Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Oct. 7- We talk Offense, Defense following Chargers Loss Part 2

Episode Date: November 7, 2016

We talk Offense, Defense following Chargers Loss Part 2. #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. On Darrell Casey's sack, that would have got them off the field or at least made them kick a field goal. Even the missed tackle when they had Melvin Gordon dead to right to the hole. I mean, those are things that, you know, those are plays that defense has to make. So there's plenty of blame to go around as to why the Titans basically lost this one because I think that, sure, San Diego's a good team at home, but the Titans definitely have the opportunities to win this ballgame today.

Oh, I don't think there's any doubt about it. I mean, when you look, when they took the lead there at 21-19, you're starting to see, hey, you know, they're going to win this football game. They're going to end this misery that they've had in San Diego all these years of not winning football games out there. And instead, they allow the Chargers to come right back down the field and score. And then after that, it was just turnovers. And then the Titans were back fighting uphill behind from two scores again for a lot of the second half.

Guys, let's flip over and talk a little defense today, and obviously the big number was Melvin Gordon's 196 rushing yards that he was able to put up against the Titans. They did a decent job. Phillip Rivers throws for 275. They had been giving up 300 yards per game in the last several outings to some less-than-stellar quarterbacks, Cody Kessler being one of those, and Blake Bortles, of course, in the Jacksonville game.

But they hold Rivers under the 300-yard mark, yet Gordon able to go off today. They just couldn't tackle the guy when they needed to. Actually, Terry, I saw a lot more speed from Melvin Gordon than I anticipated. It's like he got faster from one year to the next getting into the pros because he was a batter in the Wisconsin running behind those big cheesy linemen. But for the most part, you know, him not being able to find the end zone last year kind of set a precedent as to who we thought Melvin Gordon was. But this year, he's starting to show that speed at the second level.

Obviously, his yards after conduct are tremendous because the guy can't be brought down just by arms or one defender. So, obviously, him having 196 yards today, him controlling the time of possession, that was the difference in the ballgame. And I will definitely contribute that to DeMarco Murray not being 100%, missing some practice this week before finally coming back and trying to join the ballgame, and then not having Derrick Henry to lean on.

Not taking anything away from Andrews, but he hasn't been in the fold in a long, long time. So the fact that DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry have kind of created a one-two combination, and neither one of those guys were either on the field or 100%, that definitely had an effect in my opinion. I think that probably did have an effect. Plus, the Chargers were gearing to stop the run game. They weren't going to let the Titans grind it out like they want to do,

and they forced them to go to the air, especially when they took a 16-0 lead. They came out and dictated to the Titans and set the tempo with those quick passes using the slant, using the screens and the draws. I thought the Chargers did a great job of play calling. I hate to give credit to Ken Wisenhut, but he did a great job calling plays in this game because he was mixing in Phillip River.

He came out throwing the football. He threw to set up the run. And then with the draws and things like that, Melvin Gordon just ate them alive. Now, guys, the Titans sit four and five, and obviously going forward, I think the biggest thing that this Titans team has to work on, and it's pretty simple, ball security, and that starts with Marcus Mariota and not fumbling the football and not throwing the interceptions at the key times, guys. We had a couple of games where he played pretty much mistake-free, and we thought, okay, and we can see him turning the corner

as far as how he is playing overall, but these three plays basically in the ballgame were the difference in him having a great day in a Titans win and him having a great day in a Titans loss and him having a great day in a Titans loss. Yeah, Brad, I'm going to throw this at you, and you tell me if you agree about the play of Marcus Mariota. I think the interceptions that he's thrown, I think that is something that as he learns,

as he improves as a quarterback, as he gets more experience, I think a lot of those will subside. It won't go away completely because no quarterback has ever, you know, interception-free. Even Tom Brady throws interceptions on occasion. But I think a lot of that, those plays made due to bad reads or things like that, I think a lot of that will subside as he gets more experience.

To me, the bigger issue is ball security and fumbling the football. It's something that plagued him at Oregon. It's something that's plaguing him now as a Tennessee Titans quarterback. He continues to lose the ball. It gets knocked out, or he, you know, loses it trying to make a pitch or whatever it may be. You know, that to me is a problem that I don't know if it's ever going to go away because it's something that just, it's just the style he plays.

It's high risk, high reward. Yeah, you know what? I will say that the offense that he came from in Oregon, it was a little more helter-skelter. You know, it's a little more to absorb than most would actually think. And I'm not calling Marcus Mariano a dumb guy, but when you have time to get yourself acclimated with an offense, with a system, with a way of doing things, then you become comfortable with it and your decision-making becomes better and you don't create the turnovers.

The reason why Marcus Mariota didn't beat the guy that started in front of him in high school was, A, yes, that was the coach's son, but if he would have understood the playbook a little bit better, I guarantee you that with his abilities, he would have definitely won the starting job. I'm not saying anything about his Heisman trophy here because the guy won a Heisman trophy in college. But when you get familiar with a system, you're not thinking about what you're doing. You're just simply reacting. When Marcus is just reacting and throwing the ball at the spot that he knows guys are going to be at, it's very effective.

When he knows exactly head-to-tail what the play call is and what he's supposed to do in it, he is electric. But when he gets in those hairy situations where he needs to make a decision that might be a jerk reaction or, you know, it's just really kind of something that wasn't planned for, it's unscripted, that's when the thinking comes in and he sometimes makes those mistakes that end up giving the defense the ball. Okay, Brad, I want to throw this at you. How do the Titans go about correcting that with him?

I mean, you work on ball security in practice, but it's continually an issue, and there's got to be some way to shore that up at least a little bit. Yeah, go back and look at his ATT scores. You can see exactly how his aptitude is, and that will tell you just how long it will be before Marcus Mariota is completely comfortable with the system that Terry Urbiski and Mike Malarkey want him to run. Now, it's one thing to cater an offense towards your strengths,

towards your playmaker, et cetera, et cetera. But I think in this instance, it's easier to game plan youngsters because you have to have something else behind you, which are the coach's play calling. So the better that he understands what it is that those guys want him to do, the better he'll be. And that's just something that time will only tell. Yeah, I think, you know, when you look at it, you know, like I said earlier,

it's a growing process. You know, it's just a matter of how long is it going to take. You see signs of him getting there, then it's two steps forward, one step back. So I think it's a situation where, you know, it's a situation where Marcus Mariota still has a ways to go before he's a finished product, and who knows how long that's going to be. I will say this, guys. Give credit to this team for not quitting. They had an opportunity after the fumble return touchdown,

after the interception return touchdown, to cave in, to give up, and say, okay, we're not coming back. They drove back down the field. They get the touchdown to cut the lead, to put themselves in a position with two minutes and 30, 40 seconds or so left in the game, still having three timeouts to try to get a stop and have an opportunity to come back and score again. So certainly that is a good sign for this team going forward. It's just, again, you've got to stop those little mistakes that beat yourselves

and shoot yourself in the foot. And, Brad, certainly you know about that, having played, never give up. That's a good trait for this team to have, at least at this point in time, as they continue to struggle through some of these little things. Guys, Greg, Terry, you guys have been around the game a long time. The formula to winning is what? Having a strong winning attack to be able to kick the ball and do what you want to do with it and having a defense that can actually get you the ball back.

When you look at the Tennessee Titans going into this ballgame, they were second behind the Dallas Cowboys and rushing the football, and they were third in getting sacks and putting pressure on the quarterback. Those are two great formulas. The mistakes are obviously the difference in why this team is below 500 right now. Can you illustrate the mistakes? This team is almost considered later and patriot-esque this year in 2016. Think about it.

Yes. I mean, it's really the thing that's keeping them from winning ballgames. The reason they're 4-5 instead of 7-2 or 6-3 is simply the fact that they have given games away with critical mistakes at critical times. Guys, it's that time again. Time for our final thoughts on the afternoon. Terry, give us your final thoughts on this Titans loss to San Diego.

Well, you know, we've talked about it the entire podcast about Titans with the giveaways and things like that that have been plaguing this team all year. The biggest reason they've not been able to win is because they are giving up too many big plays. Not big plays in terms of long passes for touchdowns or 85-yard runs for touchdowns. They're giving up plays on turnovers and special teams mistakes.

The two scores today by the Chargers defense at seven return touchdowns against the Titans this year. Five on defense by opponents, two on special teams by opponents. Can't win doing that.

I mean, that is an unbelievable stat. That's not what I was going to say, but I'd love to piggyback off of what you said, Terry, because it was so apropos. And that when you think about it, the Titans just aren't creating turnovers. They're always giving it back to the defense. The defense is taking it to the house,

putting points on the board, therefore making it harder for the Titans to stay in it and stay in what the game plan was going in because no one practices during the week being down by three touchdowns. Why would you do that? So I just think in essence it's still the mistakes that continue to plague this team. And ultimately, if there's time permitted, they'll be able to smooth them out. My final thought, and I touched on it a moment ago,

and guys, you both made great points there, but it's the not quit. That, to me, is the most impressive thing about this game. Certainly, there were some good points. The offense did some good things today, I thought. The defense, at times, made some plays. Obviously, not enough when the game mattered at the end, and got embarrassed a little bit there. I know they want to bounce back from that going forward, but they didn't quit.

They kept battling. They kept coming back. They tried to make it and get where they could get the football back and win. They just could not overcome those three critical mistakes at critical times that cost them. That's something certainly is a positive to look forward to going forward as the season progresses and this team moves forward now trying to come back next week and once again get a win that would get them back to.500.

That will do it for us today. We hope you've enjoyed it. You've been listening to Locked on Titans on the Locked on Podcast Network. You are a Locked on Titan. Your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Network.