Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans-Sept. 27- It's Tuesday and we go Four Downs, but what are they today?

Episode Date: September 27, 2016

It's Tuesday and we go Four Downs, but what are they today? Also our Current News and Final Thoughts as the Titans get set to travel to Houston. #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 for a Tuesday morning with your host Terry McCormick of TitanInsider.com, Greg Arias and former Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl left tackle Brad Hopkins. Terry, it is Tuesday and of course on Tuesdays and Thursdays as everyone knows by now Brad not with us on the show so it's just you and I to get through the day. And we've got a lot of stuff to talk about, certainly our current news. And then our four-down segment where we discuss four different subjects

as it relates to the Tennessee Titans. And go ahead and kick us off with the current news of the day. Well, there's a little bit of good news and a little bit of bad news on the injury front, Greg. The good news is for the Titans that they appear to be on track to get Kendall Wright back and maybe playing for the first time this season. He's been involved with that hamstring injury since early August and hasn't really done much in the way of practicing and done anything in the way of playing.

But the Titans are poised to get him back on the field, and if there are no setbacks, Titans are poised to get him back on the field, and if there are no setbacks, he could be in the lineup when they take on the Houston Texans Sunday down there at NRG Stadium. The other news is they expect Delaney Walker to be back and practice. Maybe not on Wednesday, but hopefully by Thursday they think he's going to be back and working and practicing, getting back in the lineup after being out last week with that sore hamstring. Then on the bad side of the injury front, it looks like safety to Norris Searcy could be out of the lineup this week.

He suffered an injury to his ankle in the second half of the loss to the Raiders. And Coach Mike Malarkey said on Monday at his weekly press conference in the postgame that Searcy looks like he will be out of this ballgame, so the Titans are going to have to figure out a way to compensate for his loss with the other safeties that they have. And then Quentin Spain looks like he could miss a little bit of practice time but probably won't miss any game time with his knee that he injured in Sunday's game against the Raiders a little bit sore but he finished up they'll probably rest him just a little bit in this ball game. It was kind of interesting when you mentioned Quentin Spain of course we saw him limping around

on the field definitely favoring a leg late in the contest on Sunday, yet he remained in the game. And even with him limping like that, they ran behind him on a key play with DeMarco Murray and were able to convert for a first down on the play. So that tells you a little bit about the toughness, certainly, of Quentin Spain going into this thing and how he is becoming a key

to this offensive line, obviously now, especially with the loss of Chance Wormack and the insertion of Josh Klein into the lineup to replace Wormack on that right side. They've got to keep these other guys healthy going forward to try to build on something with this offensive line, don't they? Yeah, they really do.

Offensive line play, as you know, and Brad's not here to drive the point home, but offensive line play is all about five guys working together as one. It's all about cohesiveness and everybody knowing what everybody is supposed to do and doing their assignments and working as one unit while they're out there on the field together and not having issues with things going haywire with this assignment and those such things. And the fewer injuries that you can have, the more that you can keep that same group together,

the better off you are. They've already suffered one injury losing Chance Hormak, probably for the season with hand surgery. Josh Klein stepped in to fill that. But with Quentin Spain, you know, they're hopeful that he'll be able to play this Sunday and kind of keep that offensive line unit intact. With that, we move along into our four downs. And sticking with the theme of the offensive line, on first down,

there were some revelations of sort that came out late Sunday afternoon following the Titans loss to the Raiders that involved left tackle Taylor LeJuan obviously Terry he was the source of fan disgust there were some shots lobbed at him by people on social media including one very prominent person that we'll talk about here in a moment, about that play, of course, where he was flagged for the 15-yard penalty that cost the Titans a first down and goal opportunity somewhere around the two or three-yard line with plenty of time to have potentially been able to score the tying touchdown. Tell us what exactly was the issue that came out, and obviously it's something that you wrote about on Titan Insider after you and I were informed of this Sunday afternoon.

Well, it's a couple of things. You talked about fans reacting to Taylor LeJuan. Well, one of those fans just happened to be ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who took to Twitter and really took LeJuan to task over the play. A fraud, a fake tough guy, a loafer, you know, all sorts of things. The tweet is out there. LeJuan reacted, really kind of took the high road, said, you know, not a whole lot about it.

He has his job to do. Herb Street has a job to do. And he just wanted to leave it at that. And, you know, I guess Herb Street later kind of issued somewhat of an apology for what he said on Twitter. But, you know, certainly a situation that grabbed some headlines. And the other part of that, after the game, Taylor LeJuan and one of the officials, umpire Dan Farrell, in a shouting match on the sidelines after the game.

And while LeJuan admitted that he himself used some coarse and colorful language, so did the official. And the official dropped an F-bomb in responding to Taylor LeJuan. And certainly, you know, that's a situation where, you know, while it certainly does not excuse Taylor LeJuan's behavior or his reaction, game officials and NFL personnel are generally held to a higher standard than the players on the field. It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of what happened with Farrell.

I've got the tweet here that you spoke about from Kirk Herbstreet that was issued yesterday. And in that tweet, Herbstreet says, Big fan of the Titans and have been to most of their games for the last three years. Clearly got carried away yesterday, just want to see these guys win. So that was his attempt, if you will, at an apology, though he did not specifically come out and say, Taylor LeJuan, I'm sorry, you know, for what I said about you, the things that I inferred in that tweet. And how much of this, Terry, has to do with the rivalry of sorts,

even though Herbstreet played several years ago and LaJuan more recently, but Herbstreet, a Buckeye from Ohio State, and of course we know Taylor LaJuan from the University of Michigan, and those two don't really get along. Yeah, I mean, that might play a little into it, but I don't think it has a whole lot to do with it. I think this was more just Herbstreet being the frustrated fan and taking his frustrations out on LeJuan via social media.

I think, you know, if he had to do it all over again, Herbstreet probably would not have sent that tweet out and created such a firestorm. It's interesting, though, you know, when it's somebody famous and it gets out on social media, it goes viral pretty quickly. You're listening to Locked On Titans on the Locked On Podcast Network with Terry McCormick of Titan Insider. I'm Greg

Arias. And Terry, the other part of that that you spoke about, the issue with the umpire, I think that's something that probably the league is now aware of because you broke that story yesterday, in fact, on this, and it has picked up traction nationally. We obviously probably will never know if the league says or does anything

to the official in that. That's certainly something that they will keep in-house if there is, in fact, any kind of punishment or reprimand given for that. Yeah, it also is going to be interesting to see if the league finds Taylor LeJuan for his actions not only on the penalty, but for getting into the altercation at the end of the game with the official. So, you know, I think Taylor LeJuan and perhaps the official too might both expect to be a little bit lighter in the wallet this week.

Moving on to second down, we need to talk about Marcus Mariota just a bit here, Terry. And there's been some criticism, and rightfully so, of the play of Marcus Mariota at times this season, especially early in ballgames. It seems like that late in games, as we saw in Detroit on those two late third and fourth quarter drives for the game-winning score. And then, of course, on Sunday against the Raiders, that he and this offense moved the football late in the game when it's on the line but struggled at times to get things done in the first three quarters of things.

And Mike Malarkey addressed part of this yesterday in saying that, obviously, the opening drive of the game, they get down there, they get a penalty that push them back, make it a third and long situation, third and 14, in fact. They can't convert, and they end up settling for a field goal. Certainly the penalty's not the fault of Marcus Mariota, but he has missed some throws. He has done some things.

Obviously the two turnovers, the fumble, and the interception thrown against Minnesota that have been huge. Is that criticism of him justified or is this still a matter of him being just a, basically a rookie quarterback as far as NFL experience? He still has not started a full 16 games under center in the NFL. I think some of the criticism is fair for Marcus Mariota. Obviously, he's still a young quarterback. He's still learning how an NFL offense operates.

And he's really, even though Mike Malarkey was a part of Ken Wibbenhut's staff, he's learning his second offensive system in as many years. But there are going to be growing pains with a young quarterback. Titans fans have been down this road before. I think one of the things that might concern me about Mariota is not so much the interceptions, because I think those will fade over time. As he becomes more comfortable as a quarterback and he does his studying and he learns how coverages are disguised and all those sorts of things,

I think you'll see him start to avoid a lot of the interceptions. But the fumbles, you know, where he's trying to reach out for an extra yard and maybe the ball gets poked out or he gets hit in the pocket and the ball is stripped, those are the types of things I think that are more of a concern because, you know, he had that same problem at Oregon. And while he said that, you know, trying to improve his ball security is a priority for him, it's still happening on occasion because he's, in his own words,

trying to do too much at times. And I think you look back at Jake Locker and his career with the Titans. You know, Jake Locker had one of the same bugaboos in terms of trying to do too much, putting himself in harm's way with his kamikaze style. It led to multiple injuries for him and shortened his career, certainly. And I think, you know, sometimes, you know, a guy is what he is, as they say.

And the Titans may just have to live with some of the, you know, risks that come with Marcus Mariota in exchange for some of the good that he's going to bring to the table, not only now, but in the future. How much of this, though, is a direct result, as far as the fans are concerned, of watching a guy like Carson Wentz, a rookie quarterback, and what he is doing in Philadelphia, and then projecting that Marcus probably should be ahead of Wentz, but right now Wentz, certainly I would have to say outplaying Marcus at this point, even though Marietta with more NFL game experience.

Well, that is true. But also, Wentz came from a pro-style system. Even though it was 1AA or FCS or whatever they want to call it now, even though he came from that level of football, it's still a pro-style offense. Most of your college quarterbacks, including Marcus Mariota, that come to the NFL now, they come from a spread offense. They have to learn how to take a snap from center. They have to learn how to call a play in the huddle. All those things are things that Mariota is having to learn

and improve upon each week, all the while, while he tries to read the defense and run the offense and do all those sorts of things that a quarterback naturally has to do in the course of the game. So when you're looking at all the responsibilities that he has, plus the fact that he's still learning how to be an NFL quarterback and learning how to operate the pro system, I think that's where you get the situation and the comparison

where people might say Wentz is already ahead or that sort of thing. It's a situation where he's been exposed to more of what an NFL quarterback should be exposed to than probably Marcus has. And it's certainly not for a lack of effort on Marcus' part. And he's working with some deficiencies as well. There's still obviously some issues with the Titans' roster in that they're lacking, as we talked about with you and I and Brad on Monday,

about the deep threat wide receiver that can stretch the field for this offense and give him some more room to be able to make some more plays underneath. They just really don't have that right now. And we're going to, I think, continue to see teams come up to the line of scrimmage more so with the safeties they can help support and run and close that window for the crossing routes in the middle things and certainly getting kendall right back could hopefully help stretch that out just a little bit yeah it should i think you know having right back on the field gives him some semblance of a guy who can stretch the field, as you said, and can get down the field. Even if they don't throw the ball to him, at least clear out the underneath

so that other guys like Delaney Walker and Tajay Sharp and Andre Johnson can work underneath and have more separation and less guys there inside the box and less guys in those short passing lanes and allow them to be able to do more. I think that's one of the big problems with this offense right now is just the fact that they don't have any explosiveness to them. Moving on, it's third down,

and we stick with the theme of looking at some issues with this Titans team. And play calling has certainly been something, Terry, that has been dissected over the last couple of days. And most people talking about the play where the Titans had the two fullbacks. It was an offset power ice formation. And Marcus throws the football to Harry Douglas on a bubble type screen. And it looked like that Douglas wanted to pitch the football back to DeMarco Murray, but the Raiders were there. Malarkey talked about this yesterday, and there have been some other criticisms

of other play calls as well, but just kind of where do we stand and your thoughts on the play call situation? Mike Malarkey talked about when he was asking his press conference yesterday what went wrong on that play. He said that Murray went the wrong way on the play. So that was part of the reason the Raiders were able to diagnose it and essentially blow it up for, I think, a four-yard loss. So that was what happened on that play.

But, yeah, I think people are a little concerned with some of the play calls. I don't think it's with the run game in particular because I think the Titans' run game certainly, you know, people are more than satisfied with how DeMarco Murray ran and how Derrick Henry complimented him on Sunday. I think it's more of the passing game and the lack of explosiveness there. And I think, you know, the lack of being able to get into a rhythm. You saw it late in the game when the Raiders loosened up their coverage

and were playing maybe a little bit more of a prevent-type defense. The Titans were able to zip right down the field and get in position to score, even though the penalties prevented it. But when you talk about the play calls, when you don't win, there's always going to be somebody critiquing the play calls and wondering why you didn't call this, why you didn't run that. And, you know, Malarkey said yesterday that going into every game, there are at least six plays in the game plan designed to go deep with.

But for whatever reason, you know, sometimes the route is taken away. Sometimes there's pressure on the quarterback and you have to abandon it. Sometimes you have to check out of that play. But there are six plays in the game plan designed to stretch the field and go deep each week. You mentioned the run game. It's hard to argue with 7.1 yards per carry average by DeMarco Murray, and certainly that inflated a little bit by a couple of long runs,

but still that's the average for the game. And then Derrick Henry averaged 4.5 yards against the Raiders on Sunday. Those are great numbers. Let's move on to fourth down, and we stick with this stat from the first three weeks of the season, Terry, that involves both the offense and the defense in its turnover ratio, and it's not necessarily a good one for the Titans at this point. Offensively, the Titans have fumbled the football five times. They've lost three of those and thrown four interceptions, seven total turnovers in three

games. Obviously, that's got to be cleaned up. But on the other side of the ledger, the Titans have only been able to gain two takeaways defensively, two interceptions, the Parrish-Cox interception that saved the game in Detroit, and then, of course, on Sunday, Avery Williamson off the deflected pass by Jason McCourty for the interception. off the deflected pass by Jason McCourty for the interception. So they're minus five in turnover ratio through three games, and that has certainly got to improve for this team.

If they're going to win some more football games going down the stretch, they've got to hang on to it and be able to take it away better. Yeah, they do. I think both of those stats are very telling. The fact that they've turned the ball over seven times in three games, you're not going to win a whole lot doing that. And the fact that they've only gotten two takeaways, that just compounds the problem.

I think, you know, I asked Mike Malarkey yesterday if they need bigger plays from the defense and the special teams to try and help this struggling offense out, and he said absolutely because this offense has been going to the long field almost every time. And when you don't have explosiveness and you're going to the long field, well, it's no wonder you're having trouble scoring. So they need the defense to get them a short field, not only to get off the field on third down,

but to get an interception, to recover a fumble, those sorts of things. They can use a long kickoff or punt return, maybe even a block on special teams. This is a team that needs contributions from all three phases in order to win because they don't have enough weapons and they're not dynamic enough on offense yet to be able to get into shootouts and win games 38 to 34 every week. They're going to have to keep it.

When you keep the score, when you're playing 17 to 13 or what have you every week, then the margin for error certainly decreases, and you have to take advantage of every opportunity you have. Yeah, you mentioned starting field position, and looking at the drive chart from Sunday, only one time did the Titans start outside their own 25-yard line on a drive. They started 26 that one time.

In the game, there were also five other times that they started at the 25, once at the 20, once at the 16, once at the 10, once at the 7, and once at the 8-yard line. And certainly Mike Malarkey correct in that long drive comment that he made because they are having long fields to try to negotiate. Yes, there's no doubt about that. And they've got to do something to change that, and it's not going to get any easier this week when they go to Houston

to face the Texans because, you know, that offense is going to be facing not only, you know, trying to run the football, but whenever they drop back to throw, they're going to have to account for J.J. Watt. Moving on, it's time for our final thoughts on the day. Terry, go ahead and give us your final thoughts on this Tuesday edition. Well, my final thought is that with the Titans at 1-2, I think obviously they gave away an opportunity to have a chance to tie

or win the game on Sunday, and certainly their home frustrations and futility continues. But I do think one thing can't be overlooked. This team is better. There's still plenty of holes. There's still plenty of areas that need improving and need work. You know, we've talked about them at length on this show. But they are better because they've been in all three games. They've had a chance to win or tie all three games

through the first three weeks of the season. So they're not getting beat 38-10 anymore. Now it's a matter of can you close that gap even more and begin to more consistently compete and win some of these games that are close? My final thought has to do with the Texans coming up on Sunday. Obviously, no one in their right mind at this point is going to predict that the Titans can go into NRG Stadium and win this game. But the Titans need to go in there and certainly play well.

A win would be great, but they have to keep the status quo that you just mentioned, Terry, of being able to at least play close and prove to people, hey, if we can go into Houston and play these guys close on their home field, perhaps by the time they come to Nashville a little bit later on, get the home field, maybe we've got a chance to win then. I know that sounds like a moral victory kind of thing, but you can't take a step back and, as you said, go back to that 38-10 beatdown that we've seen them suffer in years past. They've got to stay competitive and play close to this team, and I think they can do that. Certainly, I think mentality has a lot to do with it. Getting Kendall Wright back along with Delaney Walker should help. Obviously, we're going to find out a little bit more

as we go through this week about Denora Searcy and some others. They've got to get healthy, but they've got to go down there and have a good effort. That will do it for us this Tuesday morning. We hope you've enjoyed it, and we look forward to joining you again on Wednesday when Brad will return for the Wednesday edition. You've been listening to Locked on Titans on the Locked On Podcast Network. You are Locked On Titans, your daily podcast on the Tennessee Titans,

part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.