Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Breaking down a big win over the Ravens

Episode Date: November 6, 2017

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Welcome in to another victory edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing good. What's going on, man? Not too much. Good for the Titans to get the third win in a row, for the third week in a row, or third game. It wasn't always pretty. Maybe not the way that you would have hoped that it went down. the way that you would have hoped that it went down but at the end of the day all that matters the titans come out with a win uh move to five and three still stay atop the division you know jaguars also won the day so they're also five and three we're talking the tiebreaker with them right now uh having one head to head so um you know say what you will about the way that it will the way that it played out and we'll obviously talk a lot about that but But at the end of the day, it's just good to get a win,

good to get a win over the Ravens, and kind of keep the momentum going. Yeah, and I think we said it all week. We were expecting an ugly game. But, you know, it didn't have to be that ugly. I thought the Titans got kind of conservative in the third quarter especially, just kind of trying to salt the game away instead of really stepping on the Ravens' throats and really going and ending it. And part of that is the running game continued to struggle today.

And, you know, Malarkey said that that's how they want to win games, and they're not going to change that. So it was interesting to see them kind of stick with that uh when it seemed like they had the passing game working yeah and that's one of the things obviously we'll get into quite a bit but that mentality of well we've got a 10 point lead which is all that it was today um and i mean i on one hand i get it and we talked about this kind of as the game was happening that the the ravens offense had nothing you knew that but a 10 point game a lot of things can happen things can change very quickly uh in a football game

especially in nfl and uh it just it seems like you would want to get maybe make it a three score deficit you know before you go into the the shell of uh trying to run up a clock um but anyway like you said the the run game struggled again and that's an issue and so these wins are good and obviously you don't have wins and losses but at the same time the the thing the titans you know their calling card is exotic smash mouth smash mouth being the big part of that but um this stat from PFF, the Titans run game struggled throughout the game. Obviously, we had the 20-yard run by Dory Jackson, which it was cool to see him on offense. But with the other two, with Derrick Henry and DeMarco Murray,

Titans runners averaged less than.3 yards before contact per attempt. DeMarco Murray was stopped for no gain or less on 22.2% of his runs, and Henry was stopped for no gain or less on 28.6% of his runs. If the Titans want to be a team that is going to control a lot of scrimmage, that wants to be able to make teams submit to their will and run the football item, getting those games where you have those eight minute, six minute, four minute, whatever maybe drive at the end of the game where they can ice

the game away. When I get to those situations, they're going to have to do better up front. They're just not getting done right now. Absolutely. When you take Adoree's carry out of it, you're talking about 20 carries for 51 yards. The way that's not going to win you a lot of football games. We thought of it. You're talking about 20 carries for 51 yards. And the way

it's not going to win you a lot of football games. We thought we were talking before we came on. We thought the Titans were fortunate to get out of this one today. They get a fourth and one stop when Baltimore could have easily kicked a field goal.

Hindsight's 20-20. They're much down there. But if they had kicked that, they're probably tying the game up at 23-all and we're probably going to overtime. So I thought the Titans were fortunate. You know, they didn't impose their will. They didn't move the football on the ground. They did just enough through the air. And hats off to Hrabisky for making sure that he corrected his mistake

and he got aggressive on that final drive and threw the ball down the field. But again, doing just enough, making it more interesting than it had to be, and that's frustrating. Yeah, and again, it's a cause for concern. And I don't know when it's really going to show up again um because you know as we look forward a little bit and we'll do this more as the week goes along but you know the bingles are are terrible they got all kinds of issues um and then they got a series of that so i mean you know in the next couple weeks i don't know how much they're going to need

the running game but if they're going to you know long term go and do what they want to do they're going to have to be able to move the ball on the ground and we were hoping that they would you know find some magic formula during the during the bye week that would fix the problems obviously that that wasn't done and again this is this is a good defense so you do have to you do have to kind of take that into consideration as we talk about this because that front seven is good um you know for all the issues that the ravens have on offense we'll get to that in a little bit their defense is still really good we talked about that this week that you know number two dboa overall um and in the road against the run but their dboa numbers against the run were better

than their actual you know yardage given up numbers. So that does play into this, but it's still not good enough. It's still not – unless the Titans are going to scrap the smash mouth stuff and become a spread it out, throw it around the yard team, which they've shown that they're not willing to do, they've got to get better with the running game. They've got to get more from the two running backs. And, you know, I don't know. Moving from the offensive line to the running backs,

Marco Murray looks really hurt. You can even see when he gets space, when he's out there trying to accelerate, it looks like he just doesn't have that second gear that he had last year that he's had for his career. And Derek Henry looks timid to me. I don't know why. It looks like he's looking to bounce it out and when there's there are like a the third and one play today i thought if he would have just hit it up in there that he probably pretty easily would

have gotten the first down he tried to bounce it got tackled for you know basically no gain didn't get it so i mean i think they've got some issues with the backs you know even beyond the issues that they have up front it's the line of scrimmage. Yeah, and, you know, I thought they did a nice job of trying to remedy that lack of a run game by opening up the screen game. Two or three times they ran that tunnel screen. I think they ran it once to Matthews, once to Davis, and both went for, I believe, a first down or close to it.

And there was one that they ran to Taylor. It wasn wasn't really it was just kind of a turnaround screen where they asked to block two guys and I'm not sure what their what their end game was there it did not end well but but it's good to see them try a little different look you know the Ravens knew that the Titans were going to run the football so why not get it out in space where you've got some numbers? I'd have to approach. But again, that's kind of a band-aid. NFL teams are going to see that on tape, and they're

going to look for it. So yeah, like you said, they're going to have to fix it and kind of commit to the run game and be good at it, or they're going to have to abandon it one for long-term success. Beyond that, Marcus, I thought, had an okay day. You know, the pick was bad.

It was just a bad throw. I don't know if it was a bad throw or a bad read, but it was bad regardless of what it was. But, you know, looked good looked good was decisive was getting the ball out you see how accurate he is i mean he's fun to watch when he's in a rhythm and they did they did actually i thought a good job of that early on getting him in a rhythm and then they went back into it and kind of saw it out or you know back into trying to force the run and saw it out a little bit but you know he was he was up and down but more up up. He was fine today. It was really good to see Corey Davis back out there.

Only had two catches for 28 yards, but the one catch was a 23-yard field. Beautiful body control, tapping his toes on the sideline to get the catch. Good to see him out there. Hopefully, as he gets in better shape just from not being able to do much with the hamstring injury, you'll see him make more of an impact. But you saw, I mean, we've seen in the two and a half games that he's played, we've gotten a good glimpse of what he's going to be able to do. Yeah, it was exciting to see in the first half.

Second half, they totally abandoned the game, which was frustrating, like I said. They got Davis' targets. I want to say he had four or five targets in the first half. I think they all came in the first half. Oh, yeah. But, yeah, you know, I'd like to see him come up stronger to that ball on the slant where it got knocked away. I thought he could have played that a little better.

But, you know, he hadn't played in, what, seven or eight weeks. So good to see him out there. That catch he had on the sideline was why they drafted him. Just I'm not sure any other Titans receiver really in the last decade could pull off a play like that. So that was good to see. With Mariota, it's tough. You know, people, I feel feel like get stuck in the stats

I just don't think he's in a correct spot to put up numbers uh and and you know maybe that's that's me making excuses for him or whatever but uh you know so much of the perception in this league is driven by numbers with fantasy football and all this now i just i he made one bad play yeah uh with the turnover but you know even that might have been a miscommunication i didn't hear what he said after the game but still uh you know he's not going out there and lighting up the world he's being asked to manage the game which is frustrating but you know it's kind of hard you know i see some titans fans writing off Marcus Mariota after seeing Carson Wentz play, and they're saying,

well, why can't we have that? He's being asked to do different things, and he's playing in a system that's just like going back in time. It's a little odd fit for me. So I don't think Mariota's the problem. I think he's going to be fine. But it would be interesting to see him in a spot with a different coaching staff absolutely and go watch you know

sometimes you see you see a throw that he makes and in real time it looks like well he under threw that or you know if he would have gotten that ball up it would be easier for the receiver to catch but then when you watch like there there was one throw i think it was to delaney and there were two throws a day and i can't remember who the other one was too but he threw the ball low and the receiver kind of had to had to slide a little bit to catch it and uh at first you're like oh he kind of missed that one but then you see like when they show the replay a safety or somebody coming over the top but knock a guy out and he like puts it in just the perfect place for where his receiver is able to catch it and still protect himself um he just he's so fun to watch that just how

accurate he is with the ball and like you're saying um it's almost not fair to judge him by his numbers even by you know just some of the throws that he makes at times because again and i'm going to keep saying this until somehow i get proven right or wrong but i really really think that he's a guy that needs to get in a rhythm that needs to settle in that needs a bunch of throws to just show what he can really do and i'm just not sure with this staff he's ever going to get that and so i'm not sure we're ever going to see his full potential like you're saying. And really, call an excuse or whatever, it's not fair to judge him against other guys in the league

because he's not being allowed. I'm not even going to say he's not asked to do the same thing. He's not being allowed to do the same things that those guys are being allowed to do. And I think it would look a lot different if he was able to do that. Anything else on the offense before we move to the other side of the ball? I think that preps it up. I'm sure we'll have more tomorrow. Yeah, and Eric Decker caught a touchdown today.

That was good to see. That was the old Fasano play. Yeah. Caught it, had another target in the red zone, looked like he could have gotten a little bit more on that route to get into the end zone, but it all worked out. They're getting him involved in the red zone, so that's good to see. That's why they brought him here.

At least that's what we thought. We just hadn't seen much of that up to this point, so that was it. All right, so in just a second, we will move on to the defense and talk about one of the new young uprising stars of the NFL. All right, so Kevin Byard. We're going to talk about the defense. We have to start with him. Two more picks today.

You know, just, I mean, I don't know and you know the logan ryan made the one happen made it made a great play on that ball it popped up and byard was kind of you know right place right time snatched out of the air but you know they taught they they've talked about since they drafted him how much they like him how special of a player they think he is you go back and look at his numbers from college uh was a ball hawk, a guy that could make plays, was good at getting his hands on the ball. We didn't see as much of that last year, but obviously in the last three games, he has, what, six interceptions in three games, five in the last two, and is a dynamic defensive back that this team hasn't had in a really long time.

And, I mean, I think the sky is the limit for him. I think that if the Titans can ever come up with a way to get a pass rush, which we were talking about before the show, that we don't think that's going to be this year. But you just remember Michael Griffin's good years, how it was really a product of the pass rush in front of him. And Bayard is doing what he's doing right now without the benefit of that. And I think the sky's the limit for this guy.

And he's doing everything. That's the thing. You'll see him line up one play in center field and go make a play on the ball. And then the very next snap, you'll see him line up on the edge and set the edge and force a run back inside. So he just does everything. And, you know, the Titans really have young studs in the secondary all of a sudden. Adore Jack's coming along.

You saw him making plays on the football today. I think he had two tip passes. The second one he had might have taken a buyer's chance at their pick but you know make him play on football you're not going to take that away from him so uh i think he's really coming along uh sims has has been okay he's had his ups and downs but again he made that play for byard uh kind of coming off his man and and just great awareness to go find the ball and give his team a chance to create a turnover there. So secondaries coming around, I feel good about it.

But, again, the secondary and the pass rush kind of go hand in hand. And, you know, in the NFL, if you get five seconds to throw, these quarterbacks, they're going to find their guys, and these receivers are going to get open. So there comes a point in time where when you've got receivers running open, it's no longer the secondary's fault, and it falls on the shoulders of the pass rush. And I think we're starting to see that happen.

There's just no consistency there with getting a four-man rush. I thought we saw Casey step up today. I thought this was one of his better games as far as rushing the passer goes. But still, Arakpo and Morgan, they're not really moving the needle right now. Yeah, and that play you're talking about with Dory Jackson and Kevin Byard, that was stunk because either one of them had a chance to intercept the ball, and then they ran to each other and kind of ruined each other's chances to get that there. But, yeah, the pass rush is an issue.

And like you said, when you let guys sit back there and look for an open man, they're eventually going to find one. And we've seen that today. Now, about this, too, before we jumped on here, Joe Flacco was captain seen that today. Now, about this, too, before we jumped on here. You know, Joe Flacco was captain check down today. He was just waiting for Buck Allen to be open. That was the comment that you made before we got started. I think you're absolutely right.

I mean, he didn't look like he had much of a desire to hang there and throw the ball down the field. So that helped. But, yeah, I mean, they're going to have to figure out a way to get after guys. And the second is good. I mean, on Adoree Jackson real quick, he was targeted, I think, 12 times today. I'm trying to look. This is also from the PFF email.

Yeah, they threw at him 12 times and seven catches, 36 yards. Flacco's rating was 63.2 on passes when targeted for a jack. Not really good. And, again, we've talked about how much better this guy's going to get as he learns to play the position and as we go along. So they've got a couple of playmakers there. So we hope that they can find enough with Jarrell Casey. I agree.

This was definitely his best game uh from a pass rush perspective that we've seen this year and we know what he's capable of the game like today is what we saw for him most of the time uh throughout his career so that's good to see um but yet outside of that like you said Morgan and Rakpo I think just are kind of starting to show their age I mean that there are games where they show up a little bit, games where they get credited for some pressures and hurries and that kind of stuff, but not getting home like they have in the past. And, you know, I mean, I think that if we have one maybe knock on Don Robinson to this point is that he hasn't done more to address the pass rush

in his time here, and they tried with Kevin Dodd, and he actually played some today, but obviously not a guy that's getting it done for him and i think that is going to be the biggest issue for this defense going forward because logan ryan's shown up and been what they expected him to be um you know been a serviceable corner even a little bit better than that definitely an upgrade over what they had last year dory jackson's getting better every week kevin byer's getting better every week so Kevin Byer's getting better every week. So, like you said, the secondary's not the issue anymore. Go forward here and we see these teams that are able to do things in the passing game against the Titans.

It's because the pass rush isn't getting there. Totally agree. And, you know, just kind of on a related note, Joe Flacco was just, he was really bad today. I mean, he threw 52 times, which I didn't realize until I looked at the box score. I think he only threw for about 260. So that's pretty alarming. They took a couple shots downfield, which I thought the Titans defended pretty well

between Bayard and Logan Ryan and Adore Jackson. So, yeah, just the secondary as a whole seems to be on the rise. And that's so good to see because that was such a bad spot for the Titans last year. So I think it's important to remember patience when we talk about John Robinson. I think we forget, you know, me and you forget this. He's come so far in two years. He's done all this in two years. He's flipped a receiver room. He's flipped

a DB room. He's created this offense that we think can be dynamic down the road. It's just a matter of time until he does the same with the defense. Now, the Titans aren't going to have the luxury of picking high anymore, I don't believe.

It's going to be a little tougher to find those players. I'd put just about my entire life savings on titans drafting a pass rusher round one right now yeah sure and like you said i mean limited time he's only had two drafts um he's had a lot of stuff they needed to address so that that's absolutely true and you know the thing is it's a kevin dodd pick right now that's the it's the big issue And, you know, the thing is, it's a Kevin Dodd pick right now that's the big issue there. You know, he thought that he was getting a guy that was going to be able to make an impact there. And it just hasn't worked out and doesn't look like it's going to at this point.

But, yeah, there's only so much you can do in a limited amount of time. And to take a roster that was, I mean, if not the least talented in the NFL, it was definitely in the top two or three. To turn it into what he has is obviously, you know, it just shows how talented of a GM he is and that he knows what he's doing. Like you said, we'll give him a chance to have a couple more drafts and see what happens there. But it is true that they've had these

high picks the last couple of years, and we don't think at this point they're going to have another one coming up next year, hopefully not. Be a little bit more creative there, but there are guys to be found there for sure. Anything else that we need to talk about from this game?

I don't think so. I think we can kind of look at the playoff picture on tomorrow's episode which is uh exciting uh it's been a while yeah sure that'll be something good that we can talk about and um i was trying to look and see real quick if there were the snap counts haven't updated yet i'm interested to see how much uh corey was played how much dodd played uh he talked about him being out there a lot so we'll kind of see how uh see how much Corey Davis played, how much Dodd played. He talked about him being out there a lot. So we'll kind of see how those things show up. So we can talk a little bit about that tomorrow as well.

I didn't mention from the top, we still have our promotion going with Pro Football Focus. Like and review the podcast on iTunes and leave your Twitter handle in the review and you'll be entered to win a year-long subscription there. So check that out for sure. We'll be back tomorrow with another episode. Between now and then, you can check us out at musicofmiracles.com. Terry and I are right over the Titans there every day. You can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at jmorsmcm. He is at tlamberfb. Terry, any closing thoughts tonight? Five and three. Would you take that if I told you you were five and three at this point in the preseason? Oh, absolutely. And we'll talk about this tomorrow night more, I'm sure, as well. But if you told me five and three and the two of the other teams in the division

have lost their quarterbacks for the year and one of them was not the Jaguars, then you would be really, really thrilled with that. And that's where we find ourselves. So, yeah, as many's where we find ourselves. So, yeah, as many issues as we might have, we need to kind of step back and look at the big picture there, and absolutely that's an accomplishment and something that, like you said, we would have taken hands down when the year started.

So, like I said, we'll talk more about the playoff picture on tomorrow night's episode and then have a few more thoughts after we begin to look at this game a little bit more. But for Terry Lambert, this is Jimmy Morris saying thanks for listening to Locked on Titans and we will talk to you tomorrow.