars in week three, he will not be available. Their backup quarterback, Menchu, was pretty solid. He actually completed 88% of his passes, which is some sort of record for a rookie coming in.

I don't know exactly what the record was, but I did see it in passing today, but 88% completion percentage is solid. I don't expect him to be the quarterback that Nick Foles is, but maybe he's not your typical backup like the Titans have had in the past, who you feel pretty stranded with. Maybe he is, though.

Either way, it's going to benefit the Titans for the Jaguars starting quarterback to not be available. I would feel bad for them if they weren't, Titans for the Jaguars starting quarterback to not be available. I would feel bad for them if they weren't one, the Jaguars, and two, we've dealt with everything that comes with Marcus the last few years and his injury troubles that he's had losing Delaney last year. Okay. I changed my mind. I don't feel bad for him at all in any way. So moving forward, I think another aspect of this, even when the Jaguars quarterback was bad, their team started to sort of implode from a chemistry standpoint. So now that they've lost Foles, losing your starting quarterback is almost just as bad

as your starting quarterback being as bad as Blake Bortles. So either way, you're getting backup level play and giving up 40 points when you're supposed to be a vaunted defense and your team's supposed to be built around defense and running the football. Could see another chemistry-induced implosion in Jacksonville, which I have to admit would be a nice sight to see. Hopefully, Jalen Ramsey would consider switching teams at that point. But on to the Colts. The Titans play the Colts this week. So I think it's something important to say that they played so well. They lost to the Chargers in overtime out in Los Angeles,

across the country in a different time zone by a score of 30-24. The Colts played very well. They were able to tie it late, hit a two-point conversion to force it into overtime. Malik Hooker was able to get a really nice interception. It was a beautiful pick. But the point is that the Colts are still a formidable football team. Even with Jacoby Brissett, they are still going to be competitive.

They're still going to push you. They have talent on both sides of the ball, and they're well coached. So I don't want anyone taking the Colts lightly. I'm personally going to try to not take them lightly. We have to be considered favorites. Jacoby Brissett is a backup at the end of the day. Well, I guess he is a starter now, but we know that he's not the talent that Andrew Luck is. So the Titans at home against the Colts have to be considered favorites. You've got to think that the Titans are going to find a way to win that ball game. The whole point is though, it will not be easy. And we should, basically we should take the Colts just as seriously as we did with Andrew Luck at this juncture because they played so well against the Chargers yesterday, who were a playoff team last

year, who most people expect to be a pretty good team at home in a different time zone. The Chargers were pushed by the Colts even without Andrew Luck. So we have to take them serious like they're a contender for the division, even with Brissette. The Texans play tonight against the Saints.

It is in New Orleans. I am expecting New Orleans to win that game. Obviously, the reason they play the games is because you never know what's going to happen just based on paper. But I would be shocked if the Saints came out flat at home after the season ended the way that it did last year for them and weren't ready to play.

The Texans' offensive line is a concern, and the Saints have a great pass rush led by Cam Jordan. So I expect a Saints win. Hopefully that's the case. And tomorrow when we talk, the Titans will be leading the division. So we reviewed the game. Generally speaking, like I said, huge culture win for the Tennessee Titans and a great statement in week one to set the tone for the rest of the season. In our second segment, we did some tighten up and tighten down, which was mostly just a lot of tighten up. In our third segment, we covered the rest of the division.

Looks like there's a good chance the Titans could be leading the AFC South by tomorrow morning. That's all I have for you guys today. Please follow me at TicTacTitans on Twitter. Follow the show at LockedOnTitans. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. Tomorrow is TicTac Tuesday.

I'm going to be giving you breakdowns on the show, and I'm going to be following up with some Twitter threads to give you some visuals on what I'm actually talking about when I cover those things. So can't wait for tomorrow. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. Thank you.