Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Oct. 7- We talk Offense, Defense following Chargers Loss Part 1

Episode Date: November 7, 2016

We talk Offense, Defense following Chargers Loss. Part 1 #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 news and information with your host, Terry McCormick of TitanInsider.com, Greg Arias, and former Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl left tackle Brad Hopkins. Guys, it's Monday morning, and we once again have our current news segment, as always, offense and defense, the topics today as we discuss the Titans' latest loss.

Guys, jumping right into the current news, not a good performance overall for the Titans, I felt, on this game as they had opportunities, Brad and Terry, to win a football game in San Diego, but turnovers ultimately did them in in this loss. Yeah, I know that ultimately that's what it comes down to. It comes down to turnovers. But when you see that dysfunction being so much a part of what has been plaguing this

season, it's got to be frustrating. And not even just for the fans, but of course for the players that are involved as well, because we know they go out there and they try and perform as well as they possibly can. The game plan seems to be working. But at some point in time, they do something to aim that gun directly at their feet, and then they shoot themselves right in the top of the foot. So at some point in time, they have to address ball security. They have to address just what it is that they're trying to do that either does work or doesn't work

and just try to remain consistent. Right, Greg? Well, I agree. I mean, they had ample opportunity to win or tie this ballgame, even taking the lead there on the opening drive of the second half. But you just simply cannot have the mistakes that they made today. And, you know, obviously a lot of the blame is going to fall on Marcus Mariota with three

turnovers that led to the Chargers scoring 17 points. But I also put this on the defense because they did not figure out a way to stop Phillip Rivers or Melvin Gordon the whole game. When the Titans still had a little bit of life left, even at 43-35, Melvin Gordon broke through the line, outran the secondary, and had a big game that essentially sealed the deal for the Chargers.

Absolutely, guys. And looking at some of the numbers for this game, Marcus Mariota, 27 of 43, 313 yards, passing three touchdowns. That's a great day on that side of things. But as Terry said, Brad, obviously those three turnovers and the interception return certainly late. The fumble that once again was returned for a touchdown a la the Minnesota game were ultimately too much to overcome even though Marcus had a good day otherwise.

Yeah, I would agree with that. It's just simply a matter of Mariota is still learning. He still at times makes reads that you wish he would not make. And I think it's just a situation where he's a young guy growing as a quarterback, and right now there are growing pains, and the growing pains sometimes are ugly. Yeah, I also think that maybe even the toe injury to Michael Murray, as insignificant as it may have been coming in,

them using Antonio Andrews today rather than using Derrick Henry, who obviously was lost early to a calf injury, that might have had an effect because, at the most part, I didn't really see Derrick DeMarco Murray being as effective as he has been in games past. Brad, his final stat line for DeMarco Murray being as effective as he has been in games past. Brad, his final stat line for DeMarco Murray, 14 carries, 51 yards, did have the one touchdown there at the end. Of course, conversely, Melvin Gordon, to Terry's point, 32 carries, 196 yards,

one touchdown for him on the day. He was the difference to me, guys. I thought coming in that it would be Phillip Rivers, and certainly Rivers was in the first half. But as it turns out at the end of the day it was Gordon and the Titans' inability to keep that guy from making big plays when they needed them

and keeping drives going that ultimately I thought was the difference there. Yeah, I think also when you talk about Melvin Gordon who was pretty much anemic last year to having a tremendous season, the fact that their ground game was on and the Titans' ground game was off was obviously indicative of how long the San Diego Chargers had the football. Whenever Marcus Mariota and company had the football, I thought that they were a lot more effective, but obviously momentum could have been stalled when you see Phil Bibbers and

company having those long drives that ultimately either ended up in points or they just waited for the defense to respond and get points for them that way. Yeah, I mean, you're right. It looked like it was going to be a complete blowout the way the Chargers came out and controlled the football early. It went up 16 to nothing. It looked like it was going to be a long day for the Titans.

And, you know, the Titans were able to regroup a little bit. But you're right, you cannot allow a team to run up and down the field on you the way the San Diego Chargers did today against Tennessee. Brad, you mentioned time of possession, 36-29 for San Diego to 23-31 for the Titans. That gap was much wider in the first half. It was 20-plus minutes to just over nine minutes, I think 20-40 for San Diego in the first half to 9-20 for the Titans. They closed that gap a little bit in the second half,

but still way too much possession time for San Diego, obviously, in this game. And obviously with a quarterback like Phillip Rivers, he takes advantage of that. Yeah, and I also think, guys, that when you're talking about moves, this is for those that are emotionally invested. What's frustrating is when you see the Titans with quick strike capability and having to come up with a few points, particularly before half, which kind of shows you that at some point in time they are understanding what it is that they're trying to do.

So when you see them progressing and developing, as a lot of young teams will do, they'll have their miscues. But boy, you just cannot give the other team points. 15 points the Chargers got off of turnovers today. And if you think about what the score could have been if you take those situations off the board, this is a pretty good Titans team. But ultimately, it's those mistakes that youngsters make that seem to be really causing the Titans demise to this point, guys.

I would definitely agree with that. And I think, you know, the one thing, too, and, you know, I'm going to put a little bit on the coaching staff, too. They come out in the second half. They go to the no huddle. They're in the shotgun. They throw, I think it's five straight passes before Mariota then scores on the 14-yard scramble.

But I think when you look at that, and then they go back to trying to run the football, why not stay in that no-huddle a little bit longer until you just absolutely have to? They didn't go back to it until they absolutely had to when they were down by two scores again. And what was the call, guys? I know it was an option there when Marcus fumbled the return for the touchdown off the fumble. I'm not sure about that call in that situation. Why would you do that?

Something that you haven't done all game, something that I know they probably practiced, but they haven't done that much of, and you're putting him in a situation knowing that he struggles at times with hanging on to the football, it's almost like, I know they didn't intentionally intend for him to fumble, but it's almost like they set him up to fail there by trying to run that play at that time. At least I thought that as it happened.

I'm not trying to be argumentative at all, Greg, but when I think that you haven't seen something all day, that's probably the best time to do it. Maybe at some point in time the Chargers had seen that on film and maybe practiced it a couple of times during the week, but for the most part, when it wasn't a featured part of their offense, that read option, for them to spring it on them in short yards kind of made sense because it would have cut them with their pants down. But ultimately, guess what?

The Chargers didn't need to make a play anyway. Well, the Chargers didn't need to do anything because baseball security being an issue, the Titans gave them the ball back anyway. Yeah, it was unbelievable the way that the Titans' defense just could not get it going today and then the way the offense had trouble with the turnovers. You combine that and it just wipes out all the good that they were able to do in the ballgame. Exactly.

Guys, let's jump in and talk offense now in our offensive segment specifically. Obviously, I went through those numbers for Marcus Mariota. The stats were great other than the turnovers that he had. It's a wasted opportunity, obviously, when he plays that well. And I thought he got some great production out of his receivers today. Even Harry Douglas, a guy that has been inactive, wound up with two receptions for 48 yards. Delaney Walker had five receptions for 42.

Tajay Sharp with 58 yards. Rashard Matthews, 63 yards, receiving two touchdowns. And Kendall Wright with 64 yards. So he spread the football around and got good production in the passing game. Obviously, all of this for naught, though, when you look at it, and it ends up being a loss. Yeah, it certainly is. You're good.

You're good, Terry. It certainly is. I mean, you look and you take a lot of good things out of this, but you also, you know, you can't be satisfied and you can't be happy that the offense played well in spurts because of the problems that they had in, you know, you can't be satisfied and you can't be happy that the offense played well in Spurs because of the problem that they had in, you know, hanging on to the football. And once again, we've seen it against the Vikings, we've seen it against the Colts, and now we've seen it against the Chargers.

Three games where the Titans had opportunities to win, and the same problems continue to plague them. I think the thing that's frustrating the most about it, guys, is that at no point in time do they practice what happens when they turn the football over. Because that's just not the way that you get better. But when we see them continually do things well as far as converting third downs, playing well on the road in a tough, hostile environment, those are some promising things.

But then if you just look at how much turnovers contributed to the demise of this team for them being under 500 at this point, golly, it's frustrating because you're dealing with obviously young parts of the puzzle. At some point in time, it'll become just

a habit for them to do the things necessary to make the right decisions to ultimately not create the turnovers. But that margin is such a pivotal part for this team right here because we see them with ability but what we do see them continually doing is make the mistakes that young teams do make in not handling the football correctly.

Oh, there's no doubt. You look at it this way, the Chargers came in having turned the football over 18 times already this year, and the Titans got no turnovers from them today. So if you add that into the equation, and you see exactly how much trouble the Titans had in terms of trying to,

and how much trouble that they had in terms of trying to overcome the mountain, because they're not getting any turnovers, and they're turning the football over like crazy. And, guys, give credit to San Diego because coming in, their run defense was allowing just over, I think, 90.6 yards per game. They hold the Titans to just 80 yards. Rushing now, again, as Brad said, some of that might have to do with DeMarco Murray and the toe injury.

Obviously, Derrick Henry does not play on the day, but still San Diego was able to do a good job against the run and force the game onto the shoulders of Marcus Mariota, who had the big game statistically, but when it came down to it, turned it over. So credit to the Chargers as far as that goes but again when you look at this the defense or the offense rather had opportunities to win this football game and ultimately just couldn't do it