Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Oct. 18- It's Tuesday and that means we go Four Downs & More

Episode Date: October 18, 2016

It's Tuesday and that means we go Four Downs ahead of Sunday's match-up with the Colts & more, #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 Titan Insider, Greg Arias, and former Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl left tackle, Brad Hopkins.

It's Tuesday. Terry McCormick with me as always on Tuesdays. Of course, Brad not with us on Tuesday. And Terry, you and I have got a lot of things to get through today. Obviously it's Tuesday we do our four down segment where we take four items of interest concerning the Titans and go through those and of course as always we start with current news and the current news today Terry is good news of sorts if you will for the Titans. Let's start first obviously with the fact that the Texans on Sunday night defeated the Indianapolis Colts, which means that the Colts will limp into town on Sunday to face the Titans with a 2-4 record.

Yeah, but it also kind of makes them dangerous because at 2-4, they can't afford to go 2-5. They'd probably be pretty close to being out of the division, even as mediocre as the AFC South is. So you might find the Colts being like a wounded animal come Sunday, and Titans are going to have to be aware of that in terms of how they approach the game, because they're probably going to get Indianapolis' best shot on Sunday. Now, the Colts have been the benchmark of this division for several years. I know they struggled last year. Andrew Luck being injured, missing the majority of the season last

year, but they've really been a nemesis of the Titans. Is this where we could potentially see the changing of the guard, if you will? I know Houston's still out there. They might now be the benchmark team in this division, but as far as the Colts and that stigma of the Titans in the last four to five years not being able to beat those guys, could we see that changing of the guard, if you will, here? Well, if they can get it done on Sunday, it would go a long way toward erasing a lot of the heartache that they've had against the Colts over the years. You remember the only time they've beaten them in the last five years was in 2011 when the Colts were missing Peyton Manning.

And even that year, they didn't get a full sweep of the Colts. In fact, they lost to an 0-13 team at Indianapolis, and that pretty much killed their playoff hopes from that point on. But I think when you look at this Titans team, they're going to have to block it out of their mind, from that point on. But I think when you look at this Titans team, you know, they're going to have to block it out of their mind, the fact that they've had a terrible history against Indianapolis. They're going to have to just play and do, you know, it's kind of like,

you know, to use the college comparison, it's kind of like, you know, Tennessee against Florida. They lost 10 or 11 games in a row, and then finally were able to overcome the stigma. Once you get a break or two and you realize that you can play with a team, then you can pretty much go ahead and take care of business. But until that happens, it seems like you're always looking for something bad to happen to turn the game against you, and that's been a lot of the Titans' problem over the years. Absolutely, I agree.

It has been, and certainly a win Sunday could do exactly that, as you said. Let's move along now, and the only other thing we have in current news, Terry, is I guess good news if you're the Titans, and that's the lack of injuries on the injury report. In fact, it is so good that it seems like the Titans will be finally getting back Al Woods and Cody Riggs this week to try to play on Sunday versus the Colts. And when you can talk about that going into week seven of the NFL season, that you are almost injury-free. Obviously, the bumps, bruises, those types of things exist.

But major injuries, that's certainly a positive and good news. Oh, yeah. At this time of the year, a lot of times teams are nursing injuries and their depth is tested, and a lot of times that's what takes teams out of contention. You saw it with the Colts last year when Andrew Luck went down. But Titans are as healthy as you could ask for, being six games into the season, heading into week seven. And getting Al Woods back should help further fortify the defensive line. Getting Cody Riggs back should be a big benefit on special teams.

And they're pretty much healthy going forward. And if you're the Titans, you have to hope that good luck and that trend continues. Now, I want to talk just a moment about Cody Riggs because he has been a guy that's been a core special teams player, but he is a cornerback by trade. And I'm a little bit concerned, Terry, after Sunday and Cody Kessler coming in and going 26-41 for 336 and two touchdowns, a quarterback rating of 105.3 against the Titans secondary.

Is this an anomaly or is this something that we could see come up again with Andrew Luck coming to town? And is there a place for Cody Riggs perhaps to step in and play a little bit more on the defensive side to try to help shore up some things there in the secondary? Well, I wouldn't think he would get the shot right away. I think McCourty, Cox, and McCain are fairly well entrenched at the top three cornerback spots.

But you never know with injuries, or you never know if they might want to expand some of the packages and go to more of a four-corner dime look against the Colts. But I think when you look at Andrew Luck, he's obviously the guy that makes Indianapolis go. The big key is can the Colts protect it? And the Titans had six sacks again on Sunday, two straight games they've had a half-dozen sacks.

So they're going to pin their ears back and they're going to force that Colts offensive line to try and protect Luck. And if they can get there, then that's going to help that secondary. I think late in the ballgame when Cleveland was able to roll out Kessler, the Browns did a lot better job protecting him, and that kind of wore the Titans' pass rush down and exposed those corners.

So I think it's a matter of the pass rush helping to cover for those corners and make those quarterbacks, whether it's Luck or whoever, get rid of the ball maybe quicker than they want to, try to help that secondary. I want to throw this out there, Terry. Obviously, you and I talked about this on Sunday, but in those numbers defensively and in those six sacks, Brian Arakpo has quietly put together seven sacks

through the first six games of this season. He is on pace to have 18 sacks this year. Now, granted, there's a long way to go to get there, but he is certainly playing at a high level right now for this Titans defense, and that is good to see, and he's getting some help from his friends. Yes, he is. And, you know, Arakpo is really having a good year, kind of like you said, flowing under the radar a little bit.

But seven sacks matches his total from all of last season. I think you're right. He's the ringleader, but he gets plenty of help from Derek Morgan, Jarrell Casey, and Carl Klug, just to name a few. Let's move on, Terry, and jump into our four downs. Our first down tonight is an interesting stat, and I think it's one, Terry, that you're probably going to hear first right here from us because we try to bring you things like this, interesting stats and things that you're not going to find everywhere else.

You can get these things also every day from us, Terry, on demand by simply clicking on the link to the podcast, Locked on Titans. We are part of the fastest growing sports audio network in the world, by the way, Terry. So we're going to brag just a little bit about that as we jump into this first down. And that stat is that the Titans offensive tackles, Taylor LeJuan and Jack Conklin, have not allowed a single sack between the two of them through the first six games. And on Sunday, they allowed no pressures from the Cleveland Browns, Conklin or LeJuan.

That's pretty impressive for certainly a rookie, especially at right tackling Jack Conklin, who is a guy that came in as the number one draft pick. But people question perhaps did he have the ability to be a good tackle against a pass rush. And so far so good. He's proving everybody that said maybe he doesn't wrong on that front. Yeah, I think you have to tip your hat to Titans offensive line coach Russ Grimm,

to John Robinson for drafting Jack Conklin. Because you remember, the buzz around draft time was that the Titans were going to take Laramie Tunsell and move Taylor LeJuan to the right side. Well, they made the right move by going ahead, trading down, getting Jack Conklin, trading back up, I should say, getting Jack Conklin. And then I think when you look at the way he's played, plus the way that Taylor LeJuan is starting to mature, he's starting to cut down on the penalties a little bit, the Titans

may have their answer on the edges a little bit. The Titans may have their answer on the edges for quite some time, much like they did when they had Michael Roos and David Stewart. Now, obviously, this offensive line has played well, and to prove that point, the Titans, Terry, currently rank in the top 10 in the league on offense. They are 10th overall. 10 in the league on offense. They are 10th overall. Their offense is third in rushing. They're 29th in passing now. 29th, certainly not all that great out of 32 teams, but that number three in rushing certainly says something. Obviously, room to improve for the Titans with the pass offense, but still top 10 in the NFL is certainly nothing to joke about, laugh about, or sneeze about, and it's not something that we thought that the Titans would be talking about

coming into this season. No, probably not, especially given how poorly the offense had played for most of the last two years. And I think if you're the Titans, even though it is 29th in offense, I think you have to be encouraged just for the fact that they got the passing game. They played better on Sunday with getting Kendall Wright back involved, doing the things that, you know, you want to see a team who wants team keys on your top players into Marco

Murray and Delaney Walker to try and shut them down. We'll talk about Marcus Mariota a little bit later on, Terry. We'll give people a hint that he's one of our four downs tonight, and we'll get into his numbers a little bit later on. But certainly Conklin and LeJuan getting the job done for the Titans right now. And the rest of the offensive line as well are playing pretty good at this point, but perhaps there will still be some tinkering in the future with those interior three. Those certainly are things that remain to be seen, but right now I think everybody's

probably pretty happy with what this unit has been able to do as a whole. Let's jump on. Oh, I definitely think so. Let's jump on to second down. We want to talk about Kevin Byard, the rookie safety, Terry, and he is a player that certainly impressed everyone when he stepped on the field in the rookie minicamp and training camp and throughout, and he has been a guy that has been increasingly becoming more and more of a factor for this Titans team, seeing more and more playing

time as he's gone along, and yesterday, there is a rotation now. The Titans are not just playing two safeties. These are our starters. We're playing them all the plays. They're rotating guys in and out, and in that rotation, Kevin Byard had the most plays on Sunday in the game versus the Browns. That's perhaps a little bit surprising. Yeah, it is. I think, you know, Mike Belarco was asked about that, and he said that, you know, it's just the way the rotation worked out. But I still think it's an indication that they have an extreme amount of confidence in Kevin Byard, that he is out there in the packages and, you know, getting so many snaps so early on in his career when he's surrounded really by veteran players like the North's Cersei, Rashad Johnson, and Damian Stafford. One thing we saw out of Bayard through training camp

and was his history at MTSU, we saw it early in the game, I believe, against Minnesota. He had an interception in that ball game. But since then, he's been in the game, but he's not necessarily been around the ball making those kind of plays. Is that something that just, I guess, obviously some of it is luck of the draw, being in the right place at the right time, but something that will come more so for this young man

once he gets a little bit more experience as well? Yeah, I think so. His numbers at NPSU with 19 career interceptions, I think that shows you that he has ball skills. And I think as he learns the rigors of the NFL, as he learns how toors of the NFL, as he learns, you know, how to play the nuances of the scheme and how to, you know, read opposing offenses, what receivers are trying to do, I think you'll see those numbers start to take off for him.

Terry, we talked about in the last segment on offense about the rankings in the NFL. Kevin Byard, of course, part of a defense for the Titans that ranks ninth in the NFL. And these numbers are pretty impressive now. The Titans are seventh in the league against the run. They are 11th against the pass out of 32 teams. So they're in the top third in

obviously both categories and number nine overall. We thought coming into the season that the Titans defense had a chance to be pretty good. Now, certainly there are still some issues. You're not really happy about giving up over 300 yards passing to a rookie quarterback and especially a rookie quarterback with the Cleveland Browns, but they did manage to get the win in spite of that, and those numbers are still pretty impressive.

Yeah, I think when you look at this Titans' defense, a lot of people thought it was a, you know, it's a little bit of a surprise. I think a lot of people were skeptical as to how good this defense could be coming out of preseason, because remember, they've been giving up points on nearly every opening drive when the starters were off the field during the exhibition games. But the pass rush has really been the key for this defense, I believe. And that and the fact that they can stop the run. When you can stop the run, then you can force the team to be one-dimensional. And even if your secondary is a little bit suspect or a little bit slow, you've still got the pass rush because you know what the other team's going to do

when it's third down at nine. So I think the Titans, the fact that they're able to stop the run and the fact that they're able to get a good pass rush has really been the key to making this defense successful. Absolutely. I think you are exactly right on that. And they just have to keep it up now. And coming in against a Colts team this week that's going to be hungry for a win,

the Colts have had some issues with their offensive line. I think the Titans with these sacks that they have found from this front seven, perhaps we see Dick LeBeau come up with some more schemes this week to try to do some more blitzing, something that we haven't seen a lot of, or at least it hasn't been easily recognizable from this team, Terry, and try to get even more pressure on Andrew Luck, hit him frequently, and knock him off his game, so to speak, to try to get this win on Sunday. Yeah, I think that's what you have to do.

You have to make Andrew Luck uncomfortable in the pocket. But at the same time, you can't let him take off and just run because he can burn you with his legs as well as with his arm. And I think, you know, you look at the Colts' personnel overall, and they're probably the worst 22 players in the division in terms of matching up with the other team. But Luck's the wild card in all that because he's by far the best quarterback, the most polished quarterback in this division.

And I think when you apply that, you know, that gives them a chance no matter what. And if you're going to beat the Indianapolis Colts, you're going to have to rein in Andrew Luck. You're going to have to makeapolis Colts, you're going to have to rein in Andrew Luck. You have to make him uncomfortable. You have to make him make a mistake. Let's move along to third down, Terry. And this is a question that I was asked on social media today by a couple of questioners that follow there.

Derrick Henry, he is a guy that came in with so much hype. The Heisman Trophy winner, reigning Heisman winner, set the Titans world aflame, if you will, with his performance in the preseason, the way he ran the football. But over the last couple of weeks, he has kind of disappeared. We saw him very limited in the number of plays that he got on Sunday against the Browns. Now, he did have a pretty good game, 54 yards rushing against Miami, but he didn't have a lot of carries to do that. He had a couple of big runs that attributed to a large portion

of that number against Miami in the win two Sundays ago. What is the situation with him? I know DeMarco Murray has played well. Is that the only factor in this? Yeah, I think it really is. I think DeMarco Murray is playing well and carrying so much of the load in the Titans front game, but there really aren't very many carries for Derrick Henry right now. And look at it this way. If you're a Titans fan, you know, it may not be good

for your fantasy football team if you have Derrick Henry, but if you're a Titans fan, it's a situation where you've got, you know, you've got this big Cadillac sitting in the garage that you haven't driven very much, and in the stretch front, in November and December when you have to run the football, the yards get a little tougher to come by because you can't throw the ball in cold weather and you can't do the things that you wanted to in the passing game. It's not a bad option to have a fresh Derrick Henry there to hand the ball to to give DeMarco Murray a breather down the stretch.

Now, let me ask you this, Terry, and without giving away Titans trade secrets, we saw a lot of different formations and things that they were doing with Henry early on. That's something I think that they're probably holding in their back pocket as well because we could certainly see some of those things in conjunction with DeMarco Murray, yet they're choosing right now not to do those things, maybe saving it for a time when they need something that other teams have not seen. Yeah, that's always a possibility. I think, you know, like I said, Henry County gives you that wild card, that extra guy that you know he can probably deliver if you put the football in his hand.

that you know he can probably deliver if you put the football in his hands. But right now, DeMarco Murray is doing so well that he's really not having to carry a whole lot of load as far as Derrick Henry is concerned. Moving on to fourth down, I told you moments ago we would talk about Marcus Mariota, and he is our fourth down subject tonight, or today rather. 17 of 24, 284 yards, three touchdowns. He did throw one interception. Of course, the long 48-yard touchdown pass to Kendall Wright was the highlight of his three passes for the touchdowns on the day, Terry.

It stretched the defense. The quarterback rating 132.6. Those are pretty good numbers for Marcus Mariota, and magnify that because it happened at home at Nissan Stadium and the fact that Marcus has not exactly played well there. Is this where we see finally Marcus get comfortable at home and maybe hopefully take that next step? I know he's got to build on it and come out and continue to do it, but this was certainly something that I think should be a confidence builder

for him going into the remainder of the season. Yeah, you would hope so. I think if you're a Titans fan, you would hope that that's a nice step for Mariota in his development. I think, you know, Mike Malarkey was asked about Marcus today, and he said, you know, the good thing, he said that on the two deep throws, Marcus put the ball exactly where he was instructed to put it, and the receivers wound up actually making those diving catches,

one by Wright, one by Matthews. But he said, had those guys run completely through the ball and not slowed down as they did on their routes, they probably could have just run under the pass and not had to worry about making a dive for it. Now, on the other side, the one interception, Malarkey did say that Mariota cannot throw the ball off balance late down the middle of the field.

I think that's one of the cardinal sins of quarterbacking. But he said, I think he believes the reason that he's done that is because he's done it a few times and it's worked and he's made an amazing play out of it. But he said, it's simply not worth the risk. And Marcus is going to have to learn when to say when on that. One thing we're certainly going to see, Terry, on Sunday is having Marcus a chance to go head to head with Andrew Luck in a game at Nissan Stadium. And perhaps we can see a changing of the guard, if you will. Certainly Andrew Luck's going to be an outstanding quarterback,

but Marcus certainly has a chance to match him play-for-play in this game and see if he can at least raise his game to the level where he can be talked about with Andrew Luck as the top quarterback in this division. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see. I mean, you know, Mariota, he's not in Luck's league yet, but if he can take a nice step or two and advance, then, you know, who knows? I mean, I think the first step is he's got to be able to win games. He's got to be able to defeat the Colts and give the Titans that knowledge that they

can compete and play with the Indianapolis Colts or anyone else in this division. I think when you look at it that way, that's the first step for Marcus Mariota at the bottom line of winning a game. It's time for our final thoughts. Terry, go ahead and give us your final thought on this Tuesday edition of Locked on Titans. Well, my final thought regarding the Titans is that, you know, we touched on it a little bit earlier,

but the Indianapolis Colts have been a thorn in the Titans' side for a long, long, long time. And the Titans probably are not going to get a better chance anytime soon to take care of that than they will on Sunday against the Colts. You know, they can pretty much drive the nail in the coffin for Indianapolis if they can take care of business and win at Nissan Stadium. But if they don't, if they revert back to their old ways, if they're unable to do that, then, you know, it's one step forward, two steps back for the Titans,

but that's not something that they really want to do. My final thought is about rookie wide receiver Tajay Sharp. He was shut out on Sunday versus Cleveland. I had some people today, again, on social media ask the question, what's going on? There was so much hype about this young man and the way that he played in the preseason and then through the early part of the season.

I think he just had a bad game on Sunday. I don't know that this is something that anybody has to worry about. I don't think we should get too excited or upset over it. He was shut out. That happens to the best of receivers. Look at DeAndre Hopkins. The Titans held him to one reception in that game versus Houston, and he is one of the top receivers in the league.

So if you're worried about Tajay Sharp, don't. I think the young man is going to be just fine. It was one game. He'll bounce back. He's still got some learning to do. He's obviously a rookie, but I think he'll get there and will be a quality receiver for this Tennessee Titans football team for several years to come.

That'll do it for us on a Tuesday edition. We'll be back on Wednesday where we'll have some more great information, news, and updates on the Titans. Brad will be back with us. Until then, for Terry McCormick, I'm Greg Arias. We'll see you tomorrow on Locked on Titans. You are locked on Titans. Your daily podcast on the Tennessee Titans.

Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team, every day.