Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Nov. 9- Wednesday means WOAS, HDH, Pro Scope & more.

Episode Date: November 9, 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. With your host, Terry McCormick of TitanInsider.com, Greg Arias, and former Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl left tackle Brad Hopkins. Guys, it is Wednesday, and I guess no news is good news when we look at current news today. Of course, we always lead the show off with that, but we also have our Wednesday staples of what others are saying, hump day happenings in ProScope.

And, guys, let's jump right into the current news. And there's not a lot to talk about on the current news today. I guess, Brad and Terry, you guys said this when we were talking off the air before we started today, that news around the NFL kind of took a day off with the elections, obviously, yesterday taking center stage. Yeah, it really did. I guess, you know, obviously the election and all that was going on with our country, you know, people going out to vote and huge turnouts.

I guess it was okay for the NFL to kind of take a backseat for a day or two. Yeah, I think all the conversation this week is about the midway point, issuing out some mid-season report cards, seeing who's healthy, who's not, who's prognosticated to come back this weekend. There are a lot of teams that aren't playing up to expectation, that are trying to answer questions, going into buys, things like that. So just normal logistics when it comes to the NFL. Brad, you mentioned who's healthy and who's not,

and I guess the biggest concern for the Titans on this Wednesday is that of the condition of Derrick Henry. Of course, he suffered some type of calf injury on Sunday in warm-ups out in San Diego. And, Terry, the Titans have not been back to the practice field as of yet, at least for media viewing, to see if Derrick Henry's been able to practice. We'll find that out a little bit later on today. Right, but I wouldn't think he would be able to.

I think when they made the move and promoted David Flewellen from the practice squad to the active roster, that told me pretty much everything I needed to know about the status of Derrick Henry, that he's going to be out at least for this week, if not longer. I think that that will also maybe help them add some depth, because we hadn't seen much Antonio Andrews until the calf injury

this past weekend in San Diego. So, neither one of these backs are going into the November or December months 100%. We talked about DeMarco Murray's toe last week. Didn't seem to keep him out of much practice, even though maybe a couple of days. But it is good going into the fall months

when running the football is imperative that they do at least have two or three guys that can actually do the job. Well, they certainly have, I think, capable guys. And Brad, I don't know how much you saw of Flewellen. Obviously, you saw the preseason games. I know you were at practice off and on during the training camp portion of things, but Terry and I were very impressed with Flewellen

and the way he went about his business. Now, obviously, he's not the household name that Derrick Henry and DeMarco Murray are, but certainly I think he can add something as a running back to this team. Yeah, I think he can add something as a running back to this team. Yeah, I think he can. Go ahead. I was about to go ahead, Terry. I think he's a guy that can come in here and help out on special teams, and he's been around, he knows the system,

so if you have to plug him in and he has to get two or three carries, I think he'll be okay doing that. Yeah, the good thing about it is you're not going to predicate a style towards a guy like that and not take anything away from his abilities. But, you know, systemically is how they've been able to, you know, get things accomplished. And I think that he just being another guy that you can kind of roll into the fold will ultimately help the Titans down the stretch.

Speaking of helping the Titans down the stretch, guys, let's jump into our segment of what others are saying. And as we do that, as per usual, we look at the folks at Pro Football Focus. They oftentimes give us a lot of interesting information. But, guys, I've got to tell you today, when I read through the articles on the Titans that they've put out, I kind of disagreed with them a little bit on what they said. And here's what they said, and it was pertaining to Marcus Mariota. And obviously their headline,

Mariota turnover buried Titans in up-and-down performance. That's true. The turnover certainly did that. But it reads, Marcus Mariota failed again to have a breakout game against the Chargers. He made some good plays, like his rushing touchdown at the start of the second half to put the Titans in the lead, and his perfectly thrown ball to tight end Delaney Walker in the back of the end zone in the fourth quarter.

But his turnovers, two of three of which resulted in defensive touchdowns, buried the Titans. Mariota has failed to take his passing game to the next level, and if Tennessee is going to succeed, the quarterback needs to take care of the ball at the very least. He did not do that Sunday. Now, I agree that he didn't take care of the football, but he finished the day, guys, throwing for three touchdowns and 313 yards. That's not exactly a bad day. And in that statistical category,

I'm not sure what they want him to do to, quote, take it to another level other than obviously hang on to the football. What they did, Terry, was they combined two issues this year, and they're not related. One, in the past game itself, Marcus Murray has shown great decision-making. He's shown good touch. He's kind of lucky in a couple of instances where he's squeezed the ball into some tight windows.

But what we're talking about or what they're referencing is ball security. We're talking about the little silly things like, you know, trying to make a pass that you probably shouldn't have made, not holding onto the football securely when you decide to turn into a runner, you know, leaving the pocket. Those kind of things are not about the passing game itself, but more so about taking care of the football and not giving it back to the defense, which is obviously something that has plagued Marcus Terry for most of this season.

Yeah, you're right. It really has. It's's numbers through 21 career start, his numbers are actually better than what David Carr of Oakland put up through 21 start. So you think about that for a minute and look where Carr is now in the conversation as a league MVP now that the personnel has gotten better around him and now that he's grown as a quarterback. You know, I think if Marcus Mariota can figure out, you know, how to better hang on to the football, to realize that he doesn't have to be Superman on every play, then I think he can figure it out and take it to the next level.

And I see what the pro football focus people are saying. That's what I think is holding him back is the fact that there are times he's still trying to be Superman when the play doesn't necessarily call for that. Some other interesting numbers, guys, from PFF this week, and this is pertaining to the offensive line, where Taylor LeJuan and Jack Conklin by no means had bad games on Sunday, but their grades of 69.6 and 57.0 respectively were rather pedestrian, especially guys compared to what they had done previously, while the rest of the line, Josh Klein actually graded out highest offensively at 80.7, Ben Jones at 78.1, and Brian Schwinke at 72.7.

So certainly, I think as a whole, the offensive line had a decent game. They struggled to run the football. I'm not sure exactly how these guys go into grading this. Brad do you have any idea how they go about grading that and coming up with these numbers? For offensive linemen it's very hard to get a true out and out gauge on how well they're playing so they have to rely on statistics and I think that when you look at the Titans' rushing attack that was second behind the Dallas Cowboys, that obviously shows some consistency in being able to create the holes necessary. Kind of giving a gauge on what the offensive line's playing by how well the running backs are running.

And also another part of that equation would be how many sacks Marcus Mariota has had this year, and there haven't been that many, and there haven't been many over the past few weeks, which has led them to say the offensive line for the Tennessee Titans does well in protection. They do good in getting yards per carry. So we can look at them statistically and say that they are right here. And I think that when you look at last week,

they weren't the same kind of dominant running attack, running approach that we've seen in weeks past. Therefore, you would see a decline in their numbers, I think. Yeah, it's kind of interesting the way you point that out. Are they graded more on their run blocking? Are they graded more on their pass blocking? Because they did a decent job protecting Mariota when he dropped back to pass 43 times in the ballgame.

But it's interesting that their numbers are down now that the run game kind of took a hit last week as well. Guys, not to leave out the defense, just some numbers, the top performers defensively, Jarrell Casey, 89.2, Brian Arakpo, 79.7, Daquan Jones, 79.0, and Derek Morgan, 74.7. So those four members certainly of that front seven defensively at least by pff grades had a good performance though if you talk to these guys they might not think so considering that melvin gordon had 196 yards rushing against them well i think also one thing that they also take into consideration are point differentials and unfortunately one thing that hinders the

titans defense by perception standpoint is is when Marcus creates those turnovers that have been turned into points. And unfortunately, guys, he's done that way too often this year. So when we're looking at the end of ballgames, you're thinking, oh, my gosh, the Titans lost by two touchdowns. Well, if you look defensively, they only gave up one touchdown in the game, and maybe the defense got a score or something like that, and special teams contributed. So it's kind of skewed how, in fact, when you look at a tale in the game, and maybe the defense got a score or something like that, and special teams contributed.

So it's kind of skewed how, in fact, when you look at a tale of the tape, comparing the defense to what it's supposed to be doing when you have mistakes on offense that are contributing to the bottom line on the other direction. Well, one of those lines, if you've ever been a part of or seen a team that seems snake-headed with turnovers and the fact that those turnovers are being taken back to the house every time it seems like.

And you know, like Greg and I talked about yesterday for a little bit, turnovers are one thing. If you're at your own 30 and you throw an interception and it's picked off at the other team's 35, you don't really sweat that. That's not like a punt. Or if there's a fumble

down at the 30-yard line and you say, well, the defense, the field position, but to have five turnovers go back for scores in half a season is remarkable. I mean, I'll put it this way. Like you said, Terry, Greg, for you to turn the ball over, give away some good field position, I can understand that. But I think over 50% of the turnovers that the Titans have had this year have culminated in scores for the defense.

That's almost uncharacteristic. And think about the uphill battle that's actually been put into place when you're having to match point differentials when your defense is playing pretty well, and now your game plan is thrown out the window because not only did you miss an opportunity to score and answer maybe a score that they had, but then you also let them compound the score

by letting their defense score as well. So it is completely baffling to me as to how not only are they creating turnovers, but they're also adding points to the other guy's scoreboard. It just really is crazy. Now, Brad, I know obviously you played a long time in this league, and you've seen pretty much everything probably imaginable. But when a team like the Titans, and in particular the defense, has a game where they uncharacteristically allow a guy like Melvin Gordon

to have a rushing effort like that, obviously they come back the next week wanting to reestablish, reprove themselves that, hey, this was a one-week deal. This is not how it's going to be. But can you sometimes put too much pressure on yourself in that sense to do that and maybe come out and have a bad game a second time in a row because you're so concerned about reestablishing yourself after a bad performance like that? Okay, so here's what happens. The next week that you're in practice, you're working on all those things that you got exposed to on Sunday.

So you're putting a concerted effort into kind of stopping the – plugging the holes and filling the gaps that obviously allowed you to get scored on. But what happens is the team the next week is thinking the same thing. So while, albeit, they'll test your mettle and see if, in fact, you fixed some of those issues from the week before, but you've got to think that they're also working on some other wrinkles to create for an offense. So while an offense is trying to fix what plagued them

in hopes to not make the same mistakes that they made the week before that obviously put them at a disadvantage, not only is the next team working on that, but they're also working on something else, a new wrinkle to kind of throw into the mix as well, which sometimes when you're spending a lot of time on trying to fix something that you were exposed on, you don't tend to, you know, take a look at other areas where you could possibly be exploited. So that's what smart coordinators do. They find those kinks, they find those traces, and they just try and fill them as fast as possible.

Guys, let's move on to our hump day happening segment where we want to talk a little bit about the Green Bay Packers, this week's opponent that will come to Nissan Stadium. And obviously this is a team coming in off a loss. They are smarting from that loss to the point where Aaron Rodgers called a meeting this week and actually called out his teammates. And, Terry, I know that a little bit later on on this Wednesday, Aaron Rodgers will join Nashville media on a conference call,

and I'm sure that will be one of the questions he's asked. But this is a team that has talent, obviously has a lot of pride, being the Green Bay Packers, and I think they're certainly going to come in here and want to right the ship and get a win against a team in the Titans that has struggles of their own. Yeah, it's interesting, too. You know, the Packers are kind of underachieved.

I want to extend this to Brad. I want to take you back a few years, Brad. What happens when a team that's picked to be really good starts to struggle, whether it's injuries or whether age starts to catch up with them or anything like that? And you were on a couple of Titans teams that had high expectations going into the year. I think the 2001 team that got riddled by injuries that was still going

into the year considered to be a Super Bowl contender. And then the 2014 there where Steve McNair was hurt and they went from being a team that had won 11, 12, 13 games to going 5-11. The Packers aren't down to that level yet. But what happens when a team has Super Bowl aspirations and then you get halfway through a season and you're slogging around at around the 500 mark not knowing if you're going to fulfill those expectations?

Those expectations sometimes, guys, can be turned into fuel. I mean, if you're a team that's expected to play well, you're getting a lot of the attention from the national media and the likes to kind of see just how well you're doing. And if you're living up to that, there's an excitement that's created, that chemistry that obviously teams build on, the energy in a stadium. But then it works in complete reverse when you don't live up to those expectations because all the time those media members and the people that

cover teams were expecting to talk so glowingly about this team, that conversation has now changed into why are they not living up to what they thought to what we thought that they would be. First off, a lot of media members don't like to be wrong. So if they projected you to be a good team, they're obviously something that you're doing, whether it's health or maybe a lack of development or whatever, scheme, something that is plaguing you from being what they thought that you were going to be, which makes it even harder

to basically get out of those holes when you're not living up to expectations. Well, now, Brad, I know that at least for myself, I don't mind being wrong because I've done it a lot. So if I'm wrong, I'm just wrong. That's kind of the way I have to look at that because I've been wrong before. I can be wrong again. Absolutely. I'll probably be wrong before we finish this morning.

Yeah, but think about this, though, guys. How often can we be wrong before people stop listening to what we're saying because we're wrong so much? You see what I'm saying? I don't know. You go back to the election last night and nobody had this resolved. So all the media was pretty much wrong. Just saying.

Guys, let's move along and jump to Pro Scope, our segment where we look at something from around the NFL. And I think that's a pretty good segue because we mentioned the election in the beginning. Terry just mentioned it there. And the election had an effect on the NFL last night that the outcome is still unknown. And, Brad, you made some pretty good points to Terry and I off the air before we started this morning. And, of course, I'm talking about San Diego and the Chargers stadium situation.

Obviously, the Titans were there on Sunday. It is an old facility. Brad, you played there, I know, back in your days with the Titans. And they had a vote yesterday on a stadium referendum to build a new stadium that would keep the Chargers in San Diego. There's talk that they want to move out if they don't get this new stadium. They had to get two-thirds of the majority of the vote to pass this referendum on the stadium.

It didn't happen. But tell us what you understand about this situation as far as it concerns the stadium in San Diego. Yeah, actually, the two-thirds referendum would have been a great situation because if it would have passed two-thirds, then most people would have been for them actually making the provision necessary to put that stadium downtown. Now, I think obviously the reason why it didn't is because it kind of cuts off the rest of the city, and they want that to be something that something that's accessible to you know a number of different venues so what i heard was basically the referendum could be possibly put to a different vote to see if in fact it could be

reduced from two-thirds of the vote to 50 of the vote being passed you know therefore they can get this thing moving if that would be the case obviously the numbers would probably be more indicative of half the people at least being in favor of it, therefore allowing it to pass. I think that for whatever reason we've gotten away from the two-team in Los Angeles situation because the Raiders have found themselves

a new home in Las Vegas. But if you remember the referendum that the league had put forward to have a couple of teams housed in Los Angeles, I think that that was one of the attractive lures for a lot of people that were trying to back this whole move. So let's not forget about just 90 miles north of building a brand-spanking-new stadium up there

that's capable of housing two teams, and it wouldn't be that far of a move for San Diego to join the Rams up there in Los Angeles. And yet again, Brad, experience that you have in the NFL, you've been through something like this. When the Houston Oilers were hopping from Houston to Memphis to Vanderbilt and finally to what was the Delphia Coliseum, what's it like when you're in one city

and you don't know whether you're going to be there long-term or not a year or two, three years, you know, afterward. I mean, you know, thinking about uprooting your wife, your kids, and that sort of thing, it's got to be taxing for the players as well. Well, for some players, that's part of the course. In other words, if you're a guy that's considered a journeyman and you've been on a handful of teams, you're really not, you know, having roots stocked in any place, you know, particularly.

If you're like a high draft pick or someone that's been on a team for a number of years and your kids have started school in one area and they're halfway through and things like that, then it makes that move a little more difficult. Some don't even make the move. They just keep their residents there and just, you know, buy temporary housing wherever the team moves to. I think adversely, though, when you're looking at the situation that Houston had moving from Houston to Nashville, you know, there's been so much talk from the Adams family

about where they were going to move, about the things that they needed to take place or they were going to move, that the city was just basically done with all that conversation. They really wasn't supportive of keeping the Oilers. But when you look at the Chargers, there's an emotional outcry from a lot of people to keep them there. Oakland, yeah, I think that they probably see it being just too insurmountable for them to be able to do anything to keep the Raiders there. Therefore, it was okay for them to let the Raiders kind of, you know, do their deal with Las Vegas. But I think with the San Diego Chargers situation, you know, there are enough people that are there in La Jolla County, San Diego County, that want to see the Chargers stick around to where they're starting to make, you know, make some grumblings about them losing their team.

And ultimately that might have an emotional impact on a lot of the decision makers and keep them down there in Southern California. One thing is for certain, the landscape of the NFL certainly could be quite different, especially as it pertains to the left coast next year when thinking about the Las Vegas Raiders and the Los Angeles Chargers and then, of course, the Los Angeles Rams being back out there. And, guys, not to get off the subject of San Diego,

but there's been some grumblings as well about the Rams and Stan Kroenke, the owner. If you read some of the reports coming out, they're not exactly satisfied with the product they're getting on the field from the Rams right now. So perhaps the city of Los Angeles would be ready to have two teams, so hopefully maybe one of the two could at least come out and be a winner or a good product for the city of Los Angeles. Greg, they're not listening.

Terry, they're not listening to what Jeff Fisher is saying. And what I mean by that is this. There are other components to the offense in Los Angeles that are allowing them to basically give ballgames away like this. There are receivers dropping balls. The offensive line is as porous as a sift. I mean, if you think about other areas that are plaguing them, other than quarterback, if they stick Jared Goff in there, this guy might be running for his life.

He might end up being injured. That could ultimately affect his development. So, obviously, they know what's best in that building. And if Jared Goff were ready to start, Greg, Terry, you guys have covered teams before. It's not that they're doing Jared any favors by keeping him on the sideline. If he were ready to play, he would definitely be in there. This is a results-based industry.

Oh, you're exactly right. And, you know, locally, if you want to spin it back locally, I'm sure the Titans are just fine with the Rams struggling right now because they hold their first-round pick for next year. And right now, that will be in the top eight of the draft. So, you know, if the Rams

want to struggle with Case Keenan and go 4-12, I'm sure Titans fans will be just fine with that. Absolutely. Guys, we are running out of time this morning, time to give our final thoughts on the day. Brad, go ahead and lead us off with your final thought for this Wednesday. Well, the Packers uncharacteristically struggling. I say open the doors this week.

And the reason why I say that is because if you think about the expectation levels of teams, Green Bay's expectation is, I mean, it's way far up there more so than the Tennessee Titans. So I think that ultimately when you compare two teams that aren't necessarily living up to expectation, there's not near as much pressure on a young developing team that continues to make mistakes as compared to, speaking to an incumbent, you know, that has a couple of Super Bowl rings under their belt.

So I just think if you look at pressure situations and how to get out of them, I would side with the Titans because they can get some exciting play from a youngster and all of a sudden change the atmosphere. But living up to expectation is one thing that's completely different when you're talking about an incumbent not doing what they're supposed to do. All right, my final thought, Greg. We have not been kind to the Titans wide receivers at times this year because we thought that it was kind of an underachieving group

and kind of a group that really didn't bring a whole lot to the table. But one young man has really turned it around in the last four or five games, and that's Rashard Matthews. He's now up to 33 catches this year and leads the team in receiving touchdowns with five. At early in the year, he was rotating and alternating with Andre Johnson. Now he's more in a full-time role as one of their starting receivers. He's starting to develop a rapport with Marcus Mariota, and I think going forward this is going to be a guy that's going to be a solid part of this offense.

My final thought has to do with Aaron Rodgers, and I said this last week as it pertained to Phillip Rivers, and it was part of the reason that I picked San Diego to win that game. Now I'm not making a prediction on the Packers game just yet. We'll do that on Friday. But Aaron Rodgers is certainly an elite quarterback. He is a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. He's got the skins on the wall, as they say.

And the Titans have struggled to beat elite quarterbacks. This is a Green Bay team that has their struggles of their own coming in. This is an opportunity for them to get rid of that hex, so to speak, as the Cubs did with the World Series, to beat an elite quarterback. And by doing so at home, you also get the bump from the media of, okay, the Titans now have beaten the Packers. So while I don't necessarily say this is a must-win game, I think it certainly is a very big game for the Titans with a lot riding on it, a chance to beat an elite quarterback. They've got

to go out and get it done. That's going to do it for us today. Guys, it was a great show. I really enjoyed this one. I thought we got a lot of good things in there, and I hope the fans enjoy it and look forward to being back with us again on Thursday and Friday. Everyone have a great day, and we'll talk to you again tomorrow. You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Napa know-how. It takes a lot to get excited about a bag, but most bags can't save you 20% on auto parts. Napa Know How. Napa Know How. At participating Napa auto parts stores, while supplies

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