Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: What's the gameplan if Mariota is out against the Colts?

Episode Date: December 27, 2018

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing good. It's been a full day putting stuff together for the two-year-old, so that's always fun. Got a lot of kids, a lot of stuff to do. Same thing going. I hope everybody had a great Christmas. Got to spend a lot of time with family and friends and all that good stuff. We've got a pretty exciting football game to talk about on Sunday night, at least in theory. So we'll get into all of that, get into the Marcus Mariota injury, and talk about if we can find some reasons for hope.

Before we do all that, I want to remind you we're at communitycitymiracles.com where we cover the Titans for SB Nation, so you can check us out there. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. You can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're talked on Titans, and you will find us there. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. You can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're talking about Titans, and you will find us there. Alright, so

a couple different things on Marcus today. He did two different interviews. The first one was this morning on the Wake Up Zone, which is on 104.5 here in Nashville, and then he did his weekly Wednesday press conference where he talks to the local media.

He did mention on the wake-up zone that when the injury happened against the Redskins that his whole right side went numb for a minute. Sounded like a stinger. They've called these last two injuries, the one against the Colts in that first game and the one on Saturday against the Redskins, stingers. I'm not sure that's the case. in that first game and the one on Saturday against the Redskins, Stingers. I'm not sure that's the case. I still think it's the same thing from before. They just don't want to say it, but, you know, whatever, that's fine. And then, you know, Ian Rappaport, what Marcus said this morning

and kind of ran with it to say that things are trending in the wrong direction. I don't know if that's true or not. I didn't get the impression from what marcus was saying that like his right side is still numb that's what happened at the time and if you look up what a stinger is i mean that's that's kind of the definition of a stinger you get hit uh you get this pain it radiates you get numbness and tingling kind of combining those two words there and you know you have that for a period of time that it goes away um generally it's pretty quick now you know my variable said last time that anytime you know a team says that a guy

has a stinger they have to go through the concussion protocol marcus confirmed in his interview with the national national media after practice that he went to the concussion protocol or saturday passed all that so you know from that standpoint they're at least treating it like it is a stinger but to me it sounds like it's still kind of the same thing from week one in miami that the biggest thing or i guess the biggest area of concern for me is that mark hikes at all today and after it happened in in indianapolis he was limited on that wednesday he was at least out there um and he wasn't out there today. So that, to me, sounds like maybe it's a little bit more severe.

But they're not giving us any more. All Marcus is saying is he's doing everything he can night and day to get out there. So I guess at this point we're probably still guessing as much as anybody else is, but it doesn't seem to be going in a right direction. Again, to me, based off nothing, he wasn't able to practice at all today. Yeah, he signed Austin Davis. I don't know if you mentioned that or not. Right, yeah, too, yeah.

So, obviously, that's not a good sign if you feel the need to bring in that third quarterback. You know, you can catch there. Like you said, two things are different. He didn't practice, and they signed a quarterback. So, you know, you can just connect those dots. It just doesn't seem Like it's it's going in the right direction and man, it's just it's devastating to come this far 16 game sitting at 9 and 6 and Potentially not having the chance to have your most important offensive player on the football field

not having the chance to have your most important offensive player on the football field. So we certainly hope that we're wrong here. Like Ian Rappaport said, it just feels like going in the wrong direction. So I don't know what's going on with this nerve. I don't know enough about it. It's not a typical injury. It does seem to be lingering, though. Like you said, it kind of seems like the Miami deal,

because if you remember, they didn't initially rule him out. They just kind of strung him on and said they're going to have to see how things develop and how he reacts to it. So it's just kind of eerily similar to that situation. Seems a whole lot different than it was after the Colts game season. So, you know, still kind of hoping, but kind of expecting the worst at this point. Yeah, like you said, I mean, it's just a couple different things there. And then, you know, listen, Blaine Gabbert played well enough, obviously, on Saturday for the win.

He did have a ball that should have gotten picked that wasn't. I just keep having flashbacks of the interception he threw right into the linebacker's chest in Indianapolis. You know, Blaine Gabbert's better than Matt Castle, but that's about the best I can say for him. I do think if they have a week to prepare him, I mean, I think that's a better situation than it happening mid-game. I do think that's a true statement. But I just don't have a lot of hope for what this team can do with him under center. Now, with that being said, you know, we're talking before we jump on.

Our friend Mike wrote a post today at mucmiracles.com talking about, or I guess it was yesterday. But anyway, talking about the reasons to believe, reasons the Titans can beat the Colts this time. And listen, I mean, it was yesterday, but anyway, talking about the reasons that Titans can, the reasons to believe, the reasons that Titans can beat the Colts this time. And listen, I mean, it starts with Derrick Henry, right? I mean, Derrick Henry was kind of at the beginning of his resurgence in that Colts game last time. They didn't really have a chance to get him going in that game because of the 17-0

before, you know, really anybody got that down and comfortable watching the game. So, you know, that's not obviously a game script where Derrick Henry is going to thrive. But I don't know how much confidence I have that it can be different. I mean, I think, look, it's going to be at Newtown Stadium. Newtown Stadium is going to be fired up.

I mean, I think that will help us. Another thing that Mike mentioned in his post, you know, the Colts on the road, outside, you know, could be, it's going to be cold. Earlier in the week, they were calling for rain. I don't think they're calling for that anymore. I think that would have definitely been advantage Titans. But, you know, so, I mean, I do think you have some of the elements in some of that spec. But it just kind of seems like anything that you can draw up where you think the Titans have an advantage,

it's more of a, not an on-the-field thing, it's more of a narrative or whatever. And so that just always makes you a little bit nervous because it's hard to really point to anything on the field and say, here's where the Titans have a huge advantage in this game. You've got to look back for me to that Houston game, week two, I believe. And you just think about some of the things they did. They pulled out of the stops. They had the fake punt.

But I thought they did a good front. They got the ball out of Blaine Gabbert's hands. They weren't going to let him sit in the pocket and get crushed like they have at times with Marcus Mariota So you're gonna see some some screen some suppose, you know, I remember Corey Davis really working that out route It's just a three-step drop timing route stuff They're not gonna overload Blaine Gabbert And you know to Mike's point in that article they wrote Titans are a little bit of a different team

They found Derek Henry here the offensive line has shown that they can step up the names you know, I wouldn't say they went out and dominated again against the Washington, but We've seen them do that against some teams here in the last month So, you know as we've seen the skulls front is pretty good now whether Being on a road being with the road team is a factor there, I don't know. The NFL is so inconsistent week to week. You really never know what you're going to get, and that's another factor here. You never say never.

So, you know, I think it's going to be put squarely on the shoulders of Fleur if Marcus Mariota is out of this game. Yeah, absolutely. So coming up, we'll talk about a game a few years ago that was a similar deal and if the titans can maybe pull off a similar you know plan or whatever you want to call it to get a win here against the colts okay so just as i went on this week, and I was talking to a friend, I think it was on Monday, and he reminded me. We were actually talking about the last regular season game at Nissan Stadium that was this big.

And I do think it was the Week 16 game in 2008 against the Steelers. Now, if you remember back to that year, that was the year they started off 10-0. And defense on that team, you team, Kerry Collins was the quarterback. Obviously just did enough to not lose games for them. Chris Johnson was running wild in that season. And the Steelers came in here and I think the Titans were

12-3. The Steelers were 11-4. Whoever won that game was most likely going to be most likely going to get the first round by. And the Titans were playing that game without Calvin and Bosch and without Albert Hainsworth, who were obviously both pro bowlers that year. One of the two biggest reasons that defense was as good as it was.

And so as soon as it was coming to that offense, you know, Ben Roethlisberger was even better back then and all that stuff. And so you just felt like it was going to be a tough spot without those two guys. No way, you know, they're going to be done. And Jason Jones stepped up in that game, had two and a half sacks, you know, had a big game. Michael Griffin had a big interception. So, you know, you had some guys step up and make some plays.

And, listen, we're spending all this time talking about the offense and all that, you know, burying the fact that Jarrell Casey, they play 10-1 IR. The good news is it's not an ACL injury for him, but it's obviously a knee injury that's going to keep him out for, you know, they have to feel like it's longer than, you know, four or five weeks because, you know, best case scenario, if it wasn't, you could, you know, if you're John Robinson, you're pie-in-the-sky thinking, if we get the Super Bowl, Darrell Casey can come back.

So that's obviously not a place they feel like they were. Because that's what Ian Rappaport said. Well, things are so bad that place Darrell Casey on IR. Listen, there are five, six guys with which they can cut. That's not a quarterback. If Darrell Casey has an injury, he's going to keep him out for a couple of months. So anyway, the Titans are going to need somebody in this game to step up, and probably somebody on defense.

I mean, the offense is going to have to roll. Derrick Henry, like you said, short passing game, get the ball out, do all those kinds of things. But even if the offense plays well, the defense is going to have to get some stops, and so they're going to have to have a guy step up on that side of the ball because you're without Logan Ryan, two of your veteran leaders on that side. So, I mean, who is it?

Is it Harold Landry? Is it a guy like that that we've seen some flashes from? Had a sack on Saturday. Can he step up and make a play a couple of this game and kind of change the game? Because it really feels like a spot that the defense is going to have to make one of those game-changing plays, give the offense a short field, maybe score a touchdown, and then you can kind of see the momentum shifting

and something like that going on. But they've got to find somebody to step up and do that. Yeah, Harold Landry, Rashawn Brown, Westwood Woodyard. I think Derek Morgan is a guy that they could punch inside maybe and let rush in Jarrell Casey's spot. But those linebackers are really going to have to step up. I think Dean Bees is going to be aggressive. I think he's going to have to trust his corners,

which once again, without Logan Ryan, that's kind of terrifying considering what T.Y. Hilton did to Adora Jackson just a few weeks ago. But I think the game plan is going to have to be aggressive to get after Andrew Luck. You know, that might not work. If it doesn't get home, it's going to be ugly. But you've got to try something. I just, you're going to have to force some turnovers. You're going to have to play as defensively to help out this offense. And, again, all this is assuming Marcus Mariotta assuming marks Mario is not gonna play it just totally change complexion

of the entire game on both sides of the ball, so You know, I do maybe you do something weird You saw them do something weird against the Texans. Yeah, the fake punt that went for a touchdown Maybe you know, this would be a great time for Dory Jackson to break one off. Maybe you do something special there. Maybe you have a trick up your sleeve. You're going to have to really tip the scales that the Colts

are not expecting. Yeah, any kind of momentum change. Darius Jennings has been really good returning kickoffs, obviously. I mean, I don't know if he still has the best original league for the majority of the season. It would be great to see Adorey catch a punt, you know, and return it.

He seems to only do one or the other. It's weird. He was so good at it at USC. It's been the most confusing thing in the world. I thought he'd come in and immediately make an impact on special teams and take a while for him to come off the corner it's kind of been the opposite and last year you know earlier in the couple plays and they got called back um but since then it's just been i don't know it's been weird yeah i mean something like that in this game would be huge uh it just feels like it's going

to take something like that because again you're just down two of your best defensive players you're probably going to be down quarterback uh you Because, again, you're just down two of your best defensive players. You're probably going to be down quarterback. You have an offensive line that has struggled for most of the season. Didn't seem to find a groove there a little bit, but it was against me and that kind of stuff. So, I don't know. I mean, it feels like this type of game, if you're going to win it, it's going to take just kind of that extraordinary performance from somebody,

and it's going to happen to somebody that we're really not expecting to because the guys that you can tap to do that aren't going to be out there. I do think it's a little bit of a revenge-slash-bounce-back spot for Adorey. He did get just roasted by T.Y. Hilton in that first matchup, and that seems like the Titans envisioned having when they drafted Adore. That's the guy that they signed him to be able to play against. And listen, T.Y. Hilton's always better at home. You always want to play him on the turf.

He's faster that way. If you're looking at a fantasy perspective and all that stuff, everybody says play him at home. So, I mean, get it outdoors here, and it will be a little bit different thing. So, I mean, maybe that's good. You know, they don't have much else. Eric Ebron is in the concussion protocol. He did not practice today.

I think Frank Wright said he felt good about him being available on Sunday. So, you know, if you look at the injury report, the Colts have got a bunch of guys. A bunch of guys didn't practice, a few guys that were limited. Titans have only got four, but, you know, it's Mariota, Arakpo, Tadej Sharp, Finch. I mean, you know, especially Mariota. That's the one that – and then all their guys are on IR. So that's why it's a little bit deceiving to only have four guys on the floor when you've got all these guys that are missing. So, I don't know.

It's going to take something like that and hopefully again, this is why he drafted Rashawn Evans. This is why he drafted Harold Landry. They spent a lot of draft capital to get those two in here. So this is the perfect game for them to show up and make something happen. So I don't know. This seems like a spot

where it's going to take just one of those heroes you don't really think about heading into the game instead of make a play. Coming up, we'll talk a little bit more about the offense and kind of some ideas of what they can do if Mariota isn't able to go. All right, so, I mean, last thing here, you know, if it is Blaine Gabbert, then you're going to have to get creative um i wouldn't mind seeing quite a wildcat with derrick henry if if that's what we what it runs into and you know i mean obviously you lose the element of surprise like you talked about the week two game against houston you know all the things they did in that game were surprising

they caught the other team off guard. The Colts are at least going to prepare for that stuff this week. I would say they'll spend a little bit more time preparing for it, thinking Marcus is probably not going to play if Marcus was healthy. But it seems like something like that, something to keep the Colts' defense and to keep the Colts' offense off the field, that's going to be the recipe of what you're going to do here. Now, I mean, granted, that's going to be most teams' plan coming in

against really good offense. And, you know, you think about there was a game. One of the first times that the Dolphins ever ran the Wildcat was against the Patriots. It may not have been the first time, but it was like a Monday night game one time, and the Dolphins kept the ball for like the entire game but the Patriots still won the game because they scored on all you know four or five of their positions or whatever it is so you know that's not even always you know win time possession that kind of stuff that's not always a you know means you're

going to win but it just feels like what's going to give this team the best chance so again like saying short passes hand the the ball to the free, keep the ball, stay ahead of the change, keep the offense in a good position. That just isn't really the only shot they have here. Yeah, I kind of like what LeVleur did in the second half last week. It's kind of going against the grain, and it might be a little bit of a hot take here. I think they need to throw the ball. I think they need to work off of play action.

Gavrit didn't look horrible. That one throw looked terrible. He was really fortunate it didn't get picked off. But for the most part, you're going to have eight in the box. They know what's coming. They know 22 is coming right at them all day, as he should. There's no reason he shouldn't get 25 carries. But I'm working in some early down play action.

Gabbert looks all right doing that. There's a chance you can catch them up near the line of scrimmage, get Taewon Taylor deep. So I really don't mind trusting him. Look, you're not going to beat the Colts feeding Derrick Henry 35 times. I just don't think that's the type of game that's going to beat this team. I think this defense is good enough to stop that one. I think you're just not going to be able to keep up offensively

with what Andrew Luck is going to do on the other side of the football. I think you need to trust him. That's scary. I don't think it's a – That's scary. I know. I know. I just don't think it's a situation where you can bang your head against the wall and just pull a malarkey and rabisky

and just slam to the line of scrimmage time and time again. Yeah, and, I mean, you know, I get it. And, like I said, on Sunday night we were talking about the game, you know, when they rolled out to throw what ended up throw the touchdown pass to Michael Pruitt. I was screaming, you know, why are you throwing? Hand the ball to Derrick Henry four times. That's what it takes, and that's what worked. There is that.

I just don't know, man. And, again, I think maybe for Gabbert it will look a little bit different if he has the whole week to prepare. But just watching him, it feels to me like he is... I don't know if he's unsure of what's going on or if he just doesn't have confidence. I don't know. He seems like he plays scared. He's always running backwards

and he's still on the ball, still on his drop, all that kind of stuff. It's just that kind of stuff that makes me a little bit uneasy. I'd like to see him move him around a little bit. He's very athletic. That might be one of his you know best traits as a quarterback is is you know the fact that he can get it on the run he can throw on the run listen last year you know with the cardinals he beat the the jaguars and the titans you know i think consecutive or not consecutive week the span of three or four weeks there last year. Two good defenses. The Jaguars were a great defense last year.

So it's not that he can't do it, but I don't know. There's just at times you make some of those that terrify you. So, you know, listen, they went out and they signed him. They gave him pretty good money, a two-year deal as the backup and had to at least be, you know, when you're out looking for somebody with Marcus Mariota as your quarterback, you have to at least be, you know, when you're out looking for somebody with Marcus Mariota as your quarterback, you have to at least be mindful that I could end up playing, you know, significant. So it's not a doubt he was on the top of their list.

But, you know, everybody wanted him to sound like a Tate Bridgewater or somebody like that. Those guys probably didn't want to come here because they weren't going to have really a chance to be the starter. But, you know, Gav had to be, you know, he's higher up on the list than Matt Castle, which I'm not sure how much that's saying. But, you know, it should be a guy that can win you a game. It's just unfortunate that that game that you need him to win for you is week

17, win or go home against the Colts. I'm doing, if I'm Matt LaFleur, I'm going and I'm grabbing Adore Jackson. And I'm installing some packages. I'm getting LaFleur, I'm going and I'm grabbing Adore Jackson, and I'm installing some packages. I'm getting him on the field. You've got nothing to lose. You've got everything in the world to gain. I'm lining him up beside Derek Henry and the Wildcat. I'm just doing some weird things,

and it may be something to where you don't even use him. But you see him on the field. The defense has to point him out and see him. You throw him in motion. He's the motion man on that Wildcat handoff. That's pretty scary. I'm doing some things like that. Just give them something they haven't seen on tape.

That's what won you the Houston game earlier in the year. I'll be interested to see if they do anything like that. That's a really good point that I hadn't probably thought enough about. We haven't seen much change when Gavrit's been in the game, but they haven't had a week since

the Jacksonville game, which was week three. The game that Gavrit ended up getting knocked out of. They had to come in. We haven't seen them with a week to prepare with Gavrit as the starter. They were willing to pull out all the stops in that game against Texas. I mean, from all reports that week, they installed a wildcat on Friday.

So, I mean, it wasn't even something they do early in the week. So, yeah, why not? I mean, just like we've been saying, this is win or go home. You've got nothing to lose. So I think this is a great time to do stuff like that. And if you're worried about, you know, getting a dory out there too much or any of that kind of stuff, you know,

there might not be a negative. So I don't think you would be as concerned in this scenario. And we saw, I mean, we saw Malarkey do that last year, right? So, I mean, no reason to think that they couldn't do, you know, with having some time to repair, that this staff couldn't come up with something like that. So hopefully we'll see that. Hopefully we haven't seen. And I think that's going hopefully we'll see that. I think we haven't seen,

and I think that's going to be the best way. I think it's a really good point. So that I haven't thought enough about that. That's going to be the best way to just come out and show them something that's seen and, you know, kind of get them scrambling because their defense has been playing really well.

I mean, they struggled early in that game against the giants, but they really turned it on the second half, which was a little bit to come back. So yeah. Anyway, so we'll, we'll do another show tomorrow night, kind of a full preview of the game.

We'll have another day of practice reports to see. And so, hey, maybe Marcus is able to get something in tomorrow, and then we can feel like he's going to be trending in the right direction. But he's not going to talk again. I mean, he does his weekly interview on the Wake Up Zone, and he does the press conference. And so that's Wednesday press conference. I mean, he does his weekly interview on the Wake Up Zone, and he does the press conference. And so that's Wednesday press conference. That's all he does.

So we won't hear from him again. We know we're not going to get anything from Rabel until maybe Friday if they go ahead and declare him out. But with the game being as big as it is, I'd be surprised if they did that. So stay tuned, museummiracles.com. We'll have plenty more on this. And like I said, we'll do a full preview tomorrow night. You can follow us on Instagram, it's MCM.

Terry's at TLambertFB. Thanks for listening to this episode of Locked on Titans, and we'll talk to you again tomorrow.