Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Nov. 21- Titans lose in Indy AgaIn, streak reaches 11 straight.

Episode Date: November 21, 2016

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. You are Locked on Titans, your daily podcast on the Tennessee Titans. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. And welcome to Locked on Titans, your daily source for all Titans news and information Every day. night, to be honest with the listeners. We talked about this last week. We are recording live Sunday night following the Titans game from a radio booth high above Lucas Oil Stadium, guys. And the current news, obviously the fact that the Titans fall to the Indianapolis Colts here today, 24-17 the final score in this game. And guys, it was a game that the Titans had opportunities to win, though they fell behind early, made a comeback, but could not ultimately get over the top as they lose for the 11th straight

time to the Indianapolis Colts, Brad. Yeah, I think it was definitely a tale of two halves. And when you talk about the 21-7 halftime deficit, the Titans getting on the board somewhat later in the second quarter kind of gave you the feel that this is at least a momentum swing maybe. But it was definitely the Colts. 21-0 in the first quarter. They dominated their first possession, of course causing the Titans to punt. And I think when you look at those situations like that, that's what caused an early, basically a hole for the Titans, Terry. Right. And when you fall down 21-0, I mean, you've got to give some credit for being able to

come back and get yourself back in the ballgame. But when you fall behind 21-0 against a team that has had your number, like the Colts have owned the Titans over the last five plus years, then you're in a situation of, you know, there has to be a little bit of it. I don't care who you are. Oh, no. Here we go again. Right. we go again. So what happens in those situations? How does a team continually win over another team time after time after time? We see it happen in college a lot. But in the NFL, it's almost unheard of, except in a couple of cases, Steelers-Browns comes to mind, and then this one.

Other than that, it's almost unheard of that games between two divisional opponents become so one-sided. And that usually only happens when you have a lot of players that are still on both teams that recognize the difficulties that obviously come up when you have these two teams match each other. In other words, when you have youngsters that really don't understand the history, they don't really care from one day to the next who the actual opponent is. But in this instance, when you have youngsters that really don't understand the history, they don't really care from one day to the next who the actual opponent is. But in this instance, when you have three different coaching regime changes, a plethora of quarterbacks that have been under center trying to beat this Colts team,

you can definitely see how there is a lack of consistency. I will say that from one half to the next, maybe this team is at least taking a step closer to at least not having it be 12 straight next year. Hopefully they play better. But in essence, I think the Colts picked up here at home where they left off down there in Nashville, controlling the fourth quarter, coming into this game, controlling the first quarter, and ultimately causing the Titans to be in scramble mode. And guys, there were a couple of other things for the Colts today, too.

One was the fact that they had some weapons back. Dwayne Allen back in the lineup. Dante Moncrief back in the lineup today. He scored. Which Philip Dorsett also back, which gave Andrew Luck more options to throw the football to than he had in the first meeting down in Nashville. And certainly he took advantage of that early on in the ballgame, Brad. As you said, the Titans played a little bit better in the second half, obviously,

and got some stops defensively. But when it came right down to it, when the Titans got to within 21-14, or actually 21-17 after the field goal, Luck then took them on a drive to go down and match the Titans' field goal that ultimately set up where the Titans would be in a position to have to go forward on that fourth down in the fourth quarter and were unable to convert. Yeah, I think, Terry, as we get kind of in some of the detail about the game itself,

not talking offense or defense, you can definitely see where they neutralized Delaney Walker. We heard Chuck Pagano talk about in this postgame interview, just that was part of the big game plan going in. Obviously take away one of Marcus's best weapons. And of course, they also neutralized the rushing attack. I think 21 carries, 70 yards was the total for DeMarco Murray. Didn't see much of anything from Derrick Henry. And, of course, Marcus Mariota really wasn't running the field vertically

with the football, so therefore he wasn't effective in that form or fashion. And also he was sacked five times, Terry. You're looking at the Colts did basically exactly what they wanted to do defensively. They said DeMarco Murray is not going to beat us. They said Delaney Walker is not going to beat us. So that forced Marcus Mariota to go to other targets, to find a Rashard Matthews who had a big game, to find Tajay Sharp who came up with a touchdown

and had a couple of other catches. But by and large, the Colts knew who the Titans' top weapons were, and they were not going to allow those guys to be game breakers today. I think I was making a joke during the week, and I said that this wasn't the same vaunted pass rush for Indianapolis that featured Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney. Well, Robert Mathis had a sack today, you know, so did a number of other guys, which, you know, when you look adversely, you know, for the Tennessee Titans, who normally can put pressure on the quarterback, they weren't near as effective. And guys, not to make excuses, obviously, but the Colts had a little bit of extra motivation

today in the fact that today they had the anniversary celebration. It's been 10 years since their Super Bowl win, and that Super Bowl team was here, including Peyton Manning that were on the field at halftime. Now, Brad, I know you competed against some of those guys in your career and Peyton Manning included, but that was in the old RCA dome here in town, not the new stadium. But still, that's got to be motivating to see those guys and to have Peyton Manning out on the field here and to know as a player that these guys are watching you perform where they set the stage for this stadium to be here by what they were able to do. You know, Greg, Terry, I don't know that that didn't add more pressure for this team.

I'm talking about the Colts team that ultimately caused them to open the window for the Titans. Because it seemed like maybe even the extended halftime where you had all the people out there and Jim Irsay is addressing the crowd and talking about how this was the foundation of the team that you're seeing today, blah, blah, blah. You know, they didn't come out in the third quarter, the Colts didn't, playing like the team that obviously is addressing the crowd and talking about how this was the foundation of the team that you're seeing today, blah, blah, blah. You know, they didn't come out in the third quarter. The Colts didn't, playing like the team that obviously is carrying the banner. No, they didn't. The Titans were able to get back in the ballgame in the second half

because they kind of knocked the Colts off of their game plan for a little bit. They were finally able to get a little bit of pressure on Andrew Luck. And as we switch over and talk about the defensive side of the ball, you know, when it gets right down to it, defensively, this is a bad matchup for the Titans. And here's why. Because Andrew Luck is asked to do quite a bit. I mean, as much, along with maybe Phillip Rivers and Aaron Rodgers, he's asked to do as much for his team as any quarterback

out there. Would you agree with that in terms of the personnel around him? I agree. He's asked, they don't have a strong offensive line. He's asked to make throws under duress, which he did today. And he has, what he does have, though, is fast receivers. What the Titans don't have is fast cornerbacks. So when the pressure doesn't get there, when the pressure doesn't get there, then those crossing routes and things like that open up,

and as Andrew Luck is eluding the pass rush, if he doesn't take off and run himself, he finds a T.Y. Hilton or a Dante Moncrief crossing for a big gain. He finds a guy who slipped behind the safety on the deep route. Those sorts of things happen, and the Titans are going to have to get faster in the secondary if they want to compete with the Colts. That is a phenomenal point that you bring up, Terry. I think that with this team that doesn't have a clear-out identified pass rusher or clear-out identified cover guy that can take away a third of the field,

they have to manufacture the pass rush and the coverage and therefore be balanced. In other words, if the rush isn't getting there in a timely fashion, it's putting way too much time on the extended clock on the guys in the back end. And if those guys aren't quick enough, like you just talked about, to be able to cover the receivers coming in past the linebacker level, then that pass rush basically doesn't have time to get there to be effective in the backfield. Guys, when we look at the Andrew Luck numbers on this game, they're not overwhelming. He finished just 15 of 28, 262 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, quarterback rating of 94.6.

Those are solid numbers, but it's not spectacular. He didn't throw for 350, 400 yards in this game, but he made plays. And he made, guys, more importantly, plays on third downs to keep drives alive. A lot of times he did it with his leg, extending the plays and picking up a couple of first downs running, and that was enough to make sure that the Titans, as they struggled offensively, especially in the first half, couldn't get in a position to really win this game.

Yeah, I think like we were mentioning, the lethargic effort seemingly in the first half for the Titans, it seemed to be contagious for the Colts in the second half because, like you just mentioned, even time of possession, the Titans won that 31-28. You mentioned total yards. I think the Titans had almost 20 more yards. And even rushing the football, they had more yards. Frank Gore only had 50 yards today. So it was kind of an evenly matched competition today.

It was, but where the Colts hurt the Titans most were chunk plays. The Titans were getting plays 10, 15 yards at a time when they moved it. The Colts, three different times. They had one 49-yard play and I think two 50-yard plays. Those are big chunk plays that when you get those, then not only it turns the field, it gives you momentum, and you're able to take. And maybe where you, instead of having to go seven plays for 80 yards,

you're maybe going four plays for 80 yards because you got such a chunk out of one play, and it's giving you added opportunities to score because of that. You know where that came from? A lot of times I saw when it was the pass rush was effective, the play seemingly was going to break down. And then when, of course, Andrew Luck is in scramble mode, those chunk plays were gotten because of – is that even a word, gotten? Were obtained, basically, because of guys like T.Y. Hilton finding holes in the zone,

which isn't necessarily a route that they ran, but they're trying to find some place to be a factor for Andrew Luck as he was trying to avoid the pass rush. And when you look at Marcus Mariota's numbers on the day, he had a pretty good day, 25 of 38, 290 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, 106.2 was the quarterback rating. So he actually outplayed Andrew Luck. But the difference, guys, and you talked about the pass rush for the Titans

not getting to Luck. Conversely, five sacks of Mariota today that took them out of opportunities, and especially a couple of times on third down where he was thrown for big losses and you wind up punting the football away. So pass rush turned out to be the difference, but it was the team that we didn't necessarily think was as good at rushing the passer that did the most effective job. How funny is that, Terry, when we talk about pass rush being an issue for the Colts

and it being a strength for the Titans. Derek Morgan and Austin Johnson were the only guys that actually got a hand on Andrew Luck's jersey today. And conversely, Andrew Luck was taken, or Marcus Muriel was taken to the ground five times. Yeah, when you look at it, you know, the way this game turned out, you know, the Titans' offensive line has been the bread and butter of this team all year long. It's something they've hung their hat on. And today was the first time that that offensive line really got physically whipped. And when I say physically whipped, I don't mean beaten down completely.

But you're talking about the five sacks. Fourth and one down here with the game on the line. You're thinking, if you give the ball to DeMarco Murray, he's going to get you one yard, and he's stuck for no gain. Now granted, Taylor LeBlanc was out of the game because of an injury there, but we've seen other pieces be interchangeable on this offensive line, and this group has played very well, but today, the Colts got the better of them. Yeah, I think that kind of came and bit him in the butt a little bit today, Terry, because we did see them try to get a little exotic bringing in Kelly.

He was in the backfield one time motioning to the line of scrimmage, and they brought somebody else over in motion to run directly at where they said that they were going to run the football, which kind of, in my opinion, made it more predictable for the Colts to make a play on fourth down. So maybe not having Taylor LeJuan in there where you can just line up and maybe have a formation with a couple of tight ends, they had to bring in kind of a jumble package with an extra lineman, and it made it more predictable what they were going to do, therefore defensible.

Yeah, Brad, you said that to us during the course of the game as we were sitting there watching that fourth down, stopped by the Titans that they were predictable by doing that. But with Dennis Kelly, and no disrespect intended to him, but when LeJuan goes out of the game and you're in that fourth and one situation, you played left tackle, would you as a coach or a play caller maybe think about going to the other side and running behind Jack Conklin in that situation and not going behind the guy that's come in that's maybe been a little bit cold on the

bench? He hasn't necessarily played a lot and you're asking him to come in. I know he's an NFL player and he should be able to do that, but it just seems like maybe you go the other way after you, as you said, kind of, you know, they showed you their hand and try to cross them up. Maybe there was a little bit of trickeration in just the formation, et cetera, et cetera, because if you think about it, if you're just trying to get a yard, Terry, I mean, how hard would it be for you to just have a guy under center and, you know, when that offensive line starts pushing, just get in there and start pushing behind them.

But in essence, they tried to catch the Colts with their pants down a little bit, catch them off guard a little bit and because of all that movement and etc., etc., I thought that they didn't gain the momentum necessary to get that one yard. I agree. I think one of the things too, it was an off-tackle play. So there was a little bit of east-west instead of north-south. And they showed today that the Colts were able to get out and prevent those long runs off the edge. And the Titans, trying to go east-west, there was one time where DeMarco Murray ran 15 yards to gain a half a yard. And those

types of plays just did not get out of the chute today for the Titans. Yeah, and I will say there was a little bit of uncustomarily sloppy play when you're talking about drives that were actually looking to be pretty good and they'd have, with the 11 penalties today, something would stall them out. Remember Marcus' carry here on left hash basically, almost getting down to within the 10-yard line. It was called back because of a holding call. And that's unfortunate because that was obviously a first down, something that could have set up points for them, hopefully a touchdown, but obviously a mistake like a penalty cost them the momentum in that drive.

Now, guys, let me pose this question to you because last week against Green Bay we saw quite a bit of fullback in the ballgame with Jalston Fowler. He got a kick-out block on the opening play, the 75-yard Murray touchdown run. We didn't see a lot of him today in the backfield leading. Would that have been a situation on that fourth down and one where they were stuffed where you have Dennis Kelly in the ballgame, but you bring in your fullback and get in the eye, and they have no idea which way you're going

and maybe lead with the fullback on that? Or am I crazy in that? Oh, you mean like what Robert Turbin did in the first quarter? Yes, exactly. Get on the scoreboard. Well, obviously it worked for somebody today, right? I'm sorry. Yeah.

That's what they did. Well, you've got a fullback that you drafted fairly high for a fullback last year, and you don't use him in a situation where you've got a fourth and one against a team. They've played great today, but statistically, if I could say it, they're 30th in the league coming into this game, and that's a situation where you've got to feel like you can line up and get a yard. Yeah, I think that sometimes, though, when you're looking at 21-0, the fullback is probably the last option you're thinking about.

You're thinking about something maybe even down the field, even in a short yardage situation, because they just got them into the red zone. Didn't get them into the end zone, but the red zone. So they have more offense to probably cater to. And when you're down 21-0, tell me, Brad, how much do you have to just wad the game plan up and throw it in the trash and say, let's throw the football and get back into it? Those first dozen of plays there or so that you've been working on all week,

they're out the window at this point, because you've got 12 plays lined up to design to get that ball down the field as effectively as you can without putting too much pressure on protection, et cetera, et cetera. But like you said, you know, no one really, you know, puts together a first few plays planning on being down three touchdowns. You know what I'm saying? They're pretty much thinking about balance and thinking about staying on the

field, which obviously wasn't the case for the Titans today. Now, guys, with 11 games in the books, still five games to play, this team heads to Chicago next week to play a Bears team that has struggled. This put a dent, though, in their playoff hopes. They now sit 1-3 inside the division, two losses to the Colts, one to the Texans, the lone win over Jacksonville. You've still got a chance to get to 3-3, winning out, obviously, against Jacksonville at their place, the Texans at home.

But it made it tough. And rather than being 6-5 right now, you're 5-6 and wondering again, you know, why can't we seem to get over these humps at certain times and get this thing and build momentum and keep rolling after what was the best game of the season by far last week against Green Bay. All I'm saying is that the Wright brothers weren't worried about a turbine engine. You know what I'm saying? They were just worried about getting that rascal off the ground.

And I know that we're talking about playoffs because of how, you know, unexpectedly well the Titans have played at some point in time during the season, but it is a vast improvement from what we've seen for the past couple years. So while this might not be a playoff run that we're talking about here with the Tennessee Titans, being at.500 and hovering around that, I think we take that kind of that Fisher ball that we keep making fun of more so than the dysfunction that we've seen over the past couple of years picking first in a draft.

That is true. I mean, when you put it that way, that is a remarkable improvement. But I think it's one of those things, too, where when you get that close, you start thinking hey what could be and now you're kind of behind the eight ball a little bit at five and six i think if you really are serious about harboring any playoff hopes you gotta go four and one and maybe five and oh in these last five games for sure well and you're in a division in the afc south that really doesn't have a dominant team i mean mean, it's there for the taking, even as bad as the Titans have played at times this

season. This is a bad division overall, which makes the talk of the playoffs easier to get into, I guess, and stomach because it is a bad division. Yeah, but that reality has set in. We've had a couple of bad losses within the division, and there's no wild card scenario for this team. So you can pretty much cancel Christmas in that scenario. Yeah, you've got to win out, somehow win the division. If you can get to those last two weeks and still have something left to play for with Jacksonville and Houston, then you can start thinking seriously about

potential playoffs. But these next three weeks with the bye sandwiched in there, those are games that are going to basically determine your season as to whether or not you're going to have any life left. You know, the crazy thing is, I think with this team, you can start thinking extension because of how well they played. So I think what they're playing for in the final five or six weeks of the season is basically an identity for next year. In other words, when they start putting the teams together, you know, the pantheon of 32 teams, they're going to look at the Tennessee Titans and see how they finished. And rather than being 28th, 29th, you know, somewhere around there where they normally are,

how about 13th, 14th, maybe even 12th if they're good enough because of how they left, you know, the impression basically on the season 2016. And that would be a marked jump from 32 to 13, 12, anything like that. But, guys, and let's not forget it, the obviously big news this week is going to be paying attention to the health situation of Taylor LeJuan. We did see him walk off the field under his own power, but, Brad, you felt like it was a knee injury as he was walking off.

And, obviously, we don't have any confirmation from the team medically, but certainly that's going to be big news this week. Yeah, okay, so I'm just assessing what we were able to see from the sidelines up here in the press box. If it were that paramount an injury, I don't think that you would have seen Taylor LeJuan standing on the sideline. He would have either, A, been carted off, or, B, at least been sitting down, elevating whatever issue that he had.

I think it was obviously late in the ballgame. At that point in time, you're not 100%. Something has happened with you. And rather than throw you in there and try and, quote, unquote, work it out, just let Dennis Kelly finish out the game. You'll get yourself some treatment next week, and you'll be back on the field. I agree with you. The only time, only time I have ever seen an injury that was not thought to be serious

turn out to be amazingly serious. And you remember this one. Peter Sermon happened in a training camp practice. He just kind of misstepped, and all of a sudden he limps off the field, and you're thinking, ah, he'll miss a week. And he was out for the season with an ACL. You hope and pray that it's not that sort of thing for Taylor LeJuan. And I think, you know, chances are he'll be evaluated tomorrow

and maybe the Titans will get some good news. Same thing happened in Minnesota. Teddy Bridgewater. Yes. Looked like he was dropping a pass. People are looking to see where the pass is going. You know, Teddy Bridgewater is laying on the ground over there hollering because of some crazy step.

Yeah, absolutely. So, certainly things like that happen. Guys, we're running out of time in our night here at Lucas Oil Stadium. And, again, for those that might have joined us late, we are recording this Sunday night live from Lucas Oil Stadium following the Titans' 24-17 loss to the Colts. Final thoughts. Brad, go ahead and take it away with your final thought on this tough game for the Titans.

You know, it's this, and I'm not going to say this is like tsunamis with the Super Bowl, but the Super Bowl started out kind of ugly for the Tennessee Titans. And when the game was over, people felt better about a loss for the Tennessee Titans. So while I'm trying to find the glass half full in this scenario, the Tennessee Titans did have a chance late in the ballgame to tie it up and maybe even take it into overtime. That is a staunch difference from what we saw in the very beginning of this game, which means there's life there.

So while this was a disappointment, while it was the 11th straight time that the Tennessee Titans have failed to beat Andrew Luck, I still think that there's some promise even moving forward. I agree with that. Now I'm going to flip it over. I'm going to say that the good things that the Titans are doing, being able to stay in ballgames, come from behind. Those are positives. The things that are getting them into trouble, some weeks it's turnovers,

some weeks it's slow starts. Today it was a slow start plus penalties, is a sign of a team that, one, is still not completely mature, and two, still not a complete team. There are still areas that need to be addressed. And I think moving forward that this offseason, very important for John Robinson and Mike Malarkey. And I know there are five games left and anything can happen. But long term, one more good offseason of free agency, one more good offseason with the draft.

And you're talking about a team that has one of the better young quarterbacks in the league we could be talking about a team that's forming a core starting in 2017 that could be carry them they could carry them through the next five six seven years much like you guys did when you played and had guys like yourself and steve and eddie and frank and all. How many years does Vaughn Miller have on his contract? He's not an option. Too many. Okay. Terry, you mentioned it, and my final thought today is on Marcus Mariota and the fact that we've talked at times, San Diego and Minnesota in particular,

about Marcus having good days but then being overshadowed by a bad turnover, a bad couple of turnovers that turned into points for other teams. He came out today, had a good day. It wasn't a dominant day. He didn't throw an interception. I thought he played fairly well. Made a couple of decisions that obviously we talked about from the press box, having

a vantage point high above the field where he might have done something differently had he been looking at it from our viewpoint as opposed to his on the field. But a solid day, which to me is perhaps the most impressive thing of this game other than the fact that the team didn't quit. They managed to come back and fight back and get back into the game after being down 21-0. But Marcus' play today was encouraging because it continued that streak. He had a great game last week.

He had another solid effort. He's stacking, as they say, performances on top of performances, and that's what you want to see out of a young quarterback, even in a loss. So I thought that was impressive today that he was able to do that one more time. The youngsters are saying that Marcus is lit nowadays. That's a new term for being hot, I guess. If you say so. He'll get a week to go back and work and go to Chicago where, Brad, Terry,

it's cold in Indianapolis as we speak. We were inside, obviously. How would we know? I was about to say. Yeah, we're inside with the wind blowing. It's 70 degrees in here where we are. But next week they're going to play in Chicago, and we know it's going to be cold.

Could be rainy. Could be snowy. Could be bad conditions. Marcus needs to come out and have another one of those games next week in that. Guys, it's been fun being here in Indianapolis to do this tonight. Maybe we can do it again next season when the Titans get to come up here and hopefully

we'll be talking about breaking the streak. Absolutely. That will do it for us. Enjoy the rest of your Monday and we will see you again on Tuesday. You've been listening to Locked On Titans on the Locked On Podcast Network. You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee

Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team, every day.