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

Episode Date: November 27, 2018

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Well, welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jerry Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you? I'm alright. A little depressed, man. I just feel like this season's slipping away. Yeah, not a great effort from the Titans on Monday night. We're going to break it all down for you. Before we do that, I remind you to 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 at jay morris mcm terry's at t limber fb follow the podcast where we get the podcast just search out locked on titans and you can get us there all right so the titans go to houston and pretty much lay an egg i guess 34 17 um you know got out to a 10 nothing lead so you felt like maybe we were getting the good Titans again.

And then from there, it just kind of all unraveled, a series of just dumb stuff that happened. I just, I guess we could start out with kind of some of the coaching decisions of this game because, look, I'm willing to give these guys some time. You've got a rookie head coach, you've got a rookie offensive coordinator, play caller, all that kind of stuff. So, you know, I feel like we've been pretty patient with them. We were talking before we jumped on. There's this section of the fan base.

It's like, oh, they should have never fired Mike Malarkey. They were better than Malarkey. And I think that's crap. I think they're the same as they were last year. So, I mean, I think that kind of stuff is kind of dumb to talk about. They fired Malarkey, so that ship has sailed, so to speak. But

at the same time, it's getting increasingly frustrating watching this team week in and week out. Watching some of the stupid play calls, running on first down all the time, even when you're down by a lot late in the game, running the wildcat when you're down by 10 late in the third quarter.

You know, just kind of the dumb stuff that goes on week to week, giving the ball to Luke Stalker when you have a fourth and short, you know, right now with a goal line. I mean, just stuff like that that, you know, again, I'm willing to cut them a break on some things, but then there's some things that are just so blatantly stupid that it's hard to excuse it as a rookie head coach or rookie play card. It almost feels like a couple of guys that don't necessarily get it.

And it was both sides of the ball tonight. That's the thing is Titans have been carried by that defense for a while in the early season. You know, since that Patriots game, it's the thing is Titans have been carried by that defense for a while in the early season You know since that Patriots game it's been it's been awful So I thought the defense laid back tonight. They weren't was they weren't aggressive They just kind of let Deshaun Watson have plenty of time back there and drop back in zone coverage and Watson picked him apart So I'm not sure what happened back in zone coverage and Watson picked him apart.

So I'm not sure what happened. This group was really, when they're at their best, they're aggressive, coming at you, plenty of blitzes. Didn't happen tonight. Watson ate him up. And then offensively, what are you doing running the football in the second half? I mean, you've got a perfect, literally perfect Marcus Mariota who, you know, didn't exactly set the world on fire. It's a pretty conservative game plan as far as passing goes.

But still, he's moving the football efficiently, maybe not in big chunks, but still, that's your best shot at moving the football. You cannot run the ball against this front. We saw that early. We told you that on last week's podcast. It didn't happen tonight. Corey Davis was the team's leading rusher, We told you that on last week's podcast. It didn't happen tonight. Corey Davis was the team's leading rusher,

which came on a reverse coming out of the wildcat from Derrick Henry. So you couldn't run the ball, and you still chose to run the ball in the second half when you were down 17 points. I just don't understand. Yeah, to your point, from the running backs, they got 15 carries for 38 yards. So they had 105 total yards rushing, but 39 of those came from the running backs they got 15 carries for 38 yards uh you had so they had 105 total yards rushing but 39 of those came from the corey davis play like you talked about

and then 28 of those yards came from marcus mario to six carries so yeah i mean it's just the insistence on we have to establish the run i don't understand it and we've seen if you watch the game last monday night between the ranch and the chiefs you don't have to run the run. I don't understand it. And we've seen, if you watched the game last Monday night between the Rams and the Chiefs, you don't have to run the ball for play action to be effective. I mean, I know we spent a lot of time last year asking the question, why don't they use play action more? Marcus Moriarty is so good in that and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, last week we saw them, I mean, the game last week,

you saw the Rams continue to use the play action. Those linebackers continue to get sucked up. Now they do have Todd Gurley, and I mean, that's probably a little bit of a different conversation. But it just seems like, I don't know, it just seems like Matt LaFleur is like, okay, we are going to establish the run. We are going to show them that we will run the ball, regardless of what else is going on in the game. It's almost like he has the plan laid out before the game even starts. And, you know, well, we're down 17 late in the fourth quarter. We still got to hand the ball on fourth down. I

mean, it's just that's the kind of stuff that makes me worry about him long term. And I mean, I joked on Twitter, you know, there Twitter, there was a time where we were worried that Matt LaFleur would only be here for a year and he would become a head coach. Somebody would come in and take him to be a head coach. I don't think we have to worry about that at this point. I think that ship has sailed.

Also on Twitter, I joked, the Titans get the ball back. 8 minutes 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, down 34-17. And I joked, who wants to make a bet on a run on first down here? And I was completely being ridiculous because there's no way that they're going to hand the ball off on first down here. What do they do? Turn and hand the ball to Derrick Henry on first down.

It's just unfathomable. I don't understand. What are you hoping to accomplish there? Some people were fired up about the draw play at the end of the first half when they had the ball. I get that because in that situation, you're facing third and 29. The Texans have one timeout left. You want to make them use that timeout.

If you throw an incompletion there, they don't have to use a timeout, obviously. So I understand that you're not picking up third and 29. With this offensive line against that front, with these receivers, you're not capable of picking that up there. So I understand you turn around, you run a draw, make them use their timeout, and then you hope that you can get out of the half without giving up points. So it takes a turn, they got a field goal. But I still, like, I'm okay with that call.

But just the insistence on running the ball late in the game when you're down by so much, it just, again, it seems like a guy that doesn't get it. And I don't, I'm not willing to, I'm not saying, you know, they should fire Matt LaFleur. Like, I'm definitely not to that point yet. But that stuff concerns me. Am I crazy for having long-term concerns for those types of things?

I don't think you are. Look, it's really interesting having this conversation already because my confidence in this coaching staff has gone out the window. You've got to have some sort of consistency. You've got to be able to take advantage of the matchups that are given to you. They're just not doing that. I don't know what the answer is. I don't think the offensive line is good enough right now,

and that's another part of this. It's hard to judge the offense as a whole when you consider the crap that they're working with. That offensive line is terrible. When you consider the crap that they're working with, I mean, that offensive line is terrible. Look, Jack Conklin, I hope he's not healthy at this point. You just got to hope that.

Josh Klein is bad, and that's going to be a problem that's probably going to stick around for another year. So I don't know what they're going to do there. But no receivers, no weapons. You've got Marcus Mariota who's playing pretty good. So I don't know. It's hard to judge just with considering the weapons. But still, you've got to run what works. Tonight the passing game was working.

The run game was not working. It was just so frustrating to watch. But I want to get into that fourth and one call where they gave the ball to luke stocker on the the most key play perhaps of the titan season uh you call fullback dive up the middle i mean what uh we saw it last year with mike malark in these jumbo sets everyone knows what's coming something up the middle you know, sneak it with Mario to do something. Spread him out.

Again, Marcus was perfect. Run something into the flats. I don't know. Anything but that. I mean, Luke Stocker didn't have a carry in his NFL career, in his college career, and you put him in the game and handed him the football with the season on the line. I mean, that's just an all-time bad coaching

move right there that's fantastic you know carrying call you know um like yeah that's ridiculous and um mike malarkey said for the game we had seen things on film that had worked we had seen that play work against the texans in those situations. Okay. Like, whatever, man. Like, I mean, I can't speak to his film study. He's obviously a lot more familiar with the Texans than I am with their personnel and all those types of things. You know, I'm not trying to say that he's not. But at the same time, like, I want to sit with him and have him show me the times that it worked.

And I guarantee you that at least 100 show me the times that it worked. And I guarantee you that at least 100% of the people that they handed the ball to in those situations were better running backs than Luke Stocker. Listen, Luke Stocker's done a good job for this team and the role in this team. I'm not knocking him. And to his credit, man, he stood in his locker after the game. I saw a video from Kaharski, and Luke Stocker said, look, I've got to do a better job there. I've got to get the yard. Like, come on, man. Like, I've got to do a better job there. I've got to get the yard.

Like, come on, man. Like, you faced two guys in a hole right there. He got blown up. Like, that's going to happen to anybody. So, yeah, I just – I don't – the reasoning is stupid. I just – I can't. Yeah, like, that is just – that, to me, is like borderline fireball offense. And, again, I'm not saying they should fire metal floor at this point.

There's still a lot of stuff that has to go on. This team has been, you know, hampered by a lot of different things throughout the year. So all that stuff is obviously still in play. When you look at the, at the whole season stuff, but yeah,

like you said, I mean, you've got Marcus Mariota, who's on a hot streak right there. Hasn't thrown an incomplete pass. We've talked about how he's a rhythm guy, and when you get him going like that, then you need to keep riding him.

When he's on a hot streak, he tends to stay hot. When he starts out cold and he stays cold, that kind of stuff. I don't understand it. That whole thing is mind-boggling to me. Again, that's the stuff that really concerns me long-term. It's not that the raw numbers are, you know, they've rushed for this many yards,

Mark's more than a stone for this many yards, this many touchdowns, this many receptions, you know, blah, blah, blah, whatever, all that stuff. Because, you know, we know that if you watch this team week in and week out, we understand the circumstances and the context around that. But it's stuff like that that really bothers me, and I have some concerns on long term. Coming up, we'll get a little bit more into the defensive performance tonight. But before we do that, tell you about MyBookie.

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you win, you get paid. Okay, so I was hesitant to buy into this defense before the New England game. And they went out and did what they did to the Patriots and I was on board. Number one scoring defense in the league. You know, they turned a corner. They were really good. All that kind of stuff. And in the last

two weeks, they've just pretty much gotten embarrassed, haven't had any answers. I was willing to, you know, cut them some slack last week with Dean Pease having to go to the hospital, Mike Vrindle having to take over the play-calling game, or, you know, play-calling duties in the first quarter, all that kind of stuff.

But then you see them tonight, and they had no answer for Lamar Miller, who's not good. Lamar Miller's not good. And he's out there running all over them, missing tackles, blown assignments, just kind of all over the board. And, again, like we'll get into this, unfortunately, probably sooner rather than later, draft needs when you talk about that. But they cannot generate pressure with their defensive line.

That's an issue for them. When you watch the Texans, they've got J.J. Watt, they've got David Quarney, they've got William Mercer. They've got so many different guys that can get pressure on their own. The Titans have Jarrell Casey, and they have guys that I think are going to be good players in Rashawn Evans and Harold Landry, those types of guys. But right now their defensive front is just not good enough.

You see them get blown up in the run game tonight. You see them having trouble getting pressure. Then they have to blitz and that kind of stuff, and that just leaves you a little bit more vulnerable on the back end. So, I mean, I don't know. I just think we have concerns all over the place on this team right now. Yeah, and, you know, you hate to say someone's done, but I really think Brian Arakpo's done.

That play that Deshaun ran around, and Deshaun's a great athlete. I'm not trying to say he isn't, but that was a really bad look for Brian Arakpo. And he's just made, you know, no difference on the edge this year. So, going to be interested to see how, number one, the snap counts are tomorrow when those come out and how much he plays going forward. It just doesn't make as much sense to me when you've got a guy like Harold Landry

who, you know, hadn't shown up in a couple weeks, but still pretty clearly the better athlete at this point and has more upside, more room to grow. Like you said, no pressure. Nine times out of ten when this team gets pressure, it's coming from the inside. It's coming from an inside linebacker. It's coming from Jarrell Casey. That's a huge problem. It makes the secondary's job that much tougher. I thought it was interesting.

The Texans didn't really need DeAndre Hopkins tonight. He wasn't really hurt from it. I think he had that one big play down the sideline. But it was Demarius Thomas who we kind of suspected that getting the Malcolm Butler treatment tonight. I think he beat LaShawn Sims, and then he beat Adore Jackson on the first one, though. But, again, everything is harder when you can't get pressure, and Titans cannot get pressure right now.

Yeah, that's the biggest thing. I mean, corners can only do so much. And, listen, Adore was bad last week against T.Y. Hilton. You have to watch it back again to see, you know, kind of where you play for blame on some of those plays tonight. But I don't know, just the whole effort overall. And, you know, like I said, I mean, you're talking about a 14-point game at halftime.

So if you can get a stop, you feel like maybe the Titans can get back in it. But it just felt – it didn't feel that close, honestly. It seemed like once the Texans went up 21-10, it felt like it was over, which is weird because, you know, the Titans scored the first 10 points. Now, granted, it took a busted coverage from them for John Smith to get the long touchdown. Good to see him getting involved. And you see on that on that play you know the athleticism that he has the burst that he has when he gets a

ball in his hands all that kind of stuff is good but i just never felt like the defense was ever going to be able to consistently get off the field in this game to allow the titans to get back in it and i don't know like you said it comes down to not being able to generate pressure, and they can't do that. And so, again, we'll start to talk about what they need in this offseason. They need defensive linemen. They need edge rushers. They need interior offensive linemen.

They need receivers. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff. We can go through the list, but I don't know. It just seems like there was a point where we felt like okay this defense is good enough that they can keep this team in games even when the offense struggles a little bit and that was the case early on I mean you saw you know they had a good defensive effort the first time against the Texans now I mean I think looking back on that now we can agree that part of that was Sean Watson not being all the way back you've seen a difference in the numbers that he's had since, you know,

since really that first month of the season. You know, they had a good defensive effort against the Jaguars, but we've seen what's going on there. It's a disaster. They fired their offensive coordinator. They benched Blake Bortles, all that kind of stuff's going on. But at the same time, like, you start to buy into them, right, after what they did to the Patriots.

But it just seems like they kind of fall victim to what the rest of this team falls victim to it's just the consistency week in and week out and i don't know like you said at the end of the day it's all about being able to get pressure and when you can't do that when your corners have to sit back there and cover it doesn't matter how good they are you can only cover for so long and they're going to have to find a way to generate pressure the problem is tonight a lot of times when they sent the blitz it got picked up and then you're just kind of dead and the other thing is this this texas offensive line is not good and they were able to pretty much have their way with this titans defensive you know from when they wanted to run the ball and from a pass rush perspective. And so it's just hard to get, you know,

just really excited about anything going forward when you see the efforts that you've seen the last couple weeks. Yeah, you can even take away the long run from Lamar Miller in the first half. Texans were still moving the ball on the ground. I mean, the first two drives, they went right down the field, it seemed, or two of the first three drives with Lamar Miller. So they're just blowing holes open, and then you saw the wheels fall apart when Miller broke that long one.

But, yeah, like you said, the Texans' offensive line is not very good, and they handled the Titans, which is concerning. And we've talked about the need for an impact defensive lineman, a guy that can disrupt things, a guy that can stand tall against the run. They don't have that. They've got a bunch of average at best pieces paired with Jarrell Casey, and they've had that for a long time. But when you have needs like receivers, corner in recent years, edge rusher,

and now you're going back to needing an offensive lineman, perhaps. So that defensive line need gets pushed down the list, and we're kind of seeing that right now. The Titans just don't have many difference makers on the line of scrimmage, and I thought that was a big deal tonight. Yeah, and like you said, if you take out the 97-yard run, you're still looking at you know six yards per carry for lamar miller so i mean it doesn't it doesn't matter and listen you know

the the play where deshaun watson fumbled and they didn't overrule it i mean sure that this should have been overturned um you know i don't buy the crap that you know he didn't lose possession i mean the ball moved and then it came out when he hit the ground, so I don't understand what else you want there. Does that make a difference in the game now? I mean, you just can't sure-tie the ball back. They're only down, I guess, two scores at that point if they get it back there. But I don't think, I just don't have any confidence in the ability for the

offense to sustain a drive like that with the way that the game was being called at that point. And then the defense to stop the Texans if they were able to get the ball in the end zone. So there's some things that wouldn't against them, sure. But I don't know. The defense is not good enough as a whole right now. And you can't give up six yards of carry to Lamar Miller or 13 yards of carry. But like I said, even if you take that out at six yards of carry,

if you take up the long run, got to be better tackling all that stuff, sure. But I don't know. It's frustrating because two weeks ago we thought he was really good, and they've shown themselves to be a liability over the last two weeks. And, you know, I don't know. So we'll see how it goes from here. Coming up, we'll break down kind of the rest of the schedule because I think, you know, that was a, you know,

kind of a tough stretch of offenses there. I think the Titans could rebound here over the next couple weeks and make things interesting. But we'll kind of talk about it if we think that's going to be enough to keep the Titans in the hunt. All right, so, you know, now you're on another two-game losing streak. After a two-game winning streak, Cowboys and Patriots, two teams that – I mean, Patriots are obviously going to end up in the playoffs.

Cowboys have a good chance. The Colts and the Texans, we'll see. I mean, one of those two teams is going to end up in the playoffs. I'm not sure if they ever will or not. But now you're looking at a stretch where you've got the Jets coming to Nissan Stadium next week. You've got the Jaguars coming to Nissan Stadium the following Thursday night. A couple of games the Titans should win.

If they win those two games, they're 7-6, then you've got John H. Redskins, Colts to end the season. You know, I mean we'll see what the Colts in week 17. Week 17, you never know what that's going to look like before you get there. But, I mean, I think the Titans will probably be favored against the Jets.

They should be favored against the Jaguars because they're falling apart. Cody Kessler's terrible, but I guess he's better than Blake Bortles. The Giants, they've got a lot of weapons, but they haven't been very good either. The Redskins have been good, but they've been decimated by injuries. Now they're down offensive linemen. They're on Cole McCoy, all that kind of stuff. So, I mean, the Titans can make a little bit of a run here.

If they play decent, you're not going to face an offense like you've seen the last really three weeks in the next at least two weeks. So the defense could look a little bit better coming up. The problem is what they're going to do is they're going to win these least two weeks. So the defense could look a little bit better coming up. The problem is what they're going to do is they're going to win these next two games, they're going to suck us all back in,

and they're going to go to the Giants and lay an egg, kind of officially end the season. So I hate that I feel that way about this team. I'm going to watch every down every game because I'm a fan. That's what I do. But I feel this thing coming on here where they're going to suck us right back in only to have another big letdown in the next probably three weeks. Yeah, I think that's what you call a purgatory. Right.

Because that's definitely what we're in. Yeah, I mean, I hear what you're saying. They're favored in the next two games. The guys got some favorable matchups after that too, but what Titans team is going to show up? You know, that's still a thing. I'm still not convinced they can go beat someone they're supposed to go beat, you know?

So it's just, it's been such a wild ride this year. I'm still not comfortable picking the Titans to beat anyone at this point. I mean, if you get a bad performance from that offensive line, you saw what happens tonight. It wasn't quite as ugly tonight as it has been, but certainly only scoring 17 points, that's not going to beat a lot of NFL teams. So Jets are kind of pesky uh jaguars may we'll see what they are with cody castler maybe if they don't get you know two three turnovers

out of portals maybe they're improved uh i don't know i just i'm not confident in this group at all anymore and it sucks to say especially this time of year uh because you know back in the summer we looked at this stretch and we're like, oh yeah, this is where the Titans are going to make their playoff push. But quite honestly, they're just not good enough. If you make the playoffs, you're going to run into a team like Chiefs. You've got the Rams, you've got the Saints. Obviously they're not going to play those guys, but those are the teams you have to beat in today's NFL.

And they just seem like they're in a different stratosphere right now. Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, it feels like last year, right? And, I mean, not quite as good of a spot as they were in last year, but you feel like, okay, you rattle off a few wins against non-playoff caliber teams. You get in. Maybe you can find a way to win the first round. You rattle off a few wins against non-playoff caliber teams. You get in.

Maybe you can find a way to win the first round. They threw the playoff picture during the game, so I haven't necessarily looked at it. Like you said, when you get against those elite teams in the league, you just don't feel good. And I don't know, man. I mean, in London, I guess the Chargers, who look to be one of the better teams in the AFC, they had a chance to win that game, you know, with a two-point conversion late.

So there's that, and then there's the performance we've seen the last couple of weeks. So it's hard to know what to expect. That's what we said. You know, that's what I said on the crossover episode with the Texans. That's what we said in the preview episode last week. You have no idea how to predict this team. You have no idea what they're going to do from week to week. And that, to me, is just the signature of an 8-and-8 team.

And so, sure, you get a little bit lucky. You end up 9-and-7, even 10-and-6 if the cards fall exactly right. I'm not saying that's where this team is going to end up. But, you know, last year, 9-and-7, you end up in the playoffs. You know, the year before 9-7, you end up in the playoffs. The year before 9-7, you miss the playoffs. So just kind of in that same type of deal. And like you said, it could be worse. We could be Raiders fans.

You could have no chance of being competitive for the next couple of years. That's not where we are. But at the same time, it's just frustrating to see a team that, you know, for a couple weeks looks like they could compete on the real stage, and then the next couple of weeks looks like they have no business being in the conversation of a playoff team. So, again, that to me just screams you're an average NFL team. You're 8-8.

And, again, I don't think it's any better or worse than last year. I mean, I think it's just kind of the same. It's just, you know, you get a different bounce here or there, and that's the difference between 7-9 and 9-7. There's really not a huge difference in those two records in today's NFL, and I just feel like that's the team we're looking at right now. Yeah, the most frustrating part for me is you get a performance like that from Mario, and it's just wasted.

You know, you've got nothing to show for it. You've got the stat line, 22, 23, 300 yards, two touchdowns. It's just wasted. So it just seems like the offense and the defense can't get on the same page. You saw everything come together against the Patriots, that's for sure. But that's the only time. everything come together against the Patriots. That's for sure, but that's the only time.

I think maybe against the Chargers, but still you had those drops in key stretches of that game. That could have changed the game. You had the going for two moment to win. Man, I don't know. This team is so frustrating to try and predict. It's just so difficult to look ahead. But it just really feels like you're wasting some high-level play from Marcus Mariota,

even though the stat line doesn't show it week in and week out, with a terrible offensive line and just no weapons around him. Yeah, so again, Nate, that's just what it feels like. And I don't know. And the frustrating part is now you're getting to the part where you have decisions to be made on Marcus Mariota, you know, some other guys, but especially when you're talking about the quarterback, you have that window that is small, but where your quarterback doesn't cost you a lot of money,

doesn't cost a lot of money against the cap and the title tougher yeah the times are basically blowing that window at this point and that's frustrating to see it's frustrating to watch week in and week out and you know a lot of decisions that have to be made and that's a different conversation for a different time but i don't't know. And again, it's just frustrating because we try to give insight or have some type of prediction or analysis of this team, and it's just like you have no idea what to expect week to week. And so that's what we told you last week, and that's kind of what we saw again tonight.

So anyway, that'll do it for tonight. I think tomorrow we're going to have Jim Wyatt on. We talked to him last week about getting on this week, so hopefully we'll be able to have him in the next couple of days. So check that out. Like I said, we'll have a lot more on this game. Breaking everything down on

musicmiracles.com, so check us out there as well. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening to Locked on Titans, and we'll talk to you again tomorrow.