Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Oct. 25- Tuesday means Foru Downs & more.
Episode Date: October 25, 2016It's Tuesday, which means we go Four Downs including Mariota, the secondary, a must win & more. #BHop #TerryMc #GregA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices ...
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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, and we have got a lot of things to cover today, Terry McCormick, as we do
every day, our daily Titans news updates.
And then on Tuesday, it's four downs.
We have four subjects that we want to cover today, and certainly a lot of things of interest
in those four downs, but let's jump right into the current news, which obviously surrounds
the injuries.
Two key injuries to two starters occurred in Sunday's loss to the Colts, that to starting cornerback Parrish Cox and to starting left guard Quentin Spain.
Both players carted off the field on Sunday.
What can you tell us on the injury front on the update on them, Terry?
Well, it sure looks like that both of them are not going to be available,
especially with the short week coming up against the Jaguars on Thursday night.
Cox is in the protocol concussion, so the concussion protocol, I should say.
So, therefore, he's day-to-day
and will have to clear the protocol
before he's even allowed to return to practice,
much less playing a game on a short week.
His chances don't look very good.
Quentin Spain, the Titans actually got some good news
considering what they were expecting on Quentin Spain.
Turns out the knee, the right knee, is only hyperextended and bruised.
No ligament damage, no structural damage,
but he's still going to be out three to four weeks while he recovers.
He's basically just got to stay off of it and rest and allow it to recuperate.
That is good news considering what could have been when he was carted off,
given that you fear the worst, that it might be torn ligaments
or cartilage meniscus-type tears that would put him out potentially for the season.
But he's going to be back in three to four weeks,
and that's probably as good a scenario as you could have hoped for with Clint's faint.
Now, that leads – I i'm sorry go ahead there
were some other bumps and bruises but go ahead and we'll clear those after you uh talk about
your reaction to those that leads us to replacements obviously there's going to have
to be a decision made as to what the titans will do at left guard in particular uh we kind of know
where they'll go in the secondary.
Brian Schwinke came in and finished up the game on Sunday.
He is a guy that is also the second team center.
So there'll be a decision that has to be made
if Schwinke's going to continue at that guard spot, Terry.
And then if something were to happen to Ben Jones,
now you've got to move Schwinke over and bring somebody else in.
So certainly that's an area that the Titans have got very little time
to try to figure out between now and Thursday night.
That is true.
You know, Mike Malarkey brought up the possibility
that Sebastian Pitola was an option, but he has played virtually none.
He's been inactive most weeks.
The only time he was even active was when somebody was down with a short-term
injury. And so you're talking about a guy who hasn't played hardly at all in Trotoa. I would
think most likely they're going to go with Schwinke just for the experience factor.
You mentioned some other bumps and bruises along the way, certainly probably a lot of those, but
tell us about the ones that made the injury report.
Well, there are several, and normally they probably wouldn't be that big of a concern,
but since you've got a four-day turnaround and you're already playing again on Thursday,
some of these may be a little bit more serious than you would normally have
if you had a full week to plan.
Delaney Walker, on the hit that he took from Josh McNary, has a bruised chest,
so rib-type area injury.
Tajay Sharp has a sprained knee.
Rashad Johnson has a stiff neck.
And there was one more, and I'm trying to remember who that was.
Oh, Kevin Dodd.
No, the foot injury, not really serious,
but it's a matter of can he tolerate the pain and play through it.
The x-ray showed no damage to the foot, that it's actually healing pretty nicely,
but he's been having some pain and discomfort in that surgically repaired right foot.
So another guy that is a question mark going into a short week.
It's interesting.
There are several things that you mentioned, Terry, that we've talked about in the current news
that will be coming up as part of our four downs a little bit later on here in the program this morning.
But when you look back at these injuries, and we talked last week at this time,
we were trying to find something basically as current news because the Titans were so healthy,
and it's just amazing what one week can do in the NFL, take you from healthy to pretty beat up.
Yeah, it really can, and you're talking about a team that had gone through pretty much unscathed
except for Chance Wormack's injury in the second week of the season.
Other than that, they've been very, very healthy, not had any problems.
Of course, there was Kendall Wright's hamstring, but he's now past that.
But now the injury bug starts to hit,
and you wonder exactly how much lineup juggling they're going to have to do
in order to get ready for the Jaguars Thursday night.
We talked about the offensive line and the possibilities for replacements for Quentin
Spain there in the secondary. We're going to see Bryce McCain, Valentino Blake. Those were the two
guys that came in on Sunday and played some at that outside corner spot in place of Parrish Cox.
I think we'll probably see the similar rotation there again against Jacksonville on Thursday night.
The good news, Terry, is if there's any that when you have a short week,
after you get through Thursday night, you're going to have a little bit longer period there,
the 11 days, to then get ready for the next game to try to get some of those,
hopefully, bumps and bruises healed up if they don't get too much more damage
in this Thursday night matchup.
That is correct.
I think, you know, you look at the secondary, you mentioned McCain and Blake stepping up a notch.
It also means that LaShawn Sim and Cody Riggs step up another notch, too.
So they may be closer to playing a little bit in certain sub-packages.
And Mike Malarkey even hinted at a possibility of doing some rotation at cornerback,
much like they've been doing with the safeties while Parrish Cox is on the shelf.
That would mean that Cody Riggs would actually have to be active for the game, though, on Sunday,
which we haven't seen in about three weeks.
That is true, but with Cox being out most likely, if Cox is down,
that opens up a spot for Riggs to be on the 46-man active roster.
So I would expect that Cody will be a go against the Jaguars.
You're listening to Locked On Titans on the Locked On Podcast Network.
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Terry, it's time to jump into our first down of our four today,
and we want to start with Marcus Mariota.
Obviously, he was the subject of a lot of talk following the loss.
Of course, he had the fumble late where he had the ball stripped out of his hand
that was returned by Robert Mathis for what was the clinching touchdown.
And there have been a lot of comments on social media,
in particular comments that I received.
A lot of fans, Terry, are jumping off the Marcus Mariota bandwagon right now
thinking, hey, maybe this guy is not really the answer
for this Tennessee Titans franchise that everybody thought and hoped he was
when he was drafted last season.
Well, I think it's way too quick to do anything like that.
I think when you look overall at Marcus Mariota and how he's played,
I think you see a guy that's been a little bit inconsistent,
and we saw that again on Sunday.
But I don't think it's time to jump ship or anything like that
because I think this guy is going to be a pretty good football player.
He's going to be a pretty good quarterback.
He's going to be a guy that the Titans are going to try and build around
for the future. But there's going to be a guy that the Titans are going to try and build around for the future.
But there's going to be growing pains.
There are going to be issues that have to be resolved.
And one of those issues right now is there's a lack of consistency
throwing the football.
We saw some throws miss high and wide, and the Titans in the past
have pinned that on the receivers, and some of that is on them
for the depths of their routes and not finishing routes
in the right timing and things like that.
But Malarkey
today said that some of it is on
Mariota because
he's throwing
off his back foot a little bit too much, and that's
causing the ball to sail a little bit.
I think these are correctable errors,
and I think it's something
that Marcus is going to have to work through. I think these are correctable errors, and I think it's something that Marcus is going to have to work through.
And I think one of the things that people ask about Marcus is,
is he going to be a franchise quarterback?
Well, the answer to that is who knows.
The Titans really didn't know that Steve McNair was a franchise quarterback
his first couple of years as a starter either.
They thought he could be.
And I don't think they actually found out that he was a franchise quarterback
until that drive that got them to the one-yard line in the Super Bowl
because up until that point, the Titans had been Eddie George's team.
They ran the ball much like these Titans do with DeMarco Murray.
And then over time, they transformed into more of Steve McNair's team.
And I think that's what the Titans are probably hoping will happen
with Marcus Mariota, that in time they will transform
from having to rely so much on the run
that they can actually have Marcus be the guy that holds things together.
Is he there yet? No, not by a long shot.
He's not a finished product.
And I think that's what people have to realize is that you're talking about a guy
who's not a finished product.
It takes some guys longer than others.
Not everybody is going to be like the guy that was across the field from them on Sunday,
like Andrew Luck, and come in right out of the gate and be a franchise quarterback.
More often than not, that doesn't happen.
Now, you hit on a couple things, Terry,
and there's something that people probably forget.
They know it.
We've talked about it.
But it's the fact that, yes, Marcus is in his second season in the NFL,
but experience-wise, he has just now on Sunday played his 18th game in the NFL.
Remember, he missed time last year in the middle of the season
with having the one knee injury, and then in the middle of the season with having the one
knee injury and then at the end of the season missed some time again with the other knee being
injured. So he has just now started really into his second season as a player even though we're
almost at the halfway point of season two because of the games missed and he's still trying to find
his way when you look at this receiving core
because how many of these guys did he play with last year
that are getting significant minutes?
The answer is one, Kendall Wright.
Yes, Delaney Walker at tight end, but you look at Rashad Matthews
who came over from Miami.
You look at Tajay Sharp, the rookie, Andre Johnson coming in.
So there's not a lot of the same people here that were there a year ago
that he got all that work with,
so he's basically had to start over with this receiving corps, in a sense.
Now, as you said, Malarkey talked about him throwing off the back foot.
That's definitely on him, but there's still that room to grow, if you will,
with these receivers and try to get better,
and I think that's something they're trying to do,
but it obviously hasn't happened as much or as fast as they would like for it to have at this point.
Right.
And I think a lot of people have already kind of long forgotten because of the way he,
the pocket poise he showed last year as a rookie.
You know, some people, you know, are saying that he's regressed and maybe he has.
But I think, you know, we forget that when he was coming out of Oregon,
there were questions people had of whether or not he could make the transition
from being a spread quarterback to being a pocket passer in the NFL.
And I think, you know, people said it would be a three- to four-year process.
So if you're still looking at it as a three- to four-year process,
then he's, you know, somewhere probably on the right track, and the learning
curve is probably about where you would expect it right now.
I think that just because he flashed signs last year and at times this year, people are
trying to accelerate that, and maybe we shouldn't be doing that.
Let's move along to second down, and on second down, we bounce over on defense and into the
secondary, Terry.
and on second down, we bounce over on defense and into the secondary, Terry.
We touched on that, obviously, with the injury to Parrish Cox,
but this is a secondary over the last two weeks that's been exposed and abused,
giving up almost 700 yards in passing offense to the Cleveland Browns and to the Indianapolis Colts, and neither one of these offenses, Terry,
had a receiving core that really strikes fear into the hearts of defenses,
yet they were able to come in and torch the Titans secondary.
There are obviously some issues there that have to be addressed.
Right.
Now, I will take a little bit of exception.
I think T.Y. Hilton is one of the better receivers in the league,
but you're right.
Other than him, you know, it was kind of a cast of unknowns for the most part
with both the Browns and the Colts the past couple of weeks.
I think when you look at the secondary,
the Titans' pass rush has been able to mask a lot of their deficiencies this year.
The fact that they got six sacks against the Dolphins,
six more against the Browns, really helped the secondary to look good,
make some plays on the ball, and not have to cover receivers very long.
Yesterday, the Indianapolis Colts exposed them because they max protected.
They kept in extra running backs or tight ends a lot of times to chip and block.
Only sent out two or three people into the pass pattern,
waited for those longer routes to develop,
and the Titans secondary couldn't cover T.Y. Hilton for that long.
He broke free, and he made play after play after play.
And when he didn't, Jack Doyle did, exposing both the linebackers
and the safeties as vulnerable as well.
Now, you mentioned Jack Doyle and the tight ends.
That's been a recurring theme, too, over the last couple of years
and even probably further back than that.
The Titans have had issues covering tight ends.
You go back and look all the way back to even the end of the Jeff Fisher
and the first of Mike Munchak going out to San Diego.
Granted, Antonio Gates was an outstanding tight end,
but he had games where it almost looked like they didn't even try to cover him.
He was so wide open, and we saw that at times yesterday.
I just wonder if there's something schematically,
and I know Dick LeBeau is an absolutely brilliant defensive coordinator,
but something that they're doing that is allowing these other teams to say,
hey, we can do this with a tight end,
and that's where we're seeing these things come from.
You're right.
I mean, it has been an ongoing problem for quite a long time.
You remember Anthony Fasano, who's now with the Titans,
kind of made a career out of beating the Titans earlier on
when he was with the Miami Dolphins,
and I think with the Kansas City Chiefs,
he had some big games against Tennessee.
And I think when you talk about the Titans
and what they've been trying to do, cover the tight end,
that's something, you're right, it's been going on for a long time.
And I think it may be a schematic problem.
It's like, I guess you have to make a decision.
Do you cover them with the fast linebacker
or do you cover them with the safety?
If you cover them with the linebacker,
you're obviously giving up speed in most cases.
The tight end is probably going to be as fast or faster than most linebackers.
If you cover with the safety, you may be giving up the ability to match up size-wise
with some of these tight ends who are 6'5", 250, 206 pounds.
The match-up problems that the Titans are having is probably part of it, but I think you're
right. I think you're onto something there. I think there may be some issues with the scheme
that needs to be tweaked to help remedy that. Let's move on to third down, Terry, and there's
something that you and I have talked about off air before we began the podcast today,
and that's the second round picks. The Titans had three of those last season. They had
Kevin Dodd obviously was the first of those second round picks. They had Austin Johnson and they had
Derrick Henry in that second round. Now Jack, excuse me, Kevin Dodd, the first of those second
round picks has been dealing with a foot injury that's limited his production. Austin Johnson has been a guy that was productive against Miami. He had a very good game,
but he has been limited. He has been inactive more often than not this season. And Derrick Henry,
the second round running back, has been active for every game, but he has seen less and less action
over the last few games. Granted, it has a lot to do with DeMarco Murray,
but when you're the Titans and they're a team trying to improve,
you've got to have those guys that are first-round picks,
second-round picks, even third-round guys
that come in immediately and give you something.
And right now the Titans are getting nothing
out of those three second-round picks.
You're exactly right, and you're talking about a team
that had needs in the secondary and had needs at wide receiver that could have been addressed with one or two of those picks. You're exactly right. And you're talking about a team that had needs in the secondary and had needs at wide receiver that could have been addressed with one or two of
those picks. Now, I'm not saying that those picks are long picks. They may turn out to be
fantastic players. All three of them down the road may be key contributors. But right now,
I think when you look at the second round picks that they took, they're not getting a whole lot
of production. You know, Dodd and Henry have both been playing quite a bit johnson not so much
but even though dodd and henry have both been active on game day they are not getting a whole
lot of playing time dodd is a backup to brian alack poe and derrick morgan and derrick henry
who looked like early on that he was going to be a decent part of the game plan most weeks, has kind of disappeared over the last two or three games.
His production has gone from a high of seven carries for 54 yards against the Dolphins
to yesterday just one carry for three yards.
You know, I don't know if they have issues with his blocking and his ability to pick
up blitzes in the pass game or what it is, but even though DeMarco Murray has been a standout this year,
I would still think that you would want to get Henry
at least a little bit more involved
because basically you're wasting a roster spot on the guy
if he's only going to play four or five snaps a game
and he's not helping you on special teams either.
I totally agree.
That's the one that's the head-scratcher to me
because you would think that even if he has trouble blocking,
he doesn't have any trouble running the football,
and you could at least get him in and give him more than the one carry
to try to get a little more production.
And again, I know DeMarco Murray is doing an outstanding job,
and he is still one of the premier backs in this league.
But you drafted that guy to get carries and keep DeMarco fresh,
and I think he should be getting a little
bit more action right now in that sense to try to get a little bit more out of him. Let's move along
to fourth down. Terry, it's a must-win Thursday night. There's no question about it, no way around
it now after the loss on Sunday. The Titans must win if they're going to try to salvage this season
at this point because if they lose, that would be the third loss in the division, having already
lost to Houston, lost to Indy.
Now, they do have a second matchup coming with all, but you can't be three games down
in the division and try to make any hay towards a playoff spot.
And obviously, the Titans were talking last week about having aspirations to try to get
into the playoffs.
No, you're exactly right.
It's something that we touched on yesterday,
and it can't be driven home enough.
This is must-win mode for the Titans.
You know, the difference in 4-4 and 3-5 may not seem like a whole lot,
but it's a world of difference,
especially when you're already two games down in the division
in terms of head-to-head matchups, like you mentioned.
They simply cannot afford to go down 0-3 in terms of the division games
because you will not make that up.
The best you can do is get to 500 in the division,
and when you start talking tiebreakers, you know,
you're going to lose out in just about everyone
because I can almost guarantee you that somewhere along the line,
the Texans or the Colts or somebody will forge a 4-2 mark in the division.
And if there's a tiebreak on victories, whether that's 7, 8, 9, what have you,
at the end of the year, that division record is the first tiebreaker,
and one of those two teams will have it if the Titans don't take care of business
Thursday night against the Jaguars and then proceed to run the table
in their rematchatch those things.
Absolutely.
I totally agree.
We're up against the end of our time today.
It's time for final thoughts.
Well, my final thought is the fact that, you know, the Titans are here
and they're pretty much at a crossroads.
You know, sort of like we talked about, kind of an extension of Thursday being a must-win game.
This is a better football team than a year ago.
I don't think there's any doubt about that.
They're much more competitive.
They've already matched last year's win total.
But I think there's still many, many holes that have to be fixed on this team.
many, many holes that have to be fixed on this team.
And I guess the question now is,
are you better off trying to salvage something from this year,
or are you better off, you know, trying to build long-term for the future?
I think you can do a little bit of both,
especially given how mediocre the division is right now.
So it's going to be interesting to see, you know,
how things progress over the next week or two as far as the Titans,
as their season goes.
My final thought is to the fans that are ready to jump off the Marcus Mariota bandwagon.
Don't jump just yet.
I understand the frustration.
I know, and Terry, you and I sat there and were as frustrated probably
as anyone else when that fumble occurred yesterday
and the Colts ran it in for what was the clinching touchdown
and the Titans found another way to lose another game
that they had every opportunity and were the favorite to win.
But do not, in my opinion, give up on this guy.
Remember Peyton Manning.
Now, I'm not saying Marcus is Peyton Manning,
but Manning struggled in his first couple of years.
He wasn't the Hall of Fame quarterback that he is or will be in a few years
with the career he had when he first started.
He had to learn and grow.
Tom Brady, the same thing.
Brady's headed to the Hall of Fame whenever he hangs it up.
And so you have to be a little patient and allow this team some time to continue to grow.
He needs some more offensive weapons around him, in particular at wide receiver, and give
him time.
Don't jump ship just yet.
I think he will come around, and I think he will make everybody proud.
That's going to do it for us today.
Remind everybody, Brad returns with us on Wednesday, and we'll see you then.
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