Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Derrick Henry runs past the Jaguars

Episode Date: December 7, 2018

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, it's Derrick Henry night. How are you? Absolutely, and always good to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars. Yes, so much fun, so much fun. And like I said on Twitter, we don't know if Titans are going to make the playoffs or not, but we'll always have tonight. The Titans officially eliminated the Jaguars from the playoffs, so nice to go ahead and just crush their dream. I mean, it was over anyway, but to officially end it, such a good thing. So much to talk about from this game. We're going to get

into all of it here in just a second. Before we do that, remind you that we write for musicmiracles.com where we cover the Titans for SB Nation. You can check us out there. You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlanbertfb. You can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans. Subscribe to the show. You can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans.

Subscribe to the show. You'll get the newest episodes as soon as they are available. So the Titans are in must-win territory for the rest of the year if they want to make the playoffs. They got off to a good start with that 30-9 win at home tonight over the Jacksonville Jaguars. That's four in a row for the Titans over the Jaguars. Swept the Z-Series, obviously, the last two years.

Just so much fun. We've obviously had our issues with Derrick Henry here. We've talked a lot about him. If there's one team that he's good against, it's the Jacksonville Jaguars. We talked last night or yesterday afternoon about how this had the chance to be a Derrick Henry game because the Titans are probably going to want to you know kind of play an ugly game slug it out didn't end up going exactly that way derrick henry you know wrote off a 99 yard touchdown run after the titans had gotten the goal line stand after the titans had had a really nice first drive on offense so you know we were i guess kind of right and that it was going to be that but

um i mean just a total dismantling the jaguars quit talked about how that could be a possibility if the titans were to get up in this game because the jackson because the jaguars didn't really have anything left to play for so titans came out and did what they needed to do tonight and again that sounds like something that that might be simple but we've seen a lot of times where this team has had opportunities against teams like this and haven't been able to do what they were able to do tonight yeah what kind of struck me uh was how derrick henry ran that the attitude he ran with he seemed angry uh that's what we've been waiting for you know i don't know why it or what it took to get him to this point,

but the Titans need to do it every single weekend from here on out because that looked like a different guy. I've always said once you get Derrick Henry out in space, he's a different runner, different guy, dynamic guy. I saw a tweet, and it said that Derrick Henry was the fastest ball carrier in the NFL this year on that run he had where he ran around Jalen Ramsey.

That's just staggering when you consider he's 6'3", 250 pounds and he's the fastest dude with the ball in his hands in the NFL. That's just wild. Deion Lewis got 10 touches, 10 carries in this game, ran for 13 yards. Derrick Henry got 17 and ran for 238.

So, clearly, Derrick Henry's the hot hand right now. You know, we talked about how he might be better for this offense because he's just kind of taken what he's being given. Well, he took what he was given tonight and then some. Titans just sealed the edge. Henry kept bouncing and finding lanes to run through. So really good to see, really happy for him. He just about made up for his lack of yardage tonight alone.

Yeah, and I honestly think that with the Patriots game i'm trying to think remember now i think it was where they gave flu Ellen carries early in that game yeah that yeah it was that game in flu and i'm getting hurt and you know there had been the talk about you know Derek Henry had stood his locker for you know a couple weeks or three out of four weeks or something like that and said i've got to do better i've got got to run downhill. And we talked here about it. I'm just sick of hearing that. We heard it last year. And then, you know, he would do better for a week and then kind of go back to the same deal.

I really think it took that. It took them getting David Foyle and Kelly Carey early in a game to where Derrick Henry was like, you know what? They're going to replace me. Like, they're going to phase me out of this offense. And ever since that game, he's looked like a different guy. When they've given him the ball, like you said, he's squared his shoulders, he's run downhill, he's gotten behind his pads.

I mean, dude's got so much power and momentum. And like you said, he's just an absolute freak. Talk about the fastest touchdown run and all that kind of stuff at that size. It's just crazy. But I really think ever since that point where they actually, you know, instead of talking about not having him involved, they actually were, you know, moving towards that. He's like a different guy.

You know, Matt LaFleur said last week that, you know, the way that Derrick Henry had been running, he had earned more carries. And, of course, I mean, that's absolutely true. I see what he's able to do tonight. Crazy that he, you know, he always does this against the Jaguars or at least has had some of his biggest games against the Jaguars. We talked last night about, you know, the week, I guess 17 game last year, wasn't, you know, his rushing numbers weren't good,

but he had the six-yard screen pass and went for a touchdown on that one. So, you know, again, if they can get him going if they can do things to you know already have him kind of moving downhill when he gets the ball um you see what he's able to do there so you know they need everybody right and he talked about deon lewis deon lewis is really this this team is so weird i mean think about i don't know exactly how long ago it was now but there was a point in this season where we were talking about they needed to only give the ball to Deion Lewis and not give it

to Derrick Henry because Derrick Henry was completely ineffective and Deion Lewis was being pretty effective. It's completely flipped now. Deion Lewis looks like, I mean, he looks lost out there. He's trying to dance and cut and bounce everything and not just you know

run it downhill and all that stuff and so they've they've kind of gone into a role reversal here it'd be kind of nice if we could get them both playing well at the same time uh you know we're at week you know 13 wherever wherever we are so i'm not sure that's going to happen this year but now you know you're going to have to you're going to start to have an interesting conversation about what they're going to do with this backfield going forward. If they found a way where Derrick Henry can be effective, maybe. I mean, I still think you need another running back, but maybe you don't have to address it as early as you thought you might

if you think you can count on Henry going forward. And, again, look, our deal with him the whole time has been he doesn't run hard. And now that he's doing that, and he still has his deficiencies, it still takes him too long sometimes to get up to full speed when he has to cut and all that kind of stuff. But he showed tonight what he's capable of. Now, obviously, you're not going to expect something like this every week, but it just gives you a little bit of hope of what he can be going forward.

Yeah, I think you touched on it a little bit there. Don what he can be going forward yeah i think you touched on a little bit there don't expect this every week um you know it's about running back being in need already uh it's a little early to talk about that but i think going into this one it's pretty clear now he's got to prove it over these next three games he can't go out and go 17 carries for 38 yards next week, which has been the norm. What we saw tonight has not been the norm. So I don't want expectations to get out of whack here with this run game and with Derrick Henry.

So I need to see more. I think he's absolutely earned the right to be the featured back, at least on first and second down, running downs. Deion Lewis is still the passing down back. He's still effective in that role, and that's fine. That's what he was brought in to be. So now with Derrick Henry emerging, maybe you can have that one-two punch that we talked about all summer long.

So really happy for Derrick. Just need to see it. Just need to see him string a couple weeks together. Yeah, and just one more thing on it. Since the bye week, so after the London game, before the London game, he had one game where he averaged over 3.3 yards per carry. Since the bye, he's gone 4.5, 5.3, 5.1, 3.8, 4. And then tonight, 14 yards per carry. Since the bye, he's gone 4.5, 5.3, 5.1, 3.8, 4.0, and then tonight

14 yards per carry. He has been effective running the ball since the bye week. I think they lit a fire under him. Good for him, like you said. Hopefully that's something they can build on going forward. Coming up, we'll talk a little bit more about the rest of the offense, and then we'll talk

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That's actionheat.com slash locked on. out everything action heat has to offer that's action heat.com slash locked on use the coupon code locked on it's at checkout and save 20 say toasty warm while you enjoy your outdoor activities this winter with action heat and we thank them for sponsoring the podcast so the offense didn't you know you have to do a whole lot else. I mean, when you've got a guy averaging 14 yards a carry, when you have, you know, like 17 carries, 238 yards, you get a 99-yard touchdown run. We saw, I mean, kind of a reverse of what happened in the Monday night game against the Texans, you know, where the Texans get a goal on stop

and then hand the ball to Lamar Miller. He goes 97 yards. It was pretty much the exact reversal of that. The Titans defense got a goal-on stop and then hand the ball to Lamar Miller. He goes 97 yards. It was pretty much the exact reversal of that. The Titans' defense got a goal-on stop. We'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute. And then next play, hand the ball to Derrick Henry, nine yards. Just completely changed the game there. But, you know, everything else was kind of meh from an offensive perspective.

Now you expect that playing against that Jaguars defensively. A couple of things that are kind of issues that could be concerning going forward. Taewon Taylor cannot find the football down the field. I don't understand it. He did good. And there are certain passes almost like where he has to, if it's a little bit under, stop and catch it. But he had the ball tonight where he kind of fought back.

I mean, he made a nice play to come back to the ball, and the ball just hits him in the face mask. Don't understand it. Corey Davis was not able to catch what probably should have been a touchdown pass at the end of the game. Again, this didn't matter tonight, obviously, with the way the game went. Mark's doing interception on a rollout where he had Tajay Sharp and just threw it high, which is generally when Marcus misses,

that's where he misses. That's kind of what gets him into trouble. So the passing game was, you know, not really there tonight. They didn't need it, so it wasn't that big of a deal. But it would be nice to see some of those things kind of, you know, gelling some issues that we've seen throughout the season. We kind of saw tonight, again,

we're not going to dwell on those and shouldn't probably spend too much time talking about them, but just some things that I know other than, you know, the, the Derrick Henry party. Yeah. And with Taewon,

there was some good too. I think we need to highlight that. I think he works the intermediate part of the field well, which is something we really haven't seen him do. You know, when he's had success, it's been via the field well, which is something we really haven't seen him do. When he's had success, it's been via the deep ball, burning somebody with his speed. He ran some middle routes today, and Marcus hit him, and that's good to see, because we really hadn't seen that out of those two. He ran an out route and beat Jalen Ramsey, ran down the sidelines on a go route and beat Jalen Ramsey ran down the sidelines on a go route

And beat Jalen Ramsey to obviously like Jimmy said couldn't bring the ball in but still good to see him get Separation against one of the league's best cornerbacks. So that that's really good for me to see Yeah, Corey Davis that that Last throw to Davis. That was weird. He like alligator armed it going up for it. I don't think he got to full extension I'm not sure What happened there again? It didn't matter but you know, it's Jaguars. You'd love to see just one more time there So anyways, whatever it's stuff you're gonna need down the road. It's more inconsistencies in this offense But yeah, I'd like to see Taylor come up with that ball

I'd like to see Corey Davis come up with that ball. And we're going to have to monitor Johnnie Smith. He left, I believe, in the second quarter. Anthony Fergster obviously seems pretty capable. 14 for 14, catching his target so far. But Johnnie Smith as we've seen is a guy that can kind of use his athletic ability to get behind the secondary and make a play with his feet yeah sucks for johnny man because he's really been coming on the last few weeks and so you hate to see that momentum that he's kind of gained go away if it

is a serious injury and look bad you know there's kind of a deal where they helped him right off the locker room so um we don't know anything other than it's a knee injury at this point but um yeah so hopefully hopefully it's not that serious but i don't know it just it didn't it didn't look good in real time uh yeah to your table and taylor point i think it's important that he's able to develop some of the stuff that he did tonight because that was it buster screen that came out after the game on Sunday and said, it was one of the Jets' cornerbacks, Scrine Screen, whatever his name is, that said, well, that guy's a one-trick pony. Oh, he doesn't know how to catch the ball, which I thought was a pretty dumb criticism.

Because if you know that, then why are you letting him get up at the top? But anyway, if Taewon can do more of the stuff he was able to do tonight, it changes the way teams are going to defend him. And then they're not going to just play off and think that he's going to go deep. If you have to respect the underneath stuff, you know, again, it just makes him more of a complete receiver. It makes him, you know, have the ability to be a little bit more dynamic. But six for 59 in this game, I'm assuming six catches in a game is a career high for him.

I don't know that for sure, but it seems like it would be. So, yeah, you're right. Some good things there that we should talk about. And, listen, other than the interception that Marcus threw, I mean, I thought he was pretty good, you know, taking what was there, had the one pretty nice run where he hurdled A.J. Bouye. I mean, it's just like this is so much fun. You know, we've lived off of the Barry Church stiff arm for almost a year now.

And the victory run where he's just out there stiff arming and shoving people. And at one point, I can't remember who it was, but he stiff armed a guy, and they kind of waited for him to come back and then just threw him off of him. So it's just so much fun to have this to show to Jaguars fans when they run their mouths. You can just put that on Twitter, and you don't have to say anything else. So I'm glad we got that again. But they obviously did a good job calling the right plays, getting Derrick Henry in space, able to do some of that stuff.

The offensive line was better, obviously, tonight. They came back out with the original five. We wondered if they would stick with what they did in the second half against the Jets with Levin playing center and Ben Jones playing guard. They didn't. Came back out with the five they've had all year. Now, at the end of the game, Jack Conklin was out with a knee injury. And so you had Dennis Kelly playing right tackle after the series before that. At the end of the game, Jack Conklin was out with a knee injury,

and so you had Dennis Kelly playing right tackle after the series before that. Kelly had come in for Taylor LeJuan after he had gotten hurt. So we'll keep an eye on that. The good thing here is that any of these type injuries, bumps and bruises or whatever, the Titans now have a long week after coming off of a short week. They'll have a little bit of extra time to get healthy for that kind of stuff. So anything that's not too serious, you would expect to get some guys back. You might get, you know, Chris Shaik and Flo Ellen back for the Giants game. You know, guys that have been out for a couple weeks now.

So some good things from the offense, like you said, if John is out, then they're going to have to rely a little bit more on Anthony Ferkser in the receiving game, which doesn't look like a problem. And then you've got Luke Stocker giving that blocking 10. But, yeah, overall, I mean, obviously you're thrilled with what Derrick Henry was able to do. But, I mean, you know, there were some concerns with the offense otherwise. But overall, just a really good performance, especially considering how good this defense is.

Now, I mean, I think they quit a little bit at the end, but they were out there playing in the first half, and the Titans were able to, you know, take care of the ball. The first drive was really, really good. I mean, they came out, ran a little bit of tempo, you know, mixed some things up, kind of what we talked about last night, hoping that they would do, kind of getting the defense on the heels, and I think that was really big.

Then you get the goal on Sandy, then you get the other score, and it was just kind of a route from there. So, you know, some good things from the offense, and hopefully they can build on that going forward. This is the toughest defense they're going to face. I mean, down the stretch, they've got the Giants, the Redskins, and the Colts. None of those defenses, you know, match up to talent-wise, at least where the Jaguars are.

Yeah, and again, you know, just to keep it simple here, just beating this group feels really good. They're just one of the most hateable groups out there. And to put them away in the fourth quarter like they did, 30-9, you're up at 1.32, and you've got Jalen Ramsey out here flexing because he ran Derrick Henry out of bounds. Could they make more of a fool of themselves tonight? I mean, it was really embarrassing.

You had Jalen Ramsey flopping, acting like Taylor LeJuan just decked him across the face. So just to beat them, who really have become, in my my opinion our number one rivals there. To beat them again, it's going to be a thousand days now since the Jaguars have beat the Titans by the time next year rolls around. It just feels really good. Playoffs and all this aside, to beat that

particular group is a whole lot of fun right now. Yeah, it's the best. Jalen Ramsey is the worst player in the NFL. I mean, not obviously talent-wise, but just personality-wise, he's the worst. And so it's always good to beat him. All right, coming up, we'll finish up, talking about what the defense will do in this game.

The defense is really good again. You know, they got put in a bad spot after the Mario to interception. They got put in a tough spot after, you know, they get a stop, and then Cam Batson decides to kick the ball and then pick it up and then run in the end zone, run out of the end zone, run back in the end zone and get tackled promptly. You know, Dory Jackson's back there returning punts again. So the defense held strong on that.

They gave up the third-quarter touchdown, but at that point the game was already to end. So they were able to hold up. And listen, that's not an all-world offense that you're facing by any means. I mean, Cody Kessler is not a guy that's by any means going to be a franchise NFL quarterback. But they've got a team that has a good rushing attack, you know, in theory, in Leonard Fournette and all that, and they were able to really shut them down and, you know,

not let anything get going. Huge, you know, the Jaguars had the ball first in goal, you know, and the Titans held them out of the end zone on that. Rashawn Evans comes up with the big stop on fourth down to keep them out there, And Rashawn Evans played good again tonight. And we talked about this a little bit last week, but he's a guy that, you know, for being a first-round pick, it's amazing how much we haven't talked to him. You know, I think, you know, there's a couple reasons. He missed camp and all that stuff, so he was a little bit slower coming on

than we maybe thought he would be. And there's just been so many other things, so many other issues with this team that he's not a guy that we've spent a whole time talking about. But I thought he played really well again tonight. I'll be interested to see how many snaps he played. It seems like that's kind of trending up. And, you know, again, thinking that he'll take over in that Wesley Woodyard role at some point next season.

But good to see that, you know, because he's a guy that I mean anytime you take out the first round you're counting on him being a star and he seems like he's trending in that direction I think a couple of things were masks to tonight I think the Titans probably looked a lot better than they were um the Jaguars offensive line you know we talked a lot about the Titans offensive line being bad they don't hold a candle to the Jaguars It's really bad over there, you know, they're starting Eric flowers Left tackle he just got abused all night. So Still Dean pieces a lot tonight and you know that that's how he's been successful

But you're still not getting pushed with the four-man rush. That's a problem. If you have to blitz every time, that's a problem. That puts a lot of stress on your secondary, which has struggled at times. They were pretty good tonight. But, you know, I don't know. I'm just worried about that still. I don't feel any better about it just being who the Jaguars are

and who Cody Kessler is. Kessler, to his credit, he played pretty good. He delivered some pretty good balls down the field that his receiver, honestly, just didn't make plays on him for. Run defense was really good. That was the most surprising thing for me. They bottled up Leonard Fournette. Again, though, that all-in line isn't very good,

but they rose to the occasion. You knew what the Jaguars were going to try to do. Game flow kind of stole the game script from Jacksonville's play callers there a little bit. But, yeah, they got after Cody Kessler. But, you know, I just don't feel very good about this pass rush. Well, yeah, to your point, I mean, I mean, Logan Ryan has a sack in this game. Now, Drell Casey did have a sack and a half, so good to see him because he's the guy that had been seemingly pretty quiet for the last few weeks.

Sri Finch got the other half sack credit on the one where he forced the fumble and recovered it. Brian Ragpo was dinged up at one point in this game. He went to the locker room late, so, again, we'll keep an eye on that. But, I mean, I'm ready to see more of Finch and Landry and Correa in that group anyway than, you know, Ragpo and Morgan, who both seem to play fine tonight. But, yeah, the pass rush is still an issue.

They can't create much of a rush without sending extra people, and that's going to be a concern. And you get an interesting test in 10 days here, whatever it is, coming up against the Giants, because the team doesn't have a very good offensive line, but a lot more weapons than what this Jaguars team has. So they'll have to be ready in that one. They'll be able to get some pressure in that one,

because I don't know who in the secondary is going to cover Odell Beckham. I mean, there's nobody in the NFL that can cover Odell Beckham for very long. So you've got a pretty big test coming up there. They've picked on Malcolm Butler a little bit tonight. He held up pretty well, gave him the one long play, but he was right there. A guy who's got good play to catch the ball. So I think he's continuing to at least play better than he did early in the year. So that's good.

But, yeah, I mean, I do think the lack of a pass rush is a little bit concerning. They were able to pressure Kessler. Like you said, it was Boston and extra guys, and that's kind of been the thing they've been doing all year. Now, you know, I think they'll be okay with that against Eli. They'll be okay with that against, you know, be okay with that against Mark Sanchez or whoever it is that the Redskins are going to be running out there. But then you've got Andrew Lott, Pott in Week 17.

So at that point, you need to be able to do a little bit something different. We saw how that played out in the first meeting. But, again, just a solid night from the defense. Like I said, it's a little bit hard to take much away when you're facing a Cody Kessler-led team. But for tonight, they did what they were called on to do, held up, didn't give up anything really early, and then even the late touchdown was just kind of, you know, at that point the game's over.

So, I don't know. I mean, listen, this is still, you know, they still need help, the Titans do, to get in the playoffs. They're still going to need, I mean, I think when you look at it, they're going to have to be the only 10-6 team if they're going to get in because they've, at this point, you know, all their losses are against AFC teams. And so, you know, right now I think the Ravens are the team that's ahead of them at 7-5. And so, obviously, if they end in a tie with the Ravens are the team that's ahead of them at 7-5. And so, obviously, if they end in a tie with the Ravens,

the Ravens will get that tiebreaker since the Titans lost to them. So if you're looking forward to that, if you're projecting that stuff down the road, I think they need to be the only 10-6 team. They need the Chiefs to beat the Ravens this weekend against Arrowhead. There's a few other things. They need the Broncos to lose. They need the Colts to lose the Ravens this weekend against Arrowhead. There's a few other things. They need the Broncos to lose. They need the Colts to lose. All that kind of stuff.

So that's kind of stuff that we'll start to look at as the weekend approaches. But for now, I mean, listen, huge win. Obviously, the Jaguars are down. But it really is just the worst group of people in the league. And so it's just so much fun to get a win over them. There's just so much talking and running their mouths and to be able to now have four straight against them. And, you know, we don't know what they're going to look like next year

because they've got a lot of cap issues and that kind of stuff that they're going to have to worry about. But I don't know, man, just always really fun to get a win against them regardless of kind of what state they're in. Yeah, and like you're saying, now you've got to look ahead to what's going to happen for the Titans. You've got to go beat a Giants team that, quite frankly, isn't very good. Don Manning has not played at a high level.

And then you look at Washington, they're down to Mark Sanchez. Those are two really winnable games. You said it. They're going to rip off four in a row here and suck us back in, and here we are. But, again, we can't get ahead of ourselves because they almost lost to the Jets last week. So you've got to take it one game at a time

and kind of beat who you're supposed to beat. But, yeah, it's really hard not to look ahead to week 17 andrew luck coming down can you imagine that game playoffs on the line having to be andrew luck for the very first time yeah that's that's going to be something but yeah if you look at the other so the titans are now seven six with this win but the dolphins are six six the ravens are seven and five the broncos are six and six and the culture six and six so you know obviously you've got three of those four teams the Titans lost to. So that's the one with the tiebreaker against any of those. And then the Broncos, I mean, I think they're going to fall off with the injuries and stuff that they've had.

But if you're watching games on Sunday, those are the teams that you're rooting against. Because, again, I just think you've got to be only 10 and 16. And, you know, I think the Ravens still have the Chargers and the Chiefs left. So two good chances at least to lose games. I can't remember who the other two games against, but not against teams they're probably going to lose to. So, anyway, that'll do it for tonight. Again, always fun to be the Jaguars.

You know, always fun for their fans to go back in their holes for at least, you know, another close to a year before we face them at whatever point next season. So good on that. We have a lot more on this game, UCMiracles.com, so you can check it out there. We'll be, you know, recapping all that stuff tomorrow, and then we'll have plenty of information for you over the weekend about what games to watch and who to be cheering for and all that kind of stuff. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrissmcm.

Terry's at tlambertfb. You can follow the podcast account at LockedOnTitans. And, again, subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts to search LockedOnTitans. For Terry, this is Jimmy. Thanks for listening to LockedOnTitans, and we will talk to you again next week.