Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Diving deeper on the Patriots

Episode Date: January 10, 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, what's going on tonight? Nothing too much. What's going on with you? Not too much. Terry's really excited about Tua and Albeiro's come from behind win in the national championship game. So I'm really glad, happy for him about that. So I'm only rooting for teams with Hawaiian quarterbacks from now on. That's my new thing. But I'm only rooting for teams with Hawaiian quarterbacks from now on. That's my new thing.

Anyway, so that was fun to watch, and cool to hear Marcus comment on that today. Obviously, he and Tua have been friends for a while, and both being from Hawaii and all that stuff. So anyway, that was fun. Before we get started, we write for musiccitymiracles.com, covering the Titans for SB Nation. You can check our work out there. A lot of cool stuff there. We've got all 22 review up from our buddy Mike who does a really great job with those. So check

that out if you haven't already. Breaking down the Chiefs game that we just finished. We're there. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or wherever else you get your podcasts. Locked on Titans, just search it.

Subscribe. You'll get the new episodes as soon as they are available. All right, so the Titans are back on the practice field today. It was kind of a normal first day of the week. DeMarco Murray didn't practice, but Mike Malarkey, per usual, is not ready to declare him out yet he's day-to-day uh bill belichick as we talk as we speak right now is up scheming things to try to stop demarco murray uh gamesmanship at its finest um i don't think there's any way demarco plays in this game

uh but who knows i mean we'll obviously monitor that as the week goes along logan ryan and quentin spain are both held out of practice today as well. They said after practice those were precautionary. Spain had his back that acted up last week at the end of the week, but he was still able to play, got through the game without any issues. Logan Ryan has had the ankle injury, and he's been battling for a couple weeks. So it gave him a maintenance day, which is not uncommon for guys, veteran guys at this point in the season.

And we talked about it kind of as we've gone along here. I mean, it's really remarkable that the Titans are as healthy as they are heading into this game. So, you know, obviously got through the Chiefs game without any issues, so that's really what you like to see. Yeah, and on the Patriots side, you know, we've kind of talked off air about these running backs and their status being up in the air.

Rex Burkhead, James White, both limited today for the Patriots. Mike Gillisley didn't go. So they're limited. Obviously, active is good. I would guess that we're probably going to see a full steam ahead Patriots attack, which is not good news. So Alan Branch and Chris Hogan were also held out or limited. I'm sorry.

So the Patriots are pretty healthy. They were not healthy three or four weeks ago, and it shows you kind of saw the offense struggle. You saw them go down to Miami and lose a game. So I don't know. It's interesting. I kind of get the feel that this isn't your typical Patriots team that's just going to steamroll people.

They seem to be vulnerable. You saw that in the first two or three weeks of the season against Deshaun Watsonatson against cam newton so it's been done before uh this year uh this defensive group you know as we said last night they don't really scare you uh the offensive attack it's something's not not all the way right now it is the playoffs so you expect them to get right, and you've got this article now with ESPN. So what do you think? Is that article going to create pissed-off Tom Brady, or is that kind of going to be a distraction?

It's an interesting thing. Like you said, there's a lot of stuff going on around this team, right? You've got the article that basically talks about the fracture between Kraft and Belichick and Brady. Issues going on there between who gets the most credit for the dynasty, the Jimmy Garoppolo trade, Tom Brady's, quote, guru or whatever that they don't let come on team trips anymore. I mean, it's all this different stuff that's going on kind of behind the scenes with them. And then, I mean, you also have got josh

mcdaniel's matt patricia who have been interviewing for jobs last week um i would imagine that both of them probably end up being head coaches somewhere next season um so i mean there's a potential for a lot of distractions around that team but we know that they have a knack of putting all that stuff outside when it comes to playing football i was gonna say on sundays this game's on saturday but i mean the point remains they have they have a way of shutting out distractions and you know that the angry tom brady narrative has been a thing ever since the flake gate um and you know you you've seen when you don't want to play him when he's pissed off um and so i don't know i don't know what this article does to them.

It'll be interesting to see. It's one of those things where I think it'll cause one of a couple things. I mean, it could be a rallying thing for them. But if there's fracture in that locker room, whatever, and it's probably overblown, it's probably not that big of a deal. Because if this is going on with Tom Brady tom brady's guy and the credit and all that stuff it's probably been going on for a while so it's not like just because it's out in the light of the public now that really changes anything about it but i with bill belichick with tom

brady i just i don't see them letting something like this creep in and you know ruin their chances at getting other title they they again they've done a really great job throughout the years of shutting out distractions. I mean, you can think about just all the scandals and the Aaron Hernandez. I mean, just all the stuff that has gone on around this team. And year in, year out, they're still one of the best teams in the league. So I would like to think that the article is going to do something and it gives the Titans a better chance to win. But at the end of the day, it's probably much about nothing.

And like I said, this stuff has been going on. If all that is true, let's say. It's been going on for some time now, so it's not like it's anything new that's cropped up this week. Really, the bigger thing is how healthy are they? Like you said, do they get those running backs back? Can Chris Hogan play? That's kind of what I'll be watching.

But, you know, we were talking a little bit before we jumped on here. We can talk about defensive numbers that the Patriots posted this year and how it's not really that scary of a group. But at the end of the day, Tom Brady is the concern, right? And we've seen this defense has been good. They've had a lot of good games this year. They've kept this team in a lot of games. But when they faced against really good

quarterbacks, they've had a lot of struggles. Yeah, I'm with you. I don't think this article is going to do nothing. I mean, you just worry about Tom Brady. This is his group's, what, 17th time doing this. So, they've been here before.

I don't think they're going to let this stand in their way. So, yeah, like you said, the defense has been great. But the schedule has been soft. Anybody will tell you that. So the last really good quarterback they faced was probably Jimmy Garoppolo, ironically, and he tore them up at San Francisco. Of course, he faced Alex Smith last week, The last really good quarterback they faced was probably Jimmy Garoppolo, ironically. And he tore them up at San Francisco. Of course, he faced Alex Smith last week.

But after Kelsey left the game, everything changed. And to be fair, they were tearing Titans apart with Kelsey over the middle. So, obviously, you've got Gronk this week. So, I'm interested to see if the game plan changes at all. Kelsey was going to kill them all night long, and the Titans caught a break with him exiting the ballgame, and it really changed the whole dynamic of the game. Gronk is obviously the best tight end in the league. We've seen the Titans come at tight ends with a number of different

players from Bayard to Ciprian to Jayon Brown. There's not a good matchup on this team. Obviously, Kevin Bayard's the guy you want on him, but he can't do it all. You're going to see Gronk get some snaps on Jonathan Ciprian, maybe even Jayon Brown, and that's just not going to work. maybe even Jayon Brown, and that's just not going to work. So if there's one spot where I'm really, really worried about, it's Gronk in the middle of the field. Yeah, and like you said, they obviously didn't have an answer for Kelsey. Now, I would hope that Dick LeBeau would scheme something up where you're mainly seeing Bayard in coverage against Gronkowski.

I don't know how many people can shut out Gronkowski. I don't know how many people have shut out Gronkowski. But you've got to figure, you've got an all-pro safety. Why not use him in that way? However, they weren't doing that with Kelsey in the game against the Chiefs. And we saw what that was doing for the Chiefs' offense to this Titans' defense. And so, I mean, I guess there's no reason to think that they'll change anything this week, but, man, if you get Ciprian and coverage on Gronkowski,

I mean, that's touchdowns waiting to happen. So you've got to be a little bit nervous about that. The flip side of it is the titans offense right and um what they were able to do in the second half especially against kansas city with derrick henry um with him just ripped off his big runs and you know again we talked about it the last couple podcasts but it was good to see him change his running style a little bit, taking what was there, getting up the field, the kind of stuff that you want to see from him. This is another good opportunity for him.

The Patriots defense is, I think, 30th DVOA against a run. So, you know, obviously the recipe for anybody going up against Tom Brady, but especially a defense that we feel like is suspect, especially on the back end against a guy like him, is to control the ball, to control time of possession, to keep Tom Brady on the sideline. That's the best chance Titans are going to have to win. And, you know, you feel a little bit better.

We talked last week a lot about, you know, could the Titans take advantage of a plus matchup because we had seen times over the last few weeks where on paper they had a matchup that should be favorable for them in the running game and they weren't able to take advantage of it they did that in kansas city so that gives you maybe a little bit more confidence in them being able to do it again this week uh the patriots i would say are a little bit better on defense than the chiefs are not not much are a little bit better on defense than the Chiefs are. Not much, but a little bit better.

Their main thing, though, is the bend but don't break thing. And we've seen that at Titans this year. But the Patriots are even more so. They're 29th in the league in yards allowed per game on defense, but they are 5th in the league in points allowed per game on defense, but they are fifth in the league in points allowed. So you see the wide gap there as far as they give up yards, but once you get around the 20, that's when they really tighten up and it's hard to find those windows and stuff.

And we've talked a lot about the Titans' inefficiencies in the red zone this year. And so, I mean, this is going to be a game where they're going to have probably some of those opportunities. How much can they take advantage of? Yeah, and you look at this team, all I need to know is what they are against the run, and they rank 20th against the run in the league right now. So that's a matchup the Titans are going to have to exploit.

And, you know, you kind of saw this team figure something out in the second half against the chiefs uh they did something that they haven't done all year they did something that we've been begging them to do and spread it out and still run the football so instead of the jumbo sets instead of two three tight ends uh instead of all that you know instead of jamming everything together, you spread everything out and you throw Derrick Henry up the middle. So I think they found something there. I think that's a base for this offense going forward if no changes are made.

The no huddle stuff worked great. But really last week, getting those defenders out of the box and hitting them hard with Derrick Henry really worked. So when you look at the Patriots' front seven, it's their weakness. And that's kind of odd to say because you see them draft so many front seven guys. But really there's just not a lot there that really scares you. Malcolm Brown is probably their best interior player. You've got Trey Flowers on the edge.

But on the other side, you're talking about James Harrison, who had two sacks against the Jets, but you don't know how much he's got left. And I would guess that there's a reason why he didn't play in Pittsburgh. You know, he's an older guy. There's probably not a whole lot left in the tank. There's not a lot in this linebacker core. You know, the Patriots are solid in the secondary,

even though the numbers don't really suggest that i think this is a spot where you can really take over this game with derrick henry and maybe slow things down i don't know that you really want to run uh and get in a hurry to hand the ball back to tom brady uh so maybe this is a spot where you you still keep the spread look but maybe you slow it down a little bit and just kind of try to grind out three, four yards a run and really shorten this game. Yeah, and you know, the Titans have obviously

been a better offense in the no huddle. And we've talked about that. We've talked about how much more comfortable Mario looks in that set. But like you said, is that something you want to use against this team? So coming up, we'll talk a little bit more about that and just kind of a couple other things that we think are going to be important uh for the offense to get done this weekend

okay so yeah like you were saying i mean i think it's a valid point in that you know how much hurry up do you want to use against this team? We've talked about Marcus and how much more comfortable he looks when he's out there. He's the one calling the plays when they go to that, making all the checks and all that kind of stuff. He's done great in that. There will be times in this game where they will need to use that for sure, but you don't want to make that the basis of what you're doing against this team because that means that tom

brady's getting the ball back more often and look i love marcus mariota um no doubt in my mind that he's he's the guy for this franchise he's a franchise quarterback when it's all said and done he'll be you know top five quarterback in the league but still you know if you're telling me you know do you want the ball in tom brady's hands or marcus mario's hands you're going to pick tom brady at this point still in his career and just with this offense in general uh you you don't feel real confident about them being able to go out there and execute play in and play out what they need to do to march in the field to get points as often as they're probably going to need to. And that's the concern for me, and you were talking about it before we jumped on here.

We've seen so many miscommunications this year with Mariota and the receiver. You know, generally, you know, after the game, like I'll say, it was the receiver's fault. He didn't run this, or he was supposed to do whatever it may be. It's impossible for us to know exactly what goes on there. Regardless, there are plenty of times throughout every game this season. I mean, you can go back through the entire 16-game regular season and even in the playoffs last week, and you can point to at least a couple different plays where it looks like either a receiver didn't do what he was supposed to do

or Marcus thought a receiver was going to do one thing and then did something different. So we've seen so much of that this year. You can't afford those types of mistakes. You can't afford those types of mistakes in the playoffs. You can't afford them against the Patriots. You definitely can't afford them in Foxborough against the Patriots. So that's the thing that gives me, I guess, the most concern in this matchup is I feel like the offense is going to be able to move the ball.

I feel like they can get the run game going. They can establish the run this week like they did last week against Kansas City. Obviously, probably not to that extent because you're probably not going to see Derrick Henry average eight yards a carry in the second half in this game but i think there'll be there will be some plays there to be had i think there'll be some yards there to be had but they're going to have to consistently do it and you can't have breakdowns against this team against the patriots and i just i don't have confidence the titans can play that clean of a game considering you know every week mike malarkey on monday is saying well you know we're this close to playing a perfect game and once we put it all together

this is going to happen well you know we're through 17 games now they still don't put that game together and I just I mean it'd be great if it happens this week but I just don't have any confidence that they'll be actually be able to do it at this point yeah at some point it becomes who you are and I think that's where we are. So the thing that stands out to me, looking back to last week, this defense has to get off the bus. We've got to get a fast start. You're not going to spot Tom Brady 14 points.

You're not going to go down 21-3 and beat Tom Brady because Tom Brady is not going to let up. He will score 60 on you, and he won't think twice about it. So I think starting fast is a key, and it's something we haven't seen the Titans do all season long. And it has driven me crazy. So I think in the first 10, 12 minutes, we're going to have a pretty good idea of whether or not the Titans are even going to have a shot here.

All that talk about slowing down the game and feeding Derrick Henry, it all goes out the window if you go down 14-0. You've got to stay close. The defense has to come out. Get a stop. If they score a touchdown on the opening script, that's fine. You've got to respond. You can't give up another one. Running the football is the key for the Titans. If they do it, they're going to have a chance.

But at the same time, you can't get down. Yeah, and like you said, I think it's a great point. We have not seen this team start fast at all this year. There's been a single game this year where they started fast. And it was an issue last year too, but we did see a few games. You think back to that Packers game last year where the Titans kind of came out on fire. They haven't done that this year. They didn't do that Saturday in Arrowhead.

Like you said, 21-3, I can't see the Titans being able to dig out of that hole in Arrowhead. And, you know, like you said, 21-3, I can't see the Titans being able to dig out of that hole in Foxborough because it seemed like, to some extent, the Chiefs took their foot off the gas a little bit. Now, there were some other circumstances there with Kelsey going out of the game and all that kind of stuff, too. The Pages aren't going to do that. They will, like you said, they'll hang 60 like it's nothing, and then they'll take their foot off the gas. And so they're not going to be able to do that they will like you said they'll hang 60 like it's nothing and then then they'll take their foot off the gas and so they're not going to be able to do that the titans haven't

this is a stat that blew my mind that you know they mentioned in the broadcast on saturday night it's been like a month since the titans have gotten a first down on their first drive of the game like that that is mind-boggling and again you're talking about the script right the patrons are going to come out of it. Every team scripts the first, what, 15, 20 plays, whatever it is. I think we talked about this before. But anyway, I'm still just, my mind is blown that the Terry Hrabisky script hasn't gotten a first down in a month. Are you really surprised by that?

Well, no, I'm not. I'm not really surprised by that. But this guy's an offensive coordinator in the NFL, and he can't figure out how to take advantage of a defense at all when he has all week. I'm not really surprised by that, but this guy's an offensive coordinator in the NFL, and he can't figure out how to take advantage of a defense at all when he has all week. But that's the thing that scares me. Like you said, we've seen so many games this year where they've dug a hole, and they've clawed back and been able to get the game close in the fourth quarter and win.

From one hand, you feel good about if this game is close in the fourth quarter i'm gonna have confidence at that point that they're gonna be able to at least you know make it competitive and maybe pull it out because we've seen them do that so many times this year but yeah the fear is that it's just 28 to 3 28 to 10 at halftime and the game's already over because again it's just completely different it's completely different being down like that against the pages anybody else because they're going to keep scoring points they're not going to stop so i don't know i mean i i feel like that there will like i said there will be some plays to to be had against this defense but at the end of the day it's just you know when when you look at Tom Brady on the other side

and the fact that this defense, like I said, they've been better than most of us thought they would be coming into the season, but I don't know. I just don't feel great about their chances going up against Tom Brady. No, and we're kind of seeing the legend of Marcus Mario to be born here in the playoffs really after a down year, so that're kind of seeing the legend of Marcus Mario to be born here in the playoffs, really after a down year, so that's kind of interesting. I just want to see the guy with a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter.

I mean, how cool would that be? Go to Foxborough in your second career playoff game and have a chance to beat Tom Brady. So I hope the Titans can put him in that spot because he's come up big the last two weeks he's been in that spot. I think we're seeing some maturity come out of him. We're seeing some progression come from him in the spread look.

I hope the Titans can just keep it close, keep it respectable, and give 8 a chance to win because it's been really fun to watch. You made the point, I think, back two weeks ago about just the importance of getting playoff experience for these guys and that that's something that we should have been rooting for in the conversation about whether we should root for them to win or not, which, again, I thought was a little bit ridiculous. But, again, this is like there's no greater stage than going to Foxborough, you know,

in the primetime game on Saturday night against the Patriots. And so there's a lot of, you know, invaluable experience that these guys, Marcus Mariota, and everybody else will gain from being in this game so that's something that you know and again i don't know i mean i i like to like i was telling terry before we started recording there was about 10 12 percent of me i'll say last week that thought the titans had a chance to win against the chiefs um you could you could look through the matchups and say, okay, they have some advantages here. Maybe they can pull it off. It's not that hot this week.

I just don't. I'm trying. I really am. I got blasted on Twitter last week for not having faith. I'm trying to. But just when you break it down, it's hard for me to see it happening. But to know where this roster is, where it was two years ago, where it is now, to talk about getting experiences like this that this team is getting, to think that they're going to be a lot more talented next year,

adding a few more pieces on offense and defense, they're going to be that much further ahead than they would have been had they lost to the Jaguars in Week and not not ever been able to be here so there there is something to that and again i've said it before but we kind of sound like bandy fans when we have these conversations we're trying to take the moral victories and i'm really not trying to do that i hope they go up there and win but you know when you step back and look at this season, the fact that they made it to the divisional round, I think you have to consider that part of it a success.

And like you said before we started, I mean, the Titans are one win away from the SEC championship game. They're two wins away from the Super Bowl. And while we don't feel good about the chances there, that is something, and it's a place this franchise hasn't been in a really long time. How wild is that? I mean, I thought about that all week. One game away from the AFC title.

So that's just weird. Just a weird season. I've said that in almost every podcast. Just such a weird time to be a Titans fan. You go from potentially talking about a coaching search, do we want to win, Josh know, Josh McDaniels, and then all of a sudden you're going to Foxborough and you've got a shot at the AFC championship game. So it's weird.

I'll give them a puncher's chance. I'll go 5% or 10% just because I feel, we both feel, Titan hadn't put a game together this year. And that's not to say that I expect them to go out there and do it, but I'm still not going to totally rule that out. I mean, you could see Marcus Mariota. You could see some of the progression that he made last week, you know, looking off of safety and using his eyes again.

So that was good to see. You know, if he plays at a high level and the receivers don't screw up too terribly and he doesn't turn the ball over. Titans are able to run the ball, and they can get a fast start. And, yeah, there's no reason why this team can't give New England a game. You know, like we said at the beginning of this podcast, number 12 is on the other side, and he's a killer,

and he's going to get his. I don't care what defense he's playing. He's going to get his. So don't care what defense he's playing. He's going to get his. So they're going to have to score points. They're probably going to have to score 30 to even think about winning this game. But I'm not going to say they don't have no chance. Right, and that's the thing. I mean, we're feeling better about this offense than we did a month ago.

And we talked back then about how we would feel if this team heading into the offseason would basically be based on how Marcus Mariota was playing at the end of the season. And we feel better about that at this point. So, hey, it's the playoffs. Anything can happen. And if they do put together a complete game, I i mean i think they could go up there and win but i just my my uh confidence in the fact they're going to be able to do that is not very high at this point for what 18 now right yeah absolutely so that's that's the issue but mark mike malarkey

keeps saying every week you know one day they're going to do it so maybe this will be the game all right uh that's pretty much all we have for tonight uh tomorrow night we will be joined by mark scofield uh i hope i'm saying that right of locked on patriot so we'll get his take on this game on this team we'll ask him about the article from uspn about you know all the things uh swirling around this team about the status of guys like james white rest burkhead chris hogan, guys that have mispracticed, you know, as of Tuesday this week. But we'll watch what happens and what he thinks their chances are of playing. Because I do think that if it is just Deion Lewis,

like it has been the last couple of weeks, I mean, I think that that helps the Titans some because you don't have, you know, James White's obviously a huge threat in the passing game. Rex Burkhead has proven to be the same as well. So we'll check on the injury status of all those guys tomorrow when we talk to Mark. So be sure and check that out. Terry, anything we need to hit before we get out? That's all I got tonight.

All right, sounds good. So like I said, tune in tomorrow. We'll be talking to Mark from Locked on Patriots. Check out our site, musicseedofmiracles.com. If you're new here, if this is the first time you're here on the podcast, search it out on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, Locked on Titans, subscribe. You'll get the newest episodes as soon as they're posted.

Check out musicseedofmiracles.com. We'll have a lot more on this game. And obviously, whatever happens, we'll be covering Titans throughout the offseason. Sometimes that can be the most fun part of writing about this free agency, the draft, all that kind of stuff. So we'll have you covered through all that. So thanks for

listening to Locked on Titans. Follow us on Twitter. At TLambertFB is Terry. At JMorrisMCM, that's me. Check us out there, and we will talk to you tomorrow.