Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans 10/22/17: Feeling empty after a win over the Browns

Episode Date: October 23, 2017

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Fearless is just one tap away. With the new FEP Blue app from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, you can access your health benefits on the go. Download it now at fepblue.org app. You are Locked on Titans, your daily podcast on the Tennessee Titans, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to another victory edition of Locked on Titans,

although it doesn't feel quite as much like a victory edition as it probably should. I am Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? I'm doing good. I don't necessarily feel like this is going to feel like a victory podcast, but I mean, a win's a win.

Right, so let's get that out of the way first. Titans went to Cleveland, and they won. They're 4-3 heading into the bye. You know, you've got, you obviously would have preferred not to look as bad as you did against the Texans. The Miami game, you know, feels like one that they absolutely could have won, so you should be looking maybe at 5-2 instead of 4-3.

But, you know, where we sat after that Miami game with Mariano missing that game, talking about having the Colts and the Browns before the bye, they won both of those games against teams that they should beat. And so from that standpoint, you're happy heading into the bye, 4-3. You're tied atop the division with the Jaguars. The Texans are 3-3 because they didn't play this week. out of top of the division with the Jaguars. The Texans are, you know, 3-3 because they didn't play this week.

So, from all that standpoint, you feel good about where they are at this point? Yeah, from a wins-loss standpoint, yes. If you told me going into the season, 4-3, probably would have taken that. Yeah. But, you know, somebody said this. I think it was Mike Organ of the Tennessee. And he said, you know, Tennessee won against UMass. And barely. It was 17-13.

And it's a team that Tennessee should have blown out. Now the Titans won against the Browns today. But, again, it kind of felt the same. It kind of felt hollow. Just kind of raised more questions than it answered. And, you know, this offense has got to figure things out. They've beaten some bad defenses this year. They beat up on the Colts last weekend when I thought we felt pretty good about that,

probably just because we hadn't beaten the Colts in so long. But to come out against another pretty bad defense without potentially one of their best players in Jason McCourty to come out and just lay an egg, it was frustrating. I don't know that it was all that unexpected, though. I mean, we kind of hinted at it last week on the pod that we thought the Titans might just kind of make this one interesting because that's what they tend to do. And I don't know why, but it would just be really nice to go out

and blow out the teams you're supposed to blow out. Let me tell you why. I'll tell you why. Because they go to Cleveland against a team that has been good against the run and terrible against the pass. All right? Now, you can probably make the argument. I haven't watched the Browns play right? Now, you can probably make the argument. I haven't watched the Browns play very much.

But you can probably make the argument that it was kind of like the Titans last year. The Titans had good numbers against the run last year, were terrible against the pass. It was because teams didn't need to run because it was so easy to throw against them. There was no reason to run. Right? But you go to that team. The team, like you said, that was without Jason McCourty, who, you know, whatever. McCourty is one of the highest-graded cornerbacks

on Pro Football Focus this year. We talked last week about the numbers he'd had in shadow coverage against guys that are really good receivers, right? So McCourty has been that good, and their pass defense was still 31st, 32nd in the league, whatever it was. You go up there, and you don't adjust your game plan at all it's like they're it's like they come into the week and they don't even care

who they're playing they're going to do the things that they want to do and they're going to try to do them whether they work or not they're going to keep doing it no matter what um i i went back and counted tonight titans had 25 first down plays, not counting the drive, the two plays right before the end of the first half where, you know, it was basically halftime anyway. Twenty-five first down plays. They threw the ball eight times on first down. Okay.

Why? Why in the world would you not come out and try to take advantage of the defense's weakness? That just seems so simple to me. And look, we were on here two weeks ago saying, guys, it's not Terry Hrabisky's fault. Look at what he had to deal with. Look at Matt Castle. Look at the limitations that Mario has had with his hamstring.

All those things. We were defending Terry Hrabisky two weeks ago. I'm done. I have no explanation for it anymore. Today was just a thing where it was like they went in there and just stubborn, determined to make themselves a downhill running football team, and when it didn't work, they just tried to stick with it,

and it makes no sense when you're playing a team that's that bad against the pass. It stuck with a theme that went back to last year for me and i've said that uh i've said this on our our old podcast on this podcast the titans stick with the run for too long when it's not working they stick with it and i don't know why when especially when you've got someone like Marcus Mariota who's so dynamic, who looked great from the pocket last week. He can beat you in a number of different ways. Why are you banging your head against the wall with an offensive line

that can't generate a push? And, again, they haven't generated a consistent push start to finish in a game really all year. I mean, the Colts game was about the best they had done uh but again it's the colts and you saw you know the jaguars went up there and throttled them uh today so i don't know how much stock you can put into that but clearly after watching today you can't put much stock into it so i i don't know i i feel like the staff, I feel like it's time to have a conversation about the staff. You know, we've defended Malarkey. He overachieved last year, to his credit.

I didn't think Robiskie had been much of a problem. I thought he was today. But still, at the same time, you know, Mariota was bad today, and I don't know why. I think this offense goes as the run game goes, and if they can't run the football, it doesn't open up play action. It doesn't open up the passing game. I feel like the staff does a poor job of working to Mariota's strengths, of working to get him into a rhythm, and I kind of feel like Mariota's just kind of a rhythm passer at this point. He just can't really turn it on and off. And it's a little concerning, but still, I mean, you've got to know who your team is,

and that's who Mariota is to this point. So I don't know. They're kind of treating Mariota like he's more of a game manager instead of just a dynamic guy that can go win you a football game. Yeah, I disagree with one thing that you said there. You said that you don't think this coaching staff does a very good job of tailoring the offense to Mario's strength. They don't tailor the offense to Mario's strength at all.

And that's what I don't understand. I mean, and we've talked about this, and I don't know, maybe we're oversimplifying it, but he is a rhythm guy. Like we said, week in and week out we see it if he starts off hot he's able to keep going and like you said part of his run game if the run game's working it's easier for them to get in a rhythm because they're not as on and off the field as much but like so again today is the perfect time to come out and throw the ball and now i will say this and i don't know if this was the game plan or if this is mariota i tend to think it was mariota just because i don't know

that rubisky's smart enough to figure this out. They threw the ball to Delaney Walker a ton today. And I'm going to go ahead here and look real quick and see what his targets were. Ten targets. Okay, ten targets. So that's one of the things that we've been talking about. They need to get him more involved. The Browns are terrible against tight ends.

So I'll give them credit. They threw the ball to Delaney a bunch today. That was good. But I just don't understand why you don't come out, spread it out, do something to get them in a rhythm. Go out there and score 21 points in the first half and then establish a run game. There is no

reason that this offense, this passing offense shouldn't be able to do that against the Browns defense. They're terrible and we saw last week, I mean the Colts defense is bad, but so is the Browns. And look what Mariotta was able to do last week throwing from the pocket all that stuff i just don't get it and then if if i see i mean i guess when cory davis comes back hopefully this won't be a problem but if i see them get the ball to eric weems again on offense i'm going to break something like it's

so stupid and i wish they would I wish they would get the shovel pass completely out of the playbook because it worked once. So count that as a victory and move on. It's a terrible play. It never works. And especially when you run it to Eric Weems. They ran it like three times today. Once it was to Eric Weems, once it was to Eric Decker.

Look, I like Eric Decker. I think he's a good player. He's not the guy you'd want to shovel pass to. If you want to run a shovel pass, why not give it to Taewon Taylor, a guy that can actually, like, you know, make a move and make something happen. And, again, I think it's a terrible idea anyway. But, like, there are just so many things about this offensive scheme that I just don't understand.

That shovel pass is going to blow up, and it's going to be a turnover here just any second now yeah it's very compact and i don't i don't know it just kind of feels risky like there's a lot of moving parts there and you know if somebody's just off by half step it just feels like it's going to go bad but but yeah why are you manufacturing touches for eric when you drafted Taewon Taylor in the third round and you featured him in the preseason and he goes out and he did what he did against the Colts.

I do not understand. They did all this exotic stuff with him and line him up at fullback, running back, tight end even. Give him the football and don't give it to Eric Williams. That one really made me want to punch my TV. But, you know, again, going back to what you said about the plan to Mario's strengths,

I think we need to consider that Terry Hrabisky's hands were a little bit tied still because Mario was gimpy. And it was obvious. I think he ran the ball once today, and he just looked bad. He looked like he was really ginger running that football. So his hands were tied today. I'll give him that. That's no excuse, though.

But, you know, when you've seen Mariota healthy, you've seen the RPO stuff, you've seen the option stuff, they just don't really do it enough. You know, they don't really – they'll do it, and then they'll go back to three tight end jumbo sets, you know. It's just frustrating. If you're going to do it, it seems like you need to commit the offense to that and kind of build a passing game off of that.

But, you know, it seems like they've got two different personalities. Yeah, and it's just funny because the the the try the screen pass eric decker like i was i was yelling the tv because i'm like why are you running a read option with a quarterback who clearly can't run and then when they show the replay and it was a screen pass i mean it was supposed to be a shovel pass that mariotta just ended up tucking it because it wasn't there and so he did the smart thing not you know force it in there and get it you know get a turnover um just kind of kept it and slid and i mean i was i was even more furious i just don't understand and like i mean they're manufacturing touches i just derrick wayne's i just i can't i can't i can't wrap my head around

what this what this office is trying to do um you know and i'll say this too you know demarco murray looked like the better running back today than derrick henry and this is kind of going back and forth and whatever. But, I mean, the long run that DeMarco had, the 16-yard run, he looked gimpy on that run. I mean, it was a good run, but you could tell, like, when he got into open field, he didn't have that extra gear that he usually had. Like, he looked like he was limping a little bit. I don't understand why they wouldn't – I don't understand why they didn't keep him down today

and, you know, give him two weeks to heal when he's got an injury that has clearly been bothering him since August. There are just things like that that I just don't understand. To be real, I don't know that they win that game without DeMarco Murray today. Maybe not. We kind of hinted at that last week. But I've got to say, I don't think the Titans win that game without Murray today. And I think Malarkey kind of knew it.

So, yeah, I guess we were wrong there but but yeah both running backs really just didn't look very good today they could come out and throw it around without yeah I mean that's the logical thing to do but yeah I tweeted during the game I said whatever the logical thing to do for the Titans they just seem to run from it you know it seems like when one of the running backs gets hot, they go away from him. Have you noticed that? Oh, yeah. It's weird.

Henry will have a great drive. He'll go five carries. He'll go right down the field, and it'll be all Murray the next drive, and we won't see Henry for a quarter. So I don't know. There's just no rhythm. There's no flow to this offense. It's so frustrating to watch.

Yeah. no rhythm there's no flow to this offense it's so frustrating to watch yeah and i mean it's it's especially frustrating because you and i both feel like mario is the guy that he's the franchise quarterback that he has everything that you want in that guy and it just feels like they're wasting him and i i've been like i get kind of mad at people when they say that um because you know there there were times last year it looked like they did some things to, you know, put them in good spots. But, like, this year it just feels like that they are bound and determined to be a downhill running team, run between the tackles. You know, like, they're going to be mad at themselves if they can't do it.

It's like when it doesn't work in a game, they, like, get even more committed to it the next game. And for whatever reason, and I don't know what the answer to this is, and I'm sure that Mike Malarkey and Terry Robiskie are probably having these same conversations about why can't the offensive line get any push up the middle this year? Why is there nothing there between the tackles? That's been a struggle for this team going all the way back to the preseason. I don't know what the answer to that is.

It's the same group. It doesn't make any logical sense. But whatever the case, whatever the reason, it's not working, and they need to try something different. And, again, I'm not saying you abandon the run game completely. I'm not saying you go only to, you know, off-tackle run. I'm not saying anything like that. I'm saying let's do something else in the beginning of the game

and then try to open some stuff up. And, you know, like there's a part of me that in the back of my mind is like, okay, well, Cordes is going to come back eventually. They're going to have that guy that can stretch the field and things are going to get better. But I don't know that even like if they don't make a point to do it, I don't know that it is going to get any better because you've got Taewon Taylor right now.

And, I mean, he's the perfect guy to take shots down the field to, and they just don't do it very much. I mean, obviously, they did it last week against Colson. It worked. They got a big touchdown out of it. But, like, you didn't see them throw the ball down the field today. They threw one ball down the field today. It feels like it was probably more than that.

But to Eric Decker, that's the only one. I mean, they didn't take a shot at Taewon down the field, did they? I don't believe they did. I think Taewon's biggest catch was that little route where he kind of sat down between zone coverage. And it was a big-time conversion. I think it was a third and 14 conversion. But no pure shots down the field. They did take one to Decker.

Yeah, Decker. That's the one that I remember. It hit him in the hands and he dropped it. Decker. Yeah, Decker. That's the one that I remember. It hit him in the hands and he dropped it. And of course you had Jesse James tweeting during the game that

her husband would have had five touchdowns on either the Jets or the Broncos this year had he been playing for them. So that's just a bad look. I mean, you know, just kind of know your role there and stay out of things there that's just going to make things worse for everybody involved so i you know just just not

a lot going right for this offense right now but on the bright side the defense put in a good day and we kind of need to give them a shout out again it was the browns offense it was cody kessler and deshaun kaiser so i'm not going to get excited about it but they did what they had to do today and kevin byard really won them the game yeah kevin byard had three picks um and you know i think apparently marcus robertson had three picks against the browns Karski tweeted that out earlier tonight in Cleveland. Oddly enough, I can't remember when he said it was. But, I mean, I can't remember the last time a Titans player had three picks. Well, I can.

It was people like on Monday night. But you don't see that very much. And, I mean, Kevin Byard's a star. We all know that. It's good to see him taking that step forward. Because, I mean, that was the one thing that was kind of surprising last year was his lack of ball hawking, so to speak. And he's done that so far this year.

That's a skill that he possesses. That's one of the reasons that they drafted him as early as they did. So, yeah, really good to see him making some plays. Yeah, the defense was good. Arakpo and Morgan got pressure today. That was something we talked a lot about last week, about how they needed to be able to get pressure with just the regular pass rush, not without sending extra guys.

And so I did think that that was a bright spot in this game, and especially in overtime. I mean, every time that Kessler dropped back to pass in overtime, they were in there and they were forcing stuff, forcing him to throw the ball earlier or sack at him. Now the Browns were without Joe Thomas. He got hurt and ended his, you know, just crazy long streak of playing every snap, you know, since he got drafted to the NFL.

Cool to see Taylor LeLan running next to him when he went out. I mean, you could just see the respect that he has for that guy. So I thought that was pretty cool. But the Browns offensive line is okay. So, I mean, it wasn't like – the Browns' offensive line is not the garbage that the Browns' defense is. So some encouraging things there from the pass rush perspective, like you said. And, yeah, the defense kept them in this game, absolutely,

without the defense playing as well as they did. They lose just because they couldn't score any touchdowns. It's a terrible defense. So, yeah, I mean, it was a good day for the defense, and that's encouraging. And, you know, the defense has played well now for, what, like six quarters plus an overtime because they were good in the second half against the Colts. So hopefully the defense is figuring some things out. And I think that they've got – I think this defense has more talent than they've

played like early on in this season. I think they will continue to get better as the year goes along. Hopefully they're doing that. But again, we can't get too excited about the defense considering the offense they're facing today. Yeah, and you've got to think about when the pressures came for the Titans.

It was after Joe Thomas left the game. So they plug in Spencer Drango there and the Titans. It was after Joe Thomas left the game. So they plug in Spencer Drango there, and, you know, the Titans just teed off on him. And to their credit, they took over the game late, late in the fourth quarter. Kessler had no time. In overtime, I think they went three and out twice, and that was all because of Arakpo and Morgan and Eric Walden really getting after the quarterback.

So kudos there. They did what they had to do. But, man, it just seems like if the Titans can ever put both sides of the football together, they're going to be dangerous. But it seems like we get one side and then we don't get the other. And, you know, until they figure it out, we're going to play a lot of frustrating games like this. So, man, I just, like we started the podcast off with, a win's a win,

but it's just really hard to feel really good about it. Yeah, absolutely. And so, I mean, that's pretty, I don't really have anything else to touch on. Just kind of first glance, I'll go back and watch the game again tomorrow. I don't know when I'll get the energy to put myself through that again. I guess we need to hit Delaney Walker. Yeah. All I saw was Wyatt said he has a sprained ankle.

Was there any more on that? Yeah, sprained ankle is all that we've seen so far. Again, left the game late in the fourth quarter. It didn't look good. It did not look good. He was in some serious pain. Yeah, didn't put any weight on it coming off the field. None at all.

So if that's all it is is a sprain, that's good news. But I would assume we're going to get more on that tomorrow. Yeah, and we will. I mean, I don't know. Who knows what he'll say tomorrow. But they won't have, obviously, with the bye week coming up, we won't i mean i don't know who knows what he'll say tomorrow but you know they won't have obviously with the bye week coming up uh we won't we won't get much of an idea he won't practice this week i wouldn't imagine um and then so we won't really know anything until next week as far as that goes but um yeah so i mean said it's a it's a win um and four and three

in a good spot record-wise. I feel like it could be a little bit better, but at the end of the day, like you said, if you had said you'd get 4-3 head into the bye, we would have taken it. So from that standpoint, it's okay. But there's a lot of frustrating things about this team, and hopefully they'll take the bye week to look over to do some self-scouting, as they always say, and make some adjustments that just seem really obvious. Like you said, if they can put both sides of the ball together, it feels like there's a lot of stuff there

that's good and they can build on, but they haven't been able to put it all together yet. Hopefully, they'll be able to do that more as the season goes along. Yeah, save us Corey Davis. Yeah, yeah. Everybody is saying that he will be back after the bye, and hopefully he'll be 100% healthy this time, whereas last time he was still obviously not ready to come back. So hopefully he'll be ready to go, and we can see some stuff there.

Anyway, I forgot to mention at the top, rate and review the podcast Locked on Titans on iTunes. Leave a Twitter handle in the review that you leave, and you'll be entered to win a year-long subscription to Pro Football Focus, which has a lot of cool stuff, and you'll hear us reference stats from that site all the time on the podcast and stuff. So it's got a lot of cool stuff there.

So do that for us. Give us feedback. We always appreciate that. Terry, anything else before we get out of here? Real quick, Rap Shoot just tweeted that Malik Hooker suffered a torn ACL today. I saw that, yeah. He is out for the year. So that's a big blow for the Colts who really kind of looked lifeless.

Yeah, they have a terrible defense with him out there being really good. So their passing defense obviously takes a huge hit there. And like we talked about last week, one of those guys we loved heading through the draft process last year. So, yeah, that stinks for them. That stinks for him. I mean, you hate to see that for anybody. So, all right, well, that'll do it for tonight.

Check out our site, museummiracles.com. We'll have a lot more on this game, and we'll do a lot of kind of review stuff during the bye week to get us through and then be ready for what we have coming out of that. Hopefully, the Titans can go on a little bit of a run here. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlambertfb.

Check that out. We'll have, like I said, just a lot more stuff about this, and we'll break down kind of where the Titans are at this point in the season through the next week. Check us out there, and we will be back tomorrow with another episode. Like I said, we'll have a little bit more in-depth tomorrow breakdown of this game if we go back and re-watch

it and get some things that way. Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening to Locked on Titans, and we will talk to you tomorrow night.