Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans 10/23/17: A win is a win is a win

Episode Date: October 24, 2017

Taking a deeper look at Tennessee's win over Cleveland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by terry terry what's going on tonight not a whole lot what's going on with you not too much so uh we had mike malarkey's press conference today got some injury updates and i think most of it was pretty good news um we'll start with the injuries from the game on sunday i guess the browns delaney walker uh malar you know, we talked about last night about how it was a sprained ankle. Well, Malarkey said today that it's more of a bone bruise than a sprain. And so, basically, it'll just be a pain tolerance thing,

how much he can play through. Having the bye week this week, I would expect him to be out there against the Ravens in two weeks. And then Quentin Spain, who also went down in the game, he has a turf toe. His injury might keep him out a couple of games or a couple of weeks. Um, so could miss a game. So that was,

that was kind of from the guys that were hurt against the Browns. And then he talked about Corey Davis and Jonathan Cyprian expects both guys back next week and actually made a definitive, definitive statement on Corey Davis saying that he will practice the Monday after the bi-week. So a week from today, um, he'll be on the practice field. So that's kind of the first, you know, concrete timeline we've had for Davis since the injury got him again in week two.

So, I mean, obviously that's really good news. It's huge news. You're talking about a guy that immediately made a difference against the Raiders week one. I think it was second in the team in receptions that week one game. So a guy that's going to come in and win with routes, win you some 50-50 balls, give you a – he's not a burner, but he's still going to give you a presence down the field.

Just you hope he's going to open up the passing game. I think Eric Decker's been kind of underwhelming. And maybe when Davis comes back, Decker can kind of slide into that more traditional slot role. So I think it's just going to kind of round out the offense and hopefully just kind of maybe even open up the run game a little bit with added stress on your secondary. So maybe it will clear out the box a little bit.

But, man, I can't wait to see Davis in this offense. I mean, you know how big of a fan I was of him in the draft process. But I really think that he's going to bring a new dimension to this offense. Yeah, absolutely. And we saw week one, he has six catches against the Raiders in his first ever NFL game. Malarkey today in his press conference praised where Davis is mentally. He talks about how he's been in all the meetings.

Malarkey said when they're going over stuff and he'll call on guys in the room when they have a question. And he said he's been calling on Davis just like he does anybody else, and he's always there. He's always ready to answer the question. So from all that standpoint, it's good. They'll obviously have to work him back in. He's got a little bit slowly physically just because he hasn't had the reps.

He hasn't played in an NFL game since week one. So that will take a little bit of time for him to get up to speed that way and not being able to do as much conditioning you know having a leg injury obviously so um but yeah like you said i mean getting him out there will be huge and you know this passing game they haven't all been together uh really since the beginning of training camp and we talked a lot about that going through camp i mean like you said i mean i think decker is going to be much more productive in that slot role than an outside role i think that's where he's better uh especially at this point in his career um and you know

something else that we want to talk about kind of leading into this too is the the issues in the red zone this year i mean the times were the best team in the league last year in the red zone um and this year what'd you say they're like 31st? 31st. In the red zone right now? 31st in the red zone right now. And, you know, we thought, hey, I mean, as – you knew there was going to be some regression. I mean, Marcus Mariota's numbers in the red zone were just, you know, astronomically good, and there's no way he could keep up on that pace. But, you know, regression would be like, you know,

them being 10th in the league or something, not 31st. And you thought with Eric Decker and just the way he runs routes and his football IQ and all that stuff, I mean, you thought that this team would probably get even better than they were, at least be a little bit more dangerous in the red zone than they were last year. That hasn't come to fruition yet, but I think things do change a little bit when you get Davis back on the field. Yeah, I agree totally.

And it's not really been one thing in the in the red zone it's been a combination of a lack of a push of uh mariota just just not being very good uh not being very sharp uh i think it's probably a little bit of a chemistry issue too with new receivers uh so it it's kind of staggering to go from first to 31st. You talked about regression to the mean. Well, that's taken it to the extreme. So, yeah, and Malarkey talks about that. He said they're going to do some self-scouting and look at some red zone stuff. But certainly that's a weak point.

And it's a spot that we all kind of just, I guess, took for granted after what Mariota did last year. But, yeah, the sequence on the goal line, they go four straight plays under center, jumbo set, goal line set, three runs, they all get stuffed, and then the pass for Mariota, he just shuffled his feet and short-armed the throw. So it's kind of alarming to me that they can't get a push, but, again, the Browns were pretty good against the throw. It's kind of alarming to me that they can't get a push, but again, the Browns were pretty good against the Browns.

But I think it's more so kind of, you know, I think they'd attack that differently if Mariota was healthy. I'll say that. Yeah, it gives them a lot more options, obviously. And we were talking a little bit before we started here. Our friend Superhorn on Twitter, he's at super underscore horn if you want to follow him he's a good follow um but anyway he was just talking about some of his thoughts he went back and re-watched the game today um and basically saying that you know

mariota with the hesitancy to run it changes his game and it just it makes him a little probably like just like a half-step slower on everything because he's just having to think through more stuff. I don't know. Again, we're talking about he looked even more uncomfortable in this game on Sunday than he did in the game on Monday night, which is kind of weird because you would think. I mean, they say he didn't have a setback on Monday night,

but I don't know if that meant that he was any healthier on Sunday. We felt like he would be because he was a full participant in practice all week whereas the week before he wasn't um but i do think that there's something to that the leg not being healthy and that just kind of is in the back of his mind and it does change the way that he does things i mean obviously he can win from the pocket we talked all about that um that that's not really the concern but i do think that a guy who's always been able to rely on his legs a little bit to to shuffle in the pocket um you know to look to see things on different planes and that kind of stuff not being able to do that at this point it would mess

with his head a little bit and you could see it just seems like he is going through his reads a little bit slow and that's something he's been really good at so i think that you know there's a lot of people that are kind of out on mario at this point and i mean like you talked about the the throw he missed to to delaney was really bad i mean he needs to be able to make that throw 100 times out of 100 healthy or not um you know and we're having and if he hits that throw which again i think 99 times out of 100 he does um we're having a little bit different conversation today because then they would have scored a touchdown. The game would have gone, I mean, all that other stuff

that would have come with that. But I think that as he gets healthier, I think we'll see him play a little bit more like the quarterback we expected him to be coming into the year. And he honestly just hasn't lived up to that so far this year. No, he hasn't. And maybe we got some some false expectations from that monday night game uh you know short week quick turnaround trap game

every narrative you can possibly think of that was this browns game uh and that's that's really no excuse but still uh you've got to think about it this way in the games that Mariota has played, 100% healthy, the Titans have scored 16, 37, 33, and 36, and 12 points. So, you know, take out the 12 points from Sunday, and that

the offense is producing points, and at the end of the day, it's all that matters. They may not have looked the greatest throughout the entirety of the game, but they're still scoring points. I think that's the positive that you've got to come away with here. Mario

is still hurt, and Terry Hrabiski's hands were tied. I know everyone wants Terry Hrabiski fired right now, but it's just hard to put it on him. I mean, to score 36 like they did on Monday night was amazing. It really was. And granted, it was the Colts, but still.

Mariota on one hamstring scoring 36 points. That's a big feat. And, again, the letdown was expected. I think we all kind of felt it coming. I certainly did. But, still, you've got to stay positive here. Four and three, you're only going to get healthier, you hope. You're going to get Corey Davis back,

and you're going to get some pieces on defense back. So I'm trying to stay positive, but, again, it was a little alarming. But still, you've got to look at the whole picture and what Mario has done when he's been healthy yeah absolutely and like you said i mean there we we've seen the titans go and lose this game so many times you know and the good news is they laid an egg on sunday and they still won um and that's progress right absolutely and it's easy to be it's easy to be negative it's easy to look at all the things that didn't go right um And, again, like I hope that, you know,

Mike Mulcahy said at his press conference that the players are going to have the whole bye week off. The coaches are going to stay around through the week too. He said look at every play they've run this year and kind of, you know, self-scout and do all that stuff. I hope that they find some stuff in there. I hope that they scrap the shovel pass when they go through that. We talked plenty about that yesterday.

But, like, you know, hopefully they can find some things that they can do differently going forward. And I don't know if they can scheme up something to get a push up front. I mean, that to me is probably the biggest concern that I have going forward about this team right now. I'm not as concerned about Moriota. Maybe I should be. But like you said, the results have been there when he's been healthy. So I'm inclined to just wait a little bit and see what it looks like when he's healthy. My biggest concern is the push in the middle up front with the offensive line,

the fact they have not been able to run between the tackles. And clearly they are bound and determined for that to be their identity, for that to be what they do. And, I mean, that's fine. We get that. But at some point, if it's not working, you've either got to figure out a way to make it work or you've got to go to something different,

even if that's really really what you want so hopefully in this by week they can kind of come to some type of conclusion there of hey we can fix it with this or we need to transition into something else and i know they're not gonna they're not obviously going to come out against the ravens and you know five wide the entire game that's not what i'm saying but just to maybe one time come out and throw around a little bit in the beginning of the game and then try to settle into the run game. And that's probably oversimplifying it, but it seems like that it might be a good idea for them to try that once, just to get the offense opened up a little bit and get things

going. Well, here's where I'm at. It seems like this offense has two personalities. They've got the bully mentality and then they've got the exotic mentality. And there's, like, no in-between. So they're either going to line up in Jumbo Set with three tight ends and a fullback and come right at you, or they're going to go four wide, RPO, read option, shovel pass,

something like that. It seems like they could find a way to marry the two a little better and you know kind of what all this hinges on mario's health obviously and i think cory davis getting into the fold kind of helps this but if you're struggling to get a push up the middle why are you coming out in jumbo sets and just banging your head against the wall just i would come out and and spread it out uh kind of kind of clear out the box a little bit run some read option stuff assuming mario is healthy uh and and kind of try to open up uh that box a little bit and then you can come back and

hit them with some runs out of the gun and maybe when when there aren't eight guys in the box so that's what I would do. Mariota certainly, that fits his skill set. I think that would be maximizing your quarterback, which we talked about a little bit last night. It's just something that bothers me. I just hate seeing such a weapon like Mariota under center in a jumbo set. That seems odd to me. Yeah, and again, it just doesn't seem like they're using him to his full capability in a jumbo set. That just, that seems odd to me.

Yeah, and again, it just doesn't seem like they're using him to the full capability in those types of deals, and it doesn't make sense. I mean, there's so many teams in the NFL that would die to have a guy like Mariota on their team, and it seems like the Titans are just kind of like, well, we got him, but we're still going to do what it is that, you know, we're determined to do. And again, that's probably oversimplifying it, and they clearly don't actually feel that way, but that's what it feels like just're determined to do. And again, that's probably oversimplifying it, and they clearly don't actually feel that way, but that's what it feels like just watching the game sometimes. Anyway, we'll see.

The bye week comes at a really good time for this team this year, and when you look at it, they should be pretty close to 100% healthy when they come back, assuming that Delaney can play. Like I said, we'll have to see on Quentin Spain, but everybody else should be ready to go. I didn't mention DeMarco Murray also came out of the game on Sunday with a bruised shoulder. But, I mean, he's got the hamstring all set, but two weeks should be good for him.

So, I mean, you know, they should. You roll into the second half of the schedule. I mean, obviously a little bit more than a half but i mean you should have you should have your team at the closest to full strength you've really been since week one um and so that's obviously a really good thing and you know i mean so again i think that it's easy to be it's easy to be down even after that win but i think there's a lot of reasons to at least keep some hope going forward because we all thought at the beginning of the year this team had a chance to be pretty good,

you know, in the mix as a playoff contender. And, you know, some weeks they've looked like that, some weeks they haven't so far. But I think that they can kind of get some things together here, and I think we'll see more of get some things together here and i think we'll see more of the team that we expected them to be going forward and a lot of it i think will be based on mariotta's health yeah and you know we talk about the schedule letting up it's already let up uh we thought it let up with the dolphins but unfortunately mariotta couldn't play in that one right yeah uh you. You know, you come home.

Week 9, you get the Ravens at home. Week 10, you get the Bengals at home. Two straight home games that are very winnable. Neither the Ravens or the Bengals are anything to write home about. So, right there, you have a chance to go out and jump to 6-3. And then after that, you know, you get the Steelers game, obviously. But you've got the Colts again without Andrew Luck. You give to the Cardinals,

who are probably going to be without Carson Palmer and probably still David Johnson. So there's plenty of winnable games on this schedule. You know, the Titans could be better off for sure. But, you know, it kind of is what it is right now, and they're certainly not out of anything, which is really all you can ask for. Yeah, absolutely.

So, you know, so we'll be here, and so what we'll probably do the next couple of days is do a little bit, maybe tomorrow do kind of more of an offensive review, you know, maybe look at individual players and what they've done thus far based on what we thought they would do to this point and maybe what we expect them going forward and then on uh thursday we'll take a look at the defensive players and our defense side of the ball and kind of do the same thing and then you know next week obviously we'll get into more raven specific stuff and and we'll have some injury stuff that we'll know a little bit more about

because they do get that practice on Monday. So anything else, Terry, before we get out of here tonight? I believe that covers it. All right, and again, I forgot to mention at the top of the show, but please rate and review us on iTunes. Just go to iTunes, search Locked on Titans. You'll get a new show there every day that we do one. And then if you leave a review for the podcast there, leave your Twitter handle.

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Leave your Twitter handle. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlenbertfb. We're at from ucmiracles.com. Check that as well. We'll have plenty of stuff. Just kind of a season review stuff coming up this week. And then like I said, I'll talk about the Ravens next week. So,

Terry, thanks as always for joining me. Yep. Alright, and we will talk to you all tomorrow night.