Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Merry Football Christmas

Episode Date: September 5, 2019

It's the first day of football and we are covering all the news, doing Tic Tac Titans and Rowland's Rewind Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Thank you for joining me today. Titans fans, merry football Christmas. It is here. The NFL regular season has arrived. I'm actually so excited about it that I had to re-record this like three times because I was practically yelling at the microphone and made the audio all weird.

But I'm sure you guys are just as excited as I am. Before we jump into everything, I do want to remind you, you can find the show on Apple Podcast, on Google Play, on Spotify, wherever you stream, please subscribe. You can also find the show on Twitter, at LockedOnTitans. You can find me on Twitter, at TicTacTitans. I'll be breaking down the X's and O's all year. Today, we are going to go over some news and notes as we typically do in our first segment. I'm actually going to cover some NFL news as well, some big news that came out during the day.

After we take a little bit of a break, then we are going to hop into another segment of Tic Tac Titans. This week, there aren't actually any games to go off of like I mentioned before so what I'm going to do is give you guys something schematically to look for in the Browns game something on offense that I think you should look for us to do as I did on Tuesday when I gave you something on defense so we're going to do that and in our third segment we're going to do a new project I call Roland's Rewind I'm going to take a look back at the last time we played the opponent we're playing that week so we'll look back at the last time we played the opponent we're playing that week. So we'll look back at the last time we played the Browns. Really excited to get going. Once again, Merry Football Christmas, Titan fans. Before we get into that, though,

I do want to let you know that today's show is sponsored by Mack Weldon. Mack Weldon is a premium men's essentials brand. They believe in smart design and premium fabrics. Mack Weldon is better than whatever you're wearing right now. I've told you that all week. It's still true. Promo code LOCKEDON gets you 20% off at MackWeldon.com. Once again, that's promo code LOCKEDON at MackWeldon.com. All right, tighten up. Welcome back Titans fans. All right, so let's go over some of the news and notes and hot topics for the day. We'll start with our Titans.

Just a couple of things. Mike Rabel did come out and say that part of the reason that Dennis Kelly was off on Monday and that Jack Conklin was off on Tuesday was to get a different look. He says with the seven offensive linemen that they have, they're going to have to use different combinations throughout the year due to injuries or poor play, which is all true. So today in his press conference, he did give us a window into why we're seeing some maintenance days for the offensive linemen.

I would, based on how many maintenance days certain players were getting during training camp in the preseason and based on this response that Vrabel gave us today, I would expect to see maintenance days for different veterans throughout the season. So we just have to make sure that we don't get too concerned about these things. Unless we see the injury take place, we're certain it's an actual injury. We see someone on the injury report for a day in practice, we shouldn't get too up in arms or get too worried about that. Moving forward, along with talking about things Mike Vabrel said in his press conference, Coach did come out and say that he did grow up in Akron, Ohio, and he ate some dog treats as a kid until he found out that there were cat hair

in the dog treats he was eating. But I just thought it was a funny window into the upbringing of Mike Vrabel. Me personally, I like to get to know the people on my team. I cheer hard for this team. I root for the players. I root for the coaches. I like to know what kind of people they are as well because at the end of the day,

that's what's most important. Finally, I wanted to hit on something that I just noticed watching Derek Henry's interview today. He was getting badgered with questions about the difference in his performance at the beginning of the season, at the end of the season. Everyone who watched the Titans knew that Derrick Henry struggled throughout the season. Obviously, we hear the story about how Eddie George got in his ear, let him know he's running for his career, running for his job, and then we saw a huge uptick in

production at the end of the year I mean Derek Henry ended as one of the better running backs in the league solely off the performance that he had in about six or seven games last season so it is important for him to start fast and to not have a repeat of last year but he was just getting hammered questions and it was clear that he was bothered by them Paul Kaharski asked a question at some point, when will we know what Derrick Henry we're seeing or if we're getting December Derrick Henry. I couldn't tell who asked the question, but a few minutes later, someone followed up with a question saying, how does he make sure he comes off in a faster way than he did last season? And Henry's pretty annoyed by the end saying that he doesn't

worry about last season. And while I understand his annoyance and it's important for pro athletes to put things behind them and have a short memory, I think it is pretty important and it should be something that he should be thinking about making sure he gets off to a faster start. So I understand that athletes have to worry about what's in front of them, what they can control. They can't dwell too much on past mistakes. But I do think that it's very important that Derrick Henry realizes he needs to come out running the same way he did at the end of the season because if you look at the tape it's very obvious that he was running with a different mentality at the beginning of the year than he did at the end of the season this team is going to rely on running the football and he is the primary asset when running the ball

we need him to have the same mentality he had last season after that supposed conversation with Eddie George. Moving forward into some more NFL-related news. As most of you have probably seen by now, the drama with Antonio Brown in Oakland will not end. First, it's his feet. Then, it's his helmet. Now, it's a discrepancy over fines. He's getting a near physical altercation with the general manager. These things are insane. It's really crazy to see this taking place so close to the season.

Diva players, headstrong general managers and coaches are nothing new to the NFL, but to see it play out this way so visibly in the media is pretty incredible. It's something that you're not used to seeing. So obviously you guys are at work all day. I don't know what you're able to see, what you're not. Just wanted to inform you. Keep the facts straight. It appears Antonio Brown posted a picture on his Instagram of roughly $53,000 worth of fines for antics during the preseason and training camp. He responded to that by going into the facility, getting in an argument with general manager Mike Mayock. They almost came to blows. They were separated by players. And now reportedly the Raiders are

looking for ways to find him and void his $30 million guaranteed contract so that they can possibly cut ties with him. It's just a really crazy scenario. I've said this to some friends, but I want to be honest with you guys on the podcast. I do see a scenario here where maybe he never plays again. That interview he did in the offseason where he said he doesn't need the game, the game needs him more, things like that. It's just really alarming and some of his behavior the foot issue the helmet issue it just seems like he's

not wanting to play football and he's taking any measure he possibly can to prevent himself from playing I don't understand it I won't admit to having a good finger on the pulse of Antonio Brown who does at this point, but it's just a strange circumstance. I do want to say there were some Titans fans clamoring for trading for Antonio Brown over the offseason, and let's all just take a collective second to appreciate the fact that John Robinson did not do that. So I'll give you guys a moment to soak in the glory of us not making that kind of decision

while we go to a little bit of a break. Before we do that, the Packers and the Bears do kick off the NFL season tonight. Perfect time to go to DraftKings.com. Use our code LOCKEDON. Please see eligibility restrictions and go to DraftKings.com for details. Let's talk about Mack Weldon. Mack Weldon's a premier men's essentials brand that believes in smart design and premium fabrics. Mack Weldon's mission is simple, to make sure all your basics and beyond are smartly designed and shopping is easy and convenient.

Mack Weldon started from scratch and engineered their own fabric. They made sure the design process was meticulous so you can count on the fit being the same each time. Mack Weldon built a world-class customer experience. The difference is in the details and Mack Weldon obsessed over every stitch and seam until they reached their definition of perfect. So it's better than what you're wearing right now. Mack Weldon will be the most comfortable underwear, socks, shirts, undershirts, hoodies, sweatpants, and more that you will ever wear. They have a line of silver underwear and shirts that are naturally antimicrobial, so they eliminate any odors. They also want you to be comfortable, so if you don't like your first pair of underwear, you can keep it, and they will still refund you, no questions

asked. Their website is super user-friendly and it's easy to navigate. And I have some of their underwear in my cart right now. So go to MackWeldon.com, M-A-C-K-W-E-L-D-O-N.com and enter promo code LOCKEDON for 20% off your first order. That's promo code LOCKEDON for 20% off your first order

at MackWeldon.com today. Okay, guys, so step into the film room with me again. We're going to cover some X's and O's, something I think you guys should be paying attention to. Just a refresher, on Tuesday, we covered something on defense that I thought schematically you guys should be paying attention to. Just as a reminder, it was defensive formations. We'll call them big nickel. That's typically what it's called.

Nickel defense is when you bring five defensive backs onto the field. So typically you'll have two linebackers, the four down rushers, and five defensive backs. It's where you see a slot corner. Well, what the Titans are doing is bringing on a third safety as well. And a lot of people in the NFL refer to that as big nickel. So we got Rashawn Evans at DT, Kenny Vaccaro playing linebacker. They bring the rookie Imani Hooker on as a third safety, and that allows you to cover the pass a lot better. So we saw that a few times on a few snaps in the preseason, looking to see how often that's used against

the Browns or in the regular season in general. On the flip side, I want to do the offense today for you guys. So something that I'm looking for on offense, what would you say right now, if you're thinking to yourself, is the biggest issue the Titans are facing when it comes to the Browns defense? The pass rush. Miles Garrett, Olivier Vernon, Larry Ogunjobi, Sheldon Richardson, devastating pass rush. It's going to be very important for the Titans to prevent them from getting a quick start off the line. So how do you do that? You condense the formation.

So what I'm talking about here is when we bring the wide receivers as close to the line and as close to the rest of the formation as possible. So I think what you're going to see a lot of is trips formation, bunch formation. That's when we got three wide receivers or two wide receivers and a tight end to the same side. And what you're going to see is rather than being spread out like they typically are, you know, five to 10 yards apart from each other, they're going to be all bunched up in a triangle. Now I'm sure a lot of you guys know exactly what I'm talking about. Some people maybe aren't as familiar with the terminology there, but what we're going to see is right next to Dennis Kelly, right next to Jack Conklin,

you're going to have a triangle of two wide receivers and Delaney Walker, or just three wide receivers. What that's going to do is that's going to widen out Cleveland's defensive ends. They're going to have to be a little wider than they would be for run defense purposes so that they don't get blocked down by the guy next. You know, probably our tight end, our wide receiver can't just jump straight on them and push them. They're going to have to widen out a little bit, and that just creates more distance between them and the quarterback. Any inch the Titans can get to push the Browns defensive ends out to give them more time to get quick passes out is going to help. So you're going to see a lot of bunch formation, a lot of trips where the wide receivers and tight ends are very close to the offensive line.

Another thing that I think you're going to see is a lot of chipping. Now, some of you may know, those who don't, a chip is when a tight end or a running back is supposed to go out on a route to catch the football, but before they leave, they hit the defensive end or they hit someone who's coming on a blitz, something like that. We're going to see a ton of the Titans tight ends and running backs staying in and chipping. Now, because we're going to have to get rid of the ball quickly this is just to slow down the pass rush it's still a great pass rush so they're going to get there we're going to have to throw the ball quickly but it's going to be very important

to get solid contact from our running backs and our tight ends before they go out into their route just to give Marcus enough time to complete those passes I think what's necessary is to have a lot of tight ends play. I mean, we see that all the time. The Titans are heavy on tight end, whether it be Matt LaFleur, Ken Wisenhunt, Mike Malarkey, Arthur Smith. It just seems like they're always heavy on tight ends. So I would also expect to see a lot of heavy personnel from the Titans run the ball. I mentioned this yesterday. The Titans are going to have to run the ball to slow down the pass rush as well. So what would be best is if we were able to run and throw out of the same formations.

So it would be nice to have a couple tight ends on the field to help block in the run game. But also it might slow the pass rush down a little bit if they're seeing formations we're running out of with multiple tight ends. Naturally, you're going to think there's multiple tight ends on the field. They're in a heavy formation, a formation that usually will tell you they're running, and we're going to have to throw out of those with play action and quick hitting passes just to slow down the pass rush. So just some things I think X's and O's wise, you're going to want to look for as the Titans using bunch formations, chipping with their running back and their tight

end, and then using multiple tight end formations to slow down the pass rush from a physical standpoint and from a mental standpoint. It's going to be very important that the Titans accomplish that. Okay, so that's all I have for that segment. These segments, the Tic Tac segments, will get a lot longer and more in-depth once we have actual in-season game footage to break down. So excited to do that next week. I'm going to be doing that every Tuesday and Thursday. Going forward into our third segment, we are going to do Roland's Rewind, and I'm really excited to do this for a little nostalgia purposes.

It'll just be fun. Let's recollect, come around the campfire, and I will tell you a story about the last time the Titans played the Cleveland Browns. So look forward to doing that. See you guys on the other side. It's time to celebrate. Football is finally back. In DraftKings, the leader in one-day fantasy football has huge week one contests. The first one starts this Thursday night when Chicago and Green Bay kick off the season in a single-game showdown with $2.5 million in total prizes up for grabs.

Draft your single game showdown lineup and feel the sweat like never before. It's simple. Just draft six players from the season opener, stay under the salary cap, and see how your team stacks up against the competition. Plus, new users who sign up today on DraftKings using code LOCKEDON will receive a free shot at the $1 million top prize. Nothing adds to the sweat of watching the game quite like having a shot at a million dollar payday. Get in on the season opener action now. Download the DraftKings app and use code LOCKEDON. For a limited time, both new and existing users can get a deposit bonus up to $500.

And new users don't miss this extra special week one bonus. Enter my code LOCKEDON to get a free shot at $1 million with your first deposit. That's code LOCKEDON, only at DraftKings. Make it rain. Minimum $5 deposit required. Deposit bonus requires a 25 times playthrough. Eligibility restrictions apply. See DraftKings.com

for details. If you found $100 on the street, would you pick it up or keep walking? Of course you'd take the money. So why do you keep picking winners but not betting on them? That's why I go to MyBookie. It's fast, it's easy, and they pay you when you win. Let's face it, where you're betting is just as important as who you're betting win. Let's face it, where you're betting is just as important as who you're betting on. And I wouldn't be telling you guys to bet if they weren't the best. So do the smart thing. If you're gonna bet football this season, bet with my bookie. Did you guys know you could bet on games after kickoff? If by the second half it looks like your bet is gonna lose, you can always just take the other side. If you're the kind of guy that likes to bet a little and win a lot, try a parlay. If all your picks come

through, you'll multiply your winnings. And no matter how you bet, the NFL season is the best time of the year. Join now and MyBookie will double your first deposit. Use promo code LOCKEDON to activate the offer. That's promo code LOCKEDON. Visit mybookie.ag today. You play, you win, you get paid. Rollins Rewind. All right, guys. So we went ahead and went over all the news and notes, not just with the Titans, but around the NFL.

We jumped in the film room for a little X and O's talk with the little Tic Tac Titans. And now I just want to take a look back, and I'm going to do this every week probably on Thursdays, where we take a look back at the last time we played our current opponent. It's going to be less fun for division opponents because, you know, it's very recently that we played them. Heck, the second time we play them, it'll be that season. But it'll always be a fun refresher for some of the teams that we don't play as often, like the Cleveland Browns. So the last time the Titans played the Browns, it was a chill October Sunday, October 22nd

of 2017. The Titans were 4-3 at the time, going up against the 0-7 Cleveland Browns. This is one of those games that drives a stake through the Titans fandom, especially when it comes to Marcus Mariota. This is one of those games where the Titans won by a score of 12-9 in overtime, but it felt like a loss. Playing that poorly against an 0-7 Browns team that had Deshaun Kizer and Cody Kessler playing quarterback during the game, it just felt like a loss. You

couldn't feel good and confident about that football team. Now, they ended up going to the playoffs and winning a playoff game, so maybe we were all just wrong but um i mean it foreshadowed the firing of mike malarkey so maybe we weren't wrong those who were upset about that victory but there's a conversation to be had about being upset about a victory in the national football league but the limitations of that offense that caused the game to look the way it did are the same reasons that mike malarkey was eventually let go as head coach because he refused to change offensive coordinators and Terry Robiskie is not an NFL offensive coordinator was not at the time and currently isn't and won't be going forward just to go down the line here Marcus was 21 for 34 with 203 yards no touchdowns no picks

just wish you could get a little bit more out of Marcus in those situations. He was dealing with a little bit of a hamstring injury, but just seems like that's a common excuse. We're not going to be able to have that this year. So I want to see a little bit more, but he didn't turn over the ball and put us in a bad spot. DeMarco Murray, 18 carries, 59 yards. Derrick Henry, 13 carries, 13 yards, and got stuffed on the one-yard line of a fourth down early in the game. Running super upright, not running with urgency or intensity. These are one of those Derrick Henry games that people point to when they worry about who he really is as a player.

This game, you'll hear me say that this game is the game that I think kind of captures some of the concerns with the Titans players and offense. Derrick Henry, great player, but I remember performances like this. 13 carries, 13 yards. Marcus, 21 for 34, 203 yards, no touchdowns, no picks, against an 0-7 Browns team. These are the type of performances that are in the back of your head when you talk about how good these guys can be and what kind of contracts they should be getting here shortly.

This is two years ago. It's contract time for these guys. So definitely something that I can't help but remember. Delaney Walker was a force, seven catches, 63 yards. Tywon Taylor, surprisingly, three catches, 45 yards. Maybe one of his best days as a Titan in his rookie season there. So no one else was really productive, to say the least, obviously, by the offense. Going forward, though, the defense was phenomenal.

Give up nine points even against a bad Browns team. Derek Morgan had one and a half sacks. Arakbo helped him with one for a half sack. But the highlight of this game was the emergence of Kevin Byard. Kevin Byard's eight-interception season obviously put his name on the map, even though there's an argument to be made that he still is completely disrespected nationally, but I don't want to get into all the lists and everything like that from the preseason, but he had three interceptions this game. The first one was just an overthrow by Kaiser.

The third one was a bad decision by Cody Kessler but that second interception Kevin Byard was playing a flat zone so what he was doing is basically all the way towards the sideline close to the line of scrimmage he was covering the flat there was a running back or a tight end out there going for a pass looking like he might be open well Kevin Byard faked out the quarterback in an incredible way so his responsibility like I said was the flat close to the line of scrimmage so he faked towards that and then at the last second broke backwards towards the first down marker where the Browns receiver behind him was and was able to undercut the pass it was just a beautiful read by Byard really heady play really intelligent play and it was an early sign that he was going

to be one of the best players in the NFL, and that's proven he's definitely one of the top three best safeties in the NFL, if not the best in my obvious biased opinion. So that was a really fun game to watch Kevin Bayard break out, but overall the game was pretty miserable. Watching it back even was rough. The last thing that I want to hit on coming out of the game was pretty miserable. Watching it back even was rough. The last thing that I want to hit on coming out of that game was Ryan Suckup was four for five and was the only Titan to put any points up on the board. He hit a 53-yarder in that game. This was during his streak where he had not missed any field goal under 50 yards.

I think he was up to 53 straight under 50 yards at the time. So he was our MVP of that game. Brett Kern averaged 52 yards a punt and had two inside the 20. The special teams really helped the defense keep the Browns from scoring because the offense basically didn't help at all. So Ryan Suckup, MVP of that game, which brings me to my last and final point before we finish segment three. Cairo Santos, please make your real goals. I beg of you. I beg of you. I'm so worried about that. Anyways, we're going to go ahead and wrap up here, guys.

We went over the news. We stepped in the film room for Tic Tac Titans. We did a little Rollins review, Rollins rewind, and look back at the Browns game we played in 2017. That was miserable. Anyways, I appreciate you guys hanging out with me. Tomorrow, we're going to preview the game. What I'm going to do is I'm going to just give you what I think is going to happen in the game,

my predictions of how it should go. We are also going to look at the gambling aspect of the game. If you do want to put some money down on the Titans on mybookie.ag, maybe you want to do a little daily fantasy on DraftKings. We're going to, in our second segment, cover a little bit of gambling in a segment I like to call Keeping It Plus 100. And then in our third segment, we are going to do a little My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Preview and preview some of the Tennessee Titans fantasy options this weekend.

Once again, guys, you can find the show on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, wherever you stream. I appreciate you staying with me here once again check out Mack Weldon as well for all your clothing essentials, I am your host Tyler Rowland, this was Locked on Titans Thank you.