Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Titans playoff talk

Episode Date: November 14, 2017

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Welcome to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm your host, Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing good. What's up with you? Not a whole lot. Just a quick turnaround here. Short week for the Titans with the game on Thursday night against the Steelers. Malarkey, looks like he did a conference call today instead of the usual press conference. I guess that's just the timing thing and trying to get ready for the game here on a short week. But the biggest news out of that was that they kind of expect everybody to play, it sounds like.

Spain has missed the last two games. There's a good chance of getting back. They said that Delaney Walker has a wrist injury from that hit late in the game on Sunday. But what's the time? I was just we saw him before we started the show, Malarkey said that he expected to be able to play. And then Mariota was a little bit banged up on that last drive as well. He had a shoulder and an ankle that were bothering him. But it sounded pretty confident that everybody would be able to play.

So it sounds like we might actually get defense at full strength, which we haven't seen since week one against the Raiders. Yeah, and it's weird. I feel like we've talked about injuries a lot, but the Titans have been pretty fortunate, knock on wood, that they haven't lost anybody for the year. Just a bunch of bumps and bruises and dings and stuff like that. But, you know, DeMarco Murray looked pretty healthy the other day.

Delaney Walker looked fine until that hit in the end zone. So add that wrist injury, I guess it was, to his laundry list for the injuries. So Titans are still in good shape with injuries, which is rare once you get to week 10, 11, 12 of the NFL season. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, he didn't mention Delaney's ankle today. So I don't know if it was just more that the wrist is a bigger deal now or if Delaney has moved past that.

So hopefully that's the case. I mean, hopefully he's moved past that and the wrist won't be too big of a deal. And so, I mean, we'll see. You know, these Thursday night games the last couple weeks, you've seen some tough injuries in those. So hopefully the Titans don't suffer anything like that. It's just tough on these guys with this short turnaround. So, you know, we'll see how that plays out.

A couple things to kind of wrap up the game. We were talking a little bit before we got on here about, we were just looking at the snap count numbers. And I know that one of the things that stood out was you know dory jackson got seven snaps on offense which was uh the high so far uh for the year and i think he just got maybe the week before um i doubt that that number is going to creep up much higher. But, I mean, seven snaps is a pretty – that's a pretty legitimate number on offense there. And, I mean, it shows that they're – I mean, I think he's going to be a part of this offense going forward. And he has to be. How can he not be after what he's shown in two weeks, you know?

We're just kind of scratching the surface with him. in two weeks, you know. We're just kind of scratching the surface with him. The other thing with Adorey, he was the top of the grade from PFF for the Titans, 84.8 for him. PFF says he was targeted eight times, only allowed four completions for 27 yards, two pass breakups. So I said he's really coming along.

He's becoming quickly one of the Titans' best players, which, you know, if I had said that week one or two, you would have said I was probably crazy. But he's just coming along so quickly defensively, and now you throw him in offensively, you kind of got to be worried about overworking the guy. But at the same time, how can you not use him on offense after what we've seen for two weeks well and you know we said it last night that he honestly at this point might be their best running back which is obviously a little bit ridiculous but um he

just he has that burst that you you don't see for many guys just you know he's got that world-class speed so you know it's not fair to say well you know derrick henry or demarco murray don't show that show that burst. Because, like I said, there's very few people on this earth that can show the burst that Adoree Jackson has. But, yeah, I mean, he can be a difference maker. And we were talking a little bit about, I guess you said there's somebody for the Dolphins that's playing a lot on offense and defense. But, you know, it's not something you see very often. Like we said, you'll see a guy, a defensive lineman coming on the goal line or something, but it's rare to see a guy making an impact on both sides of the ball.

Like you said, he's a corner first. That's what they drafted and that's what they needed. He's been good all year. Sure, there have been some mistakes, no doubt about it. He's a rookie. You're going to see that. But, you know, we've kind of been saying all along, hey, look, he's playing pretty well. And, again, I think he's playing better than even John Robinson probably thought he'd play at this point

because I really do think they thought there was going to be some developmental time needed. And, you know, this is kind of a dead horse we've been beating but just the fact that he did split his time at usc didn't do spring practice all that kind of stuff i really thought we'd been okay with him kind of coming along slowly you know knowing where his ceiling is and hoping that he would eventually reach that but i don't know i really do think that probably they are even surprised at the impact he's made as a corner so far. Yeah, and the thing he's done for me is, hey, man, this team really needs a back with some juice.

This team really needs a back that can get out in space, make some people miss, needs a guy with some burst. And I've said that a bunch, but look at Adore Jackson and look what he's done for this team. You don't see two-way players last on both sides of the ball for very long in their careers. Just for whatever reason, it just doesn't happen. The Titans are going to need him down the road defensively more than ever, so it's going to be on John Robinson to kind of fix that

and add a back into the mix that can do some things that Adoree is doing. And maybe that guy's Taewon Taylor. I'm not sure why they haven't done that with him yet. They did it a little in the preseason. But he's a guy that I would look like, if the Titans are worried about overdoing it with Adoree, maybe do some of the same things with Taewon Taylor because they've kind of got the same skill set.

Yeah, absolutely. Shifting gears a little bit, we'll talk about the line for the Titans team, which came out probably last night, but I saw it this morning. Steelers are a seven-point favorite at home against the Titans. Were you surprised that it was that high?

No. Steelers at home, for whatever reason and dfs like we do you know this steelers at home are a different team uh and i don't know why they can't play on the road but uh when they when they get to pittsburgh everything just seems to click for them uh antonio brown the levion bell big Ben, still a pretty good defense. I'm not surprised. Pittsburgh, primetime spot. Maybe a little higher than I thought, but that's about the range that I was thinking.

Yeah, I guess I was, I don't know what I was thinking, but I was thinking it was going to be something like four or five, and obviously a little bit higher than that. But, I mean, we'll see. And, you know, this is by, and we're going to get more into Pittsburgh later in the week. But, you know, this is a big spot for the Titans. If they can go there and win this game, you know, this is a spot, and we're going to get more into Pittsburgh later in the week. But, you know, this is a big spot for the Titans. If they can go there and win this game, you know, obviously national TV audience only game being on, it's really going to move the needle.

And we're going to have a lot more conversation about the Titans, about how good they are. And I think, you know, a few plays here or there in these last couple games especially, and they would have put these teams away, put the Ravens away, put the Bengals away. Just a little bit different perception of them had they been able to do those things. They weren't. But if they can go into Pittsburgh, and even if they win ugly, I think,

against the Steelers, I think people are really going to start to take notice at that point. Yeah, I totally agree. It's about perception um and i think you're seeing that you know the titans were kind of the darling of the offseason everybody was was kind of on them if you looked at offseason power rankings the titans were near the top usually in the top five even um but now that they've kind of they dropped that game against miami that's a bad one they didn't have Mariota. They got blown away by Houston.

I think people still remember that. So they're not winning impressively. And until they do, ESPN, the big media outlets, they're not going to really take notice. But at the same time, you're 6-0. Who cares what they say? Yeah, absolutely. Good proposition.

So now it's really a two-horse race in the AFC South, and coming up we're going to give a few thoughts on the other horse in that race, and that's the Jacksonville Jaguars. Okay, so like we said, you're looking at two, six, and three teams in the AFC South. We can officially bury the Texans with not having Deshaun Watts anymore. Tom Savage is terrible. They're just a giant mess. So both of those teams are all but out of it at this point. So you have the Titans and the Jaguars sitting there, both at 6-3.

If you look at playoff odds, which we were talking a little bit about this before we started here, the Jaguars have a lot higher playoff odds than the Titans do at this point, both teams sitting at 6-3, which was kind of shocking to me just from the standpoint of, one, the Titans currently hold the top record for the Jaguars, having beaten them in Jacksonville in Week 2. The fact that, obviously, they get to play again and it'll be in Nashville. So it was a little bit surprising to me to see that the Jaguars' odds

were so much higher than the Titans'. Yeah, and, you know, I'm speculating here. They've already played the Steelers, and they've already played the Rams. So I think that's two big bullets that the Titans have left on their schedule. And I think you'll see that percentage go up a little bit. But, yeah, it's not all that puzzling to look at, to see that number when you look at their schedule. You know, they go, Jacksonville will go Cleveland, Arizona, Indy.

They've got Seattle left, Houston, and San Fran and Titans. So, yeah, they're probably going to win the majority of those. and San Fran and Titans. So, you know, they're probably going to win the majority of those. And, you know, the Titans still have the Steelers and the Rams as kind of their two tough games they've got to get past. So I can understand that. But at the same time, I think both teams are really in good spots to get a wild card. You know, they don't necessarily have to lose or win the division.

I think with the lack of strength in the AFC this year, one of those teams are probably going to get that wild card spot. Yeah, sure. So heading into this weekend, the Jaguars had a 95.7% chance of making the playoffs. The Titans had a 56.7% chance of making the playoffs. The Titans had a 56.7% chance of making the playoffs. Now, the Titans' number was up 24.5% after the win over the Ravens, and this loss, I think, probably played into that as well. So, you know, I mean, still, the odds are going up,

and I'm sure that they'll go up even more again this week. But it's interesting to me. The Jaguars go to Cleveland on Sunday. Don't be surprised if Jacksonville loses that game. The Titans almost lost to Cleveland. So, you know, it wouldn't be that big of a shock to us just seeing. Because Cleveland's defense is good. Like, you know, their offense is obviously not any good at all.

But they're legitimately good. And you can't run the ball on Cleveland. Their front is really, really good. So I think the Jaguars could go there and struggle because you're going to have to put the game on Blake Bortles' shoulders more than likely. The only thing that obviously could mess this up is Cleveland's offense. But Jacksonville's defense is probably the best in the league,

at least in that conversation. So whoever the Browns decide to play quarterback this week could absolutely throw two, three pick sixes, and the game could be over because of that. But if that doesn't happen, if Cleveland's able to take care of the ball a little bit, I don't think their offense is going to be able to go there and do anything. I don't think their offense is going to be able to go there and do anything.

We were talking about the end sequence of the Jaguars-Chargers game from Sunday. Because if you were following Musicians and Miracles, I wrote the recap after the Titans game was over, and I wrote that the Jaguars had lost and the Titans were picking up a game. And that was because I was seeing that on Twitter. I was watching the Titans. But then just a crazy turn of events. And just think about this. Blake Bortles threw two

interceptions in the last minute of the fourth quarter and Jacksonville still won the game. I mean, that is just bizarre. Yeah, and they kind of keep defying logic. I feel like me and you have used logic with the Jaguars, and that's kind of where we're going wrong.

Because they just keep winning with Blake Bortles and nothing but Blake Bortles and Defton, Leonard Fournette. And they did it last week without Fournette. He wasn't a big factor in that game. So, like you were saying, the game with Cleveland, you would expect a terrible Cleveland team taking on the Jaguars. You'd expect that line to be

pretty high. It's only seven points. And over under right there, it's 37 and a half. Vegas is kind of following your thought process there. Browns aren't going to score a bunch. Jaguars aren't going to score a bunch, but the Jacksonville defense is just going to kind of following your thought process there that, you know, Browns aren't going to score a bunch. Jaguars aren't going to score a bunch.

But the Jacksonville defense is just going to kind of wear. So, I kind of struggle seeing Cleveland win that game just because of the defense. Whoever they start at quarterback, who knows at this point, is going to struggle with that Jaguars defense. If Cleveland doesn't have anybody that can go make him a play, I don't think. Will Josh Gordon be back? No, I think he's still got – I think he can practice next week. I don't think he's eligible to play until the week after.

Corey Colton is back, supposedly. And I can't believe you're just poo- poopooing kenny brit no no kenny brit's jersey still hangs in my closet uh he he hurt me um no kenny brit is uninterested in cleveland so who's surprised by that yeah nobody um nobody that watched him play here right uh here's something uh pro football reference i saw this on twitter today but brought my attention to this um somebody asked if if it ever happened before that a team that was trailing inside of two minutes their quarterback had thrown two interceptions they won the game um and pro football reference responded and said that in

their database going back to 1994 only twice ever has a quarterback thrown an interception inside of the two-minute warning when his team was trailing, and they came back to win. So there were two interceptions total, and they were not thrown by the same quarterback. So two different games, one interception each. So it's just like you said, you try to apply logic here, and it just doesn't work.

All that being said, they're 6-3. They have a really good defense. They have a good running game. They're a legitimate contender, no doubt about that. And, you know, they have, for having Blake Bortles as their rookie, they have done a really good job of building that team where they try to hide him. And for the most part, obviously, this year they've been able to.

So, I mean, it's not like i'm saying they're not any good good but i just i feel like if the titans can never put it all together we've talked a lot about a complete game on offense yet i just feel like having marcus mario having the weapons the titans have on offense i really feel like they should be the better team, the Titans, and I really feel like they will be once this offense settles in and is clicking on all cylinders. Yeah, you're just talking about upside here. I mean, the upside clearly goes to the team with Marks and Marrota.

So I still think the Jags are limited. Like, what are they going to do in the playoffs when teams start to force Bortles to win the game? We haven't seen it happen yet, but again, the Jags are playing a pretty soft schedule. So, what happens when that happens? I'm not so

sure. That Seattle game, they get them. That'll be pretty interesting to see. But, still, they play some bad teams down the stretch, and they're going to be in contention. So just accept it. We might be looking at a really, really interesting game on New Year's Eve

that might be playing for the AFC South crown, which is just wild. I mean, Titans-Jags for the AFC South, that's going back to some late 90s stuff there. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's the thing a lot of people don't realize. You know, that was the big thing in 1999. I mean, it was the Jaguars and the Titans were the two best teams in the AFC that year. And the Titans beat the Jaguars all three times, one twice at what was then, I think,

all the season. beat the Jaguars all three times, one twice at what was then, I think, Alderfield. And Jeff Fisher had the famous line of, you know, we've had, what was it, we've had four home or five home field, five home fields in the last four years or whatever, or I guess it was four. But anyway, Memphis, Vanderbilt, Adelphia Coliseum then,

and also the stadium in Jacksonville. Obviously the Jaguars fans love that. But anyway, anyway yeah so I mean it could be back to that and I mean it's fun you know and I think I think we will be looking at the spot where it's not going to be a elimination game I think I really do think at this point that both of these teams are going to get into the playoffs but it could be for the division title um because like you said, when you look at the schedule, the Titans still have the Seahawks left. I mean, the Titans still have the Seahawks left this week, and then the Rams here later, and then the Jaguars still have to play the Seahawks.

But other than that, there's not a lot of games that look really challenging on the schedule. So it could be in a spot where a winner gets the division in a tough game, and the loser goes on the schedule so it could be in a spot where winner you know winner gets the division and a tough game the loser goes on the road and you could be looking at a deal where they turn and play each other uh you know the next week so um you know it'd just be interesting to put to watch and the the best thing about this is we're talking about the titans you know mid-november having a legitimate shot to make the playoffs and that's that's what we wanted you know, mid-November, having a legitimate shot to make the playoffs. That's what we wanted.

You know, again, some people are not happy with the way the Titans have won these games over the last couple weeks, but they're sitting at 6-3 tied for the lead, you know, had the tiebreaker for the lead in the division, and I'm just not sure what else you could ask for at this point. No, I mean, you could ask for some prettier wins. I don't think that's out of the question. You could ask for some more consistent plays. You know, the Titans should have the Bengals by at least two scores,

at least 14 points, probably. So there's plenty to clean up. But you can't really ask for anything better than 6-3. I mean, that Dolphins game still eats at me. It eats at everybody else too. But still, great, great shape. You're looking at, what, probably at least 10-6 at this point. I mean, Rams and Steelers are going to be tough.

You don't know what's going to happen with the Jaguars. 7-5 is not out of the question. 12-4 is not out of the question. It's wild to kind of think about, but you look at the schedule, you've got Colts, Texans, Cardinals, 49ers, and Rams, Jaguars to finish. It all starts Thursday, though. I think we'll kind of get a gauge on whether or not this team is ready for the big time or if they're maybe a year away.

Sure. And, yeah, like I said, we'll get more into that later in the week. It is a good – it's going to be a good measuring stick for this team. And, you know, I don't – I'm excited to see that game, like you said, see how they measure up and just kind of go from there. Anything else we need to hit on tonight? I think that covers it.

All right. So, like I said, we'll be back probably not until Wednesday. We'll have another podcast. Well, Thursday. Thursday we'll have another podcast breaking down the Steelers game, and then we'll do a reaction podcast on Friday recapping the game against the Steelers. Between now and then, follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm.

Terry is at tlimbertfb. If you're into groomers, Terry is netting that stuff right now. So you can follow him for all that stuff. Check out our site, muselymiracles.com, for a lot more on AFC South, Titans for all that stuff. Check out our site, you see miracles doc for a lot more on AFC South Titans, all that stuff. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying, thanks for listening.

And we will talk to you later this week.