Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Oct. 17- The Titans win and we go Offense, Defense & more.

Episode Date: October 17, 2016

It's Monday, the Titans got a tough, much needed win on Sunday over the Browns and we go Offense, Defense & more in today's edition. #BHop #TerryMc #GregA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, it's Jamie, Progressive number one, number two employee. Leave a message at the... Hey Jamie, it's me, Jamie. This is your daily pep talk. I know it's been rough going ever since people found out about your acapella group, Mad Harmony, but you will bounce back. I mean, you're the guy always helping people find coverage options with the Name Your Price tool. It should be you giving me the pep talk.

Now get out there, hit that high note, and take Mad Harmony all the way to nationals this year! Sorry, it's pitchy. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. 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 Titan Insider, Greg Arias, and former Tennessee Titans all-pro left tackle Brad Hopkins. We are Locked on Titans, and guys, we are all together to record this Monday edition of the show,

and it is a festive day, if you will, to record, because certainly the current news of the day has the Tennessee Titans winning a close, dramatic contest on Sunday, 28-26, the final score over Cleveland. Now, the Titans made it a little bit closer, guys, than it probably should have been against a winless Cleveland team. In fact, Cleveland had an opportunity with an onside kick late to recover the football and have a shot at a victory, but the Titans are able to hang on and get a win.

Brad, you've been there before. You've seen onside kicks. Cleveland had already executed one in the game that allowed them to get the touchdown to pull them within those two points and almost pulled off the second one. Yeah, Greg, I was hoping that Malarkey's timeout in that second one didn't come back and bite us on the butt because he wanted to make some kind of freezing the kicker in that situation.

But I think that we shouldn't be concerned about the closeness of the game itself. Even though the Titans were in very much control of the ballgame for most of it, the day that basically Cody Kessler had was, in my opinion, pretty exceptional. 336 yards. He completed 26 of his passes for a 105.3 passer rating. That's actually a really, really good day for a guy that's just now getting his, I think, his second start coming off of an injury as well. So I think that DeMarco Murray obviously ran the ball pretty effectively.

He had a few attempts, 65 yards in total. But the way that they split it up between Mariota kind of getting involved with one of the rushing attack kind of really kind of threw the Cleveland Browns defense off, I think, a little bit, Terry. Well, it was evident early on that the Cleveland Browns were going to sell out and keep DeMarco Murray from beating them if they could. And I think when that happened, the Titans were forced to go try other things in order to move the football.

It happened on the very first play of the game with the design bootleg by Marcus Mariota. They gained 41 yards. And then they took to the air. And then Mariota had three touchdown passes, and Kendall Wright had a big day. Good to see Kendall Wright resurface after a long time kind of on the milk carton. You stole my line, Terry. Kendall Wright had been on that milk carton,

obviously because he had missed the majority of training camp. He missed all of the preseason. He missed the first quarter of the season with the hamstring injury. He came back last week, played against Miami, was okay but nothing special. And then today he comes out, targeted nine times, ends up with eight reception, 133 yards, one touchdown, 16.6 yards the average, but the big number, 48. 48 yards on the touchdown reception that came with the Titans leading just 7-6

in the second quarter. He became, guys, the deep threat that we talked about to stretch the defense. He did that on that play. Rashard Matthews then had a 43-yard reception a little bit later on. So the Titans now have found something that they've put on film going into next week that teams have to say, hey, they've got some guys now that can stretch the field. We've got to pay attention to that. Six different receivers Marcus Mariota found in the pass game today.

Obviously, you just talked about, Ken, the rights effectiveness and the deep routes. Rashard Matthews was really, really pretty effective on the underneath stuff. Delaney Walker is obviously a go-to guy, but today he was only targeted a couple times, brought him one for 21 yards. But we did see Supernaw get involved. He had a couple of catches also when they targeted him a couple of times for 25 yards. So I like the way that they were spreading the football around.

And you saw how effective that Marcus was throwing the football. I think that his 64 yards on the ground also showed just how balanced they were in this approach against Cleveland, Terry. Yeah, I would agree with that and I think you know the day that Marcus had 17 of 24 284 yards that's about what you want out of him because I'm not sure that he's there yet in terms of being able to put a team completely on his back and say I'm throwing the ball 50 times today let you know get on and let's go but when you have balance, and the passing game carried the running game today in terms of how this game was won.

And I think 24 pass attempts, 31 rush attempts, that's the type of balance that the Titans are looking for on offense, and I think they like it even more knowing that the pass game can come through to assist the run game rather than vice versa every week. Now, the thing, guys, that I take away from this as a negative for me was the Titans' defense today, giving up 300-plus yards passing. Granted, they did a great job against the rush. They held Duke Johnson to four carries for 18 yards, Isaiah Crowell nine for 16.

Forty yards total rushing. But when you look at Cody Kessler, I mean, this is a rookie coming in, and he throws for 337 yards and was able to be effective late in the ballgame, driving down, especially for that late score after the onside kick that got them in the position to be there. That's kind of concerning to me because this is a Cleveland team that really only had one wide receiver in Terrell Pryor that you ever could have even named prior to the game today.

I know it's a weekly thing and things change week to week, but that certainly is concerning to me that Cody Kessler was able to do that much damage to the defense. Yeah, and I think when we started this segment, Greg, Terry, I was talking about the big day that Cody Kessler had, and probably that's because of the poor secondary that the Titans pretty much had. They've done a great job consistently of shutting down the run, even if they do have a 1-2 tandem in Johnson and Crowell, but for the most part, whether it's a rookie coming in or a journeyman, for whatever reason, those deep balls, man, it's like somebody needs to be yelling ball more often when it's in the air, because the Titans need to get their heads turned around

to stop those big plays, because it's in the air because the Titans need to get their heads turned around to stop those big plays because it's the big chunk yards that are actually 42 yards from Lewis, 28 yards from Duke Johnson, 43 from Gary Barnage, 22 from Andre Hawkins. These are the longest plays basically for these players on any one play from scrimmage, and those are the big plays that basically eat up the Titans' defense at the end of the day. Well, I think part of that too was the fact that even though the Titans had five sacks today, it felt a little bit like the pass rush was not as consistent as it was last week in Miami. Those sacks came kind of early in the game.

Then toward the end, the Browns were doing a good job of protecting Kessler, giving him time to run around in the backfield, find a receiver. And then Terrell Pryor, what can you say about this guy? I mean, I'll just say this. Had he not wasted two or three years trying to be a quarterback in this league, he'd be an all-pro receiver by now. Terry, I sat up there in Section 204, and I looked at my wife when he made one of those, maybe it was a short, flat route to step out of the sidelines, and I said, my God, this guy was a quarterback.

I mean, he didn't even look like that. The way that they transitioned him, I think he's going to be more effective and more dangerous in the exotic looks that they bring forward. Can you imagine pitching him the ball or something like that and then have him throw down deep the sidelines because he still has that quarterback in him? He might be a weapon that the Cleveland Browns tap into in the future. Absolutely. And credit Cody Kessler, too. We talk about the Titans secondary, but he made good throws. He put the ball where it needed to go, and he was effective. He also extended plays with his feet, getting outside some of those times

Terry was talking about the pressure, and made some things happen. He's not a dynamic runner the way Marcus is. He's not going to go 87 yards, but he is effective moving around just enough to keep things going. Maybe the Cleveland Browns have found that quarterback that they've been searching for for a long time through the Johnny Manziels and the other things that have happened that weren't so good in Cleveland.

This guy could be the guy. He needs some pieces around him, but maybe. Yeah, it only took 20 years, but yeah. Now, come on. Now, our buddy Kelly Holcomb may be listening to this. Well, Kelly was before that, wasn't he? I think so. We included him in the good years.

But in terms of this game is what it means for the Titans. You know, there have been a lot of bad things that have gone on around this franchise, a lot of bad karma for the last two or three years. You know, not beating anybody other than Jacksonville at home. Not winning two in a row in a season since the end of 2013. And yes, they made it closer than it should have been. But bottom line, there were a lot of demons exercised, I think, today with this win. And now you're 3-3.

You've got the Colts coming in. You've got the Jaguars coming in. If you can somehow win those two games, you just might be in the driver's seat in this division heading into the second half of the year. This is such a dysfunctional division, Terry, when you talk about Jacksonville basically being underachievers this year with all the youth that they have and experience, bringing in a couple of free agents from Denver and the likes

that are actually going to bolster that defense and the running attack. Look at Houston. Houston's has its own struggles right now trying to figure out what they're going to do balancing Brock Osweiler's approach and transitioning. Andrew Luck, they can't keep him healthy, even though they grabbed the guy in the middle in Ryan Kelly at center

to kind of bolster that protection. He's still getting knocked around, and they have virtually no pass rush there, so it does leave it wide open. And we notice what happens when there's a W in Nissan Stadium. The sun's brighter. The lawnmowers cut the grass just a little bit better. Fans are happy as they're leaving here. Traffic isn't near as unbearable as it normally is, and I think that that's one of the things

that the Titans have tapped into. The only time they've ever walked out of this stadium with Marcus Moriota being the victor is one time in two seasons. And I think that win last week was something that they built on and took that momentum in here and actually got a close ball game in the end. You're listening to Locked On Titans on the Locked On Podcast Network. Guys, something happened today that hasn't happened here, and it goes right along. Brad, you mentioned Nissan Stadium, the grass being cut a little bit better

and the fans being happy when they left today. What we saw in the stadium today was a lack of Cleveland Browns jerseys. Now, there were a few fans here, but remember back two seasons ago when they came here, they dominated the Titans crowd with the number of Cleveland fans. We didn't see that today, and twice on an important drive, the fans made enough noise, guys, and we haven't seen this in forever, that they were able to affect the Cleveland offense.

They got two penalties against the Browns on consecutive plays, and Terry, that just doesn't happen. That was shades of 1999 and 2000, wasn't it, Brad? I didn't think we were in Nashville. I was like, we in Nashville? Are we in Pittsburgh or something? It's loud in here. You know, and it's got a long way to go before it gets back to that level, but when you win, things like that can get started. Things like that can happen. I think for this franchise, there's a long way to go. This is still a flawed team in a lot of areas, but having won two games in a row against teams that you should beat, now you start to get a little confidence. You start to get a little pep in your step

if you're a Titans player, if you're a Titans coach. You start to think, hey, maybe you can do this as opposed to hoping you can do this. Talk about what type of, how that changes the mindset and the mentality going forward. Completely. You hit on so many good points there, Terry. Particularly when you've got those guys, those veterans that have been on this team and witnessed the dysfunction. Witnessed seeing all of those fans dressed like seats. Nowadays, you see new pageantries,

new traditions being developed, new jumbotron celebrations. And you might not think that that pays big dividends, but when you think about the atmosphere that it's creating, that's the chemistry and the environment that makes Nissan Stadium a tough place to play. You've got to have some place to hang your head,

some place that you know you play well and consistent, and the road shouldn't be that place. But unfortunately for our team, it has been. Two wins back-to-back for this Tennessee Titans team, the second time for Marcus Murillo to Nissan Stadium. That's how you build the building blocks to get to be a competitive program. And you have to have a home field advantage. They've taken a step today towards doing that. Now, guys, I want to pose this to both of you.

Terry's heard this one, Brad. He was sitting with me Sunday during the game. You have not. But when Andre Johnson grabbed that second onside kick that saved the game, basically allowed the Titans to have the football to take a knee in the contest there, I said and put on social media this was the biggest catch of his Titans career. Now, not his NFL career, obviously, but his Titans career.

I was immediately chastised on social media by fans who said, don't forget Detroit, that game winner that he caught up there. Oh, get in zone, yeah. Okay, but now I want to get you guys' thoughts, but let me tell you why I think this was a bigger catch. Certainly that was a great catch. It was very important. It got the Titans their first win of the season.

But what happens if he doesn't make that catch today and Cleveland gets that football, has an opportunity to kick a field goal, does it, and wins it? All the goodwill goes out the window because now you've lost to a winless team at home and the fans aren't leaving here happy today. They're leaving here mad because the Titans have done it again, figured out a way to lose a game that they had won at home, and everything that we've talked about, the winning streak,

getting back-to-back games, getting a win at home, it's all gone. That catch to me today was bigger than the one in Detroit. Ladies and gentlemen, you just heard firsthand the mentality of so many Titans fans up to this point, waiting for the other shoe to drop. There's some way that the Titans are going to find a way to shoot themselves in the foot, give this ball game away, and then keep up this kind of nasty feeling that we've had about the Titans here in Nashville.

Well, you know what? The one people that didn't have that mentality were the guys that are on the sideline today. They went out there and made a play that was necessary for them to win the game. They didn't take into consideration that the Cleveland Browns had momentum. They were just within a field goal shot of tying this thing up or actually taking the lead. That wasn't the way they were thinking. It's new. It's different. I think that new approach, forgetting about the way things used to be and how things used to all of a sudden end up for the Titans erroneously, they just think that, hey, this is an opportunity for us to win another ballgame and get better.

Yeah. While we're all sunshine and roses here, though, I want to say something. That didn't happen often, sunshine and roses, so let's enjoy the moment. But I want to say that the Titans do owe the Cleveland Browns a little bit because Hugh Jackson should not have gone for two there after that first touchdown because not getting that two-point conversion left in a two-score game. If he goes for one and then gets the onside kick, their chances of pulling this thing out of the fire certainly increases.

So, you know, not trying to be negative, Nelly, but, you know, the Titans were fortunate on that regard. Yeah, I will agree with that too, Terry, but I will say this, what Greg was talking about in last week's segments about the Titans not doing things to help the Cleveland Browns. We didn't see the stupid penalties. We did see one from 24. Exactly. You know exactly who I'm talking about.

That was the only – Damian Stafford, yeah. Yes, that might have been the only, quote, unquote, boneheaded play that we've had that cost us today. But for the most part, it was one person. It wasn't you do it here, you do it there, you do it there. In other words, you've got that to deal with throughout the entire game. The Titans played pretty focused and pretty consistent football.

And, guys, since we're on that subject, Terry, you called it because we did an over-and-under just joking around before the game, Brad. Taylor LeJuan, when was he going to get the penalty? I took the third quarter. He said he was going penalty free. Did it. Good job, Terry McCormick.

I just had a feeling that Taylor was going to have a big game today because I think he was going up against a guy that he regards as one of his idols in Joe Thomas because Joe Thomas is one of the best offensive tackles in the league. And I think Taylor LeJuan, maybe not outwardly, but probably subconsciously said, I want to have as good a game as Joe Thomas does today. And he had a good game.

I will say, I've always said this about good players that bad things happen to. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And I think for the most part, he's got good intentions on the mind. He's trying to set the tone. He's trying to be a difference maker. And I totally get that. But I think that just going above and beyond sometimes has caught his hand in the cookie jar. Well, he didn't make those mistakes today.

And the offensive line, well, you know, put it this way, Marcus Mario wasn't on his back. You know what I mean? And they found enough of a rushing attack to be effective. So for the most part, I'd say a job well done by those guys. Absolutely. Taylor took a step forward in the anger management. Growing up, if you will, the maturing as a player in the NFL. He played with an edge.

You saw him talking a couple times. He got into a little shoving match there. Right in that mouth. Yeah, he didn't take it too far that it cost his team. And you can live with him playing that way with that edge if he doesn't get the penalties. Now, guys, on to another topic, and we've talked about this, and I'm sure fans have heard it, but we'll tell you again.

The last time the Tennessee Titans were 500 or better at this point in the season was 2013. They were 4-4 under Mike Munchak, and, of course, we know what happened from there in that season. But 3-3 right now, and as we mentioned earlier, have an opportunity with the Colts and Jacksonville coming to town to stack some wins. What would a four-game win streak feel like for this team? And let's don't get too far ahead of ourselves. Let's take a three-game win streak.

The Colts will come in here one week from Sunday or the end of this week. And the Titans have a chance to do that. Go ahead, Terry. Well, I want to see the Titans be the first team to take it. You know, everybody takes it one game at a time. I want to see them take it two games at a time. Why not? Go ahead and, you know, I want to see the Titans be the first team to take it. You know, everybody takes it one game at a time. I want to see them take it two games at a time. Why not? Go ahead and, you know, prepare for both teams.

Project yourself. Four no sounds good to me. No, I hear you. Just kidding. But, you know, one of the things with this Titans team that I think comes to mind here is you've got a lot of guys here that, a lot of young guys that really don't know what it's like to win a lot of games at this level. You've got some veteran guys who've been around here a while, guys like Jason McCourty, Jarrell Casey, Derek Morgan.

They've been here a long time. They haven't experienced a whole lot of success. So in my mind, the guys who are going to have to take this thing forward, the guys who are going to have to say, come on, let's go, are going to be some of the import guys, the DeMarco Murrays, the Brian Arakpos, you know, people who know what it's like to be in the playoffs or know what it's like to have that winning experience.

I think it's going to be important for those guys over this next two or three-game stretch to become leaders on this team and to be guys who project that this can be done and, you know, this is how you do it, come on, let's go. Absolutely. I think that when you have guys that have experienced success, you want to tap into their experience.

You know what I mean? You want to tap into DeMarco Murray just missing the playoffs because Dez Bryant couldn't hold on to the ball in Green Bay. You want to have Delaney Walker, who was Vernon Davis' trusted backup for a number of years before stepping out of that shadow and being a guy that can do it by himself here in Nashville. You know, we see a lot of veterans that have come to this team, and if the Titans don't have a lot of playoff experience,

then you need to listen to those guys that understand what playing in January is like. You're right, 100% Terry. Guys, we're fast approaching the end of our time for today, so as always, it's time for final thoughts. Brad, go ahead and lead us off. Well, I know Terry was kind of tongue in cheek joking about four straight wins, and of course it's easy for us to prognosticate about this team and its future, but I think that obviously it would be a great hurdle to get past a divisional opponent that some would say was going to win the division with the return of

Andrew Luck. I can't express the importance of getting off to a fast start and having this team be pretty much predictable trying to catch up to the Titans in a raucous environment. I think the Colts coming in town will definitely bring Titans fans out because they know how pivotal this game is. So I would hope that this week coming up would produce a pretty fruitful preparation to make sure that they can, first off, make that pocket dirty for Andrew Luck and also keep our pocket clean because the Colts really don't have that much of a pass rush. So I think this is an excellent opportunity, Terry. One of the things that I'm going to talk about

today, and I know the defense had their moments where they gave up some plays and gave up some yards, but overall they held the Browns to three of 14 on third down oh of seven in the first half so that's pretty good that's doing what you want to do and for the most part three out of 14 I'll take that most every week right my final thought guys and I'm going to be a little cliche here, but success breeds success. When you lose games, it's easy to continue to lose those games and do what we've seen over the last two seasons here. But success breeds success, and the Titans now have had some success. They've won three games this season. They're in a position to have a better overall record at the end of this year

than they did the previous two combined. Certainly they've got to go out and do that. But they have now the building blocks in place. They have some confidence. They've had that success of winning back-to-back games. And I think that carries over and translates forward because the last two games they've won games that they should have won. They were favored going into both those games, and they managed to get wins.

They might not have been pretty. In fact, Sundays was pretty ugly, as it turned out. But they got the W, and that's to get wins. They might not have been pretty. In fact, Sundays was pretty ugly as it turned out, but they got the W and that's all that matters. You just got to keep building forward on that and understand and learn how to win. This is a team I think we're seeing learn how to win. There's still a long way to go, but they are heading in the right direction, guys. I'm expecting a statue of Mike Malarkey anytime now to be erected on either the south or the north end zones because that's the kind of season I think that you should probably give him credit for so far. Yeah, I mean, he's done a great job.

I mean, a lot of people. No busts yet? No, not yet. Not yet. But they can maybe put him up on the side of the stadium. Yeah, give him a little, yeah. Have Eddie and Steve. Exactly.

That will do it for us. It's been another great day here on Locked on Titans. We hope you've enjoyed the podcast as always. Guys, let's do it again on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and get ready for another big week next weekend when the Colts come to town. Until then, we'll talk to you on Tuesday. Enjoy. Locked on Titans.

You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.