Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - POSTCAST - Tennessee Titans Fall to Cincinnati Bengals as Tannehill Chokes

Episode Date: January 23, 2022

The Tennessee Titans for a second year in a row are one-and-done after a 19-16 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. The Titans defense tied the playoff record with 9 sacks and AJ Brown went wild, but Ryan Tannehill choked the game away with three interceptions and some help from the Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing. Tyler goes over the big moments and gives his instant reaction to the terrible loss.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3332GMOh4y5PX3q9NFybw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to a Locked on Titans postcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, very disappointing game from the Tennessee Titans as they lose 19-16 to the Cincinnati Bengals. It is a postcast, so I'm going to give you guys my raw emotions, my instant reactions, my quick takeaways from the game. Going to talk about just the big moments here and what our thoughts are moving forward after this.

So going to dive into this latest playoff loss for the Tennessee Titans on a Locked on Titans postcast. Let's get it. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Titans fans, it is a Locked On Titans postcast. And unfortunately, after another Tennessee Titans playoff loss at home and going through this game, I mean, the Titans, of course, like they always do come out slow on offense

at this point throughout an entire season, even with Julio, AJ and Henry out there. Todd Downing is just not getting the job done, coming out with a solid plan to score points early in the game. The Titans were unable to do that. They go to halftime with just six points out of their first five drives, only get those six points. Completely waste. A really good effort by the Tennessee Titans defense to start the game. I mean, the Titans defense held the Bengals down pretty much as long as they possibly could. Held them the three field goals in the first half. It was 9-6. And the Tennessee Titans offense came alive in the second half as they had pretty much been doing

throughout the year. But the problem is, you can't just play offense in the second half. You just can't do that. The Titans had a chance to really put it on Cincinnati early with the way the defense was playing, but they weren't able to do it. And in the second half, the Titans started playing a little bit better, got the Imani hooker interception. The sacks obviously kept rolling in

throughout the entire game, but when it comes down to it, the offense didn't do enough. And the reason that the offense didn't do enough is because of Ryan Tannehill. Look, Ryan Tannehill, for whether it's right or wrong, has been doubted the entire time he's taken over the Tennessee Titans. And when you see these playoff performances from him

where he doesn't elevate, he doesn't step up, it's kind of hard to blame people for not trusting Ryan Tannehill. Now, everybody who was a logical Titans fan knew going into the game that you had the lesser quarterback. Joe Burrow is by far a better quarterback than Ryan Tannehill, but man, the defense had nine sacks. The Titans defense tied a playoff record with sacks, which by the way, Bengals fans can get mad all they want. Then I called the right side of the offensive line garbage. Yeah, maybe a little bit too harsh, but the reality is they weren't very good,

and the Titans tied a playoff record in sacks. So, I mean, I was right about that, quite frankly, but it didn't matter because Ryan Tannehill made far too many mistakes, and you can already see Titans fans online starting to try to make excuses for Ryan Tannehill. That's over with. That's done. There are no more excuses for Ryan Tannehill. That's over with. That's done. There

are no more excuses for Ryan Tannehill. He hasn't played well enough in the past two playoffs to get the job done. He didn't play well enough this season despite everything going on around him. Three interceptions in this game. The first one, very first play of the game, absolutely miserable. That was a terrible decision. There's no defending that. Jesse Bates, the safety from the Cincinnati Bengals, read that all the way. It was an easy interception. Just cannot start out the game that way. You look at the second interception. What a stupid decision. There's a defensive back right in front of your face. You can't throw it right at his hands. In both of the last two interceptions,

just take the sack, man. Just take the sack. You can't give a turnover away there. The Titans are driving. Foreman gets a 54-yard run, and then Ryan Tannehill throws the ball directly into the hands of a Cincinnati Bengals player. People are saying, well, that was a bad play call. Yeah, it was a bad play call. That doesn't mean you have to compound the bad play call by throwing it right into the defensive back's hands. That doesn't make any sense either. And then the last interception, why do you throw into a tight window like that and take such a risky throw?

Yeah, the Titans want to go down and score. Sure, absolutely. There's 40 seconds left. You want to go down and score and win the game. But the only thing that you can't do there on that third down is give a turnover to the Bengals and give them a short field at midfield. Okay, take a sack.

Punt. Now the Bengals are at the 20-yard line, 25-yard line at best. And now it's much more difficult for them with one timeout, no, two timeouts on the drive in 22 seconds or 18 seconds to get down the field for a field goal. You just cannot force a pass there into traffic and you're throwing to Nick Westbrook-Akina. Just every bit of the situation all added up in a calculus makes it a terrible decision. Unfortunately, nine sacks from the

defense playoff record. A.J. Brown sets a playoff record for the Titans franchise with 142 receiving yards in the game. Derrick Henry didn't look great, but the Titans run game overall when you add in Henry and Foreman was okay. What was the problem here? It's Ryan Tannehill. There's just no way around it, guys. There's no way around it.

This is exactly the way the Titans wanted to build their team. Everything was great. You had the weapons. You had the run game. You had the defensive line. You had the playmakers in the secondary. Titans get an interception.

I mean, the Bengals made good plays, but you're not going to blame the Titans' defense for giving up 19 points against the Bengals when the Titans had three turnovers, right? Certainly, you're not going to do that because the Titans' defense tying a, right? Certainly you're not going to do that because the Titans defense tying a playoff record with sacks, they are alleviated of all blame, in my opinion.

Duh, the Bengals are going to make some good plays. They have awesome players. Jamar Chase makes a sweet play at the end of the game and in the first half to set up the Bengals' points. I mean, the Bengals were going to make plays, and they did, but the Titans defense definitely did enough. The Tennessee Titans wasted opportunities in the first half, three turnovers. That is absolutely at the core of the problem. Honestly, we could call it four turnovers because of the turnover on downs, which is 100% on Todd Downing. It's second and three and you end up getting stopped on fourth down. It's literally

third and inches. Quarterback sneak, Todd. Just run the quarterback sneak. Instead, he runs the read option with Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry and the Bengals are sitting on that. They know that's coming when you line up in shotgun on third and inches and then you line up in fourth and inches and you try to run a handoff. The Bengals are going to be keying on that. There's not going to be enough time. And Henry was stopped three yards in the backfield. It wasn't even close. Todd Downing is just not good enough.

It's just not good enough. And there is no way the Titans could go into next season with Todd Downing calling plays. There's just no way. They have to go out and get Tim Kelly. They have to go out and get Tim Kelly. They have to go out and get Tim Kelly. There's just no excuse for it. At this point, you cannot have such a predictable

and such an, I don't know the exact word, the lack of creativity from Todd Downing and the predictability from Todd Downing, just completely unacceptable in this game. There are so many circumstances where it's solely on a terrible play call or it's a combination of a terrible play call and terrible execution by Ryan Tannehill. All of this comes down to the Titans have all the weapons in the world. They had a good defense. They did everything as best as they possibly could. And Todd Downing and Ryan Tannehill completely choked. There's no way around it. And we're going to have conversations about the future of this team

and where they go from here in the all season. But you got to be honest with yourself if you're a Titans fan. This is pretty bleak. This is pretty bleak. The Titans did everything right. And they still weren't good enough to get a win in the playoffs at home after a bye. When the defense tied up playoff record in sacks and your wide receiver sets a franchise record

in receiving yards. I mean, if you would have told me A.J. Brown went for nearly 150 and the Titans tied the playoff record in sacks, I would have told you the Titans probably won by 10. But it didn't matter because Ryan Tannehill specifically and then, of course, a little bit of Todd Downing

completely let down the team. I mean, there's no other way around it. And players and the coaches are going to get up there and they're going to say oh we all should have done better. It's a team effort. We all needed to play better and it's nonsense. It's nonsense. This is on Ryan Tannehill's shoulders completely entirely. Him and a little devil on his shoulder named Todd Downing. But at the end of the day, you've got to play through scheme. You've got to overcome. And Tannehill had some decent throws.

Had some decent plays. Yeah. But there's a lack of consistency. He can't be counted on over and over again like other elite quarterbacks. There's just no way around it. And when the game was on the line, guess who made a great play on the sideline to set up the game-winning field goal? It was Joe Burrow. When it's a critical third down and the Titans need to get

a stop, who makes a scramble and gets a first down? Joe Burrow. It hurts. It sucks. It's terrible. You didn't want to see it. It's probably one of the worst outcomes that you could possibly imagine at this point. Not a lot of answers going forward for the Titans. It's going to be a tough offseason. A lot of soul-searching has to happen, and some changes have to happen.

Titans can't just run this back again and hope for different results after back-to-back seasons of playoff losses at home. So that's going to do it for this postcast. I'm going to be back with you guys probably Sunday night, Monday morning at 9 a.m. Either way, with a brand new pod, a full 30-minute recap with Tighten Up, Tighten Down,

my big takeaways, talk a little bit more in-depth about the scheme and what I saw from each team. But a disappointing loss for the Titans, 19-16, against the Cincinnati Bengals in the Tennessee Titans season is over. And this postcast is over as well. That's going to do it for me, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was a Locked on Titans postcast.