Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: A Texans loss; Quick look at the Ravens

Episode Date: October 30, 2017

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Hello and welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing great. How are you? Doing well. Alright, so we're Titans bye week, so no Titans footballs today, which is obviously a little bit of a letdown. But I think the bye week came at a good time for the Titans, and a couple guys, Corey Davis, Jonathan Ciprian, guys that have been out for a while, for the Titans and a couple guys, you know, Corey Davis, Jonathan Ciprian, guys that have been out for a while, expecting them back, and we'll have a better idea of their situations when we get the practice report for Monday. The Titans are going to be on the field Monday,

so we'll learn a little bit about them. And then, you know, a guy like Daniel Walker, who had an injury in the Browns game, and hopefully, you know, the extra week gives him a little bit of time to rest up and be ready to be back. Hopefully he won't miss a game. Hopefully, you know, the extra week gives him a little bit of time to rest up and be ready to be back. Hopefully he won't miss a game. But the biggest thing today really was the Texans going to Seattle and, I mean, putting up a really strong game. Deshaun Watson with another, you know, another game where he filled up the stat sheet.

The Texans ultimately come up short, and so they fall a game behind the Titans and Jaguars, who are both off today. So they have still, I guess, sole possession of first place. But, Terry, what did you think about the Texans today? I mean, I think at this point they're the team to beat, as much as we hate to say it, in the AFC South. And that offense for Houston just looks really, really good right now.

There's no doubt about it. It was a successful week for the Titans just because they lost. But if you watch that game, you can't feel good about the Titans' chances to potentially beat the Texans down the road. That's the team you're going to have to beat, and I don't think there's any doubt about it. They're 3-4 right now, but like you said, that offense is just humming right now

to see what they're doing with a rookie quarterback. And Deshaun Watson is just pretty disheartening, honestly, as a Titans fan. Just kind of their wide-open attack. They're throwing the ball down the field. They're just fun to watch. You know, we said for years if the Texans had a quarterback that could really be something, well, now they've got one. And that's really just not good news.

Yeah, and it's funny, you know, the thing we were the most afraid of with the Texans was their defense at the beginning of the year because the quarterback situation was in the air. You know, they started the season with Tom Savage. You know, everybody's hard here on, you know, Terry Robiskey, you know, the play calling and they don't know what they're doing and all that stuff. And, you know, right now Bill O'Brien is a genius for tailoring his offense to his quarterback's strengths.

But keep in mind that at least for the first half of the first game of the season, he thought Bill O'Brien thought that Tom Savage gave him the best chance to win, which obviously right now, looking back, looks ridiculous. But for whatever reason, I guess all NFL coaches have some blind spots. But, yeah, I mean, it's just crazy when you look at Deshaun Watson's passing line from today, he's 19 of 30 for 402 yards. So he completed 19 passes for 402 yards. This is kind of crazy.

Threw four touchdowns and three interceptions. So he's having a rookie season unlike anything we've really ever seen uh the if the efficiency with which they're scoring touchdowns i mean the 19 of 30 is not not exactly efficient but the fact that he completed 19 passes and threw four touchdowns i mean that's just crazy you you figure eventually it's got to regress back to the mean right but i mean he keeps doing it week in and week out, so he keeps saying that, but it keeps happening. I mean, look at the lines for those receivers. DeAndre Hopkins

eight for 224 and a touchdown. Will Fuller five for 125 and two touchdowns. I mean, you know, the thing with Sean Johnson, right? They used to say all he does is catch touchdown passes. Well, I mean, almost literally what Will Fuller, all he ever does is catch touchdown passes. I mean, again, five catches, two touchdowns.

He's catching touchdowns on 40% of his perceptions. I mean, it's just crazy. But like you said, I mean, the offense is fun to watch. They're dynamic. They're obviously trying to do what gives them the best chance to win, and tailoring their offense to Deshaun Watson's strengths. You still see some bad throws from him. A couple of those picks today were just really bad throws.

And there are other times where he just misses wide-open guys. But obviously he's doing enough to keep them engaged. Ultimately they came up short today. But, you know, that's going to happen when your defense gives up 41 points. But, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I just don't feel real good about the Titans' chances when they face the Texans a little bit later on in the season. mean, I don't know. I just don't feel real good about the Titans' chances when they face the Texans a little bit later on in the season. No, you don't.

But there's an opportunity there for the Titans. I'll say that. For as bad as we think they are right now, they're 4-3, and they're not even close to peaking. So, you know, you kind of want to peak at the end of the season. Well, the Titans have a chance to do that, and they've got a chance to make things right here on the bye. At the same time, you've got to take notice of Houston.

You know, it's not just Watson, like you said. It's Will Fuller. We talk about T.Y. Hilton in this division as being that speedster, but Will Fuller is doing that and then some. He's really coming into his own. He's really making this offense pop. So you trot Fuller out there with his speed, and then you've got Hopkins on the other side.

You've got Watson running the show. I'm not sure how to stop it. It's the closest thing I've seen to a college-style offense with a bunch of reads and RPOs and consistent stuff from shotgun. Watson has all the reins back there. So it's impressive to see him doing what he's doing. And honestly, you'd think they'd have to regress the mean, but I don't know. It's hard to kind of see them slowing down,

especially after what they did in Seattle. You know, that's a really tough place to play. And they nearly knocked off the Seahawks up there. So hats off to them for going for it. But the Titans got to figure it out. Yeah, and sometimes it takes, you know, a season for defenses to catch up with what a guy like Deshaun Watson is doing. So it'll be interesting to see.

Second time through the division, next year even, to see if he's able to keep up this once the league has film on him and all that stuff. I think the biggest positive, I guess, for the Titans in this is that the defense did give up 41 points. We know they're without J.J. Watt and Winnie Merciless for the rest of the year. So, I mean, obviously the thing that we were so afraid of with the Texans at the beginning of the year was their defense.

With those two guys missing, it's completely different than it was before. And they've been vulnerable through the year. So hopefully, you know, when the Titans play them, the Titans get them at home in the second matchup. So hopefully, you know, they can take advantage of the weakness on that side of the ball. And if they're going to give a bunch of points, they can score a bunch of points and win a game, similar to what the Seahawks were able to do today. And, you know, back in the summer when we were talking about our expectations for the Titans and all that stuff, I mean, our expectations were that they were going to have to win shootouts.

And so, I mean, from that standpoint, you feel at least okay about the Titans' chances against the Texans. But, you know, when you compare the two offenses right now, it's clear that one coaching staff is 100% committed to their quarterback and doing what he does best and playing to his strengths. And you've got the other coaching staff being the Titans that maybe is not necessarily there yet. Yeah, and, you know, to me it just puts more importance on these games

coming up for Tennessee. That game this week coming up this Sunday is a game that the Titans have to go win. You know, they've dropped that game against Miami, up this Sunday is a game that the Titans have to go win. They've dropped that game against Miami, which to me seems like a game that we might just be looking back on late in December. Oh man, if the Titans could have won that game, this would be a different story. You want to avoid doing that here against the Ravens. And again, the Ravens are 4-4. They're probably an average team in the NFL.

But this is a team that the Titans should be able to outscore. Again, we thought this offense could outscore people. This is a spot where they've got to go prove it. And, you know, we've talked about, you know, beating the guys you're supposed to beat. Well, I'd say the Titans should probably beat the Ravens here. They're the better football team, especially potentially without Joe Flacco,

who got knocked out of that Thursday night game with a concussion. So we'll have more on that as the week goes on. But, Jimmy, does anybody on the Ravens really scare you? No, I mean, and that's the – I think that's the i think that's the i guess positive to this game that you know we're still i i mean i guess we still feel worse about the titans defense than we do the titans offense right and and so you know they're vulnerable through the air that's where they've had the biggest the biggest problem so far um you know and the titans have i mean the ravens have got receivers like jeremy macklin

um you know they still got michael wallace i mean those guys that you know have had good careers were good players once but are not as good anymore and you know especially if we do get them without joe flacco if ryan mallett is under center you obviously feel a lot better about that. But even if it's Joe Flacco, I mean, I'm not – they don't strike fear in the heart, obviously. And so, no, defense is good. You saw what they were able to do to the Dolphins in that game Thursday night. So, I mean, you have to worry about that. But this is going to be one of those games where if Marcus Mariota can take care

of the football, you feel really good about their chances. Now, you know, they scored, what, two or three defensive touchdowns against the Dolphins the other night. You know, so if you run into a deal like that, obviously it's tough to win a football game when you do that. But I don't think you're afraid of what their offense is going to be able to do. They don't have a good running game. You know, they go back and forth between Buck Allen and Alex Collins.

I mean, Collins looks like, you know know he's taking the lead on Thursday night but then you know they they kind of go back and forth every week so yeah I mean nothing that you're really afraid of there and like you're saying I mean this is the Titans are kind of coming into a stretch they have a lot of AFC North we're going to see them a lot over the next month um in a stretch where they they can win some games and hopefully you know push out to a lead in the division um helps again that the the texans did come up a little bit short today so the titans do have a full game lead on them at this point um and you know what we'll see what the jaguars do as well but yeah this is not a game that i'm afraid the titans can't keep pace in.

But, you know, you just have to – you have that little bit of fear of, can they take care of the football? Can they do enough to win against that? And the Ravens do still have a really good defense. Yeah, and again, just like seemingly with the whole league, it's a consistency issue. Yeah. You know, you look at the Ravens and what they've done.

They lose to Pittsburgh. They lose by 17 points. Then they go on the road and beat the Raiders. They drop two in a row, and then they win 40-0 against the Dolphins. We've talked about this a lot with the Titans. Which team are you going to get? That applies to the Ravens and really just about any other team in the NFL. That applies to the Ravens and really just about any other team in the NFL. So it's really hard to expect, to figure out what to expect from the Titans or the Ravens, honestly.

But that being said, you're coming off a bye week. There's no excuse not to come out of this sharp. Hopefully with Corey Davis and Delaney Walker and Johnson Ziprian and some pieces back. Maybe that will help. But there's no excuse to be unprepared and come out and really play a sharp game offensively, something that we haven't seen the Titans really do this season.

Yeah, and that's the thing. I mean, maybe we are a little bit hard on them for their inconsistencies when like you said you look around the league and it seems like there's so many teams that just week in and week out you're just confused as to you know that's not the same team that you saw the week before um and the times have definitely fallen into that at times um but if they can find that consistency then then, you know, hopefully that could benefit them, obviously, in the second half. And, yeah, I mean, it really does come down to this offense. I mean, the defense, I would say, has been maybe even a little bit better.

I mean, outside of that Texans game, the defense has been a little bit better than I expected them to be. They're obviously still not, you know, a unit that's going to go out there and lock people down. Forrest, Winchester, Rivers not give up any points. But they've been good enough this year. If you look at the losses, I mean, the loss

to the Dolphins, the defense played obviously well enough in that game. And again, like you said, it's going to stink if we look back on that game, and that's what keeps the Titans out of the playoffs, keeps them in the division, whatever. Because there's, you know, I mean, in my mind, there's a 0% chance they lose that game if Marcus Mariota is healthy.

You know, that stinks, but that's life. I mean, that's what happens in the NFL. That's on the Titans for not having a better backup quarterback, honestly. But, you know, yeah, the offense has got to find some consistency. And, again, I mean, I wrote this offense has got to find some consistency. And, again, I mean, I wrote this past week, and we've talked about Corey Davis' return, and, you know, we're all kind of holding our breath,

hoping that he's able to participate 100% in practice on Monday and so that we'll get him back out there. At the same time, I mean, he's a rookie. He's only played a little bit over a full game. He didn't get to play at all in the preseason, missed most of training camp. So, I mean, I think our expectations for him at this point are maybe a little bit too high. I mean, we saw what he can do. You know, he obviously had a really good game against the Raiders, and we know why they drafted him, you know, fifth overall, all that stuff.

So, I mean, we're hoping that that, when he comes back, that helps. But, yeah, I mean, I think that's the key for this team in the second half is find that consistency on offense. Hopefully they've taken this bye week to look at some things and figure out why the running game's not working, what they can do with that offensive line to get some push up the middle. Because, I mean, I do think that they're not ever going to get away from wanting to be that smash-mouth team.

They just haven't been successful running the ball, and hopefully they figured out some ways to tweak the running game a little bit. I mean, look at like Buffalo, for example. You know, they talked about they switched up their blocking scheme a little bit, and LaShawn McCoy was struggling early in the year. They came back from their bye in the last two weeks. He's got three touchdowns in two games, if not having a touchdown before that. Ran for 151 today so hopefully they can find something like that that they can at least mix up a little bit

and get that running game going yeah and you know it actually is a decent spot for the titans the bravens really hadn't been that good against the run this year i don't have the stats in front of me. But they've surrendered plenty of yards on the ground. This is a team that I think the Titans should be able to run against. I'm not going to call it a get-right spot by any means. But still, you want to see four or five yards to carry. You don't want to see two or three yards to carry. And maybe it's just a matter of getting demarco murray healthy i don't think we've seen a healthy demarco this season i think that hamstring has really lingered on more than the titans are letting on uh you know he just doesn't

look like the same guy and he didn't get just get old overnight I mean, he's getting up there, but still, that's not – for me, that's not the reason why he's declining so rapidly. I just think getting him fully healthy needs to be a priority. And even if he's not fully healthy at this point, you know, sit him out for a week. You know, you've got to find a way to get that demarco from last year uh back on this football field because he's so valuable to this offense yeah it's your point uh the ravens 29th in the league and i think that's coming into this week 132.8 yards per game on the ground

so yeah i mean it should be a spot where they come on that's that's weird you know to read about the ravens defense i mean i don't they come out. That's weird, you know, to read about the Ravens defense. I mean, I don't know. I just picture those defenses from, you know, the early days of the Titans when, you know, you couldn't do anything against them. But, yeah, so, I mean, a spot where they should be. And, you know, that's something that I'm going to be interested to see. Monday practice, what do they list to Marco? Is Marco a full participant?

This thing's lingered for him since August, which is a bit of concern. But yeah, hopefully he can be 100%, because they need that two-headed monster. They need DeMarco in here. As long as we talk about DeMarco versus Derrick Henry, you know, who's better, who should be getting more. They need both guys to be good and effective.

And so hopefully we get that in the second half here. And, you know, like you said, it's hard to call it a get-right spot. I guess at Ravens, you still fear it. Now, maybe you only fear it because of name. I don't know. But, yeah, I mean, this is a spot where they need to establish that, get that going, and then hopefully throw off of that.

You know, and, again, I would like to see them, and we've kind of beat this horse but like i would like to see them at least once come out and throw the ball early in the game let marcus get settled in um you know you know get him going before you settle into that running game but um you know if hey i hope that they find whatever baltimore weaknesses and attack it and it looks like it's the run game so if that's what it calls for this week then absolutely i hope that they find whatever Baltimore's weakness is and attack it, and it looks like it's the run game. So if that's what it calls for this week, then absolutely I hope that's what they do. Yeah, and maybe it's as simple as getting Marcus Mariota back healthy.

You know, he's been, what is it, it's going on a month now that he's had this hamstring issue. So maybe they want to make adjustments, but maybe they're just not comfortable with it because Mario is not healthy. Again, against the Browns, that one run he had just did not look good. He looked maybe 50% or 60%, maybe. So it's probably a little bit of wanting to hide him just while that leg heals, that hamstring heals, and not allowing him to do too much.

So maybe we see it open up against Baltimore. But, again, it doesn't feel like they're going to do it unless they're totally 100% confident in Mariota's hamstring. Absolutely. And hopefully, like I said, hopefully we'll get a prize report on monday and everybody cory davis cyprian you know to a lesser extent but cory davis um mario to demarco they'll all be you know full participants and we won't have that concern uh that we have we've had over the last couple weeks um the only other afc south game uh jaguars were off as well the titans but uh the the colts went to cincinnati and made

a game of it um you know a late jacoby brissett pick six was what sealed that game for the bingles you know they the colts lost 24 23 so i mean just again going to you know you just never know what's going to happen any given sunday right um weekend week out on the nfl but um so the titans the jaguars alone in first place at this point at four and three um and so hopefully you know we can see that some of the titans can build on uh anything else that stuck out to you week eight around the nfl no that that's about all i got i was kind of in butch jones hell, just monitoring the Twitter sphere today. So maybe we get some movement there. There you go.

I'm officially Keep Butch, you know, hashtag Keep Butch. So hopefully we can see that work out. But anyway, all right, so like I said, Monday the Titans will be back on the practice field. You know, generally teams are not practicing on Monday, but the Titans coming off of the bye get that day. So we'll have a good idea tomorrow on what was able to take place, who was able to participate and all that stuff. And so we'll obviously have that news for you tomorrow.

We'll keep an eye on that and kind of how that goes, and then we'll look a little bit more into the Ravens as we go on this week. Anything else, Terry? That's all I got. All right, sounds good. Check us out at musiccitymiracles.com. That's where we write, and we'll have a bunch of content there. Follow us on Twitter.

I'm at jmorrismcm. He's at tlambertfb. We still do have the Pro Football Focus promotion running. I should have mentioned that from the top. But if you rate and review the show on iTunes, leave your Twitter handle in the review, you're entered into a chance to win a year-long subscription to PFF. A lot of cool stuff there.

Check that out as well. For Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening, and we will talk to you tomorrow.