Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Oct.6- Discussing the scenarios from Hurrican Matthew & more

Episode Date: October 6, 2016

The location, time and situation surrounding the Titans scheduled visit to Miami are still somewhat up in the air because of Hurrican Matthew. We discuss that along with our Coaches and Players Corners segments and more on the Thursday edition. #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, with your host, Terry McCormick of Titan Insider, Greg Arias, and former Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl left tackle Brad Hopkins. It's Thursday. We've got a lot of stuff to get to this morning, Terry McCormick, and let's jump right into our current news before we go into our coaches

and players corner segments a little bit later on. And obviously the big news surrounding the titans this weekend is the unknowns of where potentially this game might be played because of the hurricane situation with hurricane matthew scheduled to hit the florida coast right around miami sometime here on thursday afternoon or late Thursday night, early Friday morning. Yeah, it's certainly a situation where the football game has become extremely secondary to what's going on down there, people's safety, their lives, their property, and those sorts of things. I'm certainly hoping and praying for the best for the folks down there in the Florida area. And the football game just kind of becomes a footnote as part of that.

But in talking about that, you know, there was some discussion that got out Tuesday night and into yesterday that the game, you know, might become a Titans home game. That looks very unlikely. It's a possibility maybe that they could move the game to Atlanta and the Georgia Dome. But we'll just all just have to wait and see and kind of, you know, see what kind of course the hurricane takes and how much damage is done. Well, in watching a weather forecast last night, the young lady doing the forecast said that the hurricane should hit there in the Miami area

and then head on up the east coast. And it should be in Miami sometime late tonight, early in the morning. So we should know basically by Friday morning what has gone on. And it's not the fact of the hurricane itself. It's the potential for damage. Will the stadium be okay? Will there be any damage to it? Will there be damage to airports and roadways that allow the teams to get in and out of town

and then safely be able to move around depending on what's going on. So it's really technically not the hurricane itself that's causing the issue of the game itself. It's the aftermath and the damage that potentially could befall the city of Miami that could force the changes to happen here. Right, and Titan coach Mike Malarkey talked about it yesterday. He still has family. His mom has a condo there. He said he has a brother and a sister and some nieces and nephews

that still live in Fort Lauderdale. So he is obviously concerned about their safety much more so than he is about where and when the game is going to be played. Absolutely. You mentioned the potential for the game to be moved to Atlanta, to the Georgia Dome. The Falcons are in Dallas this weekend, so that facility at least would be available free from football.

Now, we don't know what the schedule situation is of other events that might potentially be taking place there, but certainly I think that might be an option. And obviously with the hurricane coming up the east coast could present some rain issues that would eliminate that possibility too if it were to be at the Georgia Dome obviously inside so the game itself wouldn't be affected the situation though Terry becomes how do they disperse the tickets and what do they do about that it would probably be a slight crowd, I would

think. There would probably be a few Atlanta citizens that might venture out to see two teams play there that they normally wouldn't get to see in that contest. But would there be people from Miami or even Nashville make the trip to see the game at that point? Perhaps a few, but certainly on such short notice, I wouldn't think there would be a whole lot of folks that would be able to get out and fill up that stadium.

I would think that the most important thing in terms of football is just getting the game in and not having to postpone or cancel it if they can. I would think that just being able to play the game, show it on television, and get the result in so that the standings are not affected adversely with a game not being played would be the most important mission for the NFL at this juncture. Moving along to other news from the Titans this morning, we talk about the injury report, and there are several on there, but Terry, perhaps the most interesting of the bunch, I should say, is the fact that rookie right tackle and former first-round pick Jack Conklin, very limited in his work yesterday in practice. Yes, Conklin was limited.

He had a stinger in the game against Houston, came out for a few plays, went back in to finish up, but he was very limited plays, went back in to finish up. But he was very limited in what he was able to do yesterday, getting a lot of rest. Titans not, I guess, wanting to take too much of a chance with him. I would still expect Conklin to play this week, and he's certainly going to have a challenge because he may be lined up on several plays across from Cameron Wake, who wreaked havoc against Titans at Nissan Stadium last year when the Dolphins came in and just thrashed Tennessee 38-10. Other injury news, tight end Jason Morrow, a shoulder issue.

He is certainly questionable, I would say, at this point. Obviously, we'll know more about that Thursday and Friday as the week progresses. I would say at this point, obviously, we'll know more about that Thursday and Friday as the week progresses. Also, Cody Riggs, Denora Searcy appear to be on the right track for a return. Al Woods, of course, still out. And linebacker Nate Palmer did return to practice on Tuesday, or excuse me, on Wednesday. Right, and getting Palmer back, and actually he's not even on the injury report. He seems to be past the knee problem that cropped up late last week and caused him to miss Sunday's game.

Amaro's injury actually happened in practice yesterday, so he was limited, walked off the field, and had to go get some treatment for the shoulders. So his status is a little bit up in the air. And as Coach Mike Malarkey said earlier in the week, they're hopeful that Riggs and Searcy will progress enough later this week that maybe they can get them on the practice field, even if it's limited. It's still very much up in the air if either one of those guys

are going to be able to be available and help on Sunday, though. Certainly it would be nice if the Titans could get healthy and have a full complement of everyone at least available to choose from, I guess you should say, when they decide who's going to be inactive and active on game day. Yeah, it always helps when you've got a full and healthy roster. I think the main reason for inactive is to help teams that are combating injuries to not be at such a disadvantage

when it comes to filling out their game day rosters. And I think if you're a team that's banged up and the choices are easy for you to declare who your inactives are, obviously that helps you on game day because you can still field the same amount of players on the field as the other more. You know, obviously no team wants to have a bunch of guys who are healthy scratches either,

but that's certainly the better choice than having to have a bunch of guys who are hurt and the decisions being made for you because a lot of times those guys who are hurt are obviously the ones who've been playing and they'd be more of your key guys and your starters. You're listening to Locked On Titans on the Locked On Network. And, Terry, let's move along to our Coach's Corner segment. And we've got two things from Dolphins head coach Adam Gase,

the first talking about the hurricane situation and the fact that he has dealt with something like this, at least similar to this before, and it came when he was actually a college coach. The quote is this, I think the closest I ever came was we thought we were going to have one when I was at LSU one time. I think it was 2000.

Nothing really happened as far as us having a bad enough weather to where it affected any kind of game. I know we missed out on a day of practice, but this was obviously something different than anything I've gone through before. And certainly, Terry, I would think that it's not common for this to happen, though it did happen to, and we talked about this on Wednesday with Brad, the Titans and the Dolphins before in, ironically, I think 2004. But, of course, Mike Malarkey not part of the Titans staff at that time.

No. And I think, you know, obviously that game, when it was played back 12 years ago, there was a lot of concern about the hurricane there in Miami that was about to hit the coast. And that game was actually moved up 24 hours to accommodate, get fans in, get the Titans in and out of the Miami area. And, you know, everything went pretty smoothly for the fact that, you know, they had to kind of move everything up. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of glitches or anything like that. If they were, you know, they were handled behind the scenes

and really weren't noticed by very many people. But when you've got to scramble around and you may have to find another place to play or you may have to find another day to play, it certainly does kind of throw a monkey wrench into your preparation plan. Moving along to our second comment, and this is something also we touched on yesterday, Terry, the fact that Jim Washburn, the former defensive line coach for the Tennessee Titans that was credited with so much of the success for one Albert Hainsworth back in those days, he's now the guy coaching the defensive line with the Miami Dolphins,

and he's got a modern-day version, I guess, if you would, of Hainsworth in Indomitian Sioux, and Adam Gase was asked about Washburn yesterday, and his comment was this. I would say the number one thing is we hired him because we wanted that attitude. We wanted that attacking style. I love the way he coaches the players, kind of that old-school mentality.

We wanted that in our program, and we got that with this thing getting started. He has done so much good for the program so far in setting the tempo to what we're looking for as a defensive unit. So we've seen Jim Washburn, Terry, up close and personal and that's pretty much a description of kind of what we know of Jim from his time here. A very vocal, outgoing, His time here, a very vocal, outgoing, not afraid to get in your face kind of guy, and set that tempo. Oh, there's no doubt about it.

I think Jim Washburn is a great position coach on the defensive line. I think his work kind of speaks for itself. You talked about that old school mentality. I get the feeling that Jim Washburn would be happy coaching defensive line at the NFL level, at the college level, even at the high school level, as long as he's able to get through to and, you know, give some tough love to players and see them grow and mature. I think he's just that type of coach. And I think that's part of the reason that he's had so much success throughout his career.

coach and I think that's part of the reason that he's had so much success throughout his career. I mentioned of course Albert Hainsworth being the top guy but there were some reclamation projects by Washburn along the way Jason Babin comes to mind Kyle Vandenbosch two guys that came in as free agents from other teams had had some success had had injuries, and Washburn got more out of them and had some very productive years with those guys as pass rushers. So that speaks to what he can do. And certainly you mentioned earlier Cameron Wake, who destroyed the Titans last year. He, under the tutelage of Washburn, along with Ndamukong Su

and some of the other guys they've got on that front seven, going to make this a formidable challenge up front for the Titans this weekend. That's right. Plus, the Dolphins also have Mario Williams, and they also have another former Titan in Jason Jones, what's a second-round pick here, a guy who was a pretty good pass rusher himself and has had a really nice career at three or four different stops, including several of those with Jim Washington.

Now, I know we'll get into more, obviously, on Friday, the predictions of things, but in your opinion, with this defensive front, can the Titans run the football, which is what they want to do, or are they going to have to come in and try to throw it? I know we saw them run it rather well in the preseason game, but obviously we know that's a different animal when you're not being game-planned against. They're not scheming anything. They're putting their 11 guys out there against your 11 guys, and it's just kind of straight-ahead football.

The Titans were able to manhandle them in the preseason. I don't know that we're going to see that this weekend, though. Probably not. There will be a lot more game-planning going on. I think what you're going to get with the Dolphins' defense is you're going to get an aggressive bunch that's going to try to put the Titans in some long yardage situations and kind of go after Marcus Mariota, who's been struggling. And I think the Titans want to run the football. They need to run the football. And they need to stay long,

possibly. I agree. I think it's definitely a case of have to run the football and certainly we've seen DeMarco Murray do a great job of that for the Titans. Derrick Henry, he's kind of been missing, if you will, through no fault of his own, I think. It's just been the fact that the Titans have been riding the hot hand that has been DeMarco Murray over the last few weeks. But I think, Terry, perhaps they need to get Derrick more involved in the game, either as a receiver out of the backfield, give him a few more carries,

do something to take advantage of his skill set along with DeMarco Murray. You certainly don't want to replace DeMarco, but I think they can get another playmaker on the field and do some things with him. They've just got to find a way to do that. Right. Murray has been on a roll. He's run

very well the last two or three weeks. I think that has cut into Derrick Henry's reps and his playing time. You would like to see Henry get somewhere between seven and ten touches a game if you can because you're right. He does bring another dimension

to this team. He's not quite as fast as DeMarco Murray, but he's a bigger, more bruising back. So if you want to run between the tackles, you might want to give Derrick Henry the ball on occasion. Let's move on to our players' corner segment where we look at a comment from Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill. And he was impressed, Terry, with the secondary of the Titans and what they were able to do last week against Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins.

Obviously, they held Hopkins to just one reception, four yards. This was the quote from Ryan Tannehill on the conference call on Wednesday. They did a really good job. He's one of the top receivers in the league, and they did a really good job of making things tough on him. I came away impressed on how they played last week. Now certainly Terry, you and I and Brad and people that watch the Titans who watched the entire game last week saw the Titans struggle at times in coverage. They gave up some plays but ultimately if you just look at the stat line and perhaps

maybe watch game film and zero in on DeAndre Hopkins, that it was very impressive what they did, but at the same time still some plays to be made there in the passing game, I think even for Tanny Hill and the Dolphins, who have some threats as wideouts, but they are not necessarily that dynamic of an offense. Right. I think you're looking at a guy like Jarvis Landry as probably their best playmaker right now, especially on the outside.

Landry played at LSU with Odell Beckham. I guess he's the other guy, but he certainly has had his share of great catches too and his share of big plays during the time he's been in the league. And I think the Titans secondary will probably try and concentrate on that. But, you know, it brings up an interesting point. The Titans defense has done a really good job of shutting down the opposing team's top weapon. They held Andre Peterson in check.

They held Golden Tate in check. Amari Cooper they held in check. They held DeAndre Hopkins down last week to just, as you mentioned, one catch for four yards. But it's other places where, you places where they may be overcompensating to try and stop the main weapon. But last week, guys like C.J. Fedorowicz and Ryan Griffin hurt them with big plays. And then, of course, Will Fuller had some big plays against the Lions. It was Marcus Jones against the Raiders.

It was Michael Crabtree. So teams are finding other ways to attack the tight secondary once they take away that primary option. I'm going to throw out a name to you, Terry, and see what you think about this because I think he is an X factor for the Dolphins against the Titans defense, and that is rookie running back Kenyon Drake, a very fast guy. He is a kick-punt returner, running back obviously, but he can also and has at times for them split out into the slot

and can give them something in the passing game. He's a guy that I think the Titans certainly obviously have to account for and limit what he can do. As I know, as you said, probably Jarvis Landry option number one, but I think this is a guy that's very dangerous and could have a big game if the Titans allow it. Well, yeah, they've got to be aware of where he is. They've got to be able to slow him down

because the Titans don't have a whole lot of speed on their defense, and any time there's speed on the outside or speed in the backfield, it has to be accounted for and it has to be schemed against in order to slow it down. The Titans obviously have a tough chore again this week, but it is, as we spoke about yesterday, Terry, a very winnable football game, and it has to be a Titans win. They've got to correct, if you will, the way this season is going,

get a win, get the second win of the season, and try to build on something over these next five games. Of course, Sunday in Miami, Atlanta, Tennessee, wherever the game may be played, and then coming up next week when Cleveland comes here, and, of course, the following Thursday night with Jacksonville, all winnable games. But as you also mentioned yesterday, Terry, it is the fact that the Dolphins are looking at the Titans

and saying it's winnable for us as well. Oh, yeah, there's no doubt about it. I think when you look at how, you at how the bottom of the league stacks up, and both these teams are probably in that conversation right now, and you look for wins anywhere you can get them. And the Miami Dolphins have struggled this year, and that's no secret. Their only win was in overtime against the Wendlandts Browns. But they'll be looking at the Titans and saying,

hey, this is where we get things back on track. It's like the Titans are looking at the Dolphins and going, this is where we get things back on track. So somebody is going to leave there happy, and somebody is going to be looking and saying, hey, what's going wrong this year? As we get set to close out the show today, Terry, it's time for the final thoughts.

Go ahead and give us your final thought for this Thursday edition. Well, my final thought is going to be regarding the Titans' pass rush. We haven't talked a whole lot about the pass rush other than to say that they need to get to the quarterback. And one guy who's been doing that is Brian Arakpo. He's put up some really good numbers, four sacks in four games. But I'm going to go and say that he needs some help. We need to start, you know, I know teams are keying on Jarrell Casey

and they're keying on Derek Morgan as well. But those guys need to start putting up some numbers in the pass rush scheme, getting some sacks, and they need to get to the quarterback on a more consistent basis from somebody other than just Brian Arakpo. You hit on my final thought as well, but mine is perhaps more specific and aimed at one player, and that would be Derek Morgan. He had an absolutely great start. He was terrorizing Minnesota in the season opener.

He suffered the hamstring injury, and he has really not been the same since. Obviously, if he's still dealing with the lingering after effects of that hamstring, he needs to get that healthy. But if he's going to be on the field, he has got to produce at a higher level. As you said, they've got to give Arakpo some help. If they can get pressure off both sides, it's obviously going to force the Dolphins and any other team to then have to think about, okay, how are we going to double-team

or keep a back-end or a tight-end extra on the side to block against those guys, which I think could open up things more for guys in the middle. And we're going to see Angelo Blackson get a start this week at nose in place of Al Woods. And I think Blackson is a little bit more athletic, Terry, and perhaps a better pass rusher. So maybe perhaps the Titans can get a little bit more push even up the middle with that.

And obviously you've got Carl Klug who comes in who is a pass rush guy too. They do have to have a better pass rush, but I think it starts with Derek Morgan getting back to what he was doing against the Vikings in week one to help this defense. I don't disagree at all. That will do it for us on this Thursday edition. Remind everybody, of course, that Brad returns with us tomorrow on Friday where we will make our predictions on the outcome of this weekend's game.

And we also hopefully will know a little bit more about what the hurricane has done in the city of Miami and potentially what might be the location of the game on Sunday when the Titans are set to face the Dolphins. Hopefully in Miami everything will be okay, but obviously if something happens it could be moved. That's going to do it for us. We'll see you again tomorrow on Locked on Titans. You are Locked on Titans. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.