Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - POSTCAST - Tennessee Titans Lose to Texans in Embarrassing Fashion to Houston Texans, 22-13

Episode Date: November 21, 2021

Time for another Tennessee Titans Postcast! Tyler gives you his instant reaction to the Titans loss to the Texans. Turnovers doomed the offense while the Titans defense tried to hold on! Tyler gives his quick thoughts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked On Titans Postcast, my instant reaction podcast to the Titans game. And of course, this was an embarrassing loss to the Houston Texans for the Titans. They lose 22-13 at home in an insane downpour of rain. But of course, that had some contributions to this loss. We're going to discuss all of that, but diving in, number one for me, the big takeaway has to be the turnovers for the Titans. Five turnovers on the day. Ryan Tannehill has had struggles throwing interceptions throughout the year.

People have been waiting for the Titans to regress on offense, and we're seeing some of that overall, but a lot of that's due to injuries. But even when the injuries aren't a big concern, Ryan Tannehill had regressed from a turnover standpoint. He's been throwing interceptions all year, and he really bit the Titans in this one. Now, not every single interception that Tannehill threw on the day was his fault. Two of those interceptions were targeting Des Fitzpatrick,

and if you were watching the game, it was pretty obvious that while Fitzpatrick was out there making some plays, he had a touchdown catch. He is not very reliable in terms of knowing exactly where to be and knowing what to do. The Titans' last interception, Tannehill's last interception, Des Fitzpatrick didn't run the right route. He sat down on a curl. Tannehill was expecting the in-breaking route. And if you were paying attention to the TV broadcast, Ryan Tannehill on a critical third down late in the game looked over at Dez Fitzpatrick and said, You got it, Dez. You got it.

Because there was an audible that was made and Tannehill had to make sure that Dez Fitzpatrick understood what the audible was supposed to be. So I get where Tannehill is at. He's making bad decisions, but with the offensive line being one of the worst pass-protecting offensive

lines in the NFL, with the cast of characters that are out there right now, A.J. Brown goes out in the second half, and we'll talk about that in just a second. The turnovers overall killed the Titans in this game, but you've got to feel bad for Tannehill in this situation that he's being put in with this offensive line. And then the wide receivers and pass catchers that are available to him.

And that brings us to the injuries. And, you know, you try not to make excuses. You can't say next man up and credit the Titans for that when they win and then blame the injuries for the losses. But at some point in time, we have to look at the results here, the data here. The Titans don't have A.J. Brown. They don't have Julio Jones for most of the game. It's hard for them to really get things going on offense. You need a dominant performance from the defense, and the Titans couldn't consistently get anything going in the pass game because

A.J. Brown gets hurt. First, he goes out with a hand injury. Then he goes out with a shoulder injury. Marcus Johnson pulls up lame with a hamstring injury in the end zone and is immediately rolled out of the game. That's terrible going forward. The Titans don't have Julio Jones, who's on IR. I mean, they didn't have Jeff Swaim in this game either. No Derrick Henry already as well. so you add all that together, the Titans are basically playing with second, third string practice squad skill players. That's really what they're out there using. I mean, Tommy Hudson's out there.

Dontrell Hilliard was the one bright spot of the game for the offense, really. I mean, Nick Westbrook-Akina had some good plays. Fitzpatrick did have the touchdown, although I didn't really think outside of that he had a very good day so the Titans are just playing with a practice squad group of pass catchers right now with an offensive line that's bad in pass protection and the injuries have just mounted on the Titans the offense cannot continue and cannot produce at an NFL

level without NFL talent. So, tough spot for the Titans, and that's why the offense just really struggled throughout the game. They tried to get things going in the second half, tried to make the game close, but just didn't have enough, and of course the turnovers are to blame on special teams. Chester Rogers letting the ball hit off of his foot, giving the Texans an easy touchdown in the second half. I mean, it just wasn't the Titans' day. A missed extra point for the Titans, obviously. That doesn't help anything.

And, I mean, it's not special teams, but Mike Vrabel sent out the field goal unit after the Titans' second touchdown when that made the game 19-13. Why not go for two there? If you go for two, you're still only down seven, so that's fine. You're still good to go there. It'd be 19-12. You're still down one touchdown, but if you go for two, now it's going to be 19-14, and

if they kick a field goal, you're still within one score. I was perplexed by Mike Vrabel on that decision. And then finally, the last thing that I really want to talk about here is the defense. I thought the Titans' defense played well enough to win the game. You look at the turnovers, I mean, five turnovers, how is a defense supposed to hold another team down

when you're consistently putting them in great positions I mean Ryan Tannehill's first interception in the red zone led to the Texans being on the five yard line the Titans defense was able to hold and hold to a field goal but Chester Rogers letting the ball hit off his foot and giving the Texans another starting field position inside the 10-yard line. That was too much, and they get the touchdown on that. And both the touchdowns were Tyrod Taylor running in the ball

because the Titans are playing man coverage in the red zone, as they always do. And then the outside rushers, I believe Danico Autry was at fault one time. I didn't see who exactly was on the edge, but it's probably Harold Landry, Ola, Danny, the people who play on the edge for the Titans. But on both of those, the Titans are playing man coverage on defense, so people don't have their eyes on the quarterback.

They have their eyes on their man, which is what they're supposed to be doing. The Titans give up outside contain by their edge rushers getting too far inside, and it easily allows Tyrod Taylor to get out of the pocket, something that we've talked about all year long that got the Titans beat. Kyler Murray doing it, Zach Wilson doing it, Russell Wilson doing it in the first half of that game. That's something that's gotten the Titans beat in this season when they've had trouble on defense. They let Tyrod Taylor get out and the guys who were playing the zones over the middle of the field, the robber and the deep guy, they're too preoccupied looking at all the routes

to be looking at Tyrod Taylor. And he runs them both in. So outside of those two touchdowns, though, which were bad, but either way, I mean, the Titans' defense, 10 points were just put right in their lap. What are they supposed to do? What are they supposed to do? Five turnovers.

I'm not going to blame the defense for this game. Yeah, the pass rush wasn't as good as it normally is, but, I mean, it was pretty crazy out there in terms of the rain. The Titans, Ola Adani got hurt during the game. Tyer Tartt got hurt during the game. I mean, the Titans are just working with a skeleton crew. I saw Dylan Cole. I saw Nick DeZubnar getting snaps on defense.

Chris Jackson's playing with a hurt foot out there, and he's just being targeted. I saw Dylan Cole. I saw Nick DeZubnar getting snaps on defense. Chris Jackson's playing with a hurt foot out there, and he's just being targeted. So when the Texans were having success on offense, they were throwing quick outside throws to Chris Jackson because the Titans are playing cover three or cover four on those early downs, first and second down. And the Titans know that the cornerback is responsible for the short underneath.

But the cornerbacks don't want to get beat deep, so they give a little bit of depth, and then the Texans just piece them apart on the sideline. So that was killing the Titans on defense early when the Texans were having some drives, but again, overall, 10 of those points came when the Titans offense or special teams gave the Texans the ball within the 10-yard line. So I'm not going to place that on the defense. The defense actually only gave up 12 points on the day minus the turnover points that they were given.

So, I mean, and even that last field goal came off of a turnover. So, I mean, if you count turnover on downs, if you count turnover on downs, the Titans had seven turnovers on the day, giving up fourth down opportunities. So just overall, not good enough, but I'm not going to blame the defense. The turnovers, injuries mounting, the Titans probably not taking this team serious enough

despite saying that all week. I mean, all that just came together and it culminates in an embarrassing loss for the Titans. Now they're eight and three. They're still at the top of the AFC, but a big game against the Patriots looms. And it culminates in an embarrassing loss for the Titans. Now, they're 8-3. They're still at the top of the AFC. But a big game against the Patriots looms. And they're really going to have to play some of their best football to win that game.

But an embarrassing loss for the Titans at home. A day where they're honoring Jeff Fisher. They're honoring Floyd Reese. They have a bunch of alumni back in the house. Just the classic two-faced Titans let in the house. Just the classic Two-Face Titans letdown, man. Just the classic one, but I'm going to have my full podcast out tonight as well.

Wanted to get this to you guys as quick as possible. Second ever Locked on Titans postcast. Make sure that you like the video on YouTube. Make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. Thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. That's going to do it for the postcast.

I'll be back with you for the full episode breakdown on Sunday night. That's going to do it, though. Thank you, and I will see you guys later.