Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Nov. 22- Four Downs For The Bears

Episode Date: November 22, 2016

It;s Tuesday which means we go Four Downs as the Titans prepare to face the Bears on Sunday. #BHop #TerryMc #GregA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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 with your host, Terry McCormick of TitanInsider.com, Greg Arias and former Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl left tackle Brad Hopkins. It's Tuesday, which means Terry McCormick and I holding down the fort today. And Terry, as always on Tuesday, a lot of stuff to cover,

especially today with a lot of news coming out of the press conference that we will get to, of course, current news and our four downs where we look at four separate items. And certainly there are some interesting things among those four today that we'll get to here in a little bit, aren't there, Terry? Yeah, definitely a lot of things to get into, especially coming off that loss in Indianapolis yesterday where the Titans fell way behind and then tried to rally

and now kind of behind the eight ball a little bit, Greg, as they go forward with their last five games. Let's start with our current news, as always, and we'll do that by jumping into the injury front and talking about Taylor LeJuan who left the game late in the fourth quarter in Indianapolis on Sunday with a knee injury. The prognosis is a sprained knee and it looks like potentially good news Terry that he could practice and potentially play on Sunday in Chicago. So that's certainly not the dreaded news that a lot of people perhaps thought might have been possible

when you saw him laying stretched out on the turf there in that fourth quarter. Yeah, probably, you know, a best-case scenario. Taylor said he heard a pop in the knee as somebody got blocked into him. And he just kind of went down and waited for the trainers. He said, obviously, very scary. And Mike Malarkey said, basically, it's, you know, a day-to-day thing. It's going to be, you know, whether he can tolerate the pain. You know, he's got a chance to play this week.

Wouldn't surprise me with the bye coming up the week after that they could hold him out this week, let him rest it, give him two weeks to get healthy, and then come back for the stretch run. If that's the case, then Titans would have a decision to make. They're either going to have to install Dennis Kelly at left tackle, who finished up the game yesterday there, or put him at right tackle and slide the rookie Jack Conklin, who was a left tackle at Michigan State, over there to protect Mariota's blind side.

Now, that brings up an interesting dilemma, doesn't it? We saw Dennis Kelly come in in the Green Bay game after LaJuan's ejection. He finished up that game, played well, I thought, and most people did. I know you and I both watching that game felt like Kelly played well. I don't know that you want to take two players and swap Conklin over like that, do you, and have the rookie then not necessarily learning but playing a new position that he's never played in the NFL before. It seems to me like it's just maybe better served

if you're going to have Kelly in there, put him on the left side, and let him go for it. Well, it's possible. I think maybe one of the reasons you wouldn't do it in the middle of a game unless you had to, as Kelly came in the last two games, once for the ejection and then yesterday late in the game for the injury, I think when you look at it that way, as you go through the week, guys are already in the positions that they know they're going to play.

They're already kind of comfortable there. The continuity is there, and so you don't want to mess with the chemistry. Now, if you know going in that Taylor LeJuan is not going to be available, then you might consider shifting Jack Conklin to the left side simply because he's probably your best remaining offensive lineman, and you'd certainly want him in the most important position on the line. That would be the thinking there. Interesting to see what the Titans do when they practice this week. If Taylor LeJuan is not available, how they shift that offensive line, whether they just go with Dennis Kelly or whether they decide that it's time to put Jack Conklin over on the left. Now, does that put more pressure on, perhaps, Taylor LeJuan to get back in this week?

And I know the coaches certainly wouldn't want an injured player in the game to potentially get hurt worse or maybe be ineffective, but still a little bit more pressure there for him to get back so that they don't have to go through these things, that they can try to bounce back after that tough defeat on Sunday and have the offensive line back intact, and maybe he rushes it a little bit? Well, I wouldn't think they'd want to rush him. I think Taylor obviously wants to be out there and back as quickly as possible.

And if that can happen this week against the Bears, all the better. But if not, I think, you know, they have confidence in Dennis Kelly that wherever they put him in on the line, that he's going to do a competent job. And I think, you know, I don't think they'll rush Taylor back because I think one of the things that they did this offseason was to try and address not only the starters on the offensive line and the scheme on the offensive line, but also address the depth because the last couple of years

the line had been decimated by injuries and some of the players that they were bringing in to fill in on that line simply did not measure up. Now that doesn't seem to be the case because you've got Dennis Kelly and you've got Brian Schwenke, both who are competent NFL players that are manning those positions as backups coming in to fill in. In other current news, Terry, there's a new record holder in the Titans franchise history books, and that is one Marcus Mariota.

On Sunday in Indianapolis, Marcus with the seventh consecutive multiple touchdown passing effort of the season, seven in a row, and that breaks an old franchise record that had previously been held by Hall of Famer Warren Moon, who had six consecutive games where he threw multiple TD passes. Marcus with the seventh yesterday passes Warren Moon. Now, certainly it's a long way to go for Marcus to become Warren Moon, but when you start breaking records held by people like Warren Moon,

that certainly says something about at least what you're doing so far and the potential where you could be headed. Yeah, he's really putting up some nice numbers. And to add on to that, he has 23 touchdown passes. Now, if he can throw just two more for the rest of the season, with five games left, if he can throw just two more, he will move into fourth place in the franchise per single season. Touchdown passes behind George Blanda, who had a 36 and I think a 27, and Moon, who had a 33 touchdown pass season in 1990.

So Marcus Mariota is starting to get into some lofty company as far as the team record book. And another thing is he also is well within range of having his first 3,000-yard passing season. He had 2,818 last year. he's got a little over 2,700 so you know a day like he's been having over the past two to three weeks in terms of yardage would put him right there at the 3,000 yard mark just 12 games into the season and you have to feel good about him getting to that 3,000 yards because he still has the game, obviously, with the Bears on Sunday. They're a team that struggled this year. He's got

another meeting with Jacksonville. Of course, you've got Kansas City, Denver, and Houston in there too, but you think that 3,000 yards, certainly at 2,700, would be very manageable for this young man at this point, but of all those statistics, Terry, the one that's still the most impressive about it to me is the red zone number. Still has not thrown a touch, or excuse me, an interception in the red zone, and he threw an absolute bullet between coverage on Sunday for a touchdown up in Indianapolis in a throw that looked like, from where we were sitting, when he let it go, that it might be deflected or even potentially could have been intercepted.

He put it only where the receiver could get it. It's just amazing what he does when he gets near the goal line. Yeah, it really is. I think it's 30 touchdowns now and no interceptions or something crazy like that. But that zero in the interception column is the thing that is the most amazing accomplishment there. And it kind of gives you confidence that any time the Titans get within scoring range, that Marcus is probably more often than not going to make something good happen for the Titans.

You're listening to Locked on Titans on the Locked on Podcast Network, the world's fastest growing podcast network. Terry, it's time to jump into our four down segment, and we want to fly right in with the biggest news of the day, and certainly there were three or four things that really came out today that were interesting, but Parrish Cox, he potentially could be in line to be replaced as a starter. He struggled over the last couple of games, certainly struggled big time, and he wasn't the only one.

There were some other members of the Titans secondary that struggled on Sunday in Indianapolis, but Mike Malarkey would not say specifically if he would be replaced in the starting lineup this coming Sunday in Chicago, but he certainly left the door open that that could occur. Yeah, he said it was something that they were discussing. The problem is that if you bench Paris Cox, your options are pretty well limited.

You've either got Bryce McCain, who has been the nickelback, and he's had his troubles at times this year. You've got Valentino Blake, whose stock is certainly down right now for his work on special teams, and we'll discuss more of that a little later. And then you've got the rookie, LaShawn Sims, who's pretty untested except for special teams. I think the other option would be Kalen Reed or recently signed Jeremiah McKinnon. Either one of those would have to be elevated from the practice squad. They could also bring back Cody Riggs, who would have, either one of those would have to be elevated from the practice squad. They could also bring back Cody Riggs, who's familiar with the system, if they choose to

do that, although that would seem to be unlikely since they turned him loose off the practice squad and put him on the street a little over a week ago. So it's, you know, very limited options. And even though you may want to replace Parrish Cox, you've got to make sure that whoever you put in there is going to be an upgrade, and I'm not sure that whoever you put in there is going to be a big-time upgrade, maybe a marginal one. I would agree with that, and I would think,

knowing what we know about this group as it stands, to me, I go with with lashawn sims the rookie simply because he's young he obviously has good speed there were things that they liked about him is why he was a draft pick last year in the draft yes he's untested yes he's a rookie but throw the kid in there and see what he can do if you're going to do that because we certainly know the limitations with Bryce McCain and Valentino Blake at this point in time. We've seen those firsthand.

They were part of the struggles as well on Sunday against Andrew Luck and the Colts. So put the young guy in there and let him fly and kind of maybe find out what you got with him going forward because certainly we know and have talked about, Terry, addressing the secondary in the upcoming free agency period following this season and next year's draft. They need help in that secondary, and now seems like a good time to me to find out what you got with this kid.

Yeah, I think it couldn't hurt any. At least, you know, like they've been doing at the safety position, they've been doing a rotation. Maybe you rotate him in there for a series at cornerback and see how he holds up. You know, if you're not confident enough that he can handle, you know, a full load on the defensive side of the ball, put him in there in a rotation like you have been with the safeties.

So, you know, I would be anxious to see LaShawn Sims as well, simply for the fact that it would bring some new blood into the lineup. It's certainly going to be interesting and something to watch this week as the Titans go through practice preparing for Sunday. And obviously, we may not know right up until kickoff on Sunday when they come out for the first defensive series, who indeed will be the person that starts at that cornerback spot, be it Parrish Cox or someone else. Moving on to second down, Kevin Dodd had some interesting news come out about him today, Terry.

He was a healthy scratch on Sunday, and certainly when we looked at the actives and inactives Sunday for that game and seeing his name, it was kind of a question of, hmm, wonder why that is. But then we saw his fellow rookie, Aaron Wallace, who was up and active, had a pretty decent game. So the Titans got the opportunity to find out a little bit about Aaron Wallace in a game on Sunday. But that's big news when Dodd is a healthy scratch because the coaching staff has some issues with the way he's gone about his business here in the last couple of weeks, I guess.

Yeah, they were not happy with the way he had practiced, either on the defense or on the scout team. And so I think they sent a message to him that his play needs to pick up, his practice habits need to change. And, you know, it's really kind of been a lost year for Dodd, who had the surgery on his foot, had that screw inserted with that fifth metatarsal injury, and he came back, missed all of training camp and preseason, started when the regular season got going, been a backup,

has only five tackles and one sack all year. The foot acted up again, had some soreness in it, so they gave him a week off to get that cleared up. And then yesterday, a healthy scratch, or on Sunday, a healthy scratch for the Titans. And kind of sending a message that, hey, it's time to get going. And when you look at this draft class from last year, at this point in time, there's really only two guys in that class that have produced to this point. Of course, Jack Conklin that we talked about a little bit earlier,

the starting right tackle, and then Kevin Byard, the safety third-round pick. You had three second-round guys, and to this point, they have kind of been nonexistent. You mentioned Dodd, of course, with the injury. Austin Johnson has spent some time as an inactive, and Derrick Henry's kind of on a milk carton, though I don't know through any of his own fault. It's just kind of the way things have played out at this point in time. And certainly Dodd was one of the guys that this team looked to coming in to be a big factor this season,

and that just has never materialized. Right. I mean, they had hoped that he would give them another pass rusher to kind of spell Derek Morgan and Brian Arakpo, but the injuries set him back and he's just not been able to get on track as they would hope. And I think, you know, it's kind of been a lost year for Kevin Dodd. I think they would like to see him kind of get things turned around if he could over these last five weeks to maybe give them

a little bit of hope that going forward that he's going to be more of an impact player but certainly most of his rookie year has been a little bit of a disappointment moving on to third down and terry you and i have watched a lot of football you and i and br Brad sat there in the press box at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday and watched one of the most peculiar and strangest plays I think I've ever seen anybody make in a football game at any level, high school, college, professional, when Valentino Blake, who was an outside blocker on the Gunners for the Colts coming downfield. Decided to go back at the two-yard line and field a punt after Mark Mariani, who was the return man, had vacated the area and moved away.

And Blake goes back and fields that punt. Luckily for the Titans, he was able to hang on to it. It saved the Titans a yard. They went on a 98-yard touchdown drive after that, so he saved them a yard on the offensive side of things, but it was just a weird thing, and Blake was certainly at the center of a lot of discussion yesterday, or Sunday, rather, during that Colts loss. Yeah, because he had also been handed the football on a fake punt and didn't see the hole. And that went for, I think it was even a loss.

And the Colts took over with good field position. On the punt return, apparently there was a special type of play on where Mariani is supposed to steer clear of where the punt is actually going, but act like he's about to catch it, hoping to catch the coverage team off guard and focused on him. And then Blake was supposed to come behind, actually field the ball and take off running with it, kind of in a manner of deception. But apparently he was instructed never to pick up the ball inside the 10-yard line, no matter what.

And that apparently was the message that he didn't get. And that's where he got himself in trouble when he went all the way back to the two-yard line between two or three Colts defenders who were ready to down the ball and grabbed it. Yeah, there was a video clip that I watched on Sunday night after the game that you saw a good up close of Mariani. And based on Blake, because he took to Twitter to make a statement about the play, basically saying, without being verbatim here,

but when the coach tells me to go get the football, I go get the football. So he was insinuating Sunday night in that tweet that that was a design play and when you go back and look at that video you can see Mariani go to the side wave fair catch curl his arms up as if the ball's coming down and he's attempting to catch it so that to me when I saw that told me that there was some type of play on but again you don't go inside the 10-yard line and certainly not at the 2-yard line to try to field a punt in that situation. Just a mistake, I guess, by Valentino Blake in that situation. But fortunately for the Titans, at least on that one, it worked out okay.

Right. And they managed to get a touchdown drive out of it. One of the things that I was a little bit surprised by was that there's, you know, usually, you know, when you run a fake punt or you run a special type of play, a gadget play, there's a certain look that you want from the opposing defense, or in this case, the punt cover team. And, you know, if you call the play and then maybe they adjust out of that look or the ball

doesn't go to the designated spot i would think that there would be some sort of signal that could be either sent in from the sidelines or that mary annie or somebody would have where you want to abort the special play and then just either field the punt as normal if it's there, you know, past the 10-yard line, or just let it hit and be downed. But obviously they were unable to communicate anything of that sort to Valentino Blake or else they did not have a signal to, you know, get away from the punt. You know, usually there will be a code word that, you know, they'll yell if they want you not to get near the punt so that you don't touch it and make it a live ball.

Moving on to fourth down, playoff hopes. And I know that's a subject that certainly has not been a topic of recent discussion in recent years with this Titans team. But prior to yesterday, there was certainly some hope in a very mediocre at best AFC South division that the Titans, with the win over the Colts, could certainly strengthen their chances of certainly keeping themselves at the top part of this division and perhaps find a way to sneak into the playoffs. But certainly now with a 1-3 division record,

that playoff hope, if any, took a big shot on Sunday. Yeah, it's kind of on life support right now. They're behind the Houston Texans in the division race, still have a game left with the Texans, so it's not impossible that they could get themselves to the top of the division, but they're going to have to go on a win streak and they're going to have to have some of these other teams, Houston and Indianapolis, who are ahead of them, to stumble a little bit.

And, you know, really and truly I think, you know, the playoffs, you know, that talk kind of got started, you know, a little bit heavier once they got to five and five. And there were, you know, people looking at the division standing and say, hey, you know, the Titans are right in the middle of this. But, you know, you go back to the expectations of this team at the start of the year. And most people said, hey, if they win six or seven games, and it certainly looks like they're on track to do that at the very least that it would be a successful year and i think you know the playoff possibility kind of got people a little bit excited about where this team was and maybe and you know maybe they over inflated and overestimated the the talent level of this team because as you saw yesterday, especially in the secondary

and on special teams, there's still lots of holes to fill on this roster. And I think, you know, long-term, maybe the Titans, you know, would be better off if they don't go to the playoffs, can have another offseason with higher draft picks and be able to bolster what they already have on the roster and upgrade in a number of positions that need it. Time for the final thoughts on the day, Terry. Your final thought.

Well, my final thought is something that just kind of came to light late Monday night or Monday evening. Andrew Luck apparently finished the game yesterday, unbeknownst to him at the time, or at least so they say, that he had a concussion. And apparently, my guess is it came on that hit that he took where his head hit the turf when the Titans nearly sacked him and he got the football away and his head hit the turf.

But now his status for a thanksgiving night game against the steelers is in jeopardy but uh it's just you know and that might help to explain a little bit of why luck kind of went cold and was misfiring in the second half after being so hot in the first half but uh you know certainly strange strange situation that Andrew Luck would show up Monday in Indianapolis with a concussion after being able to finish off the win on Sunday. Absolutely. That was one of the stranger things that came out on Monday. My final thought for the day, just win, baby. The Titans have got to go to chicago and get one here when you look at the remainder of this schedule the bears and the jaguars are two teams that i think the titans

certainly are evenly matched with perhaps would even be favored in both those games even though there are road games they're probably going to be underdogs against denver kansas city and houston in those games seven and nine that sounds like a pretty good mark for this team, especially considering that this team finished with just five wins combined in the last two seasons. That would be a very good jump for me, but it starts this Sunday. They need to go get a win, then they come back, they get a week off to rest and recuperate,

and then finish this thing up down the stretch. At least get those two wins, remain competitive, play well, just build for the future because as we talked about a moment ago, and Terry, you mentioned with the playoff hopes, of course, on life support, that's kind of where I see this team at this point in time. Let's get to 7-9. Let's make it a good season. Yes, it could have been better.

Certainly a couple games got away here and there, but still 7-9 for this team after five wins in the last two seasons is not that bad, and certainly hope for the future. That's going to do it for us today. We'll be back with you again on Wednesday. Brad, will we join us where we'll talk more Titans with you? Locked on Titans here on the Locked On Podcast Network. Have a great day, everybody.

You are Locked On Podcast Network. Have a great day, everybody. You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.