Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Breaking down the blowout of the Patriots

Episode Date: November 12, 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 pretty good. Confused. I just, man, if anybody can figure out this Titans team, you know, just let me know. Yeah, absolutely. A huge win today over the Patriots. And I mean, like, just dominated them, basically from start to finish. From the opening kickoff all the way through the last whistle. It was all Titans the whole game. So, you know, in all the scenarios that we probably could have played out in our mind for how this game would have gone, I don't think I would have ever gotten to this one. I don't know what number scenario this would have been, but it would have been way down the list. Anyway, we'll break it all down.

Before we do that, I want to remind you that we write for museummiracles.com. 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. You can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, wherever it is that you get your podcasts.

Search us out, and you can find us there. All right, so the Titans, like I said, it was a beatdown, and I would have never in a million years have guessed that would have been how it would have happened. But it was from the opening kick. I mean, Darius Jennings catches the opening kickoff, returns 58 yards, and it was on from there. I guess we'll start with the offense.

The offense has finally come around, apparently. And I think it's a combination of things. I think it's one, of things i think it's one just more time in the system you know we heard from a lot of different people that it would be a while before this would click and it would start looking like you know we've seen it look in other places and so i think that's starting happening and then two and probably even more importantly marcus mariotta is finally healthy and we've said all along, once he gets healthy, then we can really start to judge what this offense is going to be.

He clearly wasn't healthy. He said as soon as he wasn't wearing the glove anymore, he would have feeling back in his fingers. The last two games, he's had the feeling back in his fingers, apparently. And he has looked like a different player. Yeah, that was apparently the missing puzzle piece to all this, just getting Marcus Mariota healthy. Outside of that today, there wasn't a lot to write home about offensively

outside of Corey Davis and Marcus Mariota. I thought those two were the offense. Rushing attack was just okay. They were pretty pedestrian. They went for 150 yards, an average of 4.2 yards per carry. But I thought Corey Davis was really the linchpin that set everything off. We had talked a lot about Corey Davis having to win some one-on-one matchups eventually down the road against some really good players.

Stephon Gilmore, one of the better corners in the league this year, graded out as one of the highest graded corners in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. Corey Davis wore him out. I mean, there's no other way to put it. And he should have had more because Gilmore was holding quite a bit. A couple of them weren't even called. So Davis goes for seven catches for 125 yards and a touchdown on 10 targets.

He was the passing attack Uh johnny smith that showed up That's that's a shock Uh, they actually split him out wide Uh, he did some nice things marcus mario found him for one of the touchdowns camera batson showed up again Uh, so for all the talk of the titans needing a receiver from us and everyone else Marcus Marietta just just flat did the thing was just Corey Davis and and Johnnie Smith and Cameron Batson so that's just bizarre to me that you got production out of those three guys and the Titans beat the Patriots by 24 points

I mean what yeah it's wild and you know Dale Lewis got two targets like if you'd have asked me the end of the week to give you, you know, like an over-under number that I thought was pretty close, I'd have said five or six. You know, that I thought they would have to get him in order to be successful in this game. He got two targets and had 11 yards. He had 20 carries for 57 yards. He was really a non-factor in this whole thing. And we talked about him kind of being the guy they needed to be the X factor

in this one if they were going to win. And he didn't do much, but it wasn't necessarily that he wasn't effective. He just didn't need him to do a whole lot. Like you said, Corey Davis, look, this is now two games this year where Corey Davis has shown up huge against both the teams that were in the Super Bowl last year. I was calling him on Twitter, Big Game Corey Davis. I mean, I don't know what it is, but apparently he waits until the games later.

I mean, he had two touchdowns in the football game against the Patriots last year. So he seems to, you know, raise his game to the occasion, which, I mean, I guess is a good quality to have. Obviously, we want to see more consistency out of him. But like you said, I mean, all the talk all week was this tough matchup that he had with Gilmore. You know, nobody's beaten Gilmore this year, and he saw the numbers, and he torched him all day long.

And like you said, there was one that was, like, really blatantly bad where Gilmore just reaches out and, like, holds on to him as he's beat, and they didn't call. I don't know how in the world they didn't see that. But, you know, even still, seven catches on ten targets, like you said 125 yards if they're going to if they're going to do things this year they're going to have to have the core dance they had today he had the one catch where it was a terrible throw from

mariotta and he went up and like went around backwards and caught the ball and i mean that's that's the guy that we need that's the guy guy that the Titans have not had the entire time they've been here as a franchise. And so if they can get that guy, he can make up for some deficiencies that they have on down the line, like we spent a lot of time talking about. I liked the way they used Derrick Henry today. They brought Derrick Henry in mainly towards the end of the game when the other team was worn out.

And you know what Derrick Henry did? He ran hard. He ran like a 230-whatever pound running back. He still gets chopped down. You know, when guys go low on him, he gets chopped down. I don't think that's ever going to stop just because of the way that he's built. But you saw him when he got the ball. He went north and south.

He did that. He had, I mean, obviously, a touchdown run that he bounced. But, you know, they shifted into the wildcat and ran that one. They ran the option to the short side of the field with him. And I really do think this is going to be his way to be the most effective is to have to come in and run hard like this late in games. One interesting note there, David Flewellen got snaps over Derrick Henry. We assume over Derrick Henry.

There's no reason David Flewellen should be getting snaps. Now, of course, he came in and immediately got hurt. But Flewellen saw three carries in this one. Really, really interesting because, essentially, Flewellen is a knockoff version of Derrick Henry. You know, they do the same type of things. They're supposed to be the bigger backs that just kind of turn out yards. So I just wonder

with Henry's demotion there, I just wonder if the Titans are trying to light some sort of fire in Derrick Henry. You talk to Derrick Henry and he says he plays like trash and he needs to be better. Well, apparently that self-motivation isn't working for him. So you just wonder if

maybe throwing Flewellen out there for a few carries kind of knocks him down another pig and fires Him up. But yes, I'll hear he ran well today Honestly better than Dion Lewis did now that the Patriots were worn down worn down. They they they were on the field a lot today Down for what 24 points in the fourth quarter. So good to see Henry producing. Good to see Deion Lewis. You know, he didn't do too much today, but he had some nice runs in the first quarter. Overall, though, Marcus Mariota, man, we've got to talk about that because not mind-blowing numbers here, but 16 of 24, 228 yards, two touchdowns.

That all happened, I yards, two touchdowns. That all happened, I believe, those two touchdowns happened in the first quarter. So the Titans jumped out, fast start. When has that ever happened? When has the Titans ever gotten out to a fast start? It seems like they're always playing out of a hole. So you immediately hop on, 17-3 lead, and then Mariota just puts it on cruise control for the rest of the day. So it's really interesting to see a healthy Marcus Mariota and how good he is.

And honestly, it's really interesting to watch the national media look confused. It's pretty clear that most of the national guys don't really know what was going on, especially with that hand injury of Marcus Mariota. Yeah, they'll catch up eventually, and hopefully the Titans can go to Indy next week and win, and then that sets up a huge matchup the next Monday night against the Texans, and then you'll have kind of all eyes on this team again, and if Marietta can put together a nice performance on Monday night for the second time in like a month's time span,

then maybe the narrative there will start to change. Yeah, like you said, the numbers don't jump on the page yet. If you just look at the box score, but two touchdowns in the first quarter, and then they were basically, they didn't need him to do a whole lot after that. He was efficient, you know, good reads, good throws, took care of the football. They had the one throw that almost got intercepted, but they ended up calling pass interference on that play anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered even if whoever that was had batted that ball.

The ball was right in the guy's hands, and he slapped to the ground basically. But, I mean, you know, no stupid mistakes, none of that stuff today. And, again, we talked about it last year. You could tell last year he just did not look comfortable. He didn't look comfortable in the pocket. He didn't look comfortable out of the pocket. He didn't look comfortable pre- not look comfortable he didn't look comfortable in the pocket he looked comfortable out of the pocket he didn't look comfortable pre-snap he didn't look post-snap me anyhow he never looked comfortable and he looks comfortable right now i really think since the london game starting in that london game ever since then he he looks like he feels good

about what's going on out there and this is that's a, you know, there's really no way to quantify that. But it's just watching this guy play as much as we have. I just think there's a different, he has a different look about him in this offense than he did last year, especially. I think we saw it at times in his second year. But I really don't think we've seen it since then. I really think this is the first time we've seen it since he broke his leg. And listen, if you've listened to us any amount of time you know we are very very big marcus mario the fans think that he's the answer he's the franchise guy all that

kind of stuff he's starting to prove it and you know those of us who have has like you said known what what has been going on and stayed patient with this, with his development in this system and all that kind of stuff, we're starting to see that pay off. And if he's good, he can make up for some deficiencies around him. We talked about that, about how the best quarterbacks in the league, they raise the play of the guys around them. Obviously, the Titans need him to do that because they don't have, you know, Corey Davis looks like he's developing into that guy,

but they don't have a lot outside of that. But when he's healthy and going like this, I just really think the sky's the limit for this team. And we can talk maybe a little bit more about this in our last segment, but things are setting up pretty well for this team now where they've weathered this really tough start to the season, and, you know, they've set themselves up well for a stretch run that could be something that's going to be a lot of fun.

We'll talk about that. Next, we're going to talk about the defense, which we might have been bearing the lead with because this defense, I think we can finally say they're legit after this performance today. We'll talk about that in just a sec. Before we say about my bookie, if you're betting on sports online,

you need to be doing it at my bookie. We've talked about them pretty much as long as we've been doing this podcast uh the big thing is you play you win you get paid you don't have to run around to get your money you don't have to chase all over to get that when you get your payout when you win um they have a great mobile site it's just as easy to use their desktop site you don't have to download an app or anything like that you can do everything you want to from your phone. MyBookie has gotten so many new bettors that they've got a new deal that if you wait until after 7 p.m. Eastern Time to make your first deposit, they're going to give you an additional $25 free play on deposits over $100.

They're also going to match your first deposit up to $1,000 dollar for dollar. So, again, you want to put in $1,000, you're getting $1,025 free from them. You can't beat that. In order to get that, you have to enter in the promo code LOCKEDON when you make your account. So enter the promo code LOCKEDON on my bookie. That's M-Y-B-O-O-K-I-E. And if you make your initial deposit after 7 p.m. Eastern,

you're going to get that additional $25 free play. My bookie. You play, you win, you get paid. So the defense is legit. They were the number one scoring defense in the league coming into this game. A lot of the talk in the national media was because they hadn't played anybody. And, I mean, that was partially true. And we talked about it.

They played the Dolphins, right? They played the Texans before Deshaun Watson really settled into, you know, was to come back from the ACL. Jaguars, obviously, not a great offense. The Eagles have a good offense. They played well against them. The Bills, the Ravens, they did well against the Chargers and the Cowboys last week. So, you know, you've got a few good teams in there,

but overall not the strongest offenses in the world. But today, they showed up. They dominated the Patriots start to finish. Tom Brady didn't look comfortable. You know, if you'd have thought one guy in this game, one quarterback in this game wouldn't look comfortable out there, you would have thought it would have been Mariota. It was definitely Tom Brady. He was running for his life all day.

They hit him so many times that they pulled Brady out of the game with like seven minutes left to go. I wonder when that's happened, when the last time that happened was in a game they were losing. So, listen, I mean, we've had our reservations about this defense. We've had a lot of question marks. But today I think they proved – I'm not going to go as far to say they're the best defense in the NFL. But I think they're definitely legit and they're good enough that they can keep the Titans in just about any game.

Two things stand out about the defense. Number one, Wesley Woodyard was the missing piece. I mean, him and Kenny Vaccaro. Them being out just really transformed the face of this defense. So Woodyard comes back. He's got 10 tackles today, one and a half sacks. He's got three hits on Tom Brady Dean Pease uses him so often up the middle coming on a blitz. It's an interesting or an important piece for Dean Pease So having him out for those few games he missed that that presence wasn't there. That was a big deal something. We probably undersold

So he was great today got lost a couple of times in coverage But look, that's why you had that's why we've got Jaylen Brown on the on the on the roster. So he was great today. Got lost a couple of times in coverage, but look, that's why you've got Jalen Brown on the roster. So happy to have him back. He had a great game today. The one adjustment that the Titans made, Adore Jackson shadowed

Josh Gordon, and that was just huge. I mean, we were talking about this before. Did they even call Malcolm Butler's name today? I mean, I was legitimately curious if he played through portions of that game. Malcolm Butler was a non-factor, which is exactly what you want from your high-dollar cornerback. You don't want his name to be called. You want him taking a part of the field away.

So I thought Adory Jackson was really good on Josh Gordon. I think Gordon had 80 receiving yards, something like that. But he held up really well. And I think shadowing your opponent's best receiver with Adory Jackson, who has clearly emerged. He's clear far and away Titans' best cornerback. That's something that should have been happening all year long. It's something that we saw today today and it's encouraging to think

about going forward and it's something i want to see in indianapolis next week right shadow match him up with ty hilton i don't malcolm butler doesn't need to see a snap on ty hilton same same deal as today yeah i mean he did a great job on gordon gordon had the one big play early in the game that 44 yard catch on like their first or second drive. That was basically it. Four catches on 12 targets. That's elite-level stuff right there from Adore Jackson. Edelman was the only guy that really got him. He had nine catches for 104 yards, but a lot of that was just the dink and dunk stuff,

and it was really at a time where the Titans were willing to let them have that, to let them have the underneath stuff, because they wanted to make them sustain the drive. So, I mean, it's wild. And like you said, Wesley Woodyard, I just, it's weird that he was a guy that, like, two years ago, everybody wanted to replace. And now he's turned into just the linchpin of this defense. And, yeah, his deficiency shows.

Like there was one time he was matched up on James White. That's not ever going to work, right? I mean, James White's going to win that matchup most of the time. But he's the heart and soul of this defense. He's getting pressures. He's doing all that stuff. And, yeah, I mean, having that veteran leadership out there. You know, and listen, Kenny Vaccaro, I mean, you know my feelings

about Jonathan Cipri, and we weren't quiet about that in the offseason about how it might have been a good idea for the Titans to take a safety early. I'm not sure they didn't get an upgrade when Cipri went down in training camp and they signed Vaccaro to play that spot. I mean, clearly, Kendrick Lewis is not the answer. We saw how bad that was when Vaccaro was out. But I really think that Vaccaro is a better player than Ciprian. I think he was hurt last year, and that's the reason that he had all the issues that he did.

And you've seen him come in and really help this team. And he was the guy, he blew up their first play of the game. They threw out a little swing pass out to James West, whoever it was, and Vaccaro blew him up. It kind of just set the tone for the whole day. Yeah, and Adore Jackson, the other thing that's wild to me about Adore Jackson is we said when they drafted him, he's going to come in, he's going to be a punt returner,

he's going to do some awesome things on special teams, and we hope that eventually he develops into a good corner. And it's funny, he's done nothing on special teams, basically, this time here. He had a couple of returns last year that they got called back because of penalties, but he put the ball on the ground a couple times today. I mean, he was lucky enough to get it back. But, like, he's been great as a corner. And, you know, that was the pick, really, that John Robinson kind of got criticized for the most in that draft,

you know, because everybody liked Corey Davis the pick there at the time. It was Dory Jackson that some people thought went too high and he has come in and he's been unbelievable. It's crazy what they're able to do with having him there.

That was something that they needed for a long time. They had needed a guy to come in and play. They hadn't had a corner that was able to do those things really since Samari Rowe. And he's come in and been everything they wanted him to be. Yeah, and shifting gears a little bit, I've got to take my hat off to the run defense. I know the Patriots kind of got away from it. Game script kind of got away from them too.

But Sonny Michel, 11 carries for 31 yards. Patterson averaging 2.8 per carry. Michel, 2.8 per carry. I know the Patriots didn't have Shaq Mason, their starting guard, in the starting lineup, but that's good to see. It's something that we kind of harped on. It was quietly kind of a deficiency for this defense that we just didn't see it a whole lot.

But they stood tall. You know, the Patriots want to run the ball. That's kind of one of the oddities about them that maybe the average fan doesn't see. They see Tom Brady and all these receivers. They want to run the football, and they couldn't do that today. So that's a really good sign to me. You know, now you've got Adoree Jackson potentially shadowing guys. Maybe that helps Malcolm Butler.

Maybe you're taking on responsibility for the number two receiver now. Maybe you're seeing a little less snaps out of him. I think that's a positive development that we saw today. But, yeah, the defense is the heart and soul of this defense. I can't say it enough. Down Derek Morgan, too, that's a key piece of this defensive rotation. Guys like Sharif Finch showed up in the box score, too. But, yeah, getting Vaccaro back, getting Woodyard back, man, this defense is legit.

Like you said, I think you've got to put them somewhere in that top upper echelon in the NFL. Yeah, and like I said, the sky's the limit when you talk about combining an offense that we think can be really good with a defense that is really good. Talk about the stretch run coming up. So we're going to take kind of a peek forward here in the last segment and talk about what's on the horizon for the Titans. All right, so we talked last week about how the schedule really lightens up

a little bit after this game. And, you know, now you go to the Colts and the Texans the next two weeks, both huge games. You know, I don't think any one of those teams are as good as some of the teams they've played the last few weeks, but interdivision games, you made the point before we came on here that even though the Titans beat the Colts last year twice, they still haven't beaten Andrew Luck. Obviously, he wasn't healthy and didn't play last year. So kind of the last hump to get over there.

Hopefully, they'll be able to do that this week. And then, like I said, that sets up for a huge Monday night football game between the Titans and the Texans in two weeks. And then after that, you end with Jets, Jaguars, Giants, Redskins, Colts. The only game of those that are on the road is the Giants. So when you kind of look at it going forward, I mean, I think that – I don't know what the line will be it'll be a it'll be a close line titans and colts is coming up this week um i think that the titans will be underdogs

when they go to houston but they might be favored in the rest of those games and so i mean i think it sets up really well for them i'm not saying they're going to run the table here um i mean i don't think that's impossible but i mean i do think it's definitely improbable but it sets up to where you've got a good i mean you've got the schedule set up well to where if you just play well win the games that you definitely should win then you're going to have a chance to win the division but even if not they could be in the hunt for a log card birth yeah and i don't houston plays the virtually the same soft schedule too right we looked at that so it's going to be tough houston's going to have to trip up the titans aren't going to be able to blink if they want

to win this division but the schedule is easy enough i think to challenge for that wild card if you're the titans you know you can't come out and lay an egg. You know, so many times we've been fired up for this team, and they've come out the next week and laid an egg. And, you know, I think myself included, I thought we thought we were going to see that today. Obviously didn't happen, but you just want to see them string some weeks together.

You want to see Marcus Mariota string some performances together. You want to see him look like a franchise quarterback for six, seven, eight weeks in a row, not just the flash of three, four times a year. So if you can get all that, that's great. I just kind of need to see it to believe. And then you talk about this easy schedule. I think we did the same thing last year and had ended up getting beat by arizona and san francisco yeah absolutely so things change in a hurry in the nfl i mean injuries uh teams get hot

teams get cold so i i'm just uh i think we need to take it one game at a time first and foremost though gotta be andrew luck i mean he was drafted in, what, 2011? And Titans still haven't beat him yet? I mean, that's crazy. Yeah, the guy you play twice a year. Yeah. Yeah, it's wild. So, yeah, I don't know.

2012 was the year he was drafted. So, listen, you're right. I mean, last year we were doing the same thing, and they did go that dreadful West Coast trip where they lost to the Cardinals in the 49ers in back-to-back weeks. And that was a team that struggled with being motivated at times. I think we've seen that from this team as well. And I don't know, maybe we – I think you see that from teams

at different spots in the NFL. I think we notice it more with our team because we watch them every week. But like you said earlier, the biggest thing from today was they had short fields on each of their first two possessions. They took advantage of it and they scored touchdowns. And, you know, to come out and have a hot start and then you get to dictate things going forward for the rest of the game, it's just not something that we're used to seeing here. And if that's the type of team that this team can develop into, then you can talk about going on a run like that. Like you said, that's the biggest thing.

Last year, they were 9-7. It was one week up, one week down, just kind of back and forth and all of that. And the key here is the consistency. That's the thing that we haven't seen from them yet. Now, we've seen three pretty good weeks in a row. You had two really bad plays in that London game from the defense. But the offense, really in the second half of that game, so you're looking at basically like ten quarters now from the offense that have been pretty good.

The defense has been solid, you know, for the most part, even all year. I mean, you go back to that Ravens game where they only got 21 points. They were on the field the entire game. I mean, that was actually a really good game from the defense. So if they can start to put together some consistency, like you said, if you can see Marcus do this week in and week out instead of two weeks here where he's good, a week here where he's really bad, a week here where he's decent. If he can put together a run, that's when they can start to do something here.

And so I don't know. I mean, it's just – it's fun to be in this spot. It's fun to have a team that we're excited about. It's fun to have a team that did what they did to the Patriots today that the national media is going to take notice of. And I'll tell you one thing you won't hear this week. You won't hear anybody inside that building talking about them needing national respect because we know how that went last time.

But for fans, we can talk about it. And it's just fun to turn on some of these highlight shows and for them to be leading off with the Titans taking out the Patriots. Yeah, you talk about next week you win that game. My goodness, going to Houston on Monday night football That game could be for control of the division so it Titans Texans to pretty good young quarterbacks To teams that are that are becoming fun to watch

On Monday night football. That's a huge huge spot for the Titans So first foremost got to take care of business. Go beat Andrew Luck. If the Titans can beat Andrew Luck, I think I'm officially a believer. You kind of got to get over that Andrew Luck hump for me first. Yeah, then Terry will be all the way in. Yeah, then Super Bowl spade. Andrew Luck.

There you go. All right. Yeah, so we'll be back on a normal schedule this week. We've been off a little bit with the Monday Night Game, the bye week, all that kind of stuff. All right. Yeah, so we'll be back on a normal schedule this week. We've been off a little bit with the Monday night game, the bye week, and all that kind of stuff. So we should have four shows for you this week, three after this one. We're going to have Mike Keith on, record with him Wednesday,

so that will probably come out Thursday. So be looking forward to that. He's always really good, of course, the voice of the Titans. Between now and then, check us out at museummiracles.com. Like I said, we've got a lot of stuff going on there. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb.

So take some time. Enjoy this win. Like I said, the Titans dismantle the Patriots 34-10. Thank you so much for listening to Locked on Titans, and we will talk to you again tomorrow.