Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Breaking down a close one vs. the Chargers

Episode Date: October 22, 2018

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 alright. What's going on, man? Not too much. Got obviously a lot to cover from the game today. Before we do that, I want to remind you that we write for MusicCityMiracles.com, where we cover the Titans for SB Nation. So you can check us out there. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. or it's MCM, Jerry's at TLambertFB. You can follow the podcast account at LockedOnTitans, and you can get the podcast. Just search out LockedOnTitans wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to the show. Download it. You'll get the new episodes as soon as they are available. All right, so the Titans went to London, lost 20-19 to the Chargers. Very exciting game, especially at the end. Let's talk about, obviously, the Titans decided to go for two at the end, didn't get it, lost the game. So a lot of talk back and forth about that we're going to get into all that issues with the receivers talk about the defense the offense as a whole all that kind of stuff so we got plenty of stuff to talk about um i want to start off with play calling and with matt lafleur because you know we were all really excited when Matt LaFleur was named the offensive coordinator.

I mean, you know, he actually interviewed for the head coaching job, for those of you who, you know, maybe weren't paying attention then, and didn't get the job. They hired Mike Vrabel, obviously. Vrabel was then able to bring in Matt LaFleur as the offensive coordinator. There was talk, you know, Twitter, wherever you follow this stuff, people were like, this is a bad decision. Matt LaFleur is going to come in here.

He's going to turn this offense around. He's going to be a head coaching candidate next year, and then we're going to be back to looking for another offensive coordinator for Marksville. That was like a real thing, the dialogue that people were having on Twitter. I think it's safe to say that we didn't worry about that, at least not any time in the near future. And the offense was better today, and we'll get into that.

And I think there's some reason for optimism coming out of this game as far as that's concerned. But there are a few issues with the play calling today that I just kind of wanted to talk about from the beginning. There was a point early in it was right before they kicked the second field goal but titans have third and two and they dropped back to pass incomplete pass and they kick a field goal okay in this game today against that chargers offense you have got to get touchdowns you cannot set over field goals there the run game has been working pretty well to that

point don't understand why you don't run there and then you know getting into and we'll go back and forth i mean we both liked the where we're fine with uh the decision to go for two but the two play calls there were just ridiculously bad and so i just i just think that matt laflora is kind of still settling into his own as a play caller but i think there are a couple times today where you just just see that he's just not quite there yet. Like I said, I mean, you know, we're going to talk about the receivers and all that. But when your option on the two-point play is to throw a slant to Taewon Taylor in the end zone, that's a bad play call regardless of how it ends up. Yeah, and the more I think about it, specifically the two-point call,

I don't really like it. I just don't because this team has struggled in short yardage situations. The offensive line has struggled. You're down Quentin Spain today. Interior offensive line has been bad. Derrick Henry is bad in short yardage situations. Let's get into this real quick.

Why are people calling for Derrick Henry to get the ball in a situations. Let's get into this real quick. Why are people calling for Derrick Henry to get the ball in a short yardage situation? Because he's big. Yeah, have you all not been paying attention? I mean, he's awful at short yardage stuff. He's pretty good in space. You get him wound up, he's pretty good. Not there.

You know, Deion Lewis is the guy that proved to be a little more effective between tackles today. So anyways, I think your points are valid about Matt LeFleur. Let's remember he hasn't called an offense before. He hasn't called the plays. So this is his first go-around doing that. I want to give him a little bit of a break just because I don't know what this Titans team does well. I don't know that anybody knows that. They haven't consistently run the football,

but they face some really good fronts. You go Houston, Jacksonville, Philly, Buffalo, and Baltimore, back to back to back to back to back. That's really tough to run the football, but you're going to have to run against those fronts eventually but i understand why it didn't happen there but anyways the passing game has obviously been inconsistent too so i've got to cut him some slag i don't know if it's on him um i'd lean towards putting it on the personnel i think you'd agree with that particularly the receivers today good lord i mean the titan Titans got to make a move there.

But, yeah, I'm encouraged today with Matt LaFleur getting the ball out to Derrick Henry on first down on a pass, you know, getting it to Deion Lewis on a pass. They threw the backs a lot, took some pressure off of Marcus Marietta. So that was good to see. Yeah, and I think we were talking about this before we started. They did more of that stuff today. Like you're seeing when you watch other teams, when you watch good offenses in the NFL,

there's so many teams that are content just to dump it off the running back, especially when there's nothing there. Take those five yards. The defense is seemingly giving you on every play, move on to the next play. They did it a little bit better with that today. Like you said, I mean, the whole Derrick Henry short yards thing, I mean, it is mind-boggling. I mean, you look at the guy.

He's a freaking transformer, but he can't run over anybody. He did it once today on however many carries he had today. I saw him lower his shoulder and run over somebody one time. And he's done it to Jalen Ramsey, like, three times, two or three times in his career. But Jalen Ramsey's, like, the only guy that Derrick Henry's ever run over. So I get that. On the two-point play call, there are a few things that drive me crazy.

One, you can't throw the ball to Taewon Taylor in traffic. I would argue that you can't throw to taewon taylor anywhere besides behind a lot of scrimmage but we'll get into that when we get into receivers um and i understand like i hate it when teams they have a play like that whether it's you know fourth or you know the goal to go thing or two point whatever and they roll the quarterback out because you you cut the field in half i mean i get all that and so i don't really want to do something like that but the the derrick Henry touchdown run, where it's basically, I mean, I'm assuming that was an RPO.

You know, Marcus has got the choice to either give it to him or pull it or whatever, some type of option there. I would have rather seen something like that. Now, I'd rather see it with Deion Lewis on a two-point play than Derrick Henry. But just something where you have the threat of Marcus running, you have the threat of the run back there. And then you have some kind of action off of that, uh, with the pass. I just think when you've got a guy like Marcus Mariota, if you, in that situation, if you just take like a, uh, whatever kind of drop and throw the ball, I mean, I think that's a problem.

And again, if you're going to do that, the first option cannot be a slant to Taewon Taylor. It's not going to be successful 99.9% of the time. Yeah, see, I kind of disagree with you there. I wanted him to go play action boot, have something in the flat, have something in the back of the end zone, and then give Marcus the chance to get it with his legs Yeah, I think that simplifies everything We've talked so much about this offense not being on the same page that play right there

You don't really have to think about you just kind of do it if it's there it's there if it's not it's not But again, you know the Titans have had such Trouble just carrying out out the most basic offensive plays. To trust your offense in a spot right there, I know the defense is worn down. I get it, I get it, I get it. But right there with everything on the line, season in the balance, it just seems like you had all the momentum there. I'm normally Mr. Aggressive.

I love going onside kick, surprise onside kick, stuff like that, going forward on fourth and one right there. Not with the current state of this offense. If you're Houston, if you're the Rams, if you're something like that, it's a different story, but not with this offense. It's a miracle that they got to that point. I mean, the fourth down throw to Luke Stocker, he kind of bobbles it when it gets on. I'm, the fourth down throw to Luke Stocker, like, he kind of bobbles it, you know,

when it gets on. I'm like, you know, I'm about to lose my freaking mind. Sneak that. Here's the other thing I don't understand. Can they not spot the ball anywhere inside the half-yard line? You know, it's like... Apparently not. Yeah, like, it's always like, the ball was down the half-yard line. I mean,

if Marcus was short, which I think he was, I mean, I don't think that was a bad call. i have trouble with them with it being called a touchdown on the field i have a little bit i have a little bit of trouble with them overturning it just because i i'm not sure how close it was anyway like i said i think it was the right call but then to back it up the half yard line if he was short he was like an inch short it wasn't half a yard you know i'm nervous but it seems like they do that all the time like I don't know if that's a rule or something, but it seems like they should put the ball where he was down, and it was right there, and then he'd just sneak it.

And, I mean, obviously that played out fine, but still that play call was scary when you're talking about throwing the ball to Luke Stocker in that situation. It was a little bit of a miracle that they got to that point. But this is an offense that's evolving they're learning they have a lack of weapons um and like i said we'll get thirsty over here in this next segment but like i just you know last week there was absolutely nothing positive takeaway from offense i mean there was nothing that you could point to and say look they, they can build on this, this is going to get better, blah, blah, whatever.

Like, there was nothing last week. This week, I think Marcus got sacked, what, twice? So obviously the offensive line was better in pass protection. They made some plays. Like you said, the running backs got involved in the passing game. The run game looked a little bit better. So they have all that stuff. So at least there's something positive, like I said, from that standpoint to take away from it.

All right, so coming up, like I said, we're going to get into the receivers. Before we do that, I'll tell you about MyBookie. If you've been listening any period of time at all to this show, you know that MyBookie has been sponsoring us. We endorse them. The biggest thing is if you win, you can get your money out. You play, you win, you get paid. That's their whole deal. So if you're looking for a place to gamble on sports online,

my bookie is your place. Awesome mobile site. You don't have to download an app. Just easy to use on your phone as it would be on a computer. Great deal. Right now they've got going on. If you're willing to make your first deposit after 7 p.m. Eastern time, they're going to give you a free $25. On top of the fact that if you're willing to make your first deposit after 7 p.m. Eastern time. They're going to give you a free $25 on top of the fact that if you're a new customer,

they're going to match your deposit dollar for dollar up to $1,000. So if you want to deposit $1,000, do it after 7 p.m. Eastern time. Use the promo code LOCKEDON25. They're going to match you $1,000. They're going to give you $25 on top of that. So check it out. That's my bookie, M-Y-B-O-O-K-I-E. You play, you win, you get paid.

All right, so we've been saying for months and months and months now that the Titans needed to add a receiver. Things have obviously gotten worse with Delaney Walker going down. Delaney Walker's a tight end. The women pass catchers instead of receivers, if that's the term you prefer. Rashard Matthews is no longer here. And we were saying that they needed to add somebody else when those guys were still here. This receiving core has got to be, I'm not going to say they're the worst in the league,

because, I mean, I think they're, I mean, we're going to see one in our next game in Dallas. I think their receivers are worse than ours. But they are – they've got to be the most inconsistent in the league. Corey Davis never knows when the ball is coming to him. I don't understand how, you know, he has the drop today or he comes out of the break, great throw, sticks one arm up and just kind of like, well, whatever. Taewon Taylor drops the easiest pass I've ever seen in my life across the middle

that, you know, the one attribute that he does have that's really good is if he has the ball in space, he can make things happen. He drops that pass. I don't think Taewon Taylor's good. I think if he's on the bottom of the field, it seems like he can't find or he takes a bad angle or whatever. He has the drops, that kind of stuff. Listen, Tajay Sharp was obviously the most consistent guy today.

I mean, I think he's been – you can't say he's their best receiver, but, I mean, I think he's in the conversation for their most reliable wide receiver. Obviously, Corey Davis has the most physical skills and attributes and all that kind of stuff. But they don't have anything that's anything close to consistent in the passing game right now. And I'm not sure how this offense is ever really going to be good and get on track with what they're running out there right now.

And it all ties into Marcus Mariota. And it all leads back to why me and you, and I'm sure plenty of people listening right now, cannot quit Marcus Mariota That dude is a killer in the fourth quarter Nobody was gonna beat him but his receivers and sure enough Taewon Taylor with the key drop on that crosser Taewon's got room to run there. That's a huge play that potentially changes the complexion of the game

He makes one guy miss and open in the open field So you see too much of that and I don't know why but it happens in the worst spots I mean the worst spots Corey Davis on that third down the same drive It ends up killing the drive Titans got another chance, but still If it's not for the Titans defense standing on its head and getting that stop game's over because Titans can't catch football once again so I just feel I feel horrible for Mark

Mariotta you know outsiders will get on here and look at the box score and say Mark's barely through for 200 yards again and he's not very good he's not the answer well you dig a little deeper you know it's just he's got no help he's got the answer. Well, you dig a little deeper, you know.

It's just he's got no help. He's got the least help in the NFL. And I'll stick to that. And we played the Buffalo Bills not too long ago. So I'll stick to that statement. It's amplified by the situations that these mistakes happen in. And it's got to get better. You can't roll out here with Taewon Taylor as your starting receiver. He's just not ready to go.

He might get there one day. That's totally possible. I think he's got ability, but he's not there yet. So something on the trade block. I don't know if you want to get into that or not. John Robinson needs to make a move with bye week here. I need plenty of time to really incorporate a new receiver into this offense. Yeah, and we'll have plenty of time to get into specific names

and that kind of stuff this week, you know, being on the bye. And there are, I mean, I don't know, there's names that have been floated out there that would definitely help this team. So, I mean, it's not like there aren't going to be options available now how much you have to pay for them and all that kind of stuff i mean all those are relative relevant questions that you're going to have to ask but as we sit here right now the titans are now a game behind the texans in the division um but the afc south is there to be had like you said this defense stood on its head today

against what's been one of the best offenses in the league. They were obviously down Melvin Gordon today, but Austin Eckler is a very capable backup. So, I mean, I'm not sure. It's a drop-off, no doubt, but I'm not sure how big, how steep of a drop-off that is from Gordon to Eckler. But you've got a team that has the chance to get in the playoffs you get in the playoffs with a good defense and an offense

that that you know somehow becomes capable there's no telling what can happen i just i don't know how they can stand pat here um especially if you can get a guy for a relatively you know cheap mid to late round draft pick. I just think that's a move that they've got to make. And if they don't, and either they don't win the division or they end up squeaking into the playoffs but not really being able to do anything once they get there, I think you look back on it in a year where you've still got your quarterback on his rookie contract and all those types of things

when the window is still really wide open, I think you look back on it and regretting not doing everything you could to go all in on this season. Yeah, I mean, Titans have gone down the route of trying to develop receivers really since they've been in Nashville, you know, and it's just not working. It's time to get some outside help. Like you said, they can't sit here and wait around on Taylor on Taylor anymore. The clock's ticking.

This division is bad. You're wasting Marcus Mariota when he's cheap. It's just bad. I mean, you've got Tajay Sharp, who looked like a different player today. He looked like Mr. Reliable. Will he do it next week? I mean we haven't seen that out of him all year so people are going to

think highly of him over the next two weeks but let's not forget where's he been before this so can he be consistent? that's another question can Corey Davis be consistent? that's clearly a no right now and I'm not sure what the answer is there

but i think the bottom line overall today you saw some positives um and and coming off of last week and what baltimore's pretty good uh baltimore uh shut shut down a pretty good saints offense uh today so they're they're pretty good defense uh so it made some strides against a middle of the road uh opponent here got the run game going a little bit so it's baby steps maybe you can you can work a little more in the bye week and get a little further but um yeah i i'm just happy to see i'm happy that we're not sitting here and the sky is falling because I really thought we'd be sitting here talking about a blowout loss. Oh, yeah, there is definitely a chance of that. And the one fear that I have is, like you said,

we saw the consistency from Tajay today, but I hope they don't overvalue that. It seems like John Robinson has had a problem with overvaluing the guys that are here and don't not make a move because, okay, well, you know, now we got Tajay. Corey Davis is right here. Taewon's right here. If we can just get them, if we can just raise their level a little bit, then, you know, then we're going to be okay, like you said.

And the receiver problem, like you said, is not exclusive to this group by any means. So I don't know. We'll have to see how that plays out. But if there's a guy, if there's a Demarius Thomas or Amari Cooper or whoever else that's going to be available, I'm not saying go out and give up a first or second round pick for those guys. But if those guys are available for a mid-to-late round pick, I think you've got to pull the trigger. you said going into the bye week here they got a couple weeks to

get acclimated to the offense i think it was jay glazer today that said he expects us to be a really active trade deadline so we'll just kind of have to see um if the if the titans are to get in the mix and like you said we could be sitting here uh you know talking about our players fighting each other in the locker room after the game, like the Jaguars are. So at least we're not in that situation. At least this team seems to be sticking together, even through this three-game losing streak that they're a part of. All right, coming up, just in the show, we're going to talk about the defense,

which is kind of burying the lead because they have pretty consistently been the best part of this team. because they have pretty consistently been the best part of this team. Okay, so, you know, you've got a few, obviously a couple big breakdowns, right? I mean, you've got the long touchdown to Tyrell Williams, the long touchdown to Mike Williams. So you had those breakdowns. But the defense consistently today came up big.

You know, kind of a deal where they gave up some yards. They've kind of done that this year. But in the red zone, as things are really starting to get tight, they tighten up. It's a bad pun. But that's when they really kind of clamp down and they don't give up touchdowns. They've done a good job of that. Obviously, like I said, outside of those two big plays today.

And, look, the one play, I don't know what happened to Logan Ryan. I don't know if he – I mean, you said he thought he had a safety at the top, whatever that was. That's uncharacteristic of him. I don't think we've seen him get beat on a deep ball like that since, like, the first play of the preseason last year. He's been really good in that situation. Listen, Kendrick Lewis, if you've got Kendrick Lewis on Mike Williams one-on-one,

the Titans are going to lose that matchup more times than they're going to win it. So I don't really have a lot of in-depth analysis for that right there. Kendrick Lewis is not a guy that needs to be on the field consistently, but that's just kind of where the Titans are with the injury situation and that kind of stuff. But I don't know. I mean, I think I have more faith in this defense than I really thought I would at any point in the season.

But just week in and week out, they are doing enough to give the Titans chances to win, and they're doing it against good offenses. You know, that Ravens offense last week, I mean, to only give up 21 points, and you say only 21, that sounds a little bit ridiculous, but when the offense does not move the ball at all, it's really hard to hold a team at 21 points.

To hold this Chargers team at 20 points a day, I mean, the defense has done enough week in and week out for the Titans to have a much better record than they do. Yeah, and I want to stress the fact, you've already said it, that Melvin Gordon was out, and that's huge because he's the central point of the offense. But yeah, when the Titans needed a stop, they got it today. So you give up the two bombs.

If you don't give those up, I mean, that's a pretty stout performance against a really good quarterback and three pretty dang good receivers so yeah I don't know what happened on the long bombs but hey it wasn't Malcolm Butler so you know there's a positive I don't know what Butler did I didn't watch him

specifically maybe we'll see something from Mike in the breakdown on MCM a little later in the week but that was a positive for me. But, yeah, I know you're going to have to play man coverage with your safeties at some point in time. I just, do you have to do it with Kendrick Lewis? I mean, that play right there really rubbed me the wrong way.

He looked lost, and then he looked not athletic enough to make up for it. That was just a real bad play. Overall, you take those two out of the equation. You got to be impressed. You got to see the value that Wesley

Woodard brings back, the stability that he brings back to this team. Kenny Vaccaro will be back after the bye week, it sounds like. So that's going on the up and up. So if you can get Malcolm Butler, just play an average. You know, just don't be the worst corner in the league. Literally, that's all we're asking. I think this is a pretty good group and a group that Titans can hang their hat on.

Yeah, and, you know, again, I don't know. We'll kind of, as we go through these next this next week especially um you know kind of look at the season as a whole to this point because you know you have time to reflect during the bye week but you know the defense has has done enough to keep a struggling offense afloat, keep them in games, give the Titans chances to win games. And, you know, all of the talk, it seems like, is about the offense. And, I mean, that makes sense. Ultimately, if you're going to win consistently, win playoff games,

Super Bowls, all that kind of stuff, if you're going to do that in the NFL, you're going to have to do it with your offense. I mean, we know that. We also knew coming in that the offense was going to take some time. Extenuating circumstances, all this stuff, and I hear it, and I know people are like, ah, there goes Jimmy making excuses for Marcus Mariot again. Whatever. Like, it is what it is.

This offense has been a disaster at times, but you can also point to some things where they haven't had the time and stuff that we thought they would through seven games. So we'll take all that. We'll see how it goes. But the defense has played better than I thought they would. Like you said, if you just get Malcolm Butler average, not giving up everything that comes his way,

and he didn't today against a really good offense. I don't know. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about this team. And I think, you know, obviously all the talk for the next couple of days is going to be about whether or not the decision to go for two was right. The play call, I don't think anybody's going to say that was right. But, I mean, that's going to kind of be be whatever what everybody's talking about you know throughout this bye week

but more people should be talking about the defense and how good they've been because even in the losses that they've been solid they've been good enough and if they can continue to just get just improve a little bit if the offense can make some big steps at some point, I think you've got a team that can no doubt win the AFC South, but I think you've got a team that has a chance to win the playoff games because – or any playoff game. I don't know how this team is going to be the Chiefs right now. I'm sitting here watching them as we're recording this. They're just ridiculous.

And the Titans are not ever going to be able to – I don't know if any defense can stop them, and I don't know if the Titans are ever going to be able to score with them with the group that they have right now. But I think you have to at least leave this in courage that if they can figure a few things out, you're at least going to be in the mix for the AFC South. That gets you in the playoffs.

If you win the division, obviously you get to host a playoff game and all that stuff. Get to the playoffs, never know what happens. And here's why you should be encouraged I mean one you saw signs from offense, but to look at the schedule you got Dallas You got New England, which probably isn't gonna happen, but then you got Colts Texans Jets Jaguars Giants Redskins Colts. I mean that that's pretty easy by NFL standards Okay, so

Titans can rip off Four or five six of those pretty easily. I feel like I mean you make strides over the bye week You know, we've always heard it's gonna take time for this offense to get it together Well, you start to get into week 10 week 11 against some some opponents that you should beat Titans could real some off. So sitting at three and four, lost three in a row, it's weird, but I feel as good as I've felt about this team since the Philadelphia game. Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, we were both just terrified that it was going to be

just a blowout today and we were going to have nothing positive to say for the next two weeks. So at least that's not what happened. So anyway, all right, that'll do it for today. We'll obviously have a lot more on this game in the next couple of days, and then we'll, like I said, kind of look back on the season as a whole and look forward a little bit to what's coming down the road. Check out musicandmiracles.com between now and then. There's plenty of stuff. There'll be plenty of stuff going up there.

Like Terry mentioned, Michael, the film breakdown at some point, it'll be really, really good. So you won't want to miss that. So check that out, subscribe to the podcast and search out lockdown Titans, wherever you get your stuff. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at J Morris MCM. Terry's at T Lambert FB. Thanks for listening to locked on Titans and we'll talk to you again tomorrow.