Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - ocked On titans- Oct. 3- Our analysis of the TItansr road loss to the Houston Texans.

Episode Date: October 3, 2016

Our analysis of the TItansr road loss to the Houston Texans as we talk Offense and Defense in our Monday edition, plus Final Thoughts. #BHop #TerryMc #GregA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. You are Locked on Titans, your daily podcast on the Tennessee Titans. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. And welcome to Locked on Titans, your daily source for news and information. With your host, Terry McCormick of Titan Insider, Greg Arias, and former Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl left tackle, Brad Hopkins. Guys, it's a Monday edition, and we've got bad news, of course. For our listeners, I'm sure by now everyone already knows that the Tennessee Titans, as we all three predicted on Friday, guys, in our prediction segment,

went down to Houston and came away on the short end of a 27-20 final score in a game that saw the offense struggle at times, the defense struggle at times, and the special teams struggle at times. Yeah. One of the things. Go ahead, Brad. No, what I was going to say basically was I thought that both teams, Terry, didn't play exceptionally well.

I mean, they both had their issues. They won a lot of sacks. There were tons of penalties on the tight end side with 11 for almost 100 yards. But for the most part, I mean, they gave themselves a chance to win, particularly with a couple of touchdowns that DeMarco had, the first time he's ever scored two touchdowns in the same game. So there were some things to be happy about, but for the most part it was kind of a sloppy play, Terry.

What did you think? I agree with that, I think, and I'll take it one step further. They did give themselves an opportunity to win, but they also couldn't stand prosperity. There were several opportunities to take the lead, or at least they did tie it a couple of times. There were opportunities for plays to be made there in the fourth quarter, and they could not come through in the clutch situation. They were really let down by a lot of their own self-inflicted mistakes and errors. The penalty on the punt that put the Texans in the field goal range,

that's unforgivable. Giving up a punt return for a touchdown, that's unforgivable. And I think Greg's going to expound upon this a little later. Going eight minutes to start the third quarter, only coming away with a field goal, can't have that. Yeah. I think when you look at both the teams, like offensively, Brock Osweiler did have two touchdowns, but he also had two INTs.

As a matter of fact, he should have thrown three. Paris Cox should have had his second on the day. So, therefore, they weren't really taking care of the football in that regard. And I thought that it was kind of a back and forth between the two teams, them trading field goals and stuff like that. But for the most part, the Titans were in it until, like we just talked about, that costly punt return, special teams error, allowing Will Fuller on his first flipping punt return

to get into the end zone. So, what a day. Now, guys, I want to throw this one out there to you. If someone had told you prior to the football game starting that the Titans' defense would have held DeAndre Hopkins to one reception for four yards, you would have thought the Titans won the football game, wouldn't you? Oh, there's no doubt about it. I think, you know, defensively, they had terrible breakdowns on the first three drives.

Gave up 17 points on the first three drives. But then that seemed to correct itself for the most part, and the Titans played very well on defense. As you talked about, shut down DeAndre Hopkins. It was Will Fuller that gave them problems, and then also the tight end, C.J. Fedorowicz, who only came into the game with two catches all year. He had four catches, including a touchdown. I think when you look at the way this defense played,

more of the same kind of bend but don't break. They struggled at the outset, but then they kind of got their feet up under them and they played pretty well from about the middle of the second quarter on through the rest of the ballgame. And they gave the Titans a chance there to end by stopping that fourth-inches play on the hit by D'Angelo Blackson. Absolutely. If you think about it,

they've been playing pretty well defensively ever since the regular season started. This wasn't the same kind of defense that we saw in the preseason where they were pretty porous, maybe playing vanilla, therefore being scored on. But what they did against Adrian Peterson week one, they held him to 35 yards. So this defense does have the ability to shut down or neutralize the other team's strengths. But also I think that you touched on something extremely important. C.J. Fedora, which like you talked about, Greg, not only was he big in the passing game,

Ryan Griffin was big in the passing game too. Collectively, those two had seven catches for over 100 yards. So they have to have answers for the tight ends. Obviously, trying to find mismatched areas, that's what offense coordinators try and do. But they've got to find some way to protect themselves in the back end or at least get physical up front and not allow those guys to either get off, get separation, and get those big yards like they did today. Terry, you mentioned the fourth

and one stop by the defense, and we'll get into more specifics in our segments coming up here in just a minute where we break down offense and defense, but you mentioned Bill O'Brien going forward on fourth down. Am I crazy? I thought Bill O'Brien punched that football deep and forces the Titans to go the long field with an offense that had shown that they weren't really adept at doing that, at least today. Now, they've had some success in a couple of other games, but I thought that was a bad decision on his part, and he left the window open for the Titans. Unfortunately, they slammed it shut on their own hand.

Yeah, I think you're right there. I probably would have punted in that situation. probably would have punted in that situation. I think it would have required, I guess, a pooch punt because they were only about 10 yards from being in field goal range. But I think when you look at it, the Texans kind of left the door open right there for the Titans. They got down as far as, I think, the 28-yard line, but they just weren't able to make a play.

They had third and six went to Andre Johnson, fourth and six went to Andre Johnson again, and both times came up empty. Well, give that a little bit of credit to Terry Ritzke and company being able to stay on the football field, because if you think about what the Texans did was they gave away a 14 point lead, especially at home. They did leave the door open opportunities for the Titans to get back in it, and guess what? Two touchdowns from DeMarco Murray running the football in the second quarter before the Texans kick a field goal to go up three.

This is pretty much anyone's ballgame going into the halftime. And I thought that they came out, made their adjustments in the second half, but just weren't able to be productive enough to get in the end zone and put together drives consistently and come away with points in the red zone. Yeah, I think what we're seeing all the way around from this Titans team is you're seeing a team that's improved but still not there yet. You're seeing a team that is

good enough to hang in games, but not good enough to finish the deal and win a lot of games. They've taken the step from being terrible. They're no longer losing 38-10, but now they're competitive. It's been in every ballgame that they've played, but you've seen it in every game, too. They're no longer losing 38-10, but now they're competitive. It's been in every ballgame that they've played. But you've

seen it in every game, too. They've had a double-digit deficit. They've had to try to overcome, and they've only been able to do it once, and that was against Detroit in Week 2. You're listening to Locked On Titans on the Locked On Podcast Network. And guys, let's jump into our offensive segment

and look specifically at the Titans' offense. And we had a discussion prior to starting the show tonight, guys, and it was very poignant. Terry asked the question, and Brad, you had some comments on it as well. And I'm going to throw it back to Terry and let him bring that out. And it was about, obviously, Marcus Mariota and where he is as a quarterback right now. Well, Brad, I'll pose this to you, and it was about, obviously, Marcus Mariota and where he is as a quarterback right now. Well, Brad, I'll pose this to you, and I'll give you my assessment of it. To me, Marcus Mariota, at least over the past two weeks,

and you can maybe even go further back than that to the start of the season, but he does not look as comfortable. He looks like he has regressed somewhat in terms of his effectiveness. look is comfortable. He looks like he has regressed somewhat in terms of his effectiveness. I know Mike Malarkey is installing the exotic smash mouth that everybody likes to call it. He said that was the offense he ran

in Pittsburgh when he had Cordell Stewart, but right now it's starting to turn Marcus into Cordell Stewart with all kinds of inconsistency and not being able to get his throws out on time and not being able to get his throws out on time and not being able to get the throws there. Accuracy was never a problem for Mariota for much of his career.

Now there are lots of passes that seem to be sailing high and wide. I don't know if he's throwing off his back foot too much, if he's not stepping in the throws. What in your mind is wrong with what's going on with Marcus Mariota? Well, it's not simple, even though I was going to say it's simple, but he's thinking. He's thinking about what he should be doing rather than reacting and let his body subconsciously do what it's been trained to do. If you look at 2015, where he amassed over 3,000 total yards, 250 of that was on the ground, basically. He had confidence in what he was doing.

I think now when you look at him collectively over the past four games that we've seen, he hasn't, you know, gotten over 300 yards on a day. And characteristically, he hasn't missed a football like he has before, which is, in my opinion, one of the things that they're maybe even trying to do, which is let the running backs run the game rather than let him do it. Now, here's the conundrum. If you want to evolve Marcus Mariota's overall game, which being able to run is part of that, obviously it's going to be a little bit counterproductive when you talk about giving the football to

Derrick Henry and DeMarco Murray. They're the ones that have been hired to bring in here to bolster the run game and make it look like that. When Marcus is running the football, it's particularly from read option sets. You know, Tyvins and Lyman are in a two-point stance, really not ready for a run-blocking situation, and it does have an effect. But you also see a guy that's definitely very cognizant of the mistakes that he's making and continues to make them just simply by trying to make big plays.

The one interception he had today, real quick, guys, to Delaney Walker was him simply being indecisive of whether or not he was going to be a runner or a passer, saw his option open late when the corner uncovered himself from Delaney Walker and tried to hit Delaney Walker in stride. Well, Delaney was thinking that he's a blocker at this point because Marcus had just run for a first down on the play before that. So it's just those guys getting on the same page, Terry. I think that you're correct when you say they're just a step away from understanding exactly what they're supposed to be doing and feeling comfortable in doing that on a week-to-week basis. Another thing, guys, and Terry touched on this earlier

with this offense, and it was a great drive, but they come out in the third quarter. They take seven minutes, 56 seconds off the clock. You drive down, you get to the 10-yard line, and you come away with three points. I mean, Brad, you've been a part of an offensive line. There's not that many times in the NFL that you have an almost eight-minute, let's call it eight-minute drive, 7.56. And you've got to be able to finish that off by punching it into the end zone. If you do at that point in time, you're able to take a lead,

would have been the first and only of the day. They never led. And perhaps that changes the momentum, obviously, and changes and puts some of the pressure then on the Texans at that point. And they just could never do it. And that, to me, is just inexcusable. And I think part of it was because they got too conservative in play calling when they got there and decided that they had to run on first and second down

with DeMarco Murray. Now, he's a great option to hand the football to, but when it didn't work on first down, I think you've got to go somewhere else and try to do something else with someone else to try to make something happen at that point in time. I think that Terry tried to mix it up a little bit. Obviously, the first drive that they had resulted in a punt, but when you look at the drive as it ensued, DeMarco Murray starts off with a rush on the right side for a three-yard

gain, comes back with a ten-yard gain. Then Marcus hits Delaney Walker for a 24-yard gain. Then it's an incomplete pass. DeMarco Murray on the right side for a five-yard game. Incomplete pass over the middle on third down. And guess what? Ryan Suckup's kicking a field goal for 48 yards. Sometimes when the field gets shortened like that,

once you do make momentous plays like the one Delaney Walker did, you know, to have a 24-yard game, you know, the back end's smaller. And, therefore, guys are stacked in the box more. They don't have to, you know, be as spread out as they are. And it makes it harder for teams to make a play. But if Marcus Moriota and Delaney Walker would have connected on that third down,

third and five, then we might be having a different conversation about them getting a touchdown. But yet and still, they did come away with points, which is important, especially when you're looking at potentially a 14-0 deficit in a ballgame. Yeah, I still would like to see them get seven out of that, though, because I agree with Greg that the fact that when you in the ballgame. Yeah, I still would like to see them get seven out of that, though,

because I agree with Greg that the fact that when you hold the ball for almost eight minutes, you've got to go down. You take the lead right there, and you've pushed it down their throat for eight minutes. You are taking over the football game right there at that point. The Texans' defense is back on its heels. Their offense has kind of shut down after a blazing start in the first half. If you take the lead right there, you win the football game.

Oh, don't get me wrong, guys. I agree with you 100%. But when you talk about kicking field goals, that's a dirty word for offensive coordinator. Just trust me. I'm of the opinion that you just have to convert those because obviously a field goal is a great thing, but if you score touchdowns, it makes it a whole lot easier to win in this league,

and that's been part of the problem with this Titans team is too many field goals, in my opinion, over the last few years and not being able to finish, and that's something I know it's part of a process to learn how to do that and get into the end zone. But I think that's certainly something that cost them there today, among other things. And guys, let's go back and talk about penalties. Brad, you mentioned the number of penalties. Real quick, because I do want to get into the penalties.

I wanted to add something to what you were talking about. I think that, and Greg, chime in if you agree with me too, Terry, you too. This team doesn't have big play guys. If you think about the NFL itself, there's only 32 teams. And if you agree with me too, Terry, you too, this team doesn't have big play guys. If you think about the NFL itself, there's only 32 teams. So of those 32 teams, usually someone has a ringer, a difference maker. Now, I do believe that this team has the makings of a few of those type guys, but guys that you can recall on at an instance, like a Des Bryant, like a Tom Brady, like a, you know, just DeAndre Hopkins,

somebody that is so threatening in areas offensively that basically, you know, they have defensive coordinators shaking in their boots. It's just the Titans just don't seem to have that apex predator that really makes defenses, you know, be concerned on a regular basis. Therefore, it's like you're left up to anybody to make a play, and you just hope that one happens, you know, essentially. They just don't do it consistently enough with the guys that they do have. That is definitely true, and I think that's been the case for several years now.

I think it's probably been the case for this franchise for, oh, my gosh, at least seven or eight years. You have to go back to at least when Chris Johnson was in his A-day, when he was running for 1,500, 2,000 yards a season. He was your home-run threat. And I couldn't tell you, you probably have to go all the way back to Derek Mason to find the last time they had a true threat at wide receiver. Yeah, that's true.

I agree, Brad, 100% that they don't have that guy. But they've got a collection of other guys that can do things here and there. And one thing, too, one of you mentioned about DeMarco Murray. I think it was you, Brad, DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry. And granted, DeMarco has had a great run. He had a 100-yard game last week against the Raiders. He got near that today with 95. But Derrick Henry was almost on a milk carton today.

He was nonexistent, had a few plays henry was almost on a milk carton today he was non-existent had a few plays where he was in as a decoy more than he had opportunities to run the football and i find that kind of surprising that a guy with his talent that you couldn't work something into the game plan to maybe throw him a screen do something you know we saw him uh turn that one screen against minnesota into a 29 yard game just something to get that guy's hands on the football and try to make a play with him. I think I had an answer for that. Three carries for nine yards is what Derrick Henry's numbers were for today.

Obviously, we talked about the 16 carries or so for 95 yards that DeMarco Murray had. But more importantly, DeMarco Murray was involved in the pass game. I think he had almost like 24, 25 yards received, and we saw him with the soft hands coming out of the backfield. If they're more in those sets, then that means that DeMarco Murray needs to be on the field more so than Derrick Henry. But I agree with you 100%, Terry. I think that they may should trade off in series. We saw them trying to use the stretch play, the toss play to get Derrick Henry to the edge, using that deceptive

speed and then coming back with the downhill stuff or the pass game options with DeMarco Murray seems to be what they're trying to do. But there's just not enough Derrick Henry on the football field for him to get into a rhythm and therefore be effective, I agree. Let's move on to the defensive side of things, guys, as we head towards the end of our time today. Obviously, we talked about it earlier, the slow start by the defense. I actually tweeted on social media, somebody go to the hotel and wake up the Titans

because the defense, certainly in the first quarter at least, didn't play so well. They did figure it out after that and played better in the second quarter, in the second half. A big play in the punt return. Obviously, those guys have no control over. Turned out to be a huge factor. But still, a slow defensive start got them behind the eight ball

and forced them to play catch-up, and that's just not something that this team is built to do on a weekly basis. No, you're right. It's not. It's like back in college days, back in the 70s and 80s, teams that played the wishbone thing that you wanted to do against them was to get up 14-0 because you knew they didn't have the type of offense that was built to come back in games.

And I think it's somewhat that way with the Titans now. Yes, they managed to come back and tie the game, but it took every ounce of energy they could muster to do that. And then at the end of the game, they're unable to get one more drive together to tie it or maybe even go for two and win it. I remember when Carolina was going through their little run there to get into the playoffs, and sometimes they ran into a daunting task,

and I think Ron Rivera would just simply say, you know what, good teams just find a way to win. And that's ultimately what we're expecting the Titans to develop into. They're not going to just come in there being the convincing favorites in a lot of contests. But if they can just find one way to get one more point than the opponent, then this team will be okay. It doesn't matter winning ugly, I think,

when you've got a guy like Mike Malarkey who's not really cared about the pretension and how things look. This team does have the ability to take down strong teams, but they just don't do it consistently enough to give us the confidence that they'll be one of those teams that stand in the end. Guys, another thing with me defensively, Parrish Cox. He has been sort of like the bend but don't break that we mentioned about with this defense.

He has bent. He has been picked on. He's given up plays. But he's also come back and made a couple of his own to help turn the tide at times. But still, that's concerning to me that he is being picked on so much and teams are able to have success. It's almost like they're staying away from Jason McCourty,

who made a big play too today, but basically working on that one side. What can the Titans do to kind of help him out over there? Sure. Go ahead, Brad. Well, I think that basically, I mean, I don't think that he's doing a bad job obviously there's going to be certain situations where there's going to be a single high safety and he's going to do his job by himself and usually offensive coordinators will you know put together a play that makes sure that that happens but like you talked about is he continues to make plays and you know be someone that they don't want to pick on,

they're going to be forced to go to DeAndre Hopkins and therefore Jason McCourty get a pick. And that's what they ultimately want to have. I think that when they're in those certain situations where they're trying to either defend the run or they have that pretty much in hand and they're dropping guys off trying to stop the pass, Parrish Cox, in my opinion, has done well enough

to say that eventually he's going to be a guy that you can count on, but he still has to have the confidence and eventually the playmaking ability to be consistently relied on in those situations. I thought today was probably the best game he's had of the four. And I think the Titans have been leaving those guys in one-on-one coverage maybe a lot more than we thought they would. But, you know, and they've held up relatively well. They obviously didn't hold up very well in the first couple of drives.

But one of the things that I see the Titans doing, you know, we talked about how they held Adrian Peterson down. We talked today about how they held DeAndre Hopkins down. I think they are selling out so much to shut the other team's strengths down that it's leaving holes elsewhere, and other teams are oftentimes finding ways to exploit that. They held Amari Cooper in check. Michael Crabtree killed him.

That sort of thing is going on. I think they are focusing so much on the other team's strengths that they are leaving other parts of the offense open and they're unable to recover from that. That is a phenomenal observation, but you know what? That's what teams do. When you have apex prayers that teams you know are going to be game-planning against, then they'll say in their meetings, hey, someone's got to step up.

When this guy's getting double-teamed, triple-teamed, then that means that somebody else is in a one-on-one situation, and you have to win those one-on-one battles. So you're right about that. The Titans have done a great job of gearing themselves up to stop, you know, the most obvious threats of a team. But when you talk about the other guys, because military, and great, too, we've talked about the backup quarterbacks for teams coming in

and beating the Titans on regular occasions back in the day. Well, that's because we were getting geared up for the guy, and then all of a sudden when the guy is out and then the man has to come in that's behind him, we're usually not prepared for that guy, and therefore big plays are made by someone that was totally unsuspecting. It's time for our final thoughts on the day, and Brad, go ahead and lead us off with your final thought.

You know, it seems like every week we keep talking about this team just being a step away, and unfortunately, you know, I have the same thing to say about this weekend. It was a seven-point loss for them. They did have an opportunity to win it. They were driving to score, but they just couldn't come up with the big plays necessary to do it. It doesn't mean that they were out of it.

I just keep holding on, you know, hopes that at some point in time they'll stop making little mistakes that are obviously plaguing them. Penalties are a big deal. Turnovers are a big deal. And those are the differences between good and great teams. If they can shore that up, talent-wise, guys, this team has the ability to not only win this division, but bang when they get into the playoffs

if they can. Alright. I don't think you ever want to say a game is a must-win when you get to Week five, but next week, Miami, and the following week against, I think it's Cleveland, those are must-win games. You've got to get to three and three if you're going to salvage the season. Anything short of that, you're talking about teams that are, you know,

struggling right now, not winning very many games. You've got to go out, you've got to win those two games, and you've got to get back to 500. Now, that said, you know, it's kind of the old ad games, you've got to go out, you've got to win those two games, and you've got to get back to 500. Now, that said, you know, it's kind of the old adage, you know, when you're one in three, like the Titans are, I'm sure the Dolphins and the Browns are looking at the Titans as a winnable game as well for themselves. So if the Titans are going to turn things around this year and they're going to be any factor at all, they've got to win the next two games. I'm going to harp on or continue on they got to win the next two games i'm going to

harp on or continue on what brad said just a little bit there it's the little things it's the penalties at the and never there's never really a good time for a penalty but it's they seem to occur more so at the wrong time when you've got a second down in three and then you get a holding penalty that makes it second and 13. Those kind of things are what's killing this team. They just seem to get the penalties at the worst possible times. Today they had a turnover that turned out to be pretty big in the game. They got a couple back as well, so the defense is getting the football back for them. It's just little things, as Brad said, shooting themselves in the foot.

They've got to get that corrected, and I agree with what Terry said as well. These next two games are key because these are certainly winnable games against teams that are in the bottom portion of the NFL pecking order at this point where the Titans are. But if you're going to take that step up like the Raiders seem to be doing, they've got a big win on Sunday. You've got to beat those teams that are in that lower section of the league with you, and they've got to go win those two games,

and they can't make those kind of mistakes if they're going to win those two games. That will do it for us. Hey, the division is wide open, guys. Absolutely. Look at what happened with the Jags beat the Colts today, so anything can happen. Absolutely. That will do it for us today. It's been another great show.

We hope you've enjoyed it, and we'll see you on Tuesday.