Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Best NFL Bets, Bengals Prediction

Episode Date: November 9, 2017

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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 good, how are you? Doing well. Alright, so a couple things before we get started tonight. This episode is brought to you by MyBookie.ag. We talk about them about once a week. Check their site out, a lot of cool stuff on there. The best thing about it is their mobile site. It is tailored to work really well with your phone,

so you don't have to worry about downloading an app. You don't have to worry about a clunky site design or whatever. They've done a good job of bringing that site to mobile. So check that out. Again, that's mybookie.ag. Also a reminder of the promotion we have going on with Pro Football Focus. If you like or if you rate and review the podcast on iTunes, leave your Twitter handle in the review.

You're entered to win a year-long subscription to PFF. A lot of cool stuff on there. I'm sure most of you are familiar with their grades and all that kind of stuff, and you'll hear us reference them a lot on the podcast. So check out those two things. All right. So Titans are back on the practice field on Wednesday. Nothing really of surprise.

Delaney Walker, Eric Decker, Derek Morgan all missed practice today. Not sure deal on Decker. And then Quentin Spain. They all missed practice today. Not sure the deal on Decker. They didn Quentin Spain. They almost practiced today. Not sure of the deal on Decker. They didn't really say anything about it. So, I mean, it seems to me maybe just a day off type deal. You know, Derek Morgan and Delaney Walker have both been through injuries.

They didn't keep him out of the last game, and neither one of them I don't think got any worse in the game on Sunday. So, I would expect both of them to play. Quentin Spaniel up in the air, so we'll see on him. Very practicing full, so that was kind of a change from really most of this year. So good to see that. And then the biggest thing, Corey Davis, not a manager report at all, full go. Malarkey said should see an increase in snaps in this game on sunday so you know should get the

wide receiver one snaps which is what we expect them to be what they kind of plan on him being from the beginning so obviously i mean i think that's probably the biggest thing of note today yeah um on eric decker i think it was an illness uh okay didn't say on why it didn't say it on the main site but just a Twitter search says illness. So take that for what it's worth. Sounds like it'll be just fine for Sunday. Really the biggest thing for me is Derek Morgan. We've talked about the struggles of this pass rush as a whole,

and Morgan's one of the main contributors of it. So if the Titans are without him, and, again, we don't know if they are or not, but he didn't practice today. The Titans need to have him on the field. He's really good against the run. Just a good all-around guy. I'm not really sure how they'd replace him. I guess it would be more Kevin Dodd than anything, which is a scary proposition.

But again, Delaney Walker, it kind of feels like the same deal as last week. He's probably just going to gut it out as he usually does. Yeah, and something interesting on Delaney Walker, you know, he had talked a little bit last year.

They had the Delaney Walker show on the Midday 180. He talked about how he didn't like taking some of the pain medicine and stuff and um somebody had asked him after the game on sunday if he took a tort all shot and he said no he wasn't going to do that he just you know kind of play through it tough it out um and koharski said he had talked to wycheck and wycheck said that basically 100 of the guys back when he paid uh would have taken that shot so um he's a gamer he's a tough guy um obviously and you know and worried about you know the effects that stuff could have on him later on but just you know he's he's gonna be out there i don't i don't doubt about that and i think they're just trying to help him manage that pain a little bit um you

know going forward because they they obviously they need him 100 healthy um and then like i said the biggest question mark is still quentin spain but like we've talked about kind of the last couple weeks the the drop off from him to schwinke is huge um i think the the only concern there for me is just you know the cohesion that the offensive line needs to play with and you kind of hate to be bouncing back and forth between guys, especially with some of the struggles that they've had. But we'll just have to kind of keep an eye on that and see what shakes out there. Yeah, and it's not like they've had any cohesion all year.

No, that's true. Yeah. So I don't think it's, like you said, I don't think it's a big deal. Another thing for next week is the IR move. The Titans will get to either take Harry Douglas or Aaron Wallace off IR. Aaron Wallace would be a guy that could really help this team right now, in my opinion. Just fresh legs, give him some speed first off the edge,

and kind of throw him into the rotation. I thought he did some nice things in the preseason. He had the game-winning sack fumble. I forget who it was. But anyways, he could come in and kind of be that fourth pass rusher, and the Titans could really use a guy like that. Yeah, absolutely. Anything that they could do to help with the pass rush

would be a welcome addition. Looking at the big injuries real quick, Tyler Boyd, a guy that had some success with him last year as a receiver. He has missed, it looks like, a month with a knee injury, but he was limited in practice today. They might be able to get him back this week. And then it looks like Jeremy Hill, Sean Williams, Randy Bullock, and Kevin Minter all missed practice today for the Bengals. So, you know, Jeremy Hill ended up being scratched last week.

I thought it was a healthy scratch, but apparently he rolled an ankle or something in pregame. So they didn't have him, but Joe Mixon's better anyway so not really anything huge of note uh for the for the bingles there uh it they did have one uh i think jake fisher um and they signed uh oh yeah yeah jake fisher on the the nfi list uh and they signed eric eric winston uh so a change up front there for a struggling Bengals offensive line. Again, not a huge deal, but just kind of a change of face there. Yeah, and that's why he wasn't on the injury report because he's on that list. So, yeah, that – yeah, so, I mean, some of the team – you know, their offensive line hasn't been very good.

So hopefully, you know, hopefully that will help this pass rush that has been struggling a little bit this year. So, yeah, that will be something to watch. All right, so coming up we're going to talk a little bit about some games, some lines we like from this weekend. And then later on we will get into some specific predictions and things that we'll be looking for in the game between the Titans and the Bengals. predictions and things that we'll be looking for in the game between the Titans and the Bengals.

Okay, so again, we talk about MyBookie. And like I said from the top, this site's really cool. You need to check it out. They have lines, you know, obviously right now before the game. But the cool thing is you can also in-game lines. You can look at props there. You can just do anything you want. NFL, obviously that's what we focus on that's what we spend our most of our time talking about um but they have college lines and

you know nba college basketball all that stuff you can hit there and the cool thing about it is that they have just a great mobile mobile site mobile platform that you can use very easily from your phone. Again, it's mybookie.ag. If you use the promo code LOCKEDON, you get up to 100% deposit bonus. It's obviously really cool as well. Terry, I know there was a game that you really liked the

line on when it first came out this week, and it looks like that game has stayed at the same line for right now. Yeah, I jumped on it on Monday. It was the Patriots minus 7.5 against the Broncos in Denver. The Broncos are just struggling right now. Did anyone see that Denver-Philadelphia game last week? I mean, Denver lost.

Brock Osweiler again. That defense looks like it's really struggling right now. Patriots are coming off of a bye week. So Bill Belichick with two weeks to prepare for that. That just seems like a slam dunk to me. Yeah, and so the one that I wanted to look at is, and I hate this, that it's a game, and we talked a little bit about this before we came on,

but Jaguars minus three and a half at home against the Chargers. The Chargers' struggles of coming across the country for a noon central start are well chronicled. They have not played well at all in those games. They did have a bye week last week, so maybe that will help. But, you know, you just look at what the Chargers want to do. You know, the passing game, their passing attack is really what makes them go. Because, you know, Melvin Gordon, while he's put up some pretty good numbers this year, if you look at his efficiency stats, they're terrible.

I mean, he's not getting big chunks of yardage other than, like, he'll have a big play here or there, but his yards per carry is way down. That's where the Jaguars' defensive struggle this year has been against them. With the addition of Marcel Darius, they looked really good against the Bengals this past week. So I just feel like you've got to like where this Jaguars' defense is overall. And again, getting Chargers coming across the country, getting them at home, I just feel like it's a really good spot for the jaguars there and i feel like they'll be able to um

take advantage of a chargers defense that is kind of a you know run that they're they're uh suspect against the run they have two pretty good um so it's hard to throw them the jaguars don't want throw the ball anyway so um you know i just just feel like that's a good spot for the Jaguars, unfortunately. It would be nice to see them lose that game, and the Titans win, and the Titans, you know, have a full game and a lost column lead on the Chargers. But, I mean, on the Jaguars, sorry.

But I don't think that's going to happen this week. I think Jaguars, minus three and a half, is a pretty safe deal. So anyway, again, those are from mybookie.ag, and you can check that out. There's a lot of good stuff there. When we come back, we'll talk a little bit more about Titans-Bingles

and what we expect to happen. All right, so we've talked a little bit about this game, about specific matchups that we'll see. I think for me, really the only fear that I have of the Bengals' offense is A.J. Green being able to get over the top and make some big plays. I mean, the Bengals' offensive line is not good. They haven't been able to get long in the run game. Now I do say that part of that is because they refuse to give their best back carries um you know which which can tend to be a problem

but at the same time that offensive line is still struggling when mixon's been in there um but if they give andy dalton time and again we talk about the issues the titans have in the pass rush i don't like aj green especially if the bingals can find a way to get him on Adoree Jackson. We talked about that a little bit yesterday and the height advantage there and just the veteran presence and the skill set that A.J. Green has and how that against Adoree Jackson is a little bit scary at this point in his career. So I think from just when you look at it and things that I'm afraid of from this game, I mean, I think from just when you look at it and things that I'm afraid of from this game,

stopping A.J. Green is the biggest thing that I'm not sure how the Titans are going to be able to do. Yeah, and it's interesting because A.J. Green is coming off of that, I guess you can call it a fight with Jalen Ramsey where he got called soft and he was pretty frustrated that Dalton missed him downfield. And you can tell. It's been a frustrating season for him, one of the better players in the NFL, having to go up from a playoff team to 3-5 here. So you hope you don't get a ticked off A.J. Green that's really motivated, and I'm scared that might be what we get.

We talked about his targets. His targets are down from what we think they should be. I think it was like 60 ticks on the season, which is kind of crazy. If A.J. Green's on my team, I'm throwing him the ball whenever I can. So that's definitely a spot where if the Bengals, how are the Bengals going to beat you? A.J. Green is right there at the top of that list. And honestly, you know, I really don't see too much more of this offense

being able to win matchups. I think the Titans are better with their front seven against the offensive line. I think the Bengals will struggle with the ball. So really all they have offensively is Dalton and A.J. Green. Yeah, and, you know, I was looking back through. I don't know what the Titans, you know, you get into these sides. Like you can look at DVOA against number one receivers and, you know, fantasy points allowed, that kind of stuff.

Look at those numbers for the Titans. They're probably actually pretty good just because when you look at the competition they've played over the last few weeks, you know, going all the way back to, you know, the Dolphins and, you know, Devontae Parker went out and won that game. But I think Jarvis Landry saw a pretty big game. But if you go back to week one, you know, Cooper and Crabtree both had good games for the Raiders.

Doug Baldwin had 10 catches for over 100 yards and a touchdown for the Seahawks. DeAndre Hopkins had 10 catches for over 100 yards and a touchdown. So, you know, while we feel better about the secondary and about what they've been able to do over the last couple of weeks, we just kind of a little bit have to keep in mind the competitions they've played. And so, you know, on one hand, like I said, I feel better about the group, and I think they're a whole lot more talented than they were last year, obviously. And we've seen, you know, some of the strides that they've made.

But some of those issues are still there. And, you know, part of it is the pass rush not getting home. But there are some big plays still to be had there. And like you said, you know, this game for A.J. Green, like one of two ways in my opinion, he's going to be, you know like you said you know this game for aj green like one of two ways in my opinion here he's going to be you know ray lewis pissed off for greatness he's going to come out and want to put on a show to prove that he's not soft and you know all that stuff from last week or you'll see the the frustration bubble over and see him shut it down a little bit so uh looking back at landry's numbers real quick he was he was only 544 on touchdown so not a great

game there. But I don't know. On one hand, I feel better about where the Titans' defense is, but then part of me is a little bit scared because it's been against competition that's not as good. You're absolutely right, and that's kind of what I was warning about early in the season with Seattle and attacking that offensive line. Pass rush looked great,

but you've got to kind of figure out who you're playing before you can deem the pass great. So I think the defense is in a pretty good spot here, though. I think Dalton will probably turn it over just because he's going to have to press a little bit. You know, any team that can't run the ball, the quarterback's going to have to press a little bit. So you might see another opportunity for Kevin Meyer.

And you might see an opportunity for Dory Jackson to get that first pick. So I think the Titans will get a couple of chances to make a difference defensively. Where I'm worried is the offense. You know, we just don't know what we're going to get from this group. You've got a banged up DeMarco Murray. Derrick Henry has just kind of been inconsistent. He's looked great at times.

He's looked bad at times. And you can kind of say the same thing for Marcus Mariota. So it's a game that I feel the Titans will win. I just don't know how convincing it's going to be. Yeah, and I think it'll be ugly. I don't think it'll be much different than what we've seen these last couple of weeks. And we've talked a little bit about that, about how the Bengals have a good defense. They have a good front, especially.

And so you're not going to see probably big chunks of yards on the ground uh maybe there'll be an opportunity for some play on the field uh it would be cool to see you know Corey Davis get a long touchdown um we know that's coming at some point this would be a good week for that uh you know if we could get that and Adore Jackson get his first pick in the same game that would be that would be pretty sweet but I think you know last week we saw him go to a little bit more play action, and they were really successful with that against the Ravens. And I think we may see a similar type attack here.

And, you know, even when the run game is not being as successful as we hoped it would be, we'll see them stick with it to try to make the team protect the play action. You know, like I said, that's that was the approach that they took last week. I think that was probably the heaviest play action game we've seen all season. So I would expect kind of a similar thing, but I don't expect them to put up a bunch of points here, like I said, because it is a tough defense. And so maybe another grind today.

I mean, you see the stat today that since Malarkey took over as the full-time coach, the Titans are 6-0 in games decided by three points or less. And so, well, that's quite a few games in a year and a half. So I'm a little bit concerning. But at the same time, those are the types of games that you have to win in the playoffs and you feel pretty good with that type of track record. Yeah, absolutely. Let's get a little prediction going here.

absolutely. Let's get a little prediction going here. I kind of tend to think that we'll see a lot of field goals out of, out of both sides. So I'm going to roll with 23, 16 Titans. I think it's just like you've been saying ugly game, just really similar to that Browns game, really similar, similar to that Ravens game. I'd like to see this run game get jump-started. Maybe it's with Marcus Mariota. Maybe he's healthy.

Maybe they're feeling good enough to turn him loose in the RPO game and the spread option game. Something needs to click for the run game here. But like I said, I think the Titans cover. I believe it's it's five points right now i think the titans win by a touchdown 23 16 i've got a titan at 23 17 i was actually looking back i did a q a thing with the the guys from 60 jungle which is the espination bingles site um and i was i was trying to pull that up real quick to see what my my score prediction

was on that so i said 23 17 We're right on the same page there. And hopefully we can see something a little bit more than that and see them run away, but I don't feel like this is going to be that type of game. So, yeah, I think we're kind of on the same page there, and I think most of the damage is going to have to be done through the air. Again, a product of, one, the Bengals' defense being good, but also just the Titans' run game. Anything else we need to hit on before we get out of here tonight?

I think we covered it all. Yeah, all right. So we'll be back on Sunday to recap this game, and then we'll turn around real quick next week. We've got a short week with what is going to be a really big game in Pittsburgh against Steelers on Thursday night. So it'll be an exciting week next week, and we'll get to see that game early on, so that'll be cool.

So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening. Again, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorsmcm. Terry is at tlambertfb. Check out our work on musicmiracles.com. We'll have a lot more on this game leading up to Sunday. So thanks for listening to Locked on Titans, and we'll talk to you again next week.