Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Reacting to a win over the Colts

Episode Date: November 27, 2017

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, glad we could pull you away from a crazy day in Knoxville to talk a little bit about the Titans. How are you tonight? Keeping your sanity? I am absolutely exhausted. I don't even know how to describe this day. But, you know, glad to talk some Titans and stop talking about this stupid coaching search for a minute. Yeah, just real quick, we'll give Terry a plug. If you listen to us and you are a Tennessee Vols fan, you should be reading his work on RockyTopTalk.com. A lot of crazy stuff going on.

Wow, man. He's been on top of it. So anyway, this is Titans Podcast. I'm talking about the Titans. Titans get a win today. Obviously, any time they get a win, that's a good thing. 20-16 in a game that was – they've had a lot of ugly wins this year. This one might have been the ugliest.

I don't know. It's hard to rank ugliness of wins. But this one, the one against the Ravens and the one against the Browns, is the one that really stand out to me. But they go to Indy and get it done. So, okay, let's start with this. Titans hadn't won in Indianapolis since 2007. Had never won at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Their division record is currently, what, 4-1, right? No, 3-1, 3-1. Two wins over the Colts, one over the Jaguars, lost to the Texans. You know, division games have been a struggle for this team for a lot of years, even when the division was bad. From that standpoint, those things are positive. Those are steps in the right direction. Wins are good.

Seven and four is good. With the Jaguars just going to Arizona and losing to Blaine Gabbert, which is one of the greatest things that's ever happened to me. The Titans and the Jaguars now have the same record, so the Titans are back in first place because obviously they hold the tiebreaker of the Jaguars since they beat them.

So all of those things are good and positive. And, you know, again, like we've been talking about, if you had told us 7-4 at the beginning of the year, we would have taken it, no questions asked. So all of that is good. Now, the product on the field today was not particularly good, and that's been the case this year. Luckily, they've played inferior opponents,

so they've been able to win when they haven't played to what we think is their best. At some point, we need to have a conversation about maybe what we think is their best and what their actual best is, not being the same thing, but that's not for tonight. The offense was pretty stagnant again today. Marcus Mariota struggled again, threw two picks. Second one wasn't his fault. Taewon Taylor fell down. Those kind of things happen.

But the run game stalled again today until the fourth quarter. happened, but the run game stalled again today until the fourth quarter. So, Terry, what do you think it is that is giving the Titans so much trouble? What did the Colts do today that caused the Titans to not really be able to move the ball? I'm not sure it's so much as what they did. It just seems to be a week-to-week thing, no matter who they're playing. The Titans are just a bad offensive football team right now. They don't execute.

They don't finish. The run game has been consistently bad all year. Take away a couple bright spots by Derrick Henry down the stretch. I say this every week. I feel like a broken record, and I'm'm sorry but things are not going to get better until this team starts running the football with consistency like they did last year it's just not going to work

before those two Derrick Henry runs those two Derrick Henry drives I should say the numbers were awful against a team that you should be able to run the football against especially for a team should be able to run the football against, especially for a team that's built to run the football.

So, once again, we're sitting here with a win, and I'm not feeling great about it. I see the obvious problems there. But, again, you're sitting 7-4, probably going to make the playoffs. So it's just a really, really weird spot. I'm not, we say this every week, but we don't know what the answer is. Things just don't look right. Whether it's the run game, whether it's Mariota, the receivers just, you know, miscommunications,

and, you know, they didn't have Matthews today, and that obviously hurt them, so we need to take that into account. But still, it's the same stuff popping up every week. Yeah, in the run game, I mean, Derek Henry had 65 yards on those last two drives. He had 79 on the day. They totaled 92 yards, the Titans did, in rushing on the day. So obviously, I mean, you don't take those yards away. They count.

And, you know, that's what this team ultimately wants to do. They want to be able to get games into the fourth quarter and win them there, be able to get the ball back like they did today. At the end – or during the fourth quarter, you know, Titans – the Colts punted to the Titans with – let's see what – sorry, if I hit it real quick right here. With four minutes left, four minutes and four seconds, the Titans got the ball and never gave it back to the Colts. The Derrick Ingrams gave the ice the clock.

That's the type of offense that they want to be able to play. So, again, from that standpoint, it's a good thing they can do that, but you can't ignore the issues. And, again, I mean, I've been holding out hope for this team putting it all together. I'm not sure that's going to happen at this point to the extent that we thought it was. The Titans are going to make the playoffs. I still believe that.

Obviously, a win today doesn't hurt those chances. When you look at the Texans coming to town next week and then you've got the Cardinals and the 49ers. The Cardinals are obviously very dangerous with Blaine Gabbard after the Jaguars, but those are games

the Titans should win, games the Titans will be favored in. So if they can rattle off those three wins, then you'd be sitting at 10-4. Obviously, you feel really good, even if you drop the last two, which are tough games against the Rams and Jaguars, you still feel good about the Titans' ability to make a playoff.

So all that's good. But, yeah, the offense just didn't look right. Again, I don't think Marcus Mariota looks right. I think that he still has a little bit of hesitancy coming off the injury to the leg. He's not stepping into throws like he did last year. He doesn't seem as confident in the protection in front of him, which I think plays a little bit into the leg, plays a little bit into the offensive line,

not playing as well as they did last year. Corey Davis today got four targets, caught all four of them, 39 yards, but there wasn't anything real deep. He threw a couple of deep balls to Delaney Walker, but other than that, everything was kind of short. Everything's over the middle. That's kind of stuff that we've seen from Marcus. He's more comfortable, I think, on the middle of the field than he is to the sidelines.

And all that's fine. But he just doesn't look the same as he did last year. He doesn't have that same confidence that he had last year. He looks hesitant sometimes on when to pull it down and run and when to throw. And even last year, you would see him move kind of with purpose. He would still keep his eyes up, still looking to throw. If it was there, he would take it. If not, he would tuck it and run.

And I don't know, he just, to me, he doesn't look like the same guy this year that he was last year. Yeah, and you can't argue that. The numbers are way down. Interceptions are way up. You hate to say it, but he's just kind of lacking some confidence. And that's not something I'd be saying, I thought I'd be saying right now, because I thought the world of Marcus, I still think the world of Marcus.

But especially coming out of last year, you kind of thought he was going to take that next step. Tennessee's, you know, kept his offensive line together. They've added weapons. It's just gone backwards, and it's just wild. But I'm really not sure what the answer is um i want to talk about the running backs though so derrick henry today comes out and looks like you know he looks like he was at alabama you know he finishes off the game, he's running strong, he's throwing people off, he's bouncing runs, stiff arms, all that.

Why don't we see that every week? It blows my mind. His inconsistency is just maddening. And then we'll say, you know, Henry deserves all the carries next week, and then he'll come out and look awful, and DeMarco Murray will look like he's got something left in the tank, and then we'll, you know, rinse and repeat. What is is it with these running backs and I don't have an answer you know if Henry could be that that pass blocker and catch passes I don't think this would be a question

anymore but Murray still has that that you know pass catching role but to me I think at some point you just got to give it all to Henry. He's clearly the more dynamic back, and you saw him make some things happen and really just kind of put the offense on his back to finish this one. You know, they used Henry Moore today on third downs, and they have all season. It looked like to me, and again, I don't have snap count numbers yet, and you would need to go back and see the coaches and all that stuff. I don't know if that was true.

They were on the field, and it seemed today too, and this is something that we'll look at throughout the week, it seemed like that Murray and Henry were on the field together a lot more today than they have been in the past. So just a couple things that looked like they were doing a little bit differently. But, yeah, like you said, I mean, there's this huge debate that goes on among Titans fans over Murray andray and henry and who should do what and all this stuff and you know like you're saying i think most most of the time

it doesn't really matter neither one of them have been particularly effective partly because of the offensive line partly because of the way that they run and you know sometimes derrick henry looks like the big bruising back that we thought we were getting the guy that he looked like a lot of times at alabama sometimes he looks like he doesn't run to his size. And so, yeah, it's a little bit confusing, and I wish we would see more consistency out of him. I don't know. It's just it's been weird watching this offense this year.

And, I mean, I still have some issues with the play calling, especially in the first half when you're looking at, you know, you come out against a team that can't stop the pass. And you still come in with that same game plan of handing it off on first and second down. And I know

that the numbers aren't as bad as we tend to think they are. But, I mean, today, it was early in the game, they kept getting in third and long, and it's hard to do anything in that. I don't know why in a game like today you wouldn't come out, try to get some shots in the field. The Colts have been terrible at deep passes, allowing deep completions.

Why would you not come out, try to get some things opened up with that, get some points on the board, and then settle in to the running game at that point? Because, obviously, the running game got more effective as the game went on. Why not score some points early and then settle into that? We talk about that every week it seems like and it's apparently not something they're ever going to do.

To me, the fact they weren't willing to do that today just proves to me that they're never going to do it. Yeah, and at some point you have to ask yourself, well, does the staff have total confidence in Marcus Marotta? Because it does seem like the light would have come on.

Hey, we can't run the ball. Let's throw the ball a little bit more in these early down situations and try and get a spark. Well, it doesn't happen. And you've seen the passing game struggle. You've seen Marcus passing game struggle. You've seen Marcus throw interceptions. You've seen him turn the ball over. So I think it's just a total problem. I think this offense is just totally broken. Passing game is inconsistent. Runs game is inconsistent. I'm not sure what you're supposed to do at this point if you're

Terry Hrabisky. Now, I'm certainly not defending him. This comes back to him. He's the offensive coordinator. Of course it comes back to him. So he's got to figure it out. He's got, what, five games left to figure it out before we even start to talk about playoffs here. So it's really interesting.

I think the heat is on with Hrabisky. I think the inconsistencies of this offense, going from where they were last year to where they've ended up this year after adding what they added, you could be looking at a change in offensive coordinator. Absolutely. I mean, I think that's in play and something that they'll they'll obviously

have to look at as the season goes along um so yeah and i just real quick kind of wrap the offensive discussion i think you're right i think at this point there probably is some hesitancy to completely turn it over to marcus just because he hasn't been the same this year um you know again i think there's a whole host of reasons for that and not sure how exactly you get it fixed. But like you've been saying all along, I do think it's going to take the running game getting going, the offensive line getting going for everything to look right.

That's obviously how they want to base the offense and it's just not hitting right now. Alright, so that's enough offensive discussion for tonight. Coming up we're going to talk about the defense and actually being the bright spot of this team, which has been a little bit surprising.

Like I said, for all the struggles the offense has had, the defense has been good for the most part this year. Obviously, last week, they gave it 40 to the Steelers. We knew this defense was going to have games where they really struggle. Against teams that have as many weapons as the Steelers do,

who can have that quick passing game, that's obviously going to give this defense fit. But the defense has been what has kept the Titans in games this year, has been the thing that's won games for them for the most part. This year, if you look at today, they gave up one touchdown. It came right after Mark's Mariotta interceptions. It was a six-play 34-yard drive that the Colts had that resulted in a touchdown.

Again, other than that, it was just field goals. Titans sacked Brissette eight times, six times in the first half. It was coming from everywhere. It wasn't like it was just getting pressure from those outside guys, but the outside guys contributed. Arakpo had one and a half sacks.

Morgan had a sack. Walden had a sack. Then you had guys, Avery Williams and Wesley Woodyard. Daquan Jones getting two sacks, which I looked up before we came on the ball. He had two and a half in his career before today. It's almost doubled his career output. Jayon Brown got the other half of the Arakpo sack. So the defense was really good. half in his career before today um it's almost doubled his you know career output jr brown got the other half of the iraq post act so the defense was really good and um you know ty hilton only had

two catches uh so in two games against ty hilton this year he had three catches for 34 yards ty hilton did against the titans so you know at the beginning of the year we were talking about how man this office is going to be great and they're going to score a bunch of points and we just hope the defense can hold teams to, you know, 24, 28 points because the offense is going to be scoring 30 points every game and, you know, that's going to be what it takes. But it's actually turned out to be the reverse of that and just hoping the offense can score enough points to get ahead of what the defense is doing

and not put the defense in bad situations like they did twice today um you know the both both turnovers for mario to happen on on you know the titan side of the field and the defense was able to only gave up 10 points off of those two off of those two turnovers so and that's 10 of your 16 points so you had to be really thrilled with what the defense has done to this point yeah and, and, you know, really since that Cleveland game, this defense has been playing pretty well. You know, I thought they played well against Pittsburgh. You know, scoreboard doesn't show it.

They gave it 40 points. But, you know, it's a takeaway. Marks his turnovers, and that's a different story. The pressure is coming along since that Pittsburgh game. Titans have been getting pressure, like you said, from everywhere. You know, Derek Morgan's been really good. Brian Arecopa's been really good the past couple weeks. They got it from everywhere.

They got it from inside. You know, the Colts really struggle on the interior side of the defensive line. So good to see the Titans take advantage there and really kind of get after Brissette. But again, you know, it's still Jacoby Brissette, and you're talking about basically a rookie quarterback here. So I think we need to keep our expectations in check here. But nonetheless, great performance.

And, you know, looking looking ahead you've got a couple offenses that that aren't aren't world beaters by any stretch of imagination so uh you're looking at tom savage uh potentially blaine gabbert and then potentially either you know it might be jimmy garoppolo at that point for the 49ers so So, again, three winnable games coming up, three beatable quarterbacks. This defense should continue to eat and continue to grow in the right direction. Yeah, and that's the thing. I mean, yeah, it's Jacoby Brissett. All that still holds true.

But when you look at what they've got coming down the road, I mean, it doesn't get a lot tougher as far as quarterbacks go. Like you said, you've got Tom Savage the next week. You've got Blaine Gabbert the week after that. And then you've got, or is it, I can't remember, do they go, is it, Cardinals in 49ers and then 49ers and then Cardinals. Cardinals and then 49ers, yeah, yeah. So you've got Blaine Gabbert the week after Tom Savage.

And then you've got, I mean, I think it would probably be Jimmy Garoppolo by the time the Titans play then 49ers. So you've got Blaine Gabbert the week after Tom Savage, and then you've got, I mean, I think it would probably be Jimmy Garoppolo by the time the Titans play the 49ers. But even still, a young quarterback that's not going to have a lot of experience. So, you know, I mean, it doesn't probably get a lot tougher until you face the Rams and Jared Goff in week 16 before you really have a big challenge again as far as the quarterback's concerned. Now we've seen what Ben Roethlisberger was able to do to them last week.

You saw what Deshaun Watson did to them back earlier in the year. Russell Wilson put up big numbers. But like you said, last week especially with Roethlisberger, by the time the Titans have been on the field for so long and the defense has been put in so many bad spots, they're going to give up points. have been on the field for so long, and the defense has been put in so many bad spots, they're going to give up points.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think that this is like, you know, the 99 defense or anything like that by any means, but at the same time, it's better than we thought it was going to be. The pass rush today did enough, I guess, a bad cold top of the line, granted, but, you know, did enough to keep Brissette uncomfortable all day and able to make enough plays. And, again, I mean, if you had told me before the season that T.Y. Hilton was going to have free catches for 34 yards in two games, I mean, obviously we'd take that all day long because that's like, you know, the first drive most times for him against the Titans.

So good to see that and good to see positive steps in that direction. And, again, hopefully one day they can put all this together against the Titans. So good to see that, and good to see positive steps in that direction. And, again, hopefully one day they can put all this together and the offense and defense can play good on the same day and you can feel good about this team as far as once they get into the playoffs and start facing tougher competition. But, again, 7-4, leading the afc south with you know four games left to play five games left to play we'd have taken it you know and ran with it if you'd offered it that to us right before the season started um especially knowing you know again with the with the injuries to the

quarterbacks that the the team the times are playing coming up you know so i mean there's a lot of there's a lot to be concerned about. But at the end of the day, like we were talking about before we started, making the playoffs is better than not making the playoffs. Having a chance there is something that this franchise hasn't had in a long time. Now, granted, there's a lot of football left to be played. They've still got to win games to get there. So while you don't feel great about it,

and there's a lot of things that we'd like to see better, overall you've got to feel good about where this franchise is headed. And, again, knowing that if that offense can just get it together, that they really could be a team that can make some noise in the playoff start. Yeah, I think we need to mention that this was the first win at Lucas Oil Stadium. So it was kind of a get that monkey off your back scenario, and they did that to their credit. And I don't care how bad the Colts are,

just doing that is a mental hurdle that this team had to clear. So you've now swept the Colts, and that's a big deal. Again, I don't care how bad they are. We've seen some things as Titans fans. So these next three games need to be tune-up games. You talk about a spot where this Titans passing attack could get right. The Houston Texans have been the worst secondary in the NFL over the past month. They're just getting torched week in and week out.

It's a spot where Mariota, hopefully you get Rashard Matthews back. Maybe this is a spot where you can open up things for Corey Davis. I think next weekend against Houston is a big, big tune-up game for Tennessee. Maybe, just maybe, that can get some things sparking, and maybe they can continue that against Arizona, continue to build off that against San Francisco, and kind of be ready for those two big games to end the season. Yeah, absolutely.

And that's what we're all hoping for. And, again, you know, I mean, there's something to Corey Davis not having preaches and all that stuff marcus mario did not get to work with these guys because he was hurt for a time so i mean there there are some things you can point to and say again richard matthews didn't play today like you mentioned so there are some things that we can point to and say well maybe if this this and this happened i just i fear at some point we're gonna we're still gonna be saying that it's gonna be week 17 and it's gonna be like well the whole year's gone by. So obviously that just wasn't there this year for whatever reason.

But again, get in the playoffs, see what happens. So that's really all we could have hoped for. Just think about where this team was two years ago and the rebuild job that they've done. You feel good about where they are. So it's hard to keep that in perspective. But again, week 12 is in the books. The Titans are in first place, Nancy South.

Nothing more else you could ask for. Anything else, Terry, before we knock off for tonight? I'm trying to think. Are there any injuries of note today? No, I don't think so. They look pretty healthy. Knock on wood, but the Titans are just the healthiest team in the league. It's kind of crazy.

The only thing that comes to mind for me, I mean, I know Jayon Brown and Delaney were both down for a little bit at one point, but both guys came back in the game. So, yeah, I haven't seen anything that – LaJuan was out for a little bit, but he came back in too. So, yeah, I mean, I think that they're still pretty healthy. Hopefully, Rashard can get back this week. But, yeah, still healthy heading into the next week. And like you said, it's crazy how fortunate they've been in the health department this year.

All right, so we'll be back tomorrow night. We'll have more on this game. Like I said, we'll have snap count numbers and stuff because I feel like Derrick Henry played a lot more in the game today than he has in the game's past. We'll see if that was just kind of the recency thing at the end of the game, that he was the one that was kind of putting it away. So we'll look into all that, talk a little bit more about that tomorrow. So for Terry, follow Terry on Twitter at TLambertFB.

I'm on Twitter at jmorrismcm. So check us out there. Check out musicmiracles.com. And we will have another edition of Locked on Titans for you tomorrow.