Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Breaking down the loss to the Rams

Episode Date: December 26, 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? How was your Christmas? Doing good. Busy. The little one got plenty today. So, Merry Christmas to you and yours and everybody out there listening. Yep, same to you. So anyway, obviously coming off of a very interesting Titans game. Probably in the beginning of the show here we're going to sound a little bit like Vandy fans, kind of taking a moral victory. But, you know,

it was, I was fully expecting the Titans to get blown out of the building. And then, you know, the first drive they ran us put together, and then the Titans get the ball. Mark Marietta makes one of the worst throws I've ever seen him make, and he's made some really bad throws this year, and that one might have been the worst. You know, so at that point, you're like,

well, great, the route's going to be on. But Titans, they hung tough. Obviously, Todd Gurley torched them. But they did a pretty good job on the rest of the Rams' offensive attack, the defense that was down Logan Ryan, down LaShawn Sims. I thought the secondary held up pretty well, so I was kind of surprised to see that. So, you know know obviously the losses are

not good but again you know a game we talked about all week they ended up being i think a seven point underdog the titans were when the game was actually played open at six and a half moving up to seven um to lose by four in a game where you missed a field goal uh that ryan stuck up usually makes you had a goal to go situation at the one where you only end up getting a field goal that Ryan Segop usually makes. You had a goal-to-go situation at the one where you only end up getting a field goal. So they left a lot of stuff on the field, an onside kick. We'll talk about it in a minute. The Titans probably should have got it or they recovered,

but then the referee called it off for whatever reason. There's a lot of little stuff that didn't go their way where they really could have won that game. Yeah, they had their opportunities, and I was quite honestly surprised. The offense just answered the bell time and time again, and that's something we hadn't seen really over the last two months. But they went back to the no huddle stuff, and it worked. Marcus Mariota settled down after that first just terrible throw uh thought we were in

for a long day after we saw that uh but after um after he kind of settled in it was a really pretty solid day out of him uh you saw cory davis step up and looked like a legit nfl number one receiver so maybe the the talk of him being a bust will slow down a little bit. But I was pleased. Again, they didn't come up with the win. But still, they had their opportunities there. If they could convert one of those field goals into a touchdown, you get that onside kick that they should have gotten back. If you get that, you just never know.

Defensively, I really thought it was going to be a long, long day. I wasn't sure how the Titans were going to be able to stop them. I thought the secondary held up. Ty Smith was great. Bryce McCain was still awful, and he was the clear weak point. So losing Logan Ryan there, it might have cost him the game because Cooper Cupp absolutely destroyed McCain all game long, especially on that touchdown.

McCain gave him 10 yards of separation on a simple corner out. So I thought the defense did as well as they could. Obviously this offense ran through Todd Gurley, but Jared Goff really didn't do much damage down the field to those receivers. Really, I mean, outside of the screen game, I thought the Titans played pretty well defensively. Yeah, and really the story of the game was getting field goals instead of touchdowns in the red zone.

And, I mean, obviously that's going to be the case for most NFL games if you're not able to convert those chances. But the Titans made it into the red zone four times, kicked three field goals, and only got one touchdown. Like you said, if you turn one of those in, it was a little bit frustrating to see

where they had the goal to go at the one, and then they gave the ball to Derrick Henry, and then got penalties and got backed up. Sometimes I wish that Derrick Henry and then got penalties and got backed up. Sometimes I wish that Derrick Henry would run to his size. He got the ball and it seemed like he kind of tried to jump into the end zone. And if you're as big as Derrick Henry is, just lower your shoulder and knock the people in front of you into the end zone.

I would like to see him do that. I also don't understand. This team, they love to run the the ball they love to hand it off um you know so they i mean in my mind when you have second goal to one that to me for this team should be three derrick henry runs you know touchdown or turnover on downs right i mean that that to me is what this team wants to do what they're built to do they give the it to Derrick Henry once, he doesn't get in, try a pass on third and goal. I mean, ended up getting a penalty there, but then they got first and goal to one again,

and then they got a false start, and then it kind of backed up from there. Mario got sacked, ended up getting a field goal. But, like, I don't know. To me, I don't really know why you're trying to get fancy and throw a pass at that point. Just give it to Derrick Henry three times. Let him have three chances at the end zone. He're trying to get fancy and throw a pass at that point. Just give it to Derek Henry three times. Let him have three chances at the end zone.

He's going to get in on one of them. Again, that kind of seems like what they're built to earn, what they think they're built to do. Now, we've seen at times how it hasn't worked out that way this year. But in that situation, I'd really like to see the big guy get at least two cracks and get the ball in the end zone. Yeah, and Derek Henry's not a good goal linebacker. We've talked about this probably before.

It takes him... He's at his best when he's at speed, when he's bouncing things out, when he's just... When he's rolling, DBs don't want to get in front of him and tackle him. When he's enclosed in a tight space, he's not the best

at avoiding those defenders in the hole and really just lowering his shoulder and pushing through. So it's kind of odd, being that he's 6'3", 200, whatever he is, that he can't just bang on in there. So that's kind of strange. And it's interesting now with the DeMarco murray injury jimmy can tell you a little bit more about that but i'm kind of interested to see how he performs in what should be uh a total featured role uh next week against jacksonville yeah it's going to be something that obviously we'll keep an eye on you know demarcoco Murray left the game. Titans called it an LCL injury.

I guess they did the field test, and that's kind of what they decided. When I was reading, there's a doctor that writes posts for a San Diego paper, and he said it looked more like MCL-ACL to him. DeMarco's scheduled to get an MRI. They said today. I don't know if they didn't do it today because it was Christmas or whatever. Or, you know, Malarkey didn't have a press conference today with it being Christmas. So we'll find a little bit more out about that as the week goes along.

But I don't see any way he's going to play. And this is a conversation that we will have after the season's over. But that might have been the last we see of DeMarco Murray as a Titan. We'll have to kind of see how that plays out. So, yeah, you expect Derrick Henry to be the guy now that's going to get the 20-plus carries. Like you said, it's weird that he doesn't run to his size. I don't know what that's about.

I don't know why, but, yeah, you see a lot of times where he looks like he thinks he's a little scat back when, you know, it seems like he just lowered his shoulder and ran over him. You see him do that once he gets down the field a little bit, but around the line of scrimmage he doesn't do it as much. So, yeah, we'll see how that changes, and we know that he's a guy that gets stronger as he gets more carries and, you know, just hasn't, for whatever reason, it hasn't played out that way this year. It seemed like at one point, kind of towards the middle of the season,

they almost went to an even split. Then you even had a game or two where Henry got more carries than Murray. But the last month, they've been back to DeMarco being the feature guy and Derrick Henry kind of being a change-up is not the right word, but, I mean, the guy that gets every third series or whatever. And, you know, obviously it hasn't worked out well. DeMarco is not the right word but I mean the guy that gets every third series or whatever and you know obviously it hasn't worked out well DeMarco is not putting up numbers Titans haven't been winning games

so now they're forced to you know give Henry a bunch of carries have him out there on passing downs we'll see how that goes because your choices we were talking about this a little bit before we started the show but I mean you got David Fuellen obviously they trust enough to have out there on the last play of the game last offensive play of the game uh split out wide which i still i don't

understand that but you got him as the backup and i think we kind of know what he is he's a fine running back i guess um you know not a guy that you really want to give carries to and then they don't have anything behind that right now you got califani muhammad who was a draft pick this year but they didn't trust him at all uh even in the preseason he's been on the practice squad i guess they'll call him up i don't know who's available but they they're gonna have to get somebody else on the roster whether it's muhammad or whether they bring in a guy from the outside yeah and i wouldn't be surprised to see them kind of poach someone from a practice squad it's hard to sit out here and figure out what they're going to do.

If they sign anyone, you're probably, you know, you might not have even heard of the guy. But when it goes to Muhammad, they didn't even trust the guy in preseason. So I'm not sure that's such a slam dunk, just thinking that they're going to bring that guy up for the biggest game of the season. So I think they'll go elsewhere. Maybe I'm wrong on that. But, yeah, it's interesting with Derrick Henry because now you're going to have to use him in passing downs.

So that's something we haven't really seen really all season. DeMarco Murray's been in that role. I don't know what to expect out of Flewellen. Maybe they view him as a pass catcher. They clearly thought enough of him to have him out on the field that last play. So I don't know. It's a giant unknown going into the biggest game of the year. But, you know, I think this just kind of sets up to lean more on Marcus' shoulders.

I think you've seen them have success with this no-huddle look. So I'm not sure it's all that big of a deal. And look, we've been clamoring for more Derrick Henry carries. He's just looked like the fresher guy. He's looked like the more effective back overall to me. So maybe this is a good thing. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. I know Mike Malarkey would never tell you that.

He loves DeMarco Murray. He loves being able to trust him, but it's time to see what Derrick Henry can do in an expanded role. Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, his hand's forced at this point. He's not going to have a choice. Hopefully we'll get to see Derrick Henry run over Jalen Ramsey again.

That's always a treat to watch. But anyway, that's where we'll be on that. And we'll learn more about the extent of DeMarco's injury. I don't know if they'll have a press conference tomorrow. They'll be back on the practice field on Wednesday. So we'll obviously be keeping an eye on that. Real quick on the onside kick that was and then wasn't. The NFL gave an explanation today that basically the length of the timeout

was miscommunicated to the Rams' sideline. The Rams' sideline was told that it was a full, whatever, a TV timeout basically, but it only ended up being a 60-second timeout, 30-second timeout, whatever it is, the shorter of the two. And so when the Titans were out there, the referee told Ryan Suckup that they were good to go. The play clock started to count down, so the Titans took advantage of the Rams not being out there.

But then, obviously, we saw there was a flag and there was a whistle, and then the referee came out and so the Rams called timeout and then you could tell immediately I mean on the tv broadcast you know they showed Sean McVay he's like I didn't call timeout um and so there was all that and then you know Walt Anderson comes back and says well never mind uh they weren't ready yet so we're gonna do it over um anyway, I don't know. I mean, I think that – I mean, whatever. I don't know what the right answer is there. But to me, if one referee says you're ready, if they start to play clock, then the ball is ready to be in play.

So, obviously, the Titans saw something. They took advantage of it. And then the Rams got a bit of a mulligan, I guess you can say, by claiming that somebody told them the timeout was going to be longer. So it's been one of those years with officiating in the NFL. The Titans have been on the bad end of it a couple of different times. I mean, you can go back to a couple of plays in that Miami game. It's obviously going to be one that haunts us if they don't make the playoffs,

if a couple of different things have gone their way. They asked mike malarkey about it after the game and he basically said i don't want to talk about it i think he's gotten in trouble already once this year for criticizing officials in the post game press conference um so i mean i think he kind of wanted to steer clear of that but it was just whatever the whatever the right or wrong there was it was obviously that it was obvious that the referees just didn't have it together um whether it was one guy or you know a miscommunication with the group or whatever um and that's something i really think beyond just the titans um if you watch game you watch nfl games you see so much of this something that the nfl really needs to address in the offseason is just the quality of the officiating they have on the field. Yeah, I'm kind of at a loss, honestly, about, you know,

we don't even know what a catch is anymore. You saw the Kelvin Benjamin play. That was a touchdown against the Patriots this past Sunday, and they overruled it. So I don't know if they're just overthinking this. The Jesse James play last week against the Patriots, of course. the Jesse James play last week against the Patriots, of course. And then you go back to the Dolphins game with the Matt Castle fumble when the ball went forward 10 or 15 yards.

So I don't get that. I don't get a lot of things when it comes to NFL officiating. So I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like the onside kick situation. I love the call from Malarkey. Again, you know, when he called it earlier in the season, I think it was against the Raiders in the opener. I love that call. I love being aggressive.

You didn't want to give the ball back to Todd Gurley, who had just absolutely shredded you all day long. So to catch the Rams off guard, I thought it was brilliant. But, you know, it just didn't go its way. It should have, and the Titans made a good play to recover the football, and they didn't even get rewarded for it. So it's going to really hurt if we get to next Sunday and the Titans lose, they don't make the playoffs,

and you're just going to look back on those two horrible calls. At least I will. Yeah, sure. So, all right, that'll kind of do it for the Rams game. I mean, again, it's weird, but I would say I feel better about this team today than I did after the Arizona game. We kind of talked about that before we got started here,

which now at that point they'd only lost one. Now they've lost three in a row. But I don't know. I've seen some strides, especially from the offense, the last couple of weeks, and so maybe that's something they can build on. And again, you're talking about a situation where they still control their own destiny as far as the playoffs go. So coming up, we'll talk a little bit about that,

how things will play out on Sunday as far as the playoff picture is concerned. All right, so we talked a little bit last week about how there was a scenario where the Titans could win out and not make the playoffs. Well, I don't know exactly what changed between now and then as tiebreakers and all that stuff goes. I guess maybe in that scenario the Bills would have to be the Patriots. I don't know. But anyway, now you have the Titans sitting at 8-7,

and if they win to get to 9-7, they're in the playoffs. So, you know, as bad as they've played over the last three or four weeks or most of the season, however, you know, I mean, as bad as they've played over the last, you know, three or four weeks or, you know, most of the season, however you want to look at that, you still sit here after Christmas with a Week 17 game that means something. It's been a really long time since that's been the case. And so, I mean, we'll all take that. And, again, look, there are a lot of people out there clamoring for the Titans to miss the playoffs

so that this coaching staff gets fired. I kind of think that's dumb because I think John Robinson is smart enough to see how things have played out on the field. I think he's smart enough to know that a team that gets to 9-7 this year, if they're able to do that and gets in the playoffs, whatever happens from there. They've underachieved in this regular season. You've seen regression in Mark's Mariota.

I think that there's enough of an indictment against this coaching staff that whether or not they end up making the playoffs, I think you can see the deficiencies that are there. Now, whether or not that's enough for a change, I doubt that it is. I don't think at 8-8 you get rid of Malarkey. Maybe they make him get rid of Terry Robiskey. Not sure how much of a difference that that will make. You can go back and listen.

We talked about that a few weeks ago. But I think it's dumb to cheer for this team to lose and not make the playoffs because you're hoping that it's going to get the coaching staff fired. With all that being said, the Titans could actually lose on Sunday. And if the Bills and the Chargers lose as well, the Titans could actually lose on Sunday, and if the Bills and the Chargers lose as well, the Titans will still get in the playoffs at 8-8. It's kind of wild. We were talking last

week about how there was a chance they could win out and not get in, to looking at it now, where the game got flexed at 325 because they were trying to keep all the games that have playoff implications, I guess, those teams alive as long as possible. And so now you've got three games, Titans, Jaguars, Bills, Dolphins,

Chargers, Raiders, that all will determine that last playoff spot. Yeah, and just to follow up on your point about wanting this team to miss the playoffs, it's not going to get anything done. I think we're all, anybody with a brain can realize, hey, all right, Malarkey has kind of flipped the script here. Think back three years ago where this team was and think about what he's done. Now, that's not to say that he's the guy.

I think we can all agree that we probably feel like he's not the guy. But he's not going to get fired for going 8-8. Did he underachieve this year? Absolutely. But you don't fire a guy for going 8-8. It's going to take a bad season next year for that. So you might as well suck it up and cheer for your team to make the playoffs. And the outlook on this team, it's so weird. You might as well suck it up and cheer for your team to make the playoffs.

And the outlook on this team, it's so weird. This has been the weirdest Titans season for me just because I went from thinking this team was going to be really good to seeing the products on the field, thinking they're really bad. And now we've seen the past two weeks against two pretty good teams. The 49ers are good with Jimmy Garoppolo. They've stood up and almost won those games. So I'm kind of back in. And then you've got the Jaguars element to it all.

You always want to beat the Jaguars because if you're on Twitter, and you probably are if you're listening to this, and you see Jags Twitter, they're pretty hateable as a group. So as a Titans fan, you want to put those guys down. So beating the Jaguars to get into the playoffs, potentially to play the Jaguars again, would be a really fun storyline to watch. And I think this team has gotten better. I think this team has learned a little bit about itself.

I think this coaching staff has learned a little bit about itself for the last two weeks. So I think they've made some strides, and it's not – the light isn't as dim as I said it was two weeks ago. Yeah, you understated how bad Jags Twitter is. Yes, I did. They are, without a question, the worst fan base in the NFL. I was trying to be nice.

Yeah, no, no, no. They're the worst. They're the worst. They might be the worst fan base of any team playing any sport anywhere. They are the absolute worst. So here's the fun thing, right? So if the Titans get in the playoffs at 9-7, they're probably going to be at the sixth seed.

So they turn and play Jacksonville again next week. So we could be looking at another scenario. Those of you who have been around for this team since the early years, in 99 the Titans beat the Jaguars three times. The last game was the AFC Championship game in Jacksonville to get to the Super Bowl. So we could be looking at another scenario where they could possibly have that chance again. And that would just, I mean, I cannot tell you how much joy that would bring to my life if the Titans were able to beat Jacksonville in Week 17,

beat them in the wild card round of the playoffs. I mean, the Twitter meltdown that would happen would just – I mean, it would be awesome. And I just – I can't wait for it to happen. And the Jaguars, I mean, their team. I mean, I think that – we're getting off track here a little bit. But their team is the same way. Like, did you see them fighting on the sidelines,

like at the beginning of that San Francisco game? I mean, they're like – and you've had multiple players from other teams come out and say, you know, nobody talks much crap at the Jaguars, doing all that stuff. And, look, their defense is good, obviously. Blake Bortles, for a few weeks there, was playing out of his mind. Now we saw, you know, who Blake Bortles is with three picks against the 49ers this past weekend. But, like, I don't know.

It's going to be fun. And, you know, obviously the range emotions is is going to be either as high or as low as possible because you're either going to beat him to get him or lose to him and that would eliminate us and so their fans are you know going to be there one way or the other um but yeah i don't know i mean it's just it's it's fun to have like you know member uh meaningful that's the word i'm looking for their football to talk about at this point in the season. Like you said, just the change that we've seen in this offense in the last couple of weeks gives you a little bit of hope

that maybe this team can do something. Maybe they're building on something. And obviously, we don't think they're going to win the Super Bowl this year. But building on something and getting close to what we thought they could be at the beginning of this year, maybe we can see that next year. And we talked last week about how, look know the offense looked better but that's against a really bad 49ers defense that Rams defense is good I mean they're legitimately good and the offense was able to move the ball against them obviously they weren't able to punch in touchdowns

as much as you would have liked but you know you saw some things and when Marcus is out there when he's when he's calling the plays in the no huddle I mean you see him go up to the line he's pointing guys out he's telling guys what routes to no huddle. I mean, you see him go up to the line. He's pointing guys out. He's telling guys what routes to run. He looks like a different guy. He looks like a guy that's in control and confident, and that's so much different than the guy that we were talking about two weeks ago when he looked like he was just lost and broken.

Yeah, and the true test for this no huddle stuff is coming this week. You're talking about a Jaguars team that probably still has the best defense in the NFL, despite what happened out in San Francisco. So they've got talent everywhere, all three across the board. So I'll be really interested to see if this no huddle stuff works against the Jags. I'm a little worried about it because Jacksonville is going to jam you. They're going to get after Mariota.

They're going to throw off rhythm. They're going to throw off timing. So it's a tough spot. But at the same time, I think this defense can handle what the Jags are going to throw at them offensively. So if you get bad Blake Bortles, the Jaguars can lose to anyone in the league. And that's what we said all year. The variance with him is super high,

and we saw that a little last week with him throwing three picks. But still, that's a team that still manages to score over 30 points. So the Titans are going to have to come out with their A game. I'm not sure they can do it, but I feel a heck of a lot better about it this week than I did two weeks ago. Absolutely, yeah. And we'll get more into that as the week goes along. Terry, anything else for tonight that we need to hit before we get out of here?

No. Weird week. So I guess we'll get a malarkey presser tomorrow. So we can talk a little bit more about that Rams game and kind of wrap things up tomorrow. Yeah, we'll get some more on that and the injuries and that kind of stuff. And hopefully they can get Logan Ryan back next week. But anyway, so yeah,

at least you feel a little bit better about where they are, and again, it's just fun to have meaningful football to talk about. So that'll do it for tonight. I didn't hit this from the beginning. Locked on Titans, please like, write and review the podcast, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

You can follow us on UCMiracles.com where we write about the Titans. I'm at jmorrismcm on Twitter. Terry's at tlambertfb, so follow us there. And again, we'll be back tomorrow and talk a little bit about what Mike Malarkey has to say and start to talk a little bit about the Jaguars. For Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening, and

we will talk to you tomorrow.