Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans 10/26/17: Mid-Season Defensive Review

Episode Date: October 26, 2017

With the bye week on tap, we take a look at how the defense has performed to this point. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit Cintas.com. 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 the Thursday edition of Locked on Titans. I am your host, Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing good. How are you?

Doing well, doing well. So before we get started tonight, we're going to tell you about MyBookie, their sponsor of Locked on Titans. MyBookie is a great mobile sports app, mybookie.ag. And again, you can log on to their site from your mobile phone. You don't have to download an app or anything. They have really tailored their site to where it works really well on your mobile device. That's what we use for most things now.

So they did a good job of that. They've got all the lines. You can bet on anything, college football, the World Series, NFL, boxing, whatever you want to bet on, it's all there. You can do it before the game. You can get in-game lines. You can do props. All that kind of stuff is there. Check that out. It's mybookie.ag for all

of your sports betting needs. Also, I'll tell you about the promotion we have with Pro Football Focus. If you rate and review the podcast on iTunes, Lock on Titans, leave your Twitter handle in the review. You'll get a year-long subscription to PFF. A lot of cool stuff they have there.

You're familiar with that, and we'll be referencing some of their stuff tonight to talk about the defense. So check that out, and obviously that helps us as well. If you write and review the podcast, it helps us with our rankings and all that kind of stuff. So please do that. We appreciate the feedback, so do that. All right, last night we talked a little bit about what we've seen from the offense so far.

Obviously, with the bye week this week, we're just kind of reviewing the season thus far, and the bye week comes almost at the halfway point, so that's nice for this purpose and obviously for the team and then being able to get healthy and all that stuff. So, tonight we're going to talk a little bit about the defense. And so, Terry, I'll kind of let you go first. What's something that has stood out to you with the Titans' defense this year so far? I think you've got to start with the pass rush, or maybe the lack of the pass rush at times.

You really want to find some consistency there. You want to be able to rush four and be able to drop some people in coverage. The Titans just haven't been able to do that consistently yet. I thought you saw a little bit of it against Cleveland. You know, that's how you want it to look, how that game ended. Arakbo and Walden and Morgan really getting after Cody Kessler to really end that game. But again, Joe Thomas was out.

So you want to see that against all teams. I didn't think you saw it at all against the Colts. You know, we talked last week about how it kind of forced Dick LeBeau to turn up the pressure and kind of send Woodyard on some blitzes and do some things off the edges with Kevin Byard and stuff. So the lack of a consistent pass rush is definitely the biggest issue I see right now. And I'm not sure there's an answer to fix it right now other than Dick LeBeau just having to blitz a little more than he wants to.

Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, obviously we'd like for there to be some magic solution to this. And, you know, they did as much as they could without, you know, spending either a lot of money in free agency or a high draft pick on a guy. And this wasn't a great class for pass rushers anyway. But, you know, they brought in Eric Walden, who has been productive, you know, has at times looked like the best pass rusher on this team. But like you said, they're not able to get it with the traditional rush at this point,

and they've had to go to more blitzing. And the game that really stood out to them was the Colts game. You know, Jacoby Brissett was kind of carving them up at the beginning, the first half of that game. And then LeBow made his adjustments at halftime and sent a lot more blitz in the second half, and they were able to get home. And that's fine against Jacoby Brissett, but when you get against

the elite quarterback in the league if you have to do that much blitzing they're eventually going to get you in that so they need to get more production from a jarrell casey from a brian arachpo from a derrick morgan and the guys that they are really counting on to be able to produce that pass rest they need to get something something more from those guys. But I'm just not sure, you know, what else they're going to be able to do to manufacture that at this point. Yeah, and, you know, kind of sticking on the defensive line type deal, I think the Titans really lack a true nose, and that's something that we were kind of talking about.

They brought in Sylvester Williams. I always thought that was a weird fit. You're talking about a guy coming out of North Carolina was kind of one with quickness in his first step. He's not really that space eater that's just going to hold his ground and force the running back to kind of move

around. I've always thought they've lacked that true nose tackle since they moved to a 3-4. They've plugged Austin Johnson in there. That's not exactly his best position, I don't think. So, yeah, the Titans' run defense has been okay. It's certainly not a huge issue right now.

But I don't know about you. I just feel like they've kind of neglected that spot for years. And I feel like that's a spot where the Titans could stand to get a lot better. Yeah, it's something they definitely haven't invested in since they moved to a 3-4. You know, I mean, so Lester Williams is probably the biggest investment they've made in that position the whole time that they've been a 3-4 defense. And that's not, again, that one didn't really make sense.

You know, we didn't have high hopes for that signing when it happened um so yeah i mean that that could be a space but kind of what we were talking about before we got started here how many how many good nose tackles are there you know it's it's a position that's kind of tough to find and i mean there's a lot you can say a lot of a lot of positions in the nfl are hard to identify but there's just honestly not that many guys that are that are really difference makers at that position. Yeah, it's definitely a weird spot. But, again, like we were saying, you know, Jarrell Casey,

everybody's saying, where's Jarrell Casey? Well, PFF has him as the number one run-graded defensive end in a 3-4 scheme in the NFL right now. So he's stopping the run. He may not be making those splash plays in the passing game, but he's making those stops in the line of scrimmage that the plays that you really don't

see, you really don't pay attention to. I think Jarrell's fine. You can definitely say that he's not getting after the quarterback like he usually does. I think that's totally fair. But I don't think he's been bad, and PFF seems to agree with that. They've got him back up to an 84 grade after a rough start. So, again, I think Tennessee ranks 10th against the run.

So it's not a huge issue, but I think it's a spot where the Titans could get better. And still, I still feel like teams are kind of attacking them through the air because they know what their weakness is yeah absolutely and so in that way it's kind of a funnel defense on opposite reverse funnel or whatever you want to call that they just that's the easiest that's the path of least resistance um and and so that's that's the path that these teams are taking against the titans and it's it's it's not as bad as it was last year but i think that's definitely still the case at some points um all right so before we move into kind of some secondary talk because that's where we'll go next again we'll talk about my bookie you know kevin byard had three interceptions in cleveland on sunday i don't't know what Kevin Byard's interception prop was,

but you could have gotten it on mybookie.ag, and if you were taking the over, you probably would have won a lot of money because I don't set that high, and the over was probably where the money was to be made. But they got stuff like that all the time. You can check that out, again, mybookie.ag. And then, like I said, the thing that they're tailored toward is using mobile,

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We're glad to have them sponsoring the show. Again, you can get anyie.ag, and we're glad to have them sponsoring the show. And, again, you can get any odds, any lines, any props that you need. You can find them there. All right, so we'll move on to the secondary a little bit. You know, Kevin Byard obviously has to be, you know, one of the guys that is the biggest surprise. I don't know if surprise is the right word to say,

but he's been one of the best players on the defensive side of the ball so far. He's got four picks. Obviously, he had three on Sunday. You know, we didn't see the ball hawking stuff out of him last year. Part of that, I think, was the way he was used. He wasn't playing as much deep safety. Part of it was, you know, just being a rookie and getting acclimated to the NFL game.

But he's definitely showed that off this year. He's got, you know, like I said, he's got four picks this year, and all four of them are in the last two games. So I think he's only going to get better. You know you know obviously those interception numbers not going to keep up but um you know he's the guy that they can build around the secondary and it's been a while since they've had a difference maker back there i mean really since i guess arguably earlier than michael griffin days um but we could we could talk for days on you know how much of that was mich Michael Griffin, how much of that was the pass rush. But they've got that back there, so that's good.

Also, Adore Jackson, I know we've got some numbers on him, but he's a guy that has drawn a lot of criticism from Titans Twitter, Titans Facebook, wherever you want to look. And in my opinion, I think Adore Jackson has been really good. Obviously, there have been some issues. He's gotten beat. The play that always stands out to me is the Will Fuller play, you know, where he tackled Will Fuller while the ball was on the way there after he had beaten him.

But for the most part, he's been solid in coverage. And we knew it was going to take a little bit of time with him just for the fact that he, you know, played special teams and offense as well as cornerback at USC and the fact that he ran tracks, I think, at spring practice and all that stuff. But I think you've got to be pretty impressed with the way he's played so far. Yeah, just scrolling through the pro football focus database, he's been targeted 44 times. That's the seventh most in the league per any cornerback. So he's definitely been picked on, but he hasn't been bad. He's

37th in the league in yards given up per coverage snap. That's not bad at all. I think he's improved every week. I think you're going to see him get close to some interception. You see him getting his hands on the football. I think it's just a matter

of time before he really gets one and starts being that ball hog that John Robinson saw at USC last season. But getting back to Kevin Byard real quick, it's really interesting how the Titans use their safeties. They don't really have a free safety and a strong safety. I think we kind of got caught up in that uh in last draft season with with hooker and jamal adams uh kind of labeling them as strong safety and free safety it seems to me like the titans just kind of have two safeties back there and they don't really have too much

of a different role for each player because you'll see Bayard line up almost as a pass rusher sometimes. You'll see him lined up right on the line of scrimmage. You saw him lined up as a center fielder on one of his interceptions and then you saw him lined up as a nickelback. So they

use him in all different ways and that's something to keep in mind as long as Dick LeBeau is around. The Titans just kind of have two safety spots. They don't really have a free and a strong. And, you know, I think they could certainly use another one to go along with Kevin Byard. But it's going to be interesting to see how they use Ciprian, who wasn't very good against the Raiders,

and we haven't seen him since because of the hamstring injury. But I'm going to be watching when they take on the Ravens, assuming Cyprian gets back, kind of how they work him into the rotation and how they use Cersei and kind of divide out the snaps. Yeah, and that Raiders game I don't think is the best one to judge him on because, I mean, obviously the issues in coverage, I mean, those are well documented. You know, we'd like to see him in week two against the Jaguars. That was more of his type of game.

So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see what they do with him. And, again, I don't know what we'll get on the end of the week or a week and a half from now or whatever when they play the Ravens because you don't have really a dynamic passing attack there. But, yeah, like you said, it'll be interesting to see how they use him. Obviously the big offseason acquisition piece to this was Logan Ryan, and he also struggled early, struggled in the preseason pretty mightily. Everybody's like, oh, what have they done? You know, everybody's overreacting to the preseason. mightily. Everybody's like, oh, what have they done? Everybody else is overreacting to the preseason.

But he's been really good. He's done a good job, especially the last couple weeks. And, you know, he spent a lot of time on T.Y. Hilton in that Colts game and basically took him out of the game. T.Y. Hilton had like one catch for 15 yards or something like that. So, I mean, you know, T.Y. Hilton has historically torched this team. So, you know, Logan Ryan, after a little bit of a rocky start, has been a really solid player

and has really done what they've already been able to do. He's come in, he's been a solid veteran presence in that secondary. And, you know, no, he's not a shut-down corner or whatever. He's not going to be mentioned with the elite guys in the league. But after what they were running out there last year, you know, we should be thrilled to see a guy like Logan Ryan. Yeah, I think we all had the wrong perception of Logan Ryan when he came in. He's been almost exclusively the slot guy for the Titans.

And I thought, you know, Odori Jackson, just based on size alone, would get some slot work. But it really hasn't been the case. Logan Ryan is second in the NFL in terms of snaps run out of the slot. So he's staying there for entire games. Like you said, he took on T.Y. Hilton and kind of shut him down. So he's been good. You saw the rocky start against the Jets in the preseason game

where everybody's sky was falling and the Titans were doomed. Just the first drive of the season. So, of course. But, you know, he's kind of leveled off. And he's been a stabilizing force in the secondary at a position of need. You know, they used Bryce McCain in that slot role last year, and it just didn't work. And part of that was the overall secondary was just a dumpster fire.

But good veteran presence for a pretty young secondary and a guy that's just really stabilized some slot receivers for the Titans. Yeah, and like you said, you just can't overstate how important that was. And those of you who watched this team last year, you do understand that. I mean, it was – I mean, you were running Paris Cox and Valentino Blake and those guys out there. I mean, it was a disaster week in and week out. So they've definitely been better this year.

I think we all would like for them to be a little bit better. But, again, you know, you get into this thing, and it's like the you know the chicken or the egg argument um when the when the pass rush is good the secondary looks better when the pass rush is bad the secondary looks worse and so then everybody's like well the secondary is not as good or whatever and so you need both of those both those things working together um it helps everybody so you know the secondary looked terrible in the first half against the colts but look great in the second half. What was the difference?

They were getting pressure up front. You know, you can only cover guys for so long. So, you know, as far as where the defense is, I mean, I think that – I think the defense is better than it was last year. I think overall you've got more talent on the unit than you did last year, you know, which is – and, and again a lot of times i think we we too soon forget how bad this team was two years ago and even especially in the secondary how bad they were last year um they're so much better than that and i think that you know with another

offseason invested in that unit i think you'll see a big jump next year um because i think they will add some more talent on that side of the ball. But overall, I think we should be fairly pleased with where the defense is. There's still some pretty valid concerns, but if we were being realistic when the year started, we knew that if the Titans

were going to make any type of run this year, it was going to have to be on the offense. The offense was going to have to score a lot of points and win some shootouts if the Titans are going to have a good record. Yeah, and just to kind of round out our point about the secondary and where they are, I'm not sure where they ended up last year, but it was below 30th. I know that.

They're 18th right now. So, again, like you were saying, there's room to improve there, but going from 30th to 18th, that's a big jump. So I think we're seeing some positive strides. And it all goes back to the pass rush. If you can get consistent pressure off the edge, or even if you find it dialing up some blitzes, Wesley Woodyard's been great all around, really,

but especially on those blitzes up the middle. If you can find some consistent pressure, they're only going to get better. Yeah, and I think that's the biggest thing that we watch in the second half is where does the pressure come from, and can they find a way to manufacture without sending blitzes? Because like we said, that's going to be the biggest thing that is kind of an indication of where they are. And they can get away with, when you play Joe Flacco,

who we're going to see right out of the bye, you can get away with blitzing and doing stuff like that. But if you're going to be a serious contender when you're going up against, you know, the Tom Brady's of the world, you've got to find a way to get pressure without sending extra guys because if you send extra guys, he's just going to pick you apart. So, you know, there's not very many Tom Brady's in the league, sure. But, you know, if they're going to be the best,

they've got to find a way to do that. So we'll see how all that plays out. Anything else on the defense before we get out tonight? That's all I got. All right. So that'll do it for us this week. You know, obviously the Titans don't play again until Sunday after this one. So we'll break down some stuff with the AFC South.

The Jaguars are also off this week, but you'll have the Colts and you'll have the Texans playing on Sunday. So we'll talk about what they do, start with the standings in the AFC South when we get back next week, and then we'll start to break down the Ravens. So, Terry, thanks as always for joining. Yep. And check out our work, music,

miracles.com. We'll have a lot of stuff going through the buy. And then, um, we'll obviously start to break down the Ravens next week. Uh, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm Jay Morris,

MCM. Terry is at T Lambert FB or right. Yep. You got it. I got it right. All right, cool. Um,

all right. So that's locked on Titans. And again, we will, uh, be back next week. So check us out. Also, please rate and review us on iTunes.

Leave your Twitter handle in there for the chance to win your long subscription to PFF. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening, and we will talk to you next week. 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, 20% off virtually anything you can fit

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