Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans 10/25/17: Mid-Season Offensive Review

Episode Date: October 25, 2017

Let's talk about the Titans' offense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team, every day. Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? I'm doing well. How are you? Doing well.

All right, so as we kind of get into the bye week here, obviously there's not going to be probably any news on the field until Monday when the Titans come back. The players have the whole week off. Mike Malarkey said yesterday the coaches will be here through the week, and they'll get the weekend off before everything kicks back up next week, and they start preparing for the Ravens second half of the season. We figure for the next

two episodes, we will tonight look at the offensive side of the ball. Tomorrow night, look at the defensive side of the ball, tomorrow night look at the defense side of the ball, talk about maybe our biggest surprises thus far that we've seen, biggest disappointments that we've seen, and then kind of where we picture the offense tonight, obviously, how we picture them looking in the second half, how we see it going forward. So that's kind of our game plan for the next couple of days. Before we get started, I will remind everyone about the promotion we're running with Pro Football Focus. If you rate and review Locked on Titans on iTunes, leave your Twitter handle in the review.

You'll be entered to win a year-long subscription to PFF. A lot of good stuff on there that can help you. Fantasy football, a lot of good stuff for that. Then also just grades every week. You'll see us reference that on museummiracles.com a lot. We write about that kind of stuff a lot of good stuff for that. Then also just grades every week. You'll see us reference that on museummiracles.com a lot. We write about that kind of stuff a lot. They have a lot of good draft stuff too when we get to that point of the season.

Like I said, write your reviews of the podcast, Lockdown Titans on iTunes, leave your Twitter handle in the review to be entered. For me, the biggest surprise thus far on offense has been the offensive line and the inability to get a push and the Titans' inability to run between the tackles.

And we've talked at nauseam, it feels like, about the running backs and who should run when and all that stuff. So we won't really get into that much tonight. But, you know, this offensive line was really really good last year um was you know the best the best thing the team had going for them uh you know josh klein was really the only weak link of that unit uh you had taylor lawan jack conklin you know looked like they were poised to be the best tackle duo in the league uh ben jones played really well quentin spain on draft a guy they found came in and played really well this year hadn Spain, undrafted guy they found, came in and played really well. This year it hasn't been the same.

It hasn't been the same, especially from a run-blocking perspective. There's still been some good. But, you know, Josh Klein, oddly enough, has graded out as the best run-blocking lineman a few weeks, at least according to Pro Football Focus. And I don't know what the answer is. Somebody on Twitter today said the team's got tape and they figured out

how to attack the weaknesses. I think that can be true for some things. I'm not really sure how that's true for an offensive line as a whole. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I guess it's as good of an answer as any because I don't know what the right answer is. Yeah, and my biggest

disappointment so far was going to be Mariota. That might go hand-in in hand with some of the struggles we've seen up front. Just kind of the lack of a true, real, dynamic passing game. You know, maybe that's just kind of loading the box and stuff like that. So it's a huge concern to me about the offensive line. It's really, I don't have an answer. We've said that a lot. And the only thing that I can really come up with is Anthony Fasano losing him to the Dolphins.

I know he's not viewed as a huge piece, but they moved him around a lot and they used him almost exclusively as a run blocker and he was just a huge part of this offense so and I kind of said that in the offseason that the Titans would kind of miss him but to John Smith's credit I thought he's he's come in and played well and he's been one of the pleasant surprises on this team but obviously there's a big cliff from Fasano to him but for me the disappointing thing has been Mariota. And I'm shocked that I'm sitting here saying that. But here we are. It's just, it's really at the beginning of these games. And I don't know why. Maybe it's Malarkey's want to stick with the run game and want to wear

people down. But for whatever reason, this passing game is just dead in the first quarter of these games. They just can't come out of the locker room and score points. And it just seems like they're put behind the eight ball every weekend. And it's frustrating. You've seen Mario to miss high. And, you know, he's been hurt. So it's kind of hard to put all that on him last week. But still, when he was healthy, he was inconsistent at best.

The Titans have to figure out a way to come out in the first half and start scoring some points. Yeah, I think that's it with me. I mean, you talk about him being inconsistent. And so if I'm the coaching staff, I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how can we help him be more consistent. And again, I go back to the fact that, you know, when he gets in a rhythm, that's when you see the consistency from him when he has these games where they don't run successfully. You know,

he's got one throw on third down and it's third and eight and, you know, they don't get it and they're off the field for a long time and they come back and kind of do the same thing. It seems like those are the games where he never quite gets it going. If they're able to sustain the run game early, they're able to, you know, get some drives going, he gets settled in, and then he seems to do better. So, I mean, my answer to that, as I've said before, would be just one game. Try it once, come out and spread it out a little bit early on, let him throw it around, let him get comfortable,

and then settle into your, you know, trying to establish a run game. But, yeah, I mean, you're right. The consistency thing is what right now keeps him from being on that elite level. Yeah, and, you know, last week seemed like a week where they could have done it. Maybe they didn't feel healthy or good enough about his health. But certainly that was a secondary that you could have attacked, and I'm still not sure why they didn't.

I just don't think we'll ever see that. You know, we can scream about it all we want. I just don't think we'll see that from this staff. Maybe in the future with a different head coach, maybe we see kind of them let Mariota kind of open things up and play more of an Aaron Rodgers type game. But for now, it seems like we're going to get the jumbo sets. We're going to just ground and pound until the Titans wear teams down.

And unfortunately for Mariota, he's just kind of going to play that behind the scenes type role and just kind of take what the defense gives him. Yeah, and like you said, I mean, the answer, I think, pretty clearly, is they're not ever going to do that because this was the week to do it. If you were ever going to do something like that, facing that secondary, as bad as they've been, you know, and like we talked about, McCourty not being there, I mean, that was the perfect time to do it.

And maybe it was the health thing. Maybe if Mario was completely healthy, it would have been different. I tend to think it wouldn't be just because of what we've seen from him in the past. But, yeah, the fact they didn't do it on Sunday leads me to believe that it's not ever going to happen. So my biggest disappointment to this point has been the lack of Eric Decker usage. And, you know, I think that some people had unrealistic expectations for what Eric Decker was going to be when the Titans signed him.

They thought he was going to be the guy that was going to come in and have a 1,000-yard receiving. I never thought he was going to be that guy. But I thought he was going to be a guy they could rely on on third down in the red zone. You know, we heard so much about how good the Titans were in the red zone last year, how efficient Marcus Mariota has been in the red zone. And then you bring in Eric Decker, who's one of the best red zone receivers

in the game right now, just from a route running perspective and catching the ball, understanding defense, understanding how to find the holes and zones and that type of stuff. So, I mean, it seemed like something that would take you know, take that red zone efficiency to a new level. Now, I mean, there was always going to be some regression because the Titans were just, like, astronomically good last season, and that's not something that was going to be able to be sustained. But I felt like they could stay kind of close to a similar level, bringing in a guy like Decker, when they hadn't really had a weapon like that as long as Mariotta had been here.

And then thus far, it just hasn't come to fruition. fruition I mean he had a good game against the Colts on Monday night two weeks ago but you know it only had two targets and it didn't catch either one of them on Sunday that's kind of been you know what we've seen so far from him now I think part of it is he hasn't been able to be the slot guy which I think they they hoped he would be so far they had to use him outside with Corey Davis beingis being injured um decker himself was injured mario has been injured so i mean i think all of that does play into it a little bit but i just i really thought we would see him make an impact on this team and we haven't seen it so far yeah i can get on board with that uh i mean i kind of thought we'd get the guy that we saw two years ago with the jets uh who caught

12 touchdowns. I really thought that he would be a red zone presence, and maybe he still will be. But I think he's been forced to play more on the outside than we thought he would be with the injury to Corey Davis. So maybe we, again, maybe we kind of see him pop once Davis gets back and the stress can kind of be taken off of him. For me, another disappointment for me has been the downfield passing game. I thought the Titans made some big strides there last year.

But again, it was built off the play-action game with Rashard Matthews mainly down the field. So that's kind of an area where I thought they'd be better, especially with Taewon Taylor bringing him in with his speed. And, you know, they can still use mashies in that role too. But, again, all this comes back to not having Corey Davis and the run game not working. That seems to be, like, the two main factors. So when Davis gets back, maybe that opens some things up you certainly hope so uh but again first and foremost they've got to figure out how to run the football

yeah because again they're not going to give that up i don't think and i don't know it maybe they would at some point when but i at this point i don't know when i mean you saw sunday it really wasn't working at all and they kept trying to do it. So, yeah, they've got to get that figured out. And, you know, again, hopefully that's something Mike Malarkey said in his press conference on Monday that, you know, the staff was going to sit down and look at every single play that they had run this year and, you know, kind of grade themselves

and look for ways. So hopefully they can figure out something and they do that. But, you know, and I don't know. I think we all are kind of feeling like okay well when core davis comes back you know it's gonna make all this stuff different and or do you think maybe we're putting too much weight in that at this point probably um you know just seeing what he did week one you know, the ability to go up and get that football over David Amberson. You know, we saw Decker have a similar play down the sidelines this week,

and he wasn't able to come down with the football. So, I don't know. The things that I saw that guy do in college, he just made that offense go. I mean, he forced coverage to take notice of where he was on the field. And, again, we're not saying he's going to come in and catch, you know, go 200 yards a game. But he's going to, you know, attract attention. He's going to take the pressure off Matthews and Walker and the run game.

It's just another weapon out there, another potent weapon. You know, there's a difference between putting Corey Davis out there and plugging Eric Weems in for a play. So that's a big deal to me. And, again, you've got the bye week to kind of work it out and figure out where these things have gone wrong and kind of game plan to get him back in the playbook again. So I'm hopeful, but like you said said we kind of need to temper our expectations yeah and and so

i mean that's i guess moving into the next phase of this you know what do we expect going forward i do expect it to look different with cory davis out there like you said i mean you just saw the impact that he made in his first nfl game um after missing the majority of training camp not playing at all in the preseason. You know, some go there and catch six balls. So, I mean, I think, you know, I mean, I know you were beating the Corey Davis drum from the beginning of the draft process last year. And, you know, we know the type of special impact he can have. So, you know, on one hand, I think it'd be silly to not think that his return wouldn't make any kind of difference,

because it clearly will. He's a special talent. That's why he goes with the fifth overall pick. But at the same time, I'm just not sure. I'm just interested to see how they're going to use him, because if they're not really going to change up the game plan that much, then what does it matter that he's out there? But, again, the fact that they threw the ball to him,

he caught six balls in the opener, I think tells you how they feel about him. And Mike Malarkey has continued to rave about him during this whole process. And if you remember last year when Kendall Wright was missing time with a hamstring and Malarkey and Rubisky were kind of hammering him, they've had nothing but good things to say about Corey Davis this whole time that he's been out and about his mental preparation and all that stuff so and again I think it'll allow them to do some different things it'll allow them to move Eric Decker into the slot more the role they brought him into play and stuff so I mean I think from that standpoint it'll help the offense

and hopefully can loosen some things up down the field or you know they can get some things down the field loosen some things up in the middle and or they can get some things down the field and loosen some things up in the middle, and that will hopefully help the run game. I mean, that's kind of what we've got to be hoping for at this point because like we've been saying, I mean, if this run game doesn't go, then this team is going to have trouble winning much of anything. Yeah, and just to kind of build off that, you might not see the impact in the box score. Like you might not see Davis put up huge numbers just because there's mouths to feed in this offense. But you might see a bump for Delaney Walker.

You know, you might see a bump for Eric Decker. You might see a bump in the run game. So, I think having just a guy out there like that with his talent is going to force attention. And it's going to force teams to kind of take notice. You know, we saw, what was it, ten targets week one. He was second on the team in receptions. So, clearly, Mariota had some established chemistry with him,

and they look good out there. So, you just hope that they can keep that going. You know, what's it been, what, seven, eight weeks now? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it has been, what, seven, eight weeks now? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it has been. But, again, like we're saying, the thing that I guess just gives me confidence that they can is because they really didn't get a whole lot of time together before that first game.

Because if you remember, you know, Mariota was, I mean, he participated in some of the OTA stuff, but not, you know, to the extent. Corey Davis was, I mean, he came in and participated, but, you know, he was coming off that ankle injury so um you know hopefully hopefully they'll be in a good spot when they both get back out there and that that's the thing I mean the you know the I think overall we have to say to this point the offense as a whole has been a disappointment I mean there's not there's not one thing you can point to really right now on the offensive side of the ball and say that's gone better than we

expected it to go. Or, you know, better than we reasonably expected it to go. I think, you know, we had maybe too high of expectations for some parts of the offense, but even just kind of a realistic, looking at last year, kind of that baseline, nothing to this point has

outperformed what we thought it would be able to do. And so, you know, from that standpoint, the only place they go from here is up. And I just hope that they're able to realize the potential that we think they have. Yeah, and one more thing. Use Taylor and Taylor and use John Smith. I mean, it's ridiculous that you've invested two third-round picks in these guys and we've seen so little production out of them to this point.

So I think Taylor is just a matchup guy. He's a guy with speed. He's a guy that can do a lot of everything on offense. So just like we said last night or two nights ago, give that shovel pass to him. Don't give it to Eric Williams. That's just weird. I mean, I don't know why you would give Eric Williams offensive touches.

And, you know, I thought they've done some creative things with Johnnie Smith down the field using the wheel routes, using the seam routes, even using him as a receiver. There was a play, I believe it was the Seattle game, where they lined him up at receiver and just had him run a nine route, and he had his guy beat, but Marietta just missed him. So use those guys. I mean, there's going to come a point in time

where they're a better option than Eric Decker. And I think you might see that going forward. I haven't been really impressed with eric decker like you said he was one of your disappointments um and maybe it's something to where we see decker playing a little less and maybe taylor playing a little more yeah and like you said even if even if you're not going to feature taylor which i don't think we really expect them to do we've seen shovel passes to eric weans we saw an attempted shovel pass eric decker in the game on sunday why we've seen bubble screens yeah we've

seen bubble screens eric decker why and we talked before i hate a bubble screen but if you're going to throw it to somebody go to taylor go to somebody that has the ability to do something with it once they get the ball in their hand so yeah i mean i think there are some simple things that they could do that they're not doing. And, again, hopefully, you know, you self-scout and you see that and you're able to get it going. So that's kind of, I guess, what we can hope for. And, again, I think this offense,

they haven't scratched the surface of what they can be, but I just hope in the second half of the season it is able to all come together because it just hasn't to this point. Anything else on the offensive stuff tonight? Just real quick, I'm not sure the Titans are as set as we thought they were at running back. And I know that's a big can of worms to get into. But, you know, you've got to get a guy back there

that has some explosiveness to him. You know, I know Derek Henry. I know what he did at the combine. I know for his size he's explosive. But he's kind of a long-speed guy. It takes him a second to get up to speed. I'd just love to see a pass catcher type that can come out of the backfield with some speed, with some burst, and make some guys miss.

DeMarco Murray, at this point, he is what he is. And, you know, honestly, Derek Henry and him aren't too far apart in that. So to have nothing behind him is a little odd. I know they've got flu season back there, but I think that's kind of an underrated need, way off, but kind of going into the off season. Yeah, absolutely. And that is something that they need to be able to do.

And I think that if – I mean, DeMarco Murray's time here is limited, just from a contract standpoint, from a just usage standpoint, the carries that he has. So I think it does make a lot of sense to try to add a guy that can be a complement to Derrick Henry because eventually that's going to be a thing that they, that they really do need. And so, I mean, I think that's something they should have their eyes towards, whether it's in free agency or, you know, ideally the draft in the next couple of years. I mean,

I think that would give this office another dimension, you know, something else, something they don't have right now. So I think it's really a great point. Anything else? That's all I got. All right. So that sounds good. All right, so like I said, tomorrow night we'll talk a little bit about the defense. And, you know, I think we'll have kind of some similar thoughts about the defense. But the good news on the defense side of the ball is there are some guys

that have played a little bit above expectations at this point. And so we'll have a little bit to talk about there. Anyway, so that's what we've got for tonight. Like I said, tune in tomorrow to talk about the defense. Check out our work, musiccitymiracles.com. You can see all of our daily articles that we write there. Like I said, we'll recap stuff about the draft, I mean about the season at this point. You can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlambertfb. So that's all for Locked on Titans tonight, and we will talk to you again tomorrow. Napa know-how. It takes a lot to get excited about a bag, but most bags can't save you 20% on auto parts. That's 20% off headlamps, 20% off oil filters,

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