Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - MEGA Rewatch Wednesday: Titans Playoff Scenarios, Week 15 Notes, Packers Schematic Analysis

Episode Date: December 23, 2020

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You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, this re-watch Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by Pepsi. This football season will be different, and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day no matter how you watch.

Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power through game day and become a member of the League of Football Watchers because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game. It's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching. Go to madeforfootballwatching.com to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi. And I have been watching a ton of football over the last 48 hours.

Of course, diving into the Tennessee Titans tape against the Detroit Lions. And I have a ton of notes here in my notebook that I am ready to give to you guys on offense and defense. am ready to give to you guys on offense and defense what were the things that stood out to me schematically about the Titans' performance on Sunday against the Lions. But also, we got a little bit of a bonus here on Rewatch Wednesday. The Titans have a big-time, prime-time matchup against the Green Bay Packers this weekend, and I wanted to begin our preparation a day early because of the magnitude of this game. So I am splitting our Rewatch Wednesday segment down the middle.

I am going to give you guys my Titans Rewatch analysis and notes to begin, and then we will cap off this Rewatch Wednesday by talking about my notes about the Packers offense and defense, what they like to do schematically, and what I think they might do against the Titans on Sunday. So excited to step into the film room again, open up my notebook, and give you guys all of my additional analysis from all of the coaches tape that I have been watching over the last few days. Before we get into the rewatch portion of our show, though, I want to get you guys up

to date on what the Tennessee Titans playoff clinching scenarios are this weekend. Who do the Titans need to win? Who do the Titans need to lose to clinch themselves a spot in the AFC playoffs? And of course, there is a different scenario for winning the division, which is on the table this weekend, and then just clinching a playoff spot in general, whether it be wild card or division. So we will go over all of those scenarios to start off this rewatch Wednesday on the Locked on Titans podcast.

Let's get it! the Tennessee Titans head into week 16 sitting at 10 and 4 and leading the AFC South but the AFC is tightly congested with a ton of very good football teams, and that means that the Titans cannot let down their guard for a moment. But one thing that is in their favor is they do have five different scenarios to clinch a playoff berth this weekend. So let's talk about what those scenarios are, and the first thing to mention here is that the Titans only have one scenario that they really want and that is one scenario to win the AFC South and what that would do is that would

give the Tennessee Titans a home playoff game which they haven't had in over 12 years so it would be a monumentous accomplishment for the Titans organization if they would be able to clinch their division on Sunday and it would take a Herculean effort. So let's start with that scenario right there. Number one, for the Titans to clinch the AFC South,

clinch a playoff berth, and clinch a home playoff game in round one, they would need to win against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field in prime time. And they would also need the Indianapolis Colts to lose on the road to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now, prior to week 15, you would think that there's a pretty good chance that the Titans and the Colts lose their matchups as they are playing better teams.

But unfortunately, in recent weeks, capped off by a Monday night football loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Steelers are simply not the team that the Titans saw earlier in the season. And due to that, right now, the Colts are actually road favorites in this game by a point and a half. So things will be dicey between the Steelers and the Colts. The Titans do need that help as that part of clinching the division. Whether they get it or not, who knows. But what the Titans can do is, if they don't clinch their division with at least a win in their matchup they can clinch a playoff spot that's right the number two scenario is simple if the Titans win they have

clinched themselves a playoff opportunity now seating would still be up in the air the Titans wouldn't know for certain who they would be playing whether it be a home game whether it be an away game that would all still be up in the air But what they would know is they would be clinching a playoff spot for the third time in five seasons. So that would still be a major win for the Tennessee Titans. Scenario number three, of course, this is a wild card scenario as well. The only scenario the Titans can clinch the division is with a win and a Colts loss. But the third scenario that would at least clinch the Titans a playoff spot would be a Miami loss.

And the Miami Dolphins are playing the Oakland Raiders, sorry Oakland, the Las Vegas Raiders in Las Vegas this weekend. And they are three point favorites in that game. So Miami at nine and five, definitely the better team in the matchup against the 7-7 Raiders, but one thing I do know is the Raiders are going to be upset after that Thursday night football loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. They do have an extended window to prepare with their last game being on Thursday night, so I would not be shocked to see the Las Vegas Raiders upset the Miami Dolphins in this game. And if they did that, it would confirm the Titans a playoff spot whether the Titans win or lose.

The fourth scenario is a similar scenario as the Dolphins. It's the Baltimore Ravens. If the Ravens just lose their game, no matter what the Titans do, if the Ravens lose their game, the Titans clinch a playoff spot. Baltimore is taking on the New York Giants this weekend. Baltimore is at home. Baltimore's rounding into form after a tumultuous bout with COVID in the middle of the season. They're 10 point favorites in this game against a Giants team that probably won't have their starting quarterback in Daniel Jones. So Baltimore most likely will win that game. The final scenario, the fifth scenario for the Titans,

is if the Titans tie against the Packers and then Baltimore ties against the Giants. So don't see that as incredibly likely, but it is the fifth and final scenario. So that's how the Titans can clinch themselves the AFC South Division title or clinch themselves a playoff berth this weekend. AFC South Division title or clinch themselves a playoff berth this weekend. But one thing I will say after taking a look at the five possible playoff clinching scenarios, the easiest route for the Titans is to simply just win their game against the Green Bay Packers. And remember, it is rewatch Wednesday.

So next, we are going to take a look at the Titans schematically from the game against the Lions. I'm going to tell you what I the Titans schematically from the game against the Lions. I'm going to tell you what I saw, open up my notebook, give you all of my additional analysis. But to cap off today's show, we are going to dive into some Green Bay Packers tape. I got started a little early just because of how important this game is to the Titans and how big the matchup is between two major contenders for the Super Bowl in the NFL. So we are going to get started a little bit early. You do not want to miss the offensive and defensive notes that I picked up from watching the Packers on the coaches tape.

So that will be coming at the end of our show. Before we dive into the re-watch Wednesday portion of our show though. We watch Wednesday portion of our show, though. I want to remind you guys that Thursday will be a mega edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm going to take Christmas Eve off and spend that with my family. And as you guys know, I record the show the night before it is released. So Thursday night recording for a Friday morning release. Well, Thursday night is Christmas Eve. So on Wednesday, I am going to double down and

record a mega episode for you guys, so you should get about an hour, hour to five, hour to ten minute long edition of the Locked on Titans podcast on Thursday. Now, I'm still dealing with the logistics here of how that will work, so I may have to split up the

episodes and then ultimately you would have one released on Christmas morning. But no matter what, I will be recording the crossover Thursday with Peter Bukowski from the Locked on Packers podcast. You won't want to miss that conversation. And also my game preview Friday episode on Wednesday night. So that'll change the content a little bit, but I'm certain that you guys understand with it being a holiday week.

And I say all of that to simply say this, subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. But either way, with that housekeeping stuff out of the way, it is time for Rewatch Wednesday. So step into the film room with me as I open up my notebook and empty out all of my additional analysis and extra notes from re-watching the coach's tape. This re-watch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast is presented by Built Bar. Built Bar is the best tasting protein bar ever. And the first time we had a promo code running with Built Bar, you guys sold out their inventory.

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BetOnline.ag, your online sportsbook experts. It is re-watch Wednesday. It is time to step into the film room, and I'm going to open up the notebook and dump out all of my additional analysis, all of my extra notes that I picked up from re-watching the coach's tape multiple times over the last few days.

Remember, this is part one of our re-watch Wednesday. In our next segment, I am going to talk to you guys about what I saw from the Packers on tape on offense and defense to help us get prepared for this big matchup on Sunday night. So you don't want to miss that. Before we dive into my notebook here, though, I want to talk to you guys about the Locked On Bets podcast. So I just told you about betonline.ag

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But let's dive into my Rewatch Wednesday notes here. And I got to move a little bit quicker in today's Rewatch Wednesday. I usually take a full segment on the offense, a full segment on the defense. I'm adding in some ambient notebook noise, you know, kind of set the tone here for you guys. We're diving into the film room. I got the notebook out, but I do have to move a little bit quicker in today's segment so we can get to that Packers information, and I don't have you guys here all day long. So let's dive into the Titans' offense against the Detroit Lions.

First things first, in run defense, the Lions did what the Jaguars tried to do they packed the line of scrimmage early in the game and they tried to get their entire defense going horizontally so let me explain this in a typical think about a 3-4 alignment or even a 4-3 alignment you would have multiple second level defenders you would have in a 3-4 the two inside linebackers and a 4-3 you would have your three stand-up linebackers, even if you have an over or an under front, or you have one of the linebackers on the line of scrimmage, you would still have those two linebackers, your Will and your Mike, behind the line of scrimmage a couple yards off the ball.

That's standard defensive formation. Well, even in base defense, the Lions were stacking the line of scrimmage, bringing that secondary inside linebacker, bringing that safety who would also be a second level defender in a loaded box, just putting them on the line of scrimmage. So you have about seven people on every Titans person on the offensive line. Think if the Titans have their five offensive linemen, two tight ends, there's a defender head up on every single guy. So that's not something you typically see, but it's something that the Lions took from the Jags and like the Titans did against the Jags

they went with inside zone because there's nobody at the second level if you're putting everybody on the line of scrimmage and you're going and you're trying to you know spread out horizontally you're trying to take away the outside zone well the Titans are just going to bang you over the head with the inside zone and that's what they did on the first drive of the game. And it had a ton of success, led the Titans down the field, and ended up with a touchdown. Talking about pass coverage here. One thing about that is, when you are horizontally stacking the line of scrimmage, and you're stacking the box in general, you're still going to have a safety, but you're not going to be able to run too high safety looks, too safeties deep.

Think about a cover two, a two high safety show. You're not going to be able to do that because you want to stack the box with that extra safety. You want to get that extra safety up to the line of scrimmage. And then you're going even further by taking that safety instead of being at the second level by the linebackers. Now they're on the line of scrimmage. So when you do that, you clearly can't run two deep safety concepts like cover two, cover two man, cover four. You can't do that if you have your other safety on the line of scrimmage. So they were running a ton of cover three and a ton of man with a single high safety.

And the Titans took advantage of that. In my tic-tac-four pack, I broke down that Corey Davis fake deep crosser into the corner route. And the Titans took advantage of that throughout the day. If you're going to play cover three, if you can occupy the outside cornerbacks and then slide another receiving option into that zone, it's going to be wide open. So the Titans did a good job of that, especially with that Corey Davis fake crosser TD.

Now the Lions countered later in the game. They went away from that horizontal stacking of the line of scrimmage that I talked about because the Titans killed them with inside zone. So they said, okay, our defensive ends in Okwara and Bryant are good enough to hold down the edges. We got to change this and put some second-level defenders in the middle so they don't run inside zone. And what did the Titans do when that happened?

They countered with more outside zone. So it's a chess game, man. They're going back and forth. You got the Lions defensive coordinator adjusting this way, starting out with a certain plan, changing it, Arthur Smith seeing what he's doing, and then changing that. And another thing that's kind of part of that chess game. In short distances, the Lions went with man coverage on third and three, third's kind of part of that chess game, so in short distances, the Lions went with man coverage on third and three, third and four, things like that,

well, the Titans countered by going with a ton of bunch, and that's when you have multiple Titans receiving options all lined up next to each other, on that big play by Jonu Smith on the seam down the middle, that was a stacked formation with Darrington Evans and Johnnie Smith basically lining up on top of each other in shotgun. So that was fantastic. I really liked seeing that. One other thing I will mention here about a specific play, not so much a schematic element, a game plan element, but on the safety. So I came down hard on David Questenberry because of the failed cut block there.

But one thing I will mention is Ryan Tannehill had a trips on the right-hand side, and he had Corey Davis all the way on the outside. He had Cam Batson in the slot, and then he had Anthony Ferkser or Jonu Smith, one of the tight ends, as the inside slot on the right-hand side. And in my opinion, this is actually Ryan Tannehill's fault. He should have got the ball out of his hands to Jonu Smith on the out route. So Corey Davis ran a curl route on the outside. Cam Batson ran a slot fade on the outside slot.

And then the inside slot was the tight end, and they ran a five-yard out. The five-yard out was open, and Tannehill looked at it. He blanked. He didn't throw. And then when he turned to the left, there was a defender in his lap. So I don't know why he didn't throw that. I thought it was open. I'm not going to criticize Tannehill too harshly.

It was maybe his best game of the season. But just saying, just in case you guys were looking for answers on that specific play. The last thing that I want to mention here is the Titans did a great job with gap manipulation. So the Lions defense was shifting their personnel on the line of scrimmage quite a bit, shifting back and forth, moving here and there. Well, the Titans, what they would do is, if the Titans were going with backside runs, because there were only three Lions defenders from the center to the left,

and there would be four Lions defenders from the center to the right, or five, whatever it would be. Well, the Lions started stacking the line of scrimmage, not horizontally, but just a typical 4-4. Think of a typical 4-4 alignment, but one of them's the safety, three linebackers, four defensive linemen. Well, when you do that, that doesn't give the Titans a clear advantage on either side.

Backside is going to have four defenders. Frontside is going to have four defenders. So if you want to run a weak side play, but you only have the center, the guard, and the tackle on the weak side, how do you make it four to four? The fullback. You bring the fullback to the weak side on a weak side run, and now it's four to four. The three linemen against three defenders, the fullback against the fourth defender, and now Derrick Henry has some room. You're going to get backside defenders flowing over, but on the front side, it's 4-4.

That's still an advantage. So watching Arthur Smith selectively use a fullback or a second tight end or a third tight end and how he used that and decided to play the numbers game on either side of the ball in the run fit, man, it was a work of beauty. So just know this was Arthur Smith's cleanest game of the year, his best called game I've seen from him since being the offensive coordinator. The Titans maybe didn't score, well, 46 points, a great output, maybe their best output of the Arthur Smith era. I can't think off the top of my head. I think it might be, but that lines up with his cleanest called game and all

those little mental mistakes that Arthur Smith makes, The one or two a game that happens. I don't want to call all of them. But the little blips on the radar that we get throughout the different games throughout the season. None of those in this game. A perfectly called game for Arthur Smith. Of course, I went long on the offensive side of the ball. So we are going to extend this to a four-part rewatch Wednesday. I'm going to come back with the defensive side of the ball for the Titans

before we dive into the Packers. Rewatch Wednesday continues with the Tennessee Titans defense. So let's continue going through my additional analysis, my extra notes from rewatching the coach's tape of the Titans victory over the Detroit Lions. So first things first, Matthew Stafford's really good. I'm sure that you guys have seen that no-look touchdown pass to Marvin Jones in the back of the end zone already. Seen that highlight.o my god Matthew Stafford is a damn good quarterback folks so that's what what it really comes down to when I say this next segment or sentence but Matthew

Stafford feasted on the Titans zone defense the Titans just aren't very good in zone defense their players don't have high IQ in zone defense over the middle of the field. Rashawn Evans, David Long, Amani Hooker, Kevin Byard has had his lapses this year, but there's a specific, it was third and 13, the third and 13 after the two penalties. I know you guys know what I'm talking about. It was third and three, and the Lions got two five-yard penalties to make it third and 13, but they converted anyway on a curl right at the sticks. Well, the reason for that is the Titans are in cover two defense, and Imani Hooker is in his freaking zone. He's in his zone, and he would cover up that curl route, that deep end right there, but for some reason, he gets antsy, gets impatient, and flows over to the middle of the field more

over into Kevin Byard's zone, where Kevin Byard has his man covered. And because Imani Hooker didn't trust his teammate, didn't do his job, his job first, it was an easy completion for Stafford and a hole in the zone that was vacated by Imani Hooker. Why? Why? God, it's frustrating. Just stay in your zone. Do your job. I think the Titans have been so bad on defense all year that there's a lack of trust now. Guys don't trust their teammates to make the play anymore. And when you don't trust the guy next to you, everything's going to fall apart because you're going to try to help them and then you're going to fail at your job. And that's exactly what happened. So the Titans have to correct that somehow and maybe getting a Dory Jackson back in the lineup will allow them to feel better about

the trust factor out there. But one thing I do want to say is the Titans were much better in man coverage. And now that you have a Dory Jackson out there to go along with Desmond King, Ty Smith, Malcolm Butler, maybe you get Christian Fulton back next week, who is definitely better than Ty Smith. I mean, Ty Smith's not bad, but there's a reason that Ty Smith hasn't been a reliable guy for the Titans. They don't want to use him when the roster is healthy. So don't fool yourself. We did that with Breon Borders already.

Let's not fool ourselves into thinking back end of the roster cornerbacks are good players because we're so desperate for good cornerback play. So hopefully Adoree will be able to play more in this next game. He only played about a third in the snaps here. Hopefully he can get into a full-time starting role as he feels more confident because the Titans are definitely better in man coverage with Adoree Jackson. At the end of the day, if the Titans want to win a Super Bowl, they're going to have to win in man coverage.

They're going to have to. I mean, it's their only hope because Zone just not going to get it done for the Titans in the long run. Of course, they have to have a mix of everything. And as a matter of fact, I like their cover too. And speaking of the Packers, I'm going to talk a little bit next. The Titans are going to have to run a bunch of cover too against the Packers. It's something that gives them a little bit of trouble. So like seeing the Titans do a little bit better in cover too, but overall Matthew Stafford was able to feast on the zone and the Titans were much better in man coverage another thing RPOs kill the Titans they're overly aggressive they're undisciplined

at times especially on the edges like they like to blitz their slot players as well like Desmond King and when you do that you leave yourself open to RPOs to slot receivers think about backside slants out of shotgun and RPO. The Titans don't run RPOs at all. It blows my mind. I don't know why they don't incorporate some of that into what they do. They're the top bottom three teams in the NFL in terms of running RPOs. And I think that would be a great way to counter the Titans zone run. Think about if you're worried about Derrick Henry and it's an RPO on the backside on a slant to A.J. Brown. Why don't the Titans do that? It matches their personnel and their philosophy, and it's a quick hitting play that can hurt teams who are overaggressive on the run.

It's just another tool in the toolbox, but Arthur Smith doesn't use RPOs at all. The Lions did, and they killed the Titans when they went to it. I'm surprised they didn't go to it more. They killed the Titans on RPOs. 10-yard gains every time in the passing game. So, the Packers do a lot of that, folks. We're going to talk about the Packers next, but oh man, I am concerned about the Packers RPO game. But we'll continue talking about the defense for the Titans. I mentioned this in Titan Down. I picked it up, but after watching the tape, it's even more elephant. That's a Freudian slip as to what to come next. Spoiler alert. But Jack Crawford was terrible in this game. He got washed away from the edge, washed to the inside, moved 10 yards off the ball on double teams. He was just terrible in this game. And

the Titans, a lot of people around the league call it an elephant position. So of course the Titans have Harold Landry as one of their edges, but what the Titans like to do is they like to use Harold Landry as an off the ball linebacker to give a four man front. So think about a four, three defense. The Titans love lining up in four, three, despite the fact that some people think there are three, four defense. The Titans are a multiple defense. They play 4-3 more than they play 3-4 fronts. But what requires of that is Harold Landry is going to be the linebacker to drop off the ball and be an off-the-ball linebacker in a 4-3 alignment.

You're going to have Derek Roberson as your traditional defensive end, but the Titans use Jack Crawford. traditional defensive end, but the Titans use Jack Crawford. He can play five tech defensive end in a three, four alignment, a five man front, or he can play the defensive end, a traditional defensive end in a four man front. So the Titans use Jack Crawford as that versatile piece. Now they wanted that to be Jadavion Clowney. So an obvious drop off there, but that is the number one spot on the Titans defense that I would love to see them improve. If they could get a versatile threat that can rush the passer as an edge rusher, but also be a five tech defensive end in run alignments and five man fronts,

that would set this defense off. And that's what Jadavion Clowney was supposed to be. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. But not having a valuable player in that spot. Crawford would be a good bench guy, a good backup in that role. But him being your starting elephant, it's going to cause problems. And it has caused problems for the Titans, specifically against shotgun runs, against edge runs.

And that's something that the Titans have to be worried about going forward. The Titans executed their stunts very poorly, talking about loops and twists and stuff with the defensive line and pass rush. But they've been executing those poorly all year long. They're just not getting the job done. And that's why they can't get any pressure. One thing that was nice, though, is the Lions had to abandon their heavy personnel packages with multiple tight ends.

That stuff just did not work against the Titans. They had much more success running with three wide receivers, 11 personnel, running out of shotgun, spreading the Titans out. When the Titans are able to get in their base defense, stack the line of scrimmage, and go up against heavy personnel, they're great at that. The Titans are great at that. So I don't expect that to be the case for the Packers, and the Lions figured that out about halfway through the game as well.

Expect that to be the case for the Packers, and the Lions figure that out about halfway through the game as well. Like I mentioned, when the Titans weren't in man coverage, they played a ton of cover two, and I think that's a recipe going forward. The Titans do better in cover two than they do in cover three. So, I mean, you can't just run man all the time. If the Titans mix in zone, they got to do it with cover two, and they got to show different looks, roll safeties in and out. That's one thing.

Also, one more note about the Lions' defense against the Titans. The Lions suck at rolling coverages. They tried to do it a couple times, and the Titans caught them a bunch. So not every team can do that well. The Titans do it pretty well, but the Lions tried, and it just didn't look great. The last few things here, Adoree Jackson, Desmond King, I thought they were fantastic in this game in pass coverage. On the flip side, Joshua Kalou and Imani Hooker were

terrible, and Imani Hooker has potential, but Joshua Kalou, guys, he's a special teamer. If you watch the All-22 and you watch him in pass coverage, he got beat so many times, and if Stafford would have got the ball to the guy, a couple of them are deep touchdowns. Joshua Kalou's not a safety, guys. He's not. He's a special teamer. A solid special teams player, but he is not a safety.

I hope Kenny Vaccaro comes back as soon as possible. And the last thing I want to mention, I put him in the tight and down section, and I wish I could go back and change it, but David Long. David Long impressed me. He's explosive. He plays with juice. He plays with a different level of, see, Rashawn Evans plays with physicality, but he doesn't have the speed that David Long has. David Long's intensity and his ferociousness, attacking people, using that mass and velocity

combination, I was just really impressed. Now, he's overly aggressive. He's not a smart player out there. He's a young player. He doesn't have great IQ. He's overaggressive, over-pursues, gets out of spots. But man, he can just deliver some hits and deliver some energy that the Titans haven't had all year.

So nice to see him have a pretty decent game. But that's going to do it for the Titans defense rewatch Wednesday notes. We are going to move into my breakdown of the Packers offense and defense. Remember, this is just a preliminary tape study to begin our preparation for this big time matchup coming on primetime Sunday night football Titans and Packers. let's cap off this mega-sized re-watch Wednesday by talking about some schematic notes and analysis that I picked up from watching some of the Packers' recent matchups, and I went as far back as Week 8 against the Minnesota Vikings because the Packers lost that game to the Vikings, and the Vikings have a lot of similar offensive concepts. So, a lot of what I drew off of was that game because I saw a lot of things that we're going

to see from the Titans. So, let's dive into the Packers offense first and foremost. The number one thing I wrote down for the Packers offense was movement. They constantly have pre-snap motion, doing bootlegs, getting Aaron Rodgers out of the pocket, moving him around, jet motion, orbit motion. I mean, they use every kind of motion pre-snap. They use a ton of movement post-snap as well. So that's something that the Titans are going to have to be ready for. They're going to have to be disciplined because what the Packers want to do in the run game

and in the passing game is they want to use that movement to confuse the defense and make the defense move. Imagine a specific play. I saw the Chiefs run this a lot, the Packers run this a lot, but they'll have two tight ends. One tight end on the left side, one tight end on the right side. Imagine a bootleg to the right-hand side. You know what the Titans do. Fake the wide zone to Derrick Henry, bootleg Ryan Tannehill, and they'll have a tight end from the backside going across the formation with Ryan Tannehill for an easy dump off for Tannehill.

And then, in theory, if the defense is out of place, you can dump it off to your tight end or your fullback right there in the flat. They cut up field. Good run after catch. That's a staple play. You see it every single weekend in the NFL. See it every single weekend in the NFL. See it every single week from the Titans. Well, what the Packers do, and this is something that the Chiefs do very

well, is they'll take that play side tight end and they'll have him just block and then take a couple of steps about five yards from the line of scrimmage and then just turn around. And what happens is, imagine if you're in a zone coverage, the linebacker that was initially in that zone is now chasing Rodgers and following Rodgers on that bootleg. Well, that means that the linebacker left that zone that that front side tight end, that play side tight end has now gotten into. Rodgers makes an easy completion. You think that he's going to the tight end who's running into the flat, but he's really going to the tight end that snuck into your zone behind your back. So the Packers use so much movement, so much bootlegs, so much motion that it's difficult for teams to stay disciplined. They're influenced by the movement. It's hard not to be. My eyes

were influenced by that movement. So great job by Matt LaFleur. I mean, it's a great scheme that he's running over there. Also, nonstop split flow action. Split flow action is that tight end starting on the left-hand side and then going behind the offensive line back to the right-hand side. Now, I talked about that in the context of a passing play, a play-action bootleg, but they do that a ton in their wide zone scheme. Now, I talked about that in the context of a passing play, a play-action bootleg, but they do that a ton in their wide zone scheme. The Packers run the same kind of offense that the Titans run, guys.

You're seeing a mirror reflection of yourself. That's what you're seeing. But the Packers use a lot more during snap motion than the Titans, and they do a lot more split-flow action. The Titans use Jonu Smith in this way quite a bit, but not nearly as much as the Packers, who seem to have a split flow tight end going to the backside every single time. Every single time, and that helps the Packers offense, because now you don't know when that's for a run play or when it's for a pass play. It looks identical to each other. You

don't know what's coming. So part of the reason for that, Aaron Rodgers loves the flats. So I'm going to talk more about the statistics behind this when I get into my keys to victory, but they're already developing for me. So Aaron Rodgers loves throwing outside and short. You think of Aaron Rodgers, the arm strength, the mobility, the Hail Marys, but Rodgers isn't throwing the ball downfield a ton this year. That's not what he's doing. The Packers are one of the best teams in the NFL at yards after catch.

Aaron Rodgers gets the ball out quick. He gets the ball out to his weapons like Aaron Jones in the flat. Like Jamal Williams in the flat. Like Robert Tunyon in the flat. Like Devontae Adams on a quick out. Like Devontae Adams on a smoke route where he just literally takes one step and then turns around. The quick hitting RPO is where Rodgers can hand it off to Aaron Jones up the middle or quickly turn it out and throw that smoke route to Devontae Adams. The Packers want to get the

ball out of Rodgers' hands quickly on the outsides in the flat and let their good players have run after the catch. Sound like something? Funny, right? I told you, it's a mirror game. It's a mirror game for the Titans. So that's the big thing for me. They spread it out a lot. They don't do a lot of condensed formations. They want to keep you wide because they like throwing outside with the run after the catch ability, attacking you on the perimeter. The Titans need to play cover too in this game because you can have your corners play the flats, which take away that underneath outside throw. And then also it takes away the deep shots to the outside with your two deep safeties. The Titans are going to have to have that hole defender in the middle of

the two deep safeties be another safety in this game. So think you have Kevin Byard and Amani Hooker deep with Kenny Vaccaro as the hole. You have Kenny Vaccaro and Amani Hooker deep with Kevin Byard as the hole. Amani is the hole with the other two. It doesn't matter, but a safety needs to be the hole defender in this game. The Packers don't like to go over the middle, but they will if you run enough cover too. And when they do, the Titans are going to have to cover that tight end over the middle with a hole defender and cover too.

So that's the Packers offense. A ton of movement, a ton of split flow with the tight ends. Rodgers getting rid of the ball to the outsides, to the flats. Tons of run after the catch for his weapons. The Titans are going to have to tackle. They're going to have to play a ton of cover too as well. they stay in base a lot versus 11 personnel. So the Titans can come out and try to run three wide receivers, or they can try to run Jonu Smith as a slot receiver, or Ferkser as a slot receiver, but the Packers are going to stay in base. That's what they did against the Vikings, who run a similar offense to what the Titans run,

and that's what I expect them to do against the Packers as well. Also, they don't blitz in the passing game. They'll run blitz up the middle on rundowns, but the Packers don't do a lot of blitzing on passing downs. They're in the bottom half of the league in terms of blitz percentage. I think they're bottom eight. They're at 25% in terms of blitz. So they don't blitz a lot on passing downs. They do blitz a lot on rundowns, especially against a team that runs a wide zone. We've talked all year long about how interior gap penetration can disrupt the timing

of zone runs. So that's what the Packers are going to try to do against the Titans. But their front four is so good at pass rush. They have Rashawn Gary. They have, not Frank Clark, they have Kenny Clark. They have Dean. They also have the Smith brothers, Zedarius Smith, Preston Smith. So when you have a good front four like that at rushing the passer, you don't have to blitz a lot. So the last note that I want to put in here is the Packers use Zedarius Smith. The Packers are a 3-4 team that can run as a 4-3-2. And when they do, do you guys remember earlier in the year

when Jadavion Clowney was just floating around the line of scrimmage, or he would line up right next to Rashawn Evans at middle linebacker, and then he would blitz through the interior gaps, and he would kind of just float around and do what he wants? That's what the Packers do with Z'Darrius Smith. So they did that against the Vikings, because if you can get that quick interior penetration in between the center and the guards, you can disrupt zone runs. So expect to see Packers outside linebacker Zaria Smith used as a monster man moving around the formation, moving in between gaps and trying to shoot them to disrupt the Titans

timing on wide zone. That is this mega-sized re-watch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Went over the Titans game on offense and defense against the Lions. Went over the Titans game on offense and defense against the Lions. Also went over some Green Bay Packers analysis and Packers schematic information that I picked up from watching them on tape this week as well. So I hope you guys enjoyed this step into the film room, dumping out my notebook to you guys. I think it's some really good information here,

breaking down the X's and O's, as I promise you to always do. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.