Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Oct. 11- It's time for our Four Downs on Tuesday

Episode Date: October 11, 2016

It's Tuesday and time for our Four Downs segment and more. #BHop #TerryMc #GregA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. 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 source for all Titans news, with your host, Terry McCormick of Titan Insider, Greg Arias, and former Tennessee Titans left tackle Brad Hopkins. Terry, it's Tuesday, of course, and Brad's not with us on Tuesdays,

but we've got a lot of things to cover today. Obviously, current news as always. We've got our four-down segment where we look at four individual aspects concerning the Tennessee Titans this week, and we'll also have our final thoughts. Welcome to the Tuesday edition, Terry, as the Titans prepare in current news to face the Browns this week here at home. Yeah, and, you know, unusual coming off of a win

and trying to gather some momentum, so a little bit different than what we've been able to talk about most weeks on Tuesday. Absolutely, and let's start with the injury report where there's a lot of information coming out. So a little bit different than what we've been able to talk about most weeks on a Tuesday. Absolutely. And let's start with the injury report where there's a lot of information coming out. Obviously, Al Woods continues to be out, though the prognostic projection, I guess I should say, if I can get the word out, is that he will likely miss one more week, which is a little bit better than what was initially reported, where the thought was he might miss up to a month.

Yeah, they're talking like that there's a chance that he could be back, not this week against the Browns, but perhaps the following week against the Colts. And I would think that he would have a really decent shot of playing against the Jaguars, even though that game was on a short week, immediately following the Colts on that Thursday. The other injuries, a couple of guys that have been out for two weeks, Denoris Searcy and Cody Riggs. Searcy with a high ankle sprain, Riggs with a hamstring injury. Both of those guys, it looks like, are going to be able to practice this week

with an eye on both of them being available to play. Now, I think, you know, obviously, Searcy, a lot of his play time will be dependent upon, you know, how well he moves on that ankle. And like Malarkey said yesterday, that there is no guarantee that he becomes the immediate starter once again. Damian Stafford played pretty well. And the Titans have been rotating their safeties in and out of the lineup, depending upon the package and the personnel looks that they're getting from the offense.

Now, Cody Riggs, and we'll go into this later when we talk about special teams as one of our four-down segments. Cody Riggs being back on special teams, I think, being back on special teams, I think, is something that's very underrated as far as what this team has done on special teams and the problems that they've had. Getting him back certainly will help in that situation as he recovers from the hamstring injury. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more on that point.

And you mentioned Mike Malarkey on Monday talking about DeNora Searcy in the starting role. And I don't know that it really matters. Yes, it's great to have yourself be, quote, named a starter. Everybody wants to be the starter. But the way that the Titans have rotated these guys, as you mentioned, it's only starter perhaps on the first play of the game or in title only as they've moved these guys in and out. And we've seen a lot more of Damian Stafford and Kevin Byard

throughout the last couple of weeks. So while maybe not being a starter, if Searcy can come out and move well and play, he's certainly going to get into that rotation, be it a starter or not. Right, and I think when you look at the safety rotation, you know, Dick LeBeau and secondary coach Jay Townsend, they're almost managing these safeties like a basketball coach would with playing time.

You know, you bring in, you know, you may want to go with three guards at times and you bring in, you know, smaller, quicker players for certain situations like in the pass game. Or you may want to go big at times like, you know, bringing in an extra post and that sort of thing, basketball. You know, you bring in, you have Rashad Johnson and Stafford out there like bringing in an extra post and that sort of thing, basketball. You bring in, you have Rashad Johnson and Stafford out there to be your run-stuffing safety. So I think they've been doing a lot of mixing and matching

and sort of like basketball playing time. As long as you're in the rotation and getting your playing time, it really may not matter all that much who's named the starter. Absolutely. It's certainly good news, though, that we can talk about an injury report where there's only one player we know that's going to miss the game, getting two more back. That's it.

This team is fairly healthy at this point in time. Obviously, guys, I'm sure, dealing with sore muscles, bumps and bruises, those kind of things, but nothing else that's going to limit anybody. And this is a good time to be healthy with Cleveland coming in as we transition into, Terry, our first down. And that brings us to what we want to do first in first down. Talk about winning at home because that's something that this Titans team has not done a lot of over the course of the last two to three years,

in particular the last two. And they have an opportunity not only to win a game at home against a Cleveland team that is winless 0-5 coming in, but to build some momentum. And I think there's a couple of big reasons in here why this game could be the turning point for the season for this Tennessee Titans team. Well, you mentioned it in terms of winning at home.

At some point, if the Titans want to be regarded as a respectable team again, as a team that can contend, perhaps this year, but more likely down the road, they've got to reestablish a home field advantage. Carl Klug talked about it yesterday. He goes, you know, most of the Titans fans leave by the fourth quarter because the team is usually behind. The other team's fans are chanting and, you know, taking over the stadium. And those are things that you just can't have if you want to call yourself a respectable

NFL franchise. You know, very few, you know, none of these players remember what it was like in the early days of the Titans franchise when it was known as the Delphia Coliseum and it was a very tough place for opponents to come in and try and get a win. Now the Titans are looked upon as a place where visiting teams go and they see legions of their own fans permeating the stands, and then they go out and proceed to take care of business as if it were a home game for them. And the Titans, the players know this.

They've got to stop this. They've got to get on, not just win home game for them. And the Titans, the players know this. They've got to stop this. They've got to get on, not just win a game at home. They need to win multiple games at home. And they've got three in a row coming up, Greg. I agree. And that is why I said that, that this is a turning point, because not only for this team and what potentially their record could be going forward throughout the rest of the year,

but what they can do for the fan base to re-energize people, to get people in the seats by winning at home, winning two games in a row, and also, Terry, we haven't mentioned it, but their record climbs to 3-3 with a win this Sunday. I don't know when the last time was we'd have to look back and see when this team was at.500 this late in the season. It's certainly not been the last two years that they could say that. So that's another thing here about winning at home that they have to do.

And you mentioned the three games in a row with, of course, the Colts and Jacksonville coming up following the Cleveland game. And they do indeed need to start a winning streak. It would be great if they could get three in a row. I'll settle for two and one in this stretch, though. I think a win over Cleveland, a win over Jacksonville, even if you slip up and lose to the Colts, you still come out of that in good shape. And I think the fans come away feeling better about what this team is doing winning at home. Obviously, again, you want all three. Right. And I think, you know, when you look at the home field and how it's become a home field disadvantage, so to speak,

all the fans really want is a reason to come to the games and to cheer and to feel like their team is going to have an opportunity to win. You can look at it, I'm going to take it to the college level for a moment, but you can look at it right up the road in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee. You know, prior to this season and, you know, maybe a little bit last year, you know, there was a malaise that was over that program. They were running through coaches. The stands, you know, weren't full.

And, you know, the program had fallen on hard times over the last seven or eight years. And a lot of people who had been diehard UT fans, you know, for years and years and years stopped going to games. Well, the Titans don't have that, you know, decades worth of tradition here in the state like the, you know, the University of Tennessee does. So they have to give the fans even more of a reason to turn out.

And I think winning is the only thing that you can do in giving people a competitive product. That's the only thing that's going to bring these fans back to Nissan Stadium. Absolutely. Mike Malarkey had some post-game comments on Sunday in the locker room in Miami following the win. We've got this courtesy of the Tennessee Titans. Let's take a listen to what Malarkey said,

and he touched, Terry, on this coming home and winning on Sundayay against the browns very very proud of everybody in here really proud everybody in here for ignoring the noise sticking together like you always have um you know it could that that could have been even uglier we we don't give up those big plays they got no chance they're really really really complimentary football that's you got a taste of what we can do if we play together like that. But it's just one. It's just one. This team hasn't won two since I've been here. We've got to win two. We've got to win this next one. We've got to win at home. We've got to get our fans behind us. We've got to get them behind us. Let's enjoy the moment. You guys know that. This is tough. This is tough to win the NFL.

Let's enjoy the moment right now. know that. This is tough. This is tough to win the NFL. Let's enjoy the moment right now. I'm really proud of this football team. The thoughts of Mike Malarkey in his post-game comments, Terry, and he touched on exactly what we've been saying. It's not rocket science. We're not doing anything revolutionary by saying this, but he just said the same thing on Sunday in the locker room, and obviously that was a closed setting.

We weren't allowed, media weren't allowed in the locker room at that time, but that coming from the Titans, of course, as I said, they recorded that in the locker room prior to, or just following the conclusion of the game on Sunday. Right, and you know, it's simple. Like you said, it's very simple. If you want fans to follow you in football, you've got to be competitive. You've got to win. I think that goes for almost any level of the game, even on the high school level. You have a team that's competitive, that's competing for district or state championships, fans flock to it.

You have a team that's down, only the diehards are there. And the Titans, if they want to rebuild this fan base, if they want to re-energize this fan base, it's got to start with this three-game home stretch against the Browns, the Colts, and the Jaguars, all three winnable games. Moving on to second down, we stay similarly on topic, Terry, and talk about this Sunday versus Cleveland and not letting the guard down. That's going to be an important thing for this Titans team going forward

because it was just two years ago that we saw Cleveland come in here with a rag-tag team, not much better, not much worse than they are this season, perhaps a little more healthy back then. They've certainly got their injury issues right now. But they came in, they beat the Titans. The Titans went to Cleveland last year, thought they had an opportunity after blowing away Tampa Bay in week one that they should roll into Cleveland against a not very good Browns team and get a win.

We know what happened there. They lost that game. So not letting the guard down. They've got to come out, and regardless of whether it's Cleveland or anybody else 0-5, forget about that. This is an NFL team. You've got to get your job done to be able to win and not worry about 0-5 or it being Cleveland and saying,

okay, we can take this game off. Well, if they need any reminders, they can check out the story I did on titansider.com. There have been a couple of times that Titans have let winless teams slip up and do some serious damage to their hopes for the season. Back in 2011, Titans went to Indianapolis to face the Peyton Manning-less Indianapolis Colts who were led by, of all people, Curtis Painter. And they proceeded to lose to an 0-13 Colts team.

And not only was that loss embarrassing for the Titans, it pretty much ended their playoff hopes. And they finished the year 9-7, but they needed to get to 10-6 in order to get into the postseason. And when they look back on that season, that embarrassing loss at Indianapolis to a winless Colts team

was crushing. And then more recently, just a couple years ago in 2013, the Titans were 4-4. They were sort of treading water on the cusp of maybe being the contender on the cusp of maybe putting something together. And the 0-8 Jacksonville Jaguars walked into Nissan Stadium and walked out with a victory over the Titans. And the Titans never really recovered from it. It was pretty much the beginning of the end of Mike Munchak's run as head coach.

And then you mentioned losing to the Browns. They had lost to a Browns team a couple of years ago when Brian Hoyer lit them up, came back from 25 points down. And last year, of all things, they lost to Johnny Manziel, one of only two wins that he had as a quarterback during his time in the NFL. One of them came against the Titans. You can't do those sorts of things. You've got to take care of business.

Titans are favored to beat the Browns. They're the better team this week. When you're the better team, you've got to take care of business. You've got to put your foot on their throat. You've got to get a lead, and you've got to exhaust and extinguish any thought in their mind that this is going to be the week they break through. Otherwise, you let them hang around, bad things happen. And especially because it's at home, Terry, it magnifies all those things,

and that kind of leads me back to what I said in the opening about this being the turning point. Because you win this game, now you get to 3-3. You have the fans a little bit more excited, obviously. They've seen a win at home. They've seen you get two on the road you've won three games this season which is a milestone accomplishment after the last two seasons that we've seen and now you have an opportunity to get things going and rolling forward if you don't if you don't take care of your business if you let your guard down

at home you let Cleveland come in and get a win. Everything that you've accomplished with those two wins, the goodwill, the good faith of the fans, it's all gone. Oh, there's no doubt about it. I think when you look at it, you know, the new attitude, the winning, the healing, whatever you want to label it, I think you're right. It starts this week. It starts with this three-game homestand. Moving on to third down, one of the keys. I think you're right. It starts this week. It starts with this three-game homestand. Moving on to third down.

One of the keys, I think, Terry, this week for the Titans will be Kendall Wright. Of course, he has missed most of the season, certainly missed the majority of training camp. He missed the first three games of the season. He's been back for the last two. He's not really been a factor of any importance in either game, certainly not to diminish what he did, but he has not been the go-to guy. He has not been a difference maker. He's kind of been the just another guy, if you will,

going back to a couple of years ago in the training camp jersey issue that we saw with Justin Hunter. And Kendall, I think, has to step forward and has to give them something, has to be a guy that this week can help them stretch the field, get the Browns secondary going backwards, keep the safeties at depth, and allow this team to do what they want to do, grind it out, run the football, beat up the Browns much like they did Miami, shorten the game, and get a win. Yeah, I think one of the reasons Kendall wasn't much of a factor in Sunday's win over the

Dolphins was the fact that the Titans didn't use their 11 set or their three-wide receiver set very much. And the other thing is, Mike Malarkey says, Kendall Wright is still a little bit rusty, still not real polished on his route after a lot of time missed, not really on the same page yet with Marcus Mariota in the passing game. Those types of things will come the more reps he gets, the more opportunities he gets. But for now, Kendall Light is going to have to kind of accept the situational role that he's a slot receiver and that a lot of his play time is going to be

predicated upon how much the titans have to go to that three receiver set and have to use their pass game and as long as they can keep running the football with demarco murray then kendall wright may have to accept that he's got a secondary role for the time being i still think though terry there's got to be some way even yes, they may not be on the same page, timing obviously important with the quarterback and receiver, he's still a dynamic weapon in his ability to get into the open field and to create things and to perhaps make a big play. I think you've got to figure out a way, even if it's some type of short pass,

maybe a bubble screen, there's got to be something that you put in for this guy to get his hands on the football and see if he can give you one of those plays. He doesn't have to play 50 snaps. He doesn't have to play 20. But if he plays 10, if you've got him in the ballgame, you've got to find a way, in my opinion, to get him the football and let him try to make a play. Oh, I don't disagree with that.

I think he does need to have a bigger role in the offense because he is the one guy that you have on your offense in the receiving game outside of Delaney Walker who can stretch the field. He's a guy who can get a little bit of separation, maybe more so than some of the other guys like Andre Johnson and Rashard Matthews and some of the other receivers that the Titans have. When you look at what Kendall Wright brings to the table, he brings something that the Titans don't necessarily have a whole lot of in terms of guys who can use their speed to get in the open field and make some plays. Let's move along to fourth down. And, Terry, this is something that we talked about yesterday

in the Monday edition of the show. But we're going to take a little bit different approach today, and that's fixing the special teams. That's our fourth down today. Because over the last two weeks, we saw it cost the Titans a game in Houston two weeks ago. We saw it hurt the Titans. Were it not for that big play that gave the touchdown on the punt return to the Dolphins

Sunday, this is much more of a beating than it actually was in the 30-17 game. They have got to come out and do that. You touched on Cody Riggs, and obviously he is a core member of the special teams. Yes, he is. I think his contributions as a gunner on special teams, on the punt coverage, I think that's something that tightens the fist during the time he's been out with the hamstring injury. I think they've been a little bit short on special teams, especially the first week that Riggs was gone.

Because remember, Delaney Walker was not 100%. Not that Delaney plays special teams, but because Delaney Walker was not 100% and he was coming off a hamstring injury, they kept Jason Morrow active that week, and Morrow's not a special teams player really either, so they were really short on special teams. And, you know, the last couple of weeks they've had guys like Nate Palmer out and Cody Riggs out. They need to get those guys back, because I believe those guys are core members

of that special teams unit, and their presence can certainly help out as the Titans try to fix what's ailed them, especially in the punt coverage game. Absolutely. I think that's a key because they can't continue to do this, and especially against a team like Cleveland, because if you find yourself in a close game with a bad team like Cleveland and allow a big play punt return, like we've seen the last two weeks, that can be a momentum shifter that can really keep that team in the ballgame and perhaps even propel them on to a win.

So that's something they've got to get fixed. I think they also need to figure out some things with the return game. No offense to Mark Mariani. I know he's sure-handed. He's back there to catch out some things with the return game. No offense to Mark Mariani. I know he's sure-handed. He's back there to catch the football and make the right decision. The return game, and it's not all his fault. Obviously, he's got to have blocking. But they're not getting a lot in the return game as well.

So certainly some areas that need improvement, but first and foremost, it's got to be in that punt coverage. And I think Riggs and Palmer, as you mentioned, are two guys that can certainly step forward and help with that, and maybe even they need to look at getting some more starters, if you will, off of the defensive unit into those coverage units. We see that with Alabama and Nick Saban in college. I know it's a different level, but he has starters playing on his special teams

because those are guys that can be trusted to get down the field and make a tackle and stop these returns. Well, it's funny that you say that because the other day Mike Malarkey was saying that he would wish that he had guys who were starters that would go up to the special teams coach, now Steve Hoffman, and say, hey, I'd like to be on special teams. I'd like to be on special teams, I'd like to help out. And I know that that's taxing because in college you've got – you're addressing I think it's 85 or 95 players every week. So you've got plenty of guys who can fill in,

who can go down and cover a kick or whatnot. In the NFL you've got 46 guys up on game day. And running down the field six extra times to cover punts you know certainly takes a little bit more out of you but until this problem is fixed i think titans have to exhaust all options because when you look at trying to fix something in season you know you're very limited because you can't really change a whole lot of personnel you might you know trade out one or two guys you know bringing up somebody from the practice squad or claiming somebody off waivers or whatever. But by and large,

the guys that you have are your guys for the season. You've got to find the best way to use them in order to try to fix these problems. We are about out of time for the day. As we close the show today, Terry, your final thought. Well, I'm going to go with Jason McCourty. You know, the Titans secondary has had its share of criticism. In fact, I've been one of the people that's kind of been a little bit critical of them at times because they really don't have a whole lot of excess speed back there in the defensive backfield.

But I like the toughness that Jason McCourty has shown this year, especially taking away interceptions twice in a row. And I think that type of tough-mindedness and that type of mentality is part of what's making this defense kind of overachieve right now. And do I think in the offseason they need to address the cornerback position and the safety position and get faster players back there? Yes, absolutely. But you've got to give a hat tip to Dick LeBeau and the defense

and Deshae Townsend and Steve Jackson, the secondary coaches, because they're making the most of what they have, even when what they have is a little bit long in the tooth and a little bit limited. My final thought for the day is attention to detail. We've heard this from Mike Malarkey. It's little things in football. We've heard it from other coaches as well.

Attention to detail. Hang on to the football. They did that well. They didn't turn the football over in Miami. They still had some of the dumb penalties. You've got to address those. You've got to cut those things out. You've got to take care of the little things this week.

You do that, you don't turn the football over, you don't get dumb penalties. I think it's an easy win for this Titans team over Cleveland. And I say easy in that I don't think it's going to be a close game scoreboard-wise. Obviously, Cleveland's going to come in and play tough. But if the Titans pay attention to the details, do the little things, cut out the stupid mistakes, what we've heard so many times, shot ourselves in the foot. We didn't hear that in Miami. We don't want to hear that this Sunday.

If those things happen, the Titans get a win. That's going to do it for us here today. It's been another fast morning here on the show, and a lot more to come certainly this week as the week goes forward. Brad rejoins us on Wednesday, and we'll see you then on Locked on Titans. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.