Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans-Sept. 16- It's Friday, which means a special guest.

Episode Date: September 16, 2016

It's Friday, which means a special guest. Find out who along with our predictions on the outcome of Sunday's gamve versus the Detroit Lions. 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. And welcome to your daily source for Titans news with your host, Terry McCormick of Titan Insider, Greg Arias, and former Tennessee Titan Pro Bowl left tackle Brad Hopkins. We are locked on Titans, and guys, it's great to be back on a Friday. Brad, great to have you with us. We missed you yesterday, as always, on the days you're not here.

And we have got some stuff lined up for you. We've got a special guest that will be joining us here in a few moments. We'll also do our Friday predictions on the outcome of the games and have our final thoughts. Again, gentlemen, welcome this morning. You know, what another fantastic – yeah, thanks for putting everything together because I'm sure the Titan fan faithful would love to hear all the little intricate details that we've amassed over the week as they get ready for Detroit.

But I will say that Mike Malarkey right off the top did a phenomenal thing in at least going over the film against Minnesota, looking at their mistakes, putting it behind them, and then really cracking open the film for Detroit, getting a leg up, so to speak, rather than waiting on Wednesday. Terry, what do you think about that? Yeah, that's a little bit different. I think that probably is a good idea to go ahead and start getting that bad taste out of your mouth

from what happened in the Vikings game and move it on to Detroit. Plus, it gives you the players and the coaches an extra 36 hours or so to start focusing on the Detroit Lions and the task at hand. Our current news for today, gentlemen, what's the current topic today for the Titans? Other than obviously going to Detroit, was there anything that you guys came up with that would be interesting? I think, really honestly, if I can go first,

that the Titans really feel bad this week about all the excitement they permeated throughout the fan faithful and things like that with their play during the preseason and how mistakes basically took them out of that game when it was obvious fellas that they had control so i think that really it's about keeping that perception that identity that they've worked so hard to establish because whenever you have your guide you know the guy that we've been talking about so glowingly and affectionately over the past couple years and marcus mario to make obvious mistakes that contributed to the loss. You don't want to see that.

And I think that it's them taking it upon themselves personally to ensure that we're still excited about what they're doing over there at Nissan Stadium. I think that that should be paramount. Yeah, I think you're right. And I'll go one step further. They talked about yesterday trying to get more pressure, more sacks, more turnovers, and those sorts of things. I talked to Brian Arakpo.

It's amazing. He went through the game, and really not only didn't he have a sack, he didn't have a tackle. It was not credited with a tackle. And the Titans seem to say, well, not that big of a deal. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes the play just goes away from your side or you may get a pressure and the ball come out and you don't get credit for a sack or a tackle,

and I'm willing to give him a little bit of a pass on that, but still I think that Brian Arakpo is one of those guys, especially if Derrick Morgan is going to be a question mark this week with that hamstring injury. Brian Arakpo is going to have to do more for this team. He's going to have to step up. He knows that they're going to be game planning to stop him, and I think the Titans have got to find a way,

and Brian Arakpo has got to find a way to make something happen in this ballgame. That is a really interesting stat, Terry. I had not even looked at the tackles to notice that Brian did not have a tackle in the game. You kind of touched on it, though. They a lot of times went away from him, especially after Derek Morgan left the ballgame. It seemed like they kind of went more to their right away from him. They kind of went more to their right away from him. And, of course, when you hold a guy like Adrian Peterson to 31 yards, that takes away a lot of tackles because a lot of the stuff up inside

were things that were being handled by the defensive line and the inside linebackers. But he certainly has to be a force, especially as a pass rusher, coming off that edge this week. And as you said, especially if Derek Morgan is out of this ballgame because of the injury. And, again, we won't know about the status of him until probably later on this afternoon on Friday once practice is completed and they have an opportunity to see if he can practice today and give them anything and then a decision likely to be made sometime. And they may even hold that until Sunday before we know for sure.

Hey, Terry, Greg, real quick, if I can add. I love the number of youngsters that are contributing this year. Sure, it does say a lot about Mike Malarkey and John Robinson getting the right groceries for the store, so to speak. But when you look at Byard and Sharp and Conklin and potentially Dodd, you know, or Bass, whoever's filling in for Derek Morgan, these guys are contributing early. They're impact players, and I think that at the end of the day,

these youngsters are going to add depth. Oh, there's no doubt about it. I think they feel like they're much better equipped to handle the loss of a guy like Derek Morgan if, indeed, he's not able to go on Sunday than they were last year. And I think, you know, all across the board, that's one of the things that John Robinson and Mike Malarkey are trying to do is build depth.

And even if that depth is young depth, when you have to put it out there and get some experience in the long run, it may not be pretty, it may not be great right there at the outset, but in the long run, those things help you make you a better football team. Injury news. Otherwise, Kendall Wright remains the only other player that is on that injury list at this point in time, and he, Terry, and Brad, obviously already been ruled out for this week. There is a chance that he could be available next Sunday

when the Titans return home to face the Raiders, but at least for week two he will miss his second game of the regular season. Terry, I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, it's kind of frustrating that, you know, Kendall Wright has not been able to shake this hamstring injury. I know he's frustrated. I know the Titans are frustrated. And it's a situation where, you know,

I just think that when you're out of the mix, it kind of makes you, in a certain sense, detached from the rest of the club. So I think Kendall, you know, he's been back out on the practice field doing some individual work, doing some running off the side. I think Kendall and the Titans both will be very glad for the day when he's able to return and go through a full practice and be able to contribute to this team. Terry, let me pose a question to you real quick.

Obviously, we were talking earlier in the program about the lack of deep threats this year. Maybe Doyle Green Beckham and Justin Hunter were figured to be guys that could actually stretch the sideline, basically, and clear up all the underneath stuff. But with Kendall Wright being hurt, there's no true X position, basically. So the seam routes are cluttered, all the underneath stuff, the crossing routes, all those things are pretty much

just cluttered right there. And if you're talking about trying to stop a running attack, you've already got guys in the box, which affects the pass game. So the question is, how imperative is it that they get Kendall Wright back in some reasonable amount of time? Oh, I think it is. I mean, you know, the other thing, the other byproduct of this, too,

when you don't have that deep passing threat, think about it. With so many defenders in the box, and I talked to Delaney Walker about this, what happened, he said, with the Vikings on Sunday was he just kept getting passed off as he was running his route. There was very little in the way of open windows between those zones for him to find a spot to go and catch the football as he was running his route. So I think without that deep threat, and with the box already crowded to stop the run in a lot of ways, and with the passing routes being mostly short and intermediate, you're

choking off Delaney Walker's ability to be productive and to get down the scene and make those big plays that you're used to seeing him make. You're listening to Locked on Titans on the Locked on Podcast Network, and it's time now for our special guest. And the special guest today comes to us from Locked on Lions, the podcast that covers the Detroit Lions. He is Matt Derry.

Matt, welcome, and thanks for taking the time to join us this morning. No problem, fellas. Anytime. Let's start, obviously, with the Detroit Lions and their offense. They had a big output scoring-wise against last week's opponent in a win. Where did this offense come from? Is this something that you guys were expecting them to be able to do? I know certainly Matthew Stafford is a veteran quarterback now, but is this pretty much what you thought this offense was going to be at least through week one?

You know, Greg, I'm not really sure if they're going to have this type of success uh every single week where they're putting up 39 points and and certainly stafford had a passer rating in the 120s 130s and looked tremendous uh you knew going into that game last week against the colts without arthur jones without kendall langford uh with vante davis out that the lions should feast on a Colts defense that even when healthy isn't very good. So I don't think this weekend they're just going to come home and drop a 40-burger on the Titans.

With that being said, there are plenty of weapons around Stafford, starting with Theo Riddick. A lot of people are going to say, well, who's that? Well, to me, he's the most valuable guy they have outside of Stafford on that offense. Theo Riddick provides a lot out of the backfield in terms of catching the football. They're featuring him a little bit as a running back where they're handing him the ball seven, eight yards behind the line of scrimmage, and he's done well.

So he's been a force as a former late-round draft pick. Amir Abdullah, Golden Tate, Eric Ebron, Marvin Jones, who sort of takes the Calvin Johnson role. So there's plenty around Stafford to like the issues going to be, will they be able to block up front? Last week they were. And, Matt, do you feel maybe a sense of urgency this season? Obviously, Jim Caldwell was given a stay of execution

because of basically the underperformance of the Detroit Lions last year. But do you see there being any more stress or any more urgency for these guys to get off to a fast start this season? You know, I don't think that Caldwell is going to lose his job during the season, if that's kind of where you're going with that. You know, you've got a new general manager in Bob Quinn, who I refer to as the maestro, because I just think that he's come in and things are different and he's kind of in charge.

And it's the first time the Lions have sort of had that where it's an outsider running things for years. And I know Matt Millen came in and just absolutely destroyed the franchise and was an outsider. But by two, three weeks in, Matt Millen became ownership's best friend, and he became the figurehead in the face of a Lions bad franchise for so long. He even got a contract extension. This time, you're going out and you're plucking from the Belichick tree a Bob Quinn who, quite honestly, I think a lot of people thought, all right, he's just going to come here and clean the house. It's been the Lions. It's been the same old Lions.

One playoff win in 58 years. Just blow this thing up. And he didn't do that, at least with the head coach. Jim Caldwell won him over with players' likability, guys running through a wall for him. But with that being said, Bob Quinn also knows that Jim Caldwell makes questionable decisions, sometimes slow decisions in game, including last year's Green Bay game in which the Hail Mary was accomplished

on that Thursday night at home where, quite honestly, the Lions were ill-prepared for a long pass. And after the game, Caldwell made the point, well, I think they're going to do that lateral and throw the ball back and forth type of thing. Well, everybody in the stadium, including me, knew what was coming except him. So it was kind of a giant black mark on his record. So with that being said, the fan base here in Detroit and the buzz is,

yeah, everybody likes the guy and everybody knows that the players love him, but can he outfox another coach late in games? Last week with Chuck Pagano, he sort of did, and Colville held on to his timeout, and here's Pagano calling timeout in the fourth quarter late to help the Lions have the ball longer when they got it. So, you know, to kind of give you the short answer, I don't think he'll lose the job during the season,

but I don't think expectations are that high, and it wouldn't surprise me if after the year Bob Quinn says, you know, we're going to go in a different direction. You talked about, you touched on the player, the likability by players. You know, that's one of the things that helps save Jim Caldwell. That's also one of the things that helps save Mike Malarkey here with the Titans. I think that's probably an underrated factor when you're evaluating a coach. Do you think that's something that Quinn gave some serious thought to in terms of his decision to retain Caldwell? I do think that was part of it. I also don't know what kind of backdoor and closed-door meetings

that Bob Quinn had with ownership. The ownership might have told him, listen, we've got a coach that we like that is a God-fearing man and fits what we try to do here with ownership, and he's got two years left, so you're stuck with him, so just publicly say you're keeping him. That could have taken place, because Caldwell does this as year three of a four-year contract. But I do believe that players did tell Quinn when he talked to them

when he got the job, hey, look, coach isn't the problem. We play for him. He treats us like men. He's got a leadership committee. When he first took the job a couple of years ago, he took every position group out to dinner. He bought, and he sat down and talked to them about life and about spirituality and about their families.

And the previous coach before that, Jim Schwartz, was not like that at all. So I think these guys kind of fell in love with Caldwell, and they will run through a wall for him because he's very straightforward with them. Caldwell can be very short with the media, doesn't want to tell them too much, doesn't want to talk about injuries. Players love that. So they like playing for them. And, you know, so I think that played a role for sure.

But the questions, again, I have to come up with the last two years is challenge flags, Hail Mary decisions, little things that cost them games. And will it cost them games again this year? But right in front of the new general manager. We're talking with Matt Derry of Locked On Lions, and Matt, when we look at last week for this Detroit team, certainly they scored a bunch of points, but they also gave up a bunch of points. Now, we know about Andrew Luck and the Colts' offense being in the same division with them,

but kind of tell us what you feel about from being there with this team, this Lions defense, and maybe what we can expect, because certainly we think that the Titans are going to try to come in, run the football, hammer away, and shorten the game to try to keep Matthew Stafford and that Lions offense off the field. Well, first and foremost, if that's the game plan and they're going to run Murray and Henry and everybody at the Lions, they've got to watch out for DeAndre Levy.

Now, he has not practiced Wednesday or Thursday due to a quad injury. He's their best run stopper as a linebacker. He's finally getting healthy, although last week you could tell in the second half. I don't know if the quad acted up or not, but he was sort of invisible. But having Levy back on that defense who two years ago was a force on the outside for the Lions is huge. So DeAndre Levy's a guy that flies around all over the field. To answer your question, guys, I don't know about their run defense because the Colts scrapped their game plan and just lucked through the ball 100 times last week.

So to sit here and go, would I run the ball and try to pound the ball on the Lions? Yes. To keep Stafford off the field, Terry and I talked about it when he joined me on Locked on Lions. I think that would be a smart move. Defensive line-wise, I think the Lions D-line is their strength.

If Elodi Nata is going to fill those gaps with his big body and make plays, Ziggy Ansah, very good against the run, and of course a good pass, good against the pass and a pass rusher. There's plenty to like about the Lions' D-line.

The question's going to be the screen game for the Lions and how they handle that. If the Titans elect to do that, I would be running at Kyle Van Nooy when he's on the field, throwing runs and screens his way. He's not a very good outside backer, in my opinion. And, you know, if Levy's hurt, that would be a huge loss for the Lions because they're not deep at linebacker. Also, tight end coverage was a huge issue last week for the Lions. They could not cover Dwayne Allen, and they could not cover Jack Doyle.

So Delaney Walker should have a field day. So if they can run the ball, and then here's the play-action pass, and then Walker and the seam, that could be good stuff for Mariota and company. Hey, real quick, Matt, on the flip side of that, Theo Riddick and Amir Abdullah running the football, they obviously had over 100 yards last week combined. Are they enough of a balance to basically alleviate some of the pressure for Matt Stafford and not be so predictable?

I think the Lions feel they are. I think the Lions feel like really they have three backs that they're comfortable with right now with Abdullah. I don't know if they're comfortable giving him 20 to 25 carries a game yet uh brad because he he's he's gonna he's gonna he's gonna fumble all right that's just been his issue but he looks stronger he looks bigger and he was he was excellent last week riddick like i said they're handing the ball to and a rookie in duane washington they like as a power back second one third one third uh first and goal so ball to a rookie in Dwayne Washington they like as a power back, second and one, third and one, first and goal. So he's a rookie, a seventh-round pick that they like.

So I think they feel like they've got a nice run game. The question is going to be can they move bodies up front and open up holes? Last week was the best I've seen the offensive line play in a while, which was a surprise to me because that was a question mark coming in. We're speaking with Matt Derry of Locked On Lions, our sister site, if you will, here on the Locked On Podcast Network. Matt, I'm going to put you on the spot. Give us your prediction for the game on Sunday. I think the Lions are about a five or six point favorite.

I think that's pretty accurate. I think the Lions are about a five or six point favorite. I think that's pretty accurate. I think the Lions come home and win. I know the Titans are very young, and last week didn't even play all that poorly and yet still lost with turnovers. The Lions have got to contain Mariota certainly in the run game with him, and I saw some direct snaps to him where he just took it and went. The Lions did a decent job in bottling up luck when he was out of the pocket and scrambling the other day.

But I think the Lions will win this game, and they'll come home and get it done. But I don't think it's going to be some route that maybe some people expect. To be quite honest, I think Lions fans are looking to see if the Lions can string together back-to-back good games. So I'll put around a 24-17 type win or 24-20 type win for the Lions on Sunday. I think they'll get it done. Matt, thanks so much for the time and joining us today. Best of luck the rest of the way and we look forward to talking with you again in the future. Alright guys, it was a pleasure. Thank you.

That was Matt Derry of LockedOnLines. And guys, it's time for us to move into our predictions now. And, Brad, I'm going to throw it to you. Take off with this and give us your prediction on what's going to happen on Sunday when the Titans get to Ford Field. I know, guys, it might sound like I'm a homer, but I think that last week was a complete aberration. I think that when you look at how they were able to control the ball,

meaning the Titans, that was more what you're going to see on the season. The Detroit Lions are very susceptible to big plays and obviously being gashed in the middle, like what we've seen during the preseason. So I really expect them to kind of get back on track on the road. Sure, it'll be a tough opponent, but for the most part it'll be a good test. I think the Titans do come out on top, maybe by a field goal or a point. Derek?

Well, Greg, I don't want to be skeptical or anything like that, but the Titans have been down for so long. I'm in prove-it mode. So I think the Titans will play better than they did against the Vikings in the opener, but they're going to have to do a lot of things right and a lot of things well in order to stave off the Lions and their powerful offense. I'm going, just like I did on Matt's show last night, I'm going to go 28-20 Lions. Well, I'm kind of like Terry, and I said this last week.

You've got to prove it to me, and obviously Minnesota came in with the question mark at quarterback, and the Titans proved some things to me. However, they also proved that they can still find a way to turn what should have, in all honesty, been a victory into a loss by turning the football over. So I think they've still got to prove it to me as well. I do think, as Matt told us, the Lions are susceptible to the tight end. I think Delaney Walker becomes a factor in this game, and if he

can do that and give them something in the middle of the field, open up perhaps a little bit more for the Titans on the outside, because we know the Titans struggle to go down the field, and then if they can run the football, this offense certainly has an opportunity to score enough points to win, but I'm going to take the Lions to win this game, and I'm going to go with a final of 21-17 Detroit in this one, though I think the Titans certainly have, as they would say in boxing, a puncher's chance of winning this football game, but they've got to do some things, including not turn the football over, guys. Yeah, that's exactly right.

They've got to win the turnover battle or at least be even in the turnover battle this week in order to have a chance. Time to move along. Let's go to our final thoughts. And, Terry, lead us off with the final thought for this Friday as we head towards week two of the NFL season. My final thought is on something that I put in my notebook a couple of days ago and didn't get around to mentioning it on the show,

but just a quality, quality gesture by the Titans organization. Went into the locker room the other day and noticed that in the renovated and remodeled locker room, there is a locker there for Tim Shaw, the linebacker and former special teams captain of the Titans, whose career ended a couple of years ago and then shortly after that was diagnosed with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The Titans have really done a great job of making Tim Shaw feel a part of their family, especially since this illness has struck him. I tip my hat to the organization for doing those sorts of things for Tim Shaw and making him a part of this team.

You know what, real quick, my final thought would be, you know, when we're talking about the Tennessee Titans basically moving on from Minnesota on Monday and starting Detroit, that wasn't Mike Malarkey's doing. Mike Malarkey took the suggestion from an assistant that they do that, which to me means that they have a team atmosphere. He's willing to listen to other directions and giving basically a pulse of his staff and the players as to what they should do.

So the fact that he's very responsive to the voices of the guys that he actually is responsible for coaching and that he works alongside of, I think at the end of the day, ultimately, that can only prove to be a good thing and produce better results in the end, I think. Both very outstanding thoughts, guys. Mine is I'm going to call out the guys up front on the offensive line because there's three first-rounders up there in this unit, Wormack, Conklin, and Taylor LeJuan, and then Ben Jones and Quentin Spain.

Those guys have got to get it done this week. The Titans have got to run the football. And by run the football. By run the football, I mean have Derrick Henry and DeMarco Murray somewhere in the 120-130 yard range combined. One guy doesn't have to do it all. They've got two horses. Use them both. Run the football and shorten this game.

If they do that, they can turn Terry and I around, so to speak, and get a victory on Sunday in Detroit. Prove us wrong if you will, guys. Good stuff. That will do it for us for a Friday edition of Locked on Titans. We hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy the games, and we'll see you again on Monday morning.

Goodbye, everybody.