Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On TItans- Sept. 15- What did Detroit Lions head coach and players say about the Titans?

Episode Date: September 15, 2016

What did Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell and wide receiver Golden Tate say about the Titans and their match up this Sunday? Find out in our Coaches and Players Corner segments along with current news and our final thoughts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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with your co-host Terry McCormick of Titan Insider, Greg Arias, and Tennessee Titans former Pro Bowl left tackle Brad Hopkins. We are locked on Titans for a Thursday morning and got a lot of information to share with people. Terry, welcome in this morning as per usual on Thursdays. Brad, not with us, but nonetheless still a lot of good information that came out yesterday and certainly some interesting news that was announced yesterday afternoon as well. That's right.

For the first time in a while, Kendall Wright returned to practice and did a little bit of work, did the individual portion, the part that was open to the media. And Mike Malarkey said after practice that Kendall is progressing, but he does need to see him work for an entire week before he's going to count on him to play Sunday. So it sounds like Kendall is going to be out again this week, maybe with an eye on playing next week. And, of course, that is somewhat good news. Certainly you would like to have him available this week, but certainly if not this week, next week would work as well. The other news that came out in our current news this morning, Terry,

is that Derek Morgan has a chance to play per Mike Malarkey on Sunday against the Lions. Now, granted, that's not 100%. That could certainly still change, but at least he is trending in the right direction and having yesterday off hopefully helped. Perhaps they can give him today off and maybe let him get a little work in Friday

and see if he can at least give them something on Sunday. Yeah, I think it's going to be interesting to see how much, if any, he can do today, how much, if any, he can do on Friday. Friday's usually the telltale day of whether or not a guy who's injured and been out of practice during the week is going to be able to give it a go. If he can give it a go, it certainly will help the Titans pass rush as they pursue Matthew Stafford on Sunday. If you can't go, then there's going to be a lot on the rookie Kevin Dodd

to step up and provide some of the pass rush that Morgan would have provided. That is certainly the lead-up story in our current news segment this morning. We've got more in current news, but we've also got today our Coach's Corner where we hear from Jim Caldwell, some of his thoughts on the matchup with the Titans. We'll also hear from the Player's Corner and that is Golden Tate, who a lot of people around this area remember from his prep days here in Middle Tennessee. And then we'll also have our final thoughts. The second story on our current news is the announcement of the 2017 Hall of Fame nominees.

Now, these are not inductees. There's been no vote. But, Terry, certainly to be even nominated for the NFL Hall of Fame is a huge, huge honor. Yes, it certainly is. I mean, you're talking about players who have had outstanding careers and are at least borderline Hall of Famers. Some of those will make the cut, and they will get in and become finalists, and then some of them will be enshrined.

So interesting that four Titans or players with ties to them are on this list. Steve McNair, Eddie George, Derek Mason, and Kevin Mawai. Of that group, I think the one that probably has the best chance of making it, just off the top of my head, I would think would be Kevin Mawai, just because he played for so long in the league, 16 years, was always regarded as one of the top centers in the NFL during his time. I would think that of that list, Mawai would probably be the guy that would have the best chance.

Derek Mason certainly has borderline Hall of Fame numbers, but there is such a backlog of players at the wide receiver position, including guys like Carol Owens and Chad Johnson and Isaac Bruce, who have not yet gotten into the Hall, that it might overshadow the many accomplishments that Mason had. Eddie George, Steve McNair, both longtime faces of the Titans franchise, I think both of those guys certainly merit consideration, but not sure that when the numbers are stacked up against some of the other guys

who are already in the Hall of Fame and are on their way to the Hall of Fame, not sure if those numbers will be strong enough to get those guys past that final nomination process and to get them enshrined. One thing about those four, and you mentioned it, Terry, the fact that three of the four are homegrown Titans in McNair, George, and Mason. Kevin Mawai was the only one that was a free agent, an accomplished free agent, signing and coming over to join the Titans franchise. So there's a possibility that if he is, in fact, elected, that he might not go in as a Titan.

He would likely perhaps even go in as a New York Jet. That is very true. You don't know what team he would be affiliated with. He would also spend some time with the Seattle Seahawks, but probably best remembered for his time with Jet, although the final accomplishment of his career, obviously, was helping Chris Johnson run for 2,000 yards back during the 2009 season. So interesting dynamic there with all four of these guys.

Certainly wish them the best as they go through this process and the Hall of Fame list is called down into the group of finalists and then eventually those who are inducted. One other thing, Terry, that we'll mention, we talked about it yesterday morning. It was officially announced yesterday there'll be no fine for Avery Williamson on the cleat gate, if you will. And I think that's probably an overused term, so let's don't use that anymore.

The cleat issue. He wore those, of course, on Sunday and the league did announce yesterday no fine for he and other players that did similar things with the apparel that they wore last Sunday in honor of 9-11. Right. that they wore last Sunday in honor of 9-11. Right. And, you know, Avery Williamson told me yesterday that he was actually expecting to be fined and was kind of pleasantly surprised when he wasn't.

So the right thing was done here. Avery Williamson stood up for what he believed in and stood up, you know, for the patriotic cause that he supported the 9-11 tribute. And the league came to its senses and decided not to issue a fine. So all's well that ends well. And a story that probably had about four days too much of shelf life is finally put to an end. Well, you know, we have had so many of those stories, as you mentioned, that had four days shelf life.

We've had others ongoing around the NFL that just won't seem to go away and give up and certainly yes and certainly you know we hope that some of these things go away and just let's get down to the business of worrying about and talking about and examining the football game spending so much time worrying about examining the footwear of some of the players that go on and i understand that the the NFL wants to keep their sponsors happy, keep their branding and those kind of things, but it's just overload on some of these off-field issues that we haven't talked about so much over the last year, two years,

with the Flategate, and then more recently some other things that we won't get into that just seem to continue on daily and have a new chapter or verse added to it every single day. Yeah, I'm glad that this one's over with and that hopefully there won't be any more calls for things like this to go on and we can focus on what everybody would prefer to focus on and that's what goes on on the field. what everybody would prefer to focus on, and that's what goes on on the field. As we move along, our next segment is the Coach's Corner, where we talk about something that came out of the press conferences.

I mentioned this, of course, last week. Every Wednesday, the opposing head coach, in this case Detroit's Jim Caldwell, and a player, Golden Tate, spoke with the Nashville media, while a Titans player and Mike Malarkey spoke with the Detroit media at almost the same time, and we take something out of that transcript of what the coach had to say and kind of go through it, and what Jim Caldwell had to say when asked about what stands out to him about the Titans, he spoke of the physicality.

They're a physical team up front. When you look at their offensive line, Conklin up there, who is a tough, hard-nosed guy that's just from down the road from here who can really play the game. Taylor LeJuan on the other side is a real athletic guy that will get after you as well. Two big bruising backs that can run the ball, a veteran guy in Murray and certainly a big, strong guy with a young guy in Henry. You couple that with a receiving

corp that has a plus and a quarterback that's deadly, just a triple threat that can really give you problems, that jumps out at you. That's the comment yesterday from Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell. Yeah, certainly he's describing the type of team that the Titans want to be. Now it's up to the Titans to go out and try and be that type of team, which really they were not, at least in the second half on Sunday when they only ran the ball eight times in the second half against the Vikings. So I think what you're seeing from Jim Caldwell is he looks at the Titans' personnel

and sees exactly what type team they want to be which is what the Titans that kind of advertise all offseason about the so-called exotic smash mouth and the power running and the physicality and all those sorts of things so now it's time for the Titans to put that into practice especially this Sunday against the Lions where they're going to be challenged by that explosive Detroit offense. And the best thing they can do is mount some sustained drives, which Mike Malarkey said yesterday, and try and keep that Lions offense off the field.

Well, when you look at this matchup, Terry, and you look at last week's game against the Colts and the numbers, certainly the Colts, it was a shootout game. So the Detroit defense nowhere near that, I think, of Minnesota. And I think the Titans can run the football this week. I expect to see Derrick Henry and DeMarco Murray get back to that around four- to five-yard average that they had in the preseason. And if they can do that, and as you said, sustain drives,

move down the field running the football, not having to throw it, put it in harm's way by putting it into the air, and certainly don't fumble it, they have a chance to grind this thing out, to shorten the game by taking the time off the clock, and keep Detroit's offense off the field. Now, the Lions may score quickly when they get there, but so what? If the Titans can grind this thing out and turn drives into touchdowns and not field goals, I certainly think they have an opportunity to win this game on Sunday.

Right. There are three areas that the Titans have to win on Sunday in order to win this game offensively. They've got to win in time of possession. They've got to win the turnover battle, and they've got to win in the number of first downs made. If they do those three things, they'll walk out of fourth field a winner. And certainly that would be a big thing for this Titans team because when you look at

the schedule of games that people predicting that they should win, this certainly was one of those games several months ago, even back before John Robinson and all of the trades and things that he has done to improve this roster, that was a game that most people thought was probably winnable on the schedule. Yeah, I think so. I think when you look at, you know, the schedule when it came out, the Lions traditionally have not been a very strong team, although they've been a little up and down the last five or six years.

In the playoffs one year, out of the playoffs for a couple of years. In fact, I think, you know, really you don't know what type of Lions team you're going to get year to year. This year thus far just with one game sample, they look very explosive on offense, but as you said, they look to be a little bit vulnerable on defense. Moving along to our player corner segment, Golden Tate, of course. I mentioned he is a local product prepped at Pope John here in the Nashville area

and, of course, went on to Notre Dame. Now, after a successful stint, has joined Detroit, and these are the thoughts of Golden Tate's on what stands out to him about this Titan squad that he'll see on Sunday. I think the quarterback they have is really good. I think the balls, the backs, excuse me, are really, really solid. I think they're going to make a lot of noise this year. The defense is solid, too. They have some good players out there. I played with Parrish Cox a little bit out in Seattle and played against him when he was with San Francisco. McCourty is obviously a solid player.

He's been doing this for a long time. The safeties, I think Searcy is one of them. Rashad Johnson is another one. They've got some players, some veteran guys. It's going to be a great matchup for us, and we're excited to get back to Ford Field. Those are the thoughts and comments of one golden tape well the big thing to me there is you know the titans do have a better secondary but they also severely lack speed as we've talked about

on this podcast before greg along with brad i think the lions are going to test that titan secondary so it's up to the tit Titans front seven to get a serious pass rush so that those corners and safeties don't have to cover for very long when Matthew Stafford drops back to pass. I think what you get out of this secondary is you get the guys who know what to do, know how to get in the right spot, but they've got to start making plays on the ball. Otherwise, guys like Golden Tate are going to have a field day on Sunday with some big numbers put up.

And, you know, not only are the Lions going to be happy if he can do that, his fantasy owners are going to be overjoyed as well. Absolutely. I think it starts for me, obviously, and Golden Tate could have a huge day. He is a matchup nightmare in my estimation for this Titans secondary. I'm not sure how you want to go about defending him, but the other thing to me, Terry, is the fact that we saw it from Minnesota again, the tight end. Now, Minnesota didn't have huge yards. Obviously, they were

playing with Sean Hill at quarterback, but still the Titans had trouble as they have over the last few years trying to match up and find somebody that can cover or a scheme that works against the tight end. And certainly Detroit has some capable tight ends that can control the middle of the field and help open things up on the outside even more so for Golden Tate. This is just not a really good matchup for the Titans defense unless their front seven and Dick LeBeau as the defensive coordinator can scheme, can use some of those exotic blitzes that he's famous for and be able to not just get pressure, but they've got to get home

and get Matthew Stafford on the ground and sack him to help that secondary out come Sunday. Oh, there's no doubt about that. I think when you look at, you know, this team and the way it's made up, a lot of veteran presences on that defense. They've got to get guys like Brian Arakpo, Morgan if he plays, Dodd if Morgan is unable to go. They've got to get after the quarterback and cut down on the time that these guys in the secondary are forced to cover these pass receivers.

If they can do that, they can keep the Titans in the game, maybe even make a big player two to help turn things around. Otherwise, the Lions, if the Lions have time to throw and they're running up and down the field scot-free, it could get ugly in a hurry. Another thing that I think is important for the Titans' special teams this week, they've got to have something out of their kick and punt return units to help adjust field position and swing the field.

At least if they can't score points, put themselves in a position where they can punt the Lions deep and force them to have to go long distances. They can't wind up backed up in their own end, punting from their own end zone and giving Detroit half fields to work with. I think that's going to be a big key as well. But it comes down ultimately to, for me, to the front seven on defense being able to get to Stafford, put some pressure on him, get sacks, and then, of course, goes back to the offense and running the football.

You've got to run the football. If this team can run for 150 or more yards, I think they've got a great chance of winning this football game just because they've been able to control the clock with that run game. Yeah, I think you're right. If they can run the football successfully, control the clock, they need probably 32, 33 minutes in time of possession on Sunday and also to win the turnover battle in order to have a chance to win this ball game. If they do that, they can come out on top.

Absolutely. Turnovers, I think, obviously, as we saw last Sunday, will be a key. You cannot afford to give Detroit two defensive scores with their offense. If that happens again, it could get ugly for the Titans in a hurry. Moving along as we continue this morning, you're listening to Locked On Titans on the Locked On Podcast Network. And Terry, let's go ahead and jump into our final thoughts because we've got a few minutes left and we can spend a little bit longer time on those final thoughts today.

And you had a good one because you had a conversation with one of the Titans players yesterday that will be a key part of what we're going to see on Sunday in Detroit. Yeah, I talked to Taylor LeJuan. You know, after Sunday's game, when he had two penalties, he took to Twitter and apologized to the fans for getting two penalties, one a hold, that was declined, another a false start. And he said he's continuing to work on that. I talked to him yesterday in the locker room, and he said, you know, a day or two after Mike Malarkey had said those penalties are something he's going to have to continue to work on,

that it's unacceptable, Taylor LeJuan owned it. He said, look, part of being a man and part of growing up is admitting that you made a mistake and taking ownership of it and doing your best to correct it. So it will be interesting to see how Taylor LeJuan does because he's going to be facing off against Ziggy Ansah a good part of the day. That could be a very interesting matchup for the Titans, especially in the pass game, because Ansa is one of those raw talents

who really can go get after the quarterback, and LeJuan is going to be on the spot, not only to be penalty-free, but to keep Marcus Mario to clean. Absolutely. We've had the opportunity over the last couple of years to spend some time with Taylor in the locker room. He's a different kind of dude. He is a little bit of a free spirit, I would say. He kind of moves to the beat of his own drummer in some ways, but he, as you said, growing up and taking

responsibility, not that he hasn't taken responsibility. I think he's been a pretty much stand-up guy as far as his play since he got here, but he's now, I think, more serious about his craft and trying to do the things and become the type of tackle and left tackle in particular that the Titans thought he was going to be when they drafted him and certainly that his physical ability suggests he can be. And as you said, Ziggy Ansah, that's going to be a tough matchup for him. And it's also, Terry, a return home of sorts for both he and Jack Conklin. Of course, LeJuan is from Arizona, but he played at the University of Michigan.

Conklin, a Michigan native, played at Michigan State. So pressure, I think, on both those guys to go home because I'm pretty sure Conklin especially will have a lot of family and friends there Taylor LeJuan might have a lot of friends there from his days in Michigan that are still in the area and certainly I think those two guys would want to go home and in particular Taylor LeJuan and prove something against the quote hometown team oh there's no doubt about that Greg you always want to do well in any game but especially when you've got lots and lots of people in the stands that know you and they're watching you. So I think

it's a big game for both LaJuan and Conklin in that regard as they're going back to where near to where they played their college football. LaJuan at Michigan, Conklin at Michigan State. My final thought has to do with Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota.

In his second year in the NFL, last season we saw him erupt onto the scene with an absolutely brilliant performance in the season opener down at Tampa. Of course, the season had its ups and downs last year with the injuries that he endured to both knees that cost him games early or in the middle of the season, I should say, and certainly there at the end of the season where he was unable to finish out his rookie year as the starter because of those injuries. Now we've seen him on Sunday endure probably his worst game as a pro.

The interception that was returned for the touchdown by Eric Kendrick, the missed handoff fumble between he and DeMarco Murray that turned into another touchdown for Minnesota. I think for Marcus Mariota this week, it's a matter of confidence. He has to come out, forget about what happened on Sunday, get out on the field, play with some confidence and do the things physically that he is capable of doing in leading this offense. If he does that, I think the Titans team are going to be fine offensively, and I think that they certainly will have a great chance, Terry, to win on Sunday. Again, as I mentioned, those other

areas, they have to play well, but Marcus also has to regain his confidence. Yeah, you know, he addressed that yesterday about, you know, putting things behind him. He said he's a lot better than he was early on when he was at Oregon. He learned to move on from it after about a 24-hour period. And he said that he learned when he was with Oregon as a freshman that after a game they had lost to Stanford, some of the better, more upper-class guys that were at Oregon at the time told him, said, look, you can't be moping around because you lost this game or else it will lead to another loss.

So I think Marcus and the Titans will be able to put this behind them. It's going to be interesting to see, like you said, how well he plays. If he can play pretty much mistake-free football, then that's a benefit for the Titans, obviously. That will do it for us today. For my co-host Terry McCormick, Brad Hopkins rejoins us on Friday. You've been listening to

Locked On Titans on the Locked On Podcast Network. Have a great day everybody.