Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - REWATCH WEDNESDAY - Cincinnati Bengals Scouting Report: Offensive Vertically & Defensive Coverages

Episode Date: January 18, 2022

The Tennessee Titans take on the Cincinnati Bengals in the Divisional Round this weekend and Tyler has a FULL scouting report on Cincinnati!! First, we got our first injury report of the week from both teams and Tyler goes over both. The Titans are as healthy as they have been all year and Derrick Henry is looking good in practice. Then, step into the film room and take a look at what the Bengals like to do from an Xs & Os standpoint. Tyler goes over the Bengals explosive offense first. What concepts do they use in the run and pass game and why is verticality at the heart of it. Finally, Tyler goes over the Bengals defense. What personnel groupings do they deploy and what coverages do they play consistently. Tyler throws in some tidbits on what he would do as well!Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3332GMOh4y5PX3q9NFybwSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a re-watch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. And you may be asking yourself, Tyler, the Titans didn't play last week. What film is there to break down? Well, folks, today what I want to do is dive into the Cincinnati Bengals. We're going to step into the film room, take a look at what the Bengals like to do schematically on offense and defense. What personnel packages do they use? What plays do they run? What coverages do they like? Do they blitz?

All of that and more on today's Rewatch Wednesday. Also, do got to update you guys on the first injury report of the week for the Tennessee Titans and for the Cincinnati Bengals. So excited to dive into this rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. 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 re-watch Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast.

Like I said, we are going to step into the film room and take a look at the Cincinnati Bengals on offense and defense from an X's and O's perspective. Before we get into that, we got to talk about the Tennessee Titans first injury report of the week. Before I get into that, though, do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day.

If this is your first ever listen to the Locked on Titans podcast, then you've got to subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. Check out the Locked on Titans YouTube channel as well. Subscribe over there. Smash that notification bell so you know when all of my content goes live. If you're watching on YouTube right now, please hit that thumbs up button. I do appreciate it. Got to follow me on social media, on Twitter,

at TicTacTitans for all my film breakdowns and film clips. And check out the show Facebook page at LockedOnTitansPod. With all of that said, time to dive into this injury report we got from the Tennessee Titans following Tuesday's practice. Now, typically, the Titans' first practice of the week is on Wednesday. But of course, with the game being on Saturday instead of Sunday, that moves everything up a little bit. And hey, that's perfectly fine for the Titans who are coming off a bye week.

And that bye week definitely did help the Titans out because this injury report, folks, break out your tissues. I could cry. It is as short and as beautiful, hanging in the loo, as beautiful as an injury report has been all year for the Titans. Let's go through it. Don't need a lot of time. Number one, defensive lineman, T. Year Tart.

Ankle injury was limited. And that's the worst of the news, folks, because defensive lineman Naquan Jones with a knee injury was a full participant. Buster Screen, the Titans' passing down slot cornerback who was definitely missed in that second half against the Texans, was a full participant with a hamstring injury. So that's all good news for the Titans. That's it.

I mean, that's the only guys that we got to talk about here. Those three. Now, there are some other reports that I want to get based on the videos that we saw from practice. Derrick Henry is ready, folks. Derrick Henry is ready. Winter is coming, and the King will reign.

So the Titans had to focus on getting Derrick Henry contact in these practices leading up to the game. While he should be fresh in terms of the wear and tear on his legs, and while we can acknowledge that his injury may be fully healed, there is still a physical factor to football that when you don't play for multiple months, it's going to be hard to acclimate yourself back to that immediately in a game. So the Titans want to get Derrick Henry used to contact this week,

and boy, did they do that. They were having guys stand about a couple of yards past the line of scrimmage. Derrick Henry takes a handoff and plows into two different guys with his shoulder pads as they're hitting them with the shoulder pads. So we saw Jayon Brown and Larell Murchison being those contact enforcers against Derrick Henry when he was running through his individual drills. So you love to see that on one play. Derrick Henry literally popped Larell Murchison,

and Murch had to shake his arm off and shake his shoulder up and say, man, I didn't expect that. I love that Henry is dealing out the physicality in practice. Hey, got to get ready to go. And boy, did Henry look good in some of those videos. You know who else looked really good? Julio Jones. And I just want to say this quickly.

Yeah, it's been a down year for Julio. There's no way around it. There's no way around it. I'm not going to try to pretend like it hasn't been. But he has the second most receiving yards in the history of the NFL playoffs. The videos of Julio look like he was just running faster than I have seen him run all year long. He knows, in my opinion, the coaches wanted to keep a snap count on him, keep a pitch count on him throughout the regular season. In his mind, he's probably telling himself, man,

I'm not going to go all out 100% in the regular season and these games, blah, blah, blah. And that's just human nature for an older veteran. But now is the time. Now is the time to lay it all on the line. Now is the time to hold nothing back. And it looks like Julio has that mindset and is ready to go. So Julio looked great. Derrick Henry looked great. Only three players on the injury list. Elijah Molden back at practice, not even an injury designation after getting popped in that Houston game. I mean, the Titans are as healthy as they have been all year long, and that is nothing but great news. Going to continue to monitor that throughout the week.

On the Bengals' side, obviously a big name for the Bengals, Trey Hendrickson, their edge rusher, one of the best in the NFL, got a concussion against the Raiders. He was limited, but he was out there at practice. Guys, Trey Hendrickson is going to play in this game no matter what. I've stood with that all week long, and I will reiterate that right now. One of their backup wide receivers, Stanley Morgan, was limited. Stanley Johnson, my Lakers fandom, bleeding over into the Titans. Stanley Morgan was limited.

Joshua Tupou, I'm saying that wrong, and I know it. He's their defensive tackle. He had a knee injury. He's limited, but I would expect those guys to play. Cornerbacks Jalen Davis and Mike Hilton. Hilton is especially important. He's their, but I would expect those guys to play. Cornerbacks Jalen Davis and Mike Hilton. Hilton is especially important. He's their starting slot corner. They both have ankle injuries, but they were full participants.

And then the other edge, Sam Hubbard, who was excellent against the Raiders, by the way, has a rib injury. He was a full participant. So both teams are relatively healthy. Both teams are ready to go. And in my opinion, if the Titans are fully healthy and they play their best game, I don't think there's a team in the NFL that can beat them, but will they play their best game?

That's what remains to be seen. And we're going to talk about how they can play their best game and what the Bengals do on offense and defense. And I'll throw in a few nuggets of some things that I think the Titans should do to try to combat the Bengals on offense and defense. Before we step into the film room and scout the Cincinnati Bengals on offense and defense. Before we step into the film room and scout the Cincinnati Bengals, I do want to tell you guys about the best tasting protein bars in the galaxy from our friends over at Built Bar. It's a new year. That means New Year's resolutions. And if yours is about getting fit and eating healthier, make sure you include Built Bar into your plan. Built Bars are a protein bar, but they're not

chalky and waxy and hard to choke down. They're delicious and taste like a candy bar. In my opinion, there are Bilt Bars like the peanut butter brownie that are better than some candy bars like a Milky Way or a hundred grand, something like that. I'd rather have the Bilt Bar. Bilt Bars are covered in 100% chocolate. They are absolutely delicious. And if you aren't interested in like salted caramel, peanut butter, brownie, cookies and cream my favorites, there's going to be a flavor on there for everyone

also, I could talk about the taste all day, but they're healthy for you as well, low calorie low sugar, high protein high fiber, make sure that you go to built.com use the promo code LOCKED15 and get 15% off your order once again, use the promo code LOCKED15, and get 15% off your order.

Once again, that's promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off your next order at Built.com. Titans fans, it is Rewatch Wednesday here on the Locked on Titans podcast. We are going to step into the film room, and this week, a departure from our typical routine, we are going to take a look at the Cincinnati Bengals. I scouted a couple of games for the Bengals, including the game that they just played against the Las Vegas Raiders, so I am excited to dive into that with you guys. Before we get into that, though, I do want to thank you for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day.

Big announcement, the Peacock and Williamson NFL show podcast is going on the road to Los Angeles for Super Week. Follow the Peacock and Williamson NFL show today to get the most comprehensive coverage of the big game. It's free and available on all platforms, but diving into the film room. I love this stuff, man. I'm sure you guys can tell. I mean, it's obvious, but oh man, I love talking ball like this. Let's talk about since he's all fence. That's the hot thing right now. Number one, I want to mention Cincinnati plays the majority of their offense in 11 personnel.

Now, if you're new to the show or just not listening every week, what the heck, but 11 personnel means three wide receivers because the way that personnel works is it's the running back first, then the tight end. So one running back, one tight end, 11 personnel, three wide receivers. They do mix in a little bit of 12 personnel when they bring in Drew Sample, their backup tight end. But for the most part, they're out there running 11 personnel and they do a bunch of different stuff out of that personnel package. They'll line up Uzama in the backfield as a fullback so that they have a fullback with three wide receivers. They will line up in five wide with Joe Mixon out wide and Jamar Chase in the slot. We'll talk a little bit more about that in just a second.

But they do a lot of different formation variations out of that 11 personnel package. So that'll be something for the Titans to watch. Let's talk about their run game first. Number one, I want to say this. Zach Taylor, the Cincinnati Bengals head coach, knows that the Bengals offensive line is not very good. And he calls plays and he schemes up his offense with that in mind. You can tell.

Because what you don't want to do is if you don't have a good offensive line, you don't want to create situations where it's your offensive line in one-on-one matchups against the defensive line over and over and over again. Where do you want the offensive line to take advantage? On the perimeter. So especially in that game against the Raiders, but it's been the case with the Bengals all year, they look for perimeter runs.

They want to run toss sweeps. They want to run pitch sweeps. They run jet sweeps with their wide receivers where the wide receiver comes in motion and the quarterback just snaps, turns around, hands it off real quick, and the wide receiver goes around the edge. They run counter plays where they fake like they're going to,

let's say, the right, and then the quarterback turns and hands it off to the edge. They run counter plays where they fake like they're going to, let's say, the right, and then the quarterback turns and hands it off to the left. And now on all these plays, other than jet sweep, on all these plays, these tosses, these pitches, these counters, the Bengals will have pullers. What they're looking to do is they're looking to get their offensive linemen away from those one-on-one matchups against defensive linemen and get their offensive linemen against linebackers and cornerbacks and safeties at the second level out on the perimeter. That's a much more winnable matchup for poor offensive linemen.

So good stuff from Zach Taylor there. They want to play in space, get the ball to their playmakers in space, get their offensive linemen out on the perimeter against smaller guys and not play in a phone booth. The Bengals don't want to play in a phone booth with all the big guys in the middle. They barely even run inside runs, especially in that game against the Raiders. So that's something that the Titans will have to be ready for. And in my opinion, what the Titans should do is they should go with a 4-3 alignment.

The Titans have done this a ton throughout the year. Four defensive linemen, Danico Autry and, let's say, Danico Autry and Kyle Pecco. Danico Autry and Naquan Jones as the defensive ends. And then you have Jeffrey Simmons and Tyre Tart, maybe Naquan Jones, maybe Kyle Pecco, whatever. A combination of those four to five guys and play a four-man front on the defensive line. Then you have three linebackers. You'll have Cunningham, you'll have David Long, and you'll have Harold Landry as a stand-up. Now, I don't want to play a traditional 4-3. I do want to have a little bit of an overhang,

but what I want is I want Harold Landry to go to the strong side with the tight end, and I want Harold Landry to be about two, maybe three yards off of the defensive end's back and to the outside a little bit. What I don't want to happen is Cincinnati does a lot where they use their wide receivers and they crack down and they come from the outside inside and try to pin the Titans front seven or pin the front seven of the defense inside so they can run those perimeter routes and get those pullers past the linebackers and onto the defensive backs. The Titans have to be ready for that.

And what you want is you want a lot of second level guys that can flow and have the speed to get to the outside. You don't want to stack the line of scrimmage with a three, four alignment or a five man front so that it's easier to pin everybody in. You want to have guys at the second level to get free to get out to the outside. So I'm expecting four, three alignment. I'm expecting Harold Landry to play a lot of stand-up, second-level linebacker in this game.

Moving into the pass game. And one thing, the Bengals, like I said, they don't use a fullback at all. When they have a fullback in the backfield, it's usually tight end C.J. Uzama. He's not going to be as prolific as a blocker downhill as a regular fullback would be. So when you see stuff like that,

it makes it even smarter to play those 4-3 fronts. So that's what I want to see from the Titans. As for the passing game, the Bengals just love vertical routes. I know it's no surprise to you guys, but the Bengals like to go vertical not only on the outside with Higgins and Chase, but also on the inside with Uzama and Boyd. And they do that for a couple of different reasons. So when the Bengals run vertical routes in the slot,

whether that be Tyler Boyd as a slot wide receiver, whether that be Uzama at tight end. What their idea here is, is if you can send those inside guys vertical, the inside underneath zone defenders, think the linebacker, the slot cornerback over the middle, those guys are going to run with the vertical route. And then what they do is, behind that from the outside, they bring in a deep in or they bring in a slant route with Higgins or with Chase.

And the idea is the vertical route will clear out the second level zone defender so that you have an easy pitch and catch over the middle throw to Jamar Chase, to T. Higgins. So the Titans have to find a way to pass those vertical routes up without having their second level zone defenders go with them. So one way that I would like to see them do that, I want to see cover to invert from the Titans where they have a safety playing the deep half on one side and then the Tee Higgins side, I want the outside cornerback to play the deep half there. That way, Amani Hooker or Kevin Byard, who's the other deep safety, who doesn't have deep half responsibility,

they can drop down into the middle of the field and play that honey hole in between the two deep half zones. The Titans do that all the time when they run cover to Denver. They're going to have to run that here. That way, Amani Hooker can slide in, take that route vertically, and it'll allow the linebackers and the slot cornerback to stay home on those zones that are at the second level. That way, that guy isn't turning and running with the vertical route, leaving an open spot for Jamar Chase or Tee Higgins to slant or come into the inside.

So, if you have a Monty Hooker in that honey hole in between the two deep halves, then a Monty Hooker in that honey hole in between the two deep halves, then a Monty Hooker can carry that vertical guy and then your linebacker your slot cornerback, your second level over the middle zone defenders don't have to clear out with that guy giving easy passes on slant routes to Chase and Higgins from the

outside. Also do want to mention this of course the Bengals love vertical routes on the outside too and teams run a lot of cover three. And the Bengals say, okay, you're going to run cover three. That essentially creates a one-on-one matchup on the outside with your cornerback in deep

third against our wide receiver. And the Bengals were number one in the NFL in 20 yard touchdowns. So 20 yards or more scoring a touchdown. The Bengals had 21 of those this year in the passing game. The second closest team is Tampa Bay with only 17. So the Bengals have been exploiting teams and taking advantage of that big plays down the field on the outside with those

vertical routes. If I'm the Titans, I know we all complain about the Titans giving too much cushion to the wide receivers, but in this game, I'm doing that. I would play a Buffalo Bills, a Kansas City Chiefs game plan where, okay, Joe Burrow, you're not going to hit any deep plays. You're not going to get any explosive passing plays, which have been your calling card all year. You're going to have to matriculate the ball down the field, five yards, four yards, two yards, three yards, here and there, and eventually, you're going to make a mistake, or the Titans are going to be able to get a stop in the red zone when those deep passes aren't available anymore either because the field is condensed. So got to be ready for the verticality of the Cincinnati Bengals offense. A couple of

extra little tidbits I want to throw in here before we move to the Cincinnati defense. The Bengals love going into five wide and that's something that worked against the Titans throughout the season. Here are some counters to five wide, and they were putting Jamar Chase in the slot, and that's going to be a tough matchup for the Titans because that's where your linebacker, your slot cornerback are going to be, and having that guy one-on-one, whether it be zone or man, against Jamar Chase, one of the best wide receivers in the NFL,

that's dangerous, but that is a reality of what the Bengals are going to do, and the Titans are going to have to live with that, so one way to defeat that, play that dime personnel package where Dane Cruikshank is in. You don't want Dane Cruikshank matched up one-on-one against Chase, but what you do is you flip Chase and you flip Molden or you flip Dane Cruikshank and you flip Buster Screen. So that way, you'll go ahead and have Dane Cruikshank on CJ Uzama, whatever, and then you have your wide receiver on Jamar Chase.

So play tight man coverage in that five wide, disrupt the timing of the Cincinnati Bengals offense, and that should give the pass rush time to get there. Also, what you could do is you could just blitz it. Okay, you're going to go out in five wide, we're going to put five or six guys on the line of scrimmage, and we're going to come free. If you're not going to have any extra blockers,

then we're going to send a free rusher every single time. We're going to play tight press man coverage, disrupt the timing, and let's see if your guy can get open quicker than our free rusher can get to Joe Burrow. Let's play that game then Cincinnati Bengals. Oh, I can't wait to see the plan that Mike Vrabel cooks up to go against this

five wide scheme of the Cincinnati Bengals. Woo! Baby, I'm hyped for this game. Can it be Saturday already? Also, just want to mention this, Adeneje and Isaiah Prince. That's the right side of the offensive line for the Cincinnati Bengals. The guard is Adeneje. The tackle is Prince.

They are garbage. They are terrible players. They are horrible. They are horrible. And Jeffrey Simmons, and what I want to see is we see this twist from the Titans all the time. What they do is they have Harold Landry on the Simmons, and what I want to see is we see this twist stunt from the Titans all the time. What they do is they have Harold Landry on the edge, and then they stack over the tackle, Danico Autry, over the guard, Jeffrey Simmons.

They have Jeffrey Simmons and Danico Autry rush towards the outside, and then they loop Harold Landry back towards the inside. I expect to see that twist stunt over and over and over again. When you bring the outside pressure from Autry and Simmons, that's going to force Burrow up the pocket, and then you're going to have Landry looping in. And let's see if the Bengals center and the Bengals guard can handle that pressure. I don't think they can. So that's what I'm excited to watch for. We're going to talk about the Cincinnati defense next. Before we get into that, I do want to tell you guys about

BetOnline.ag. BetOnline would like to wish you a happy new betting year as we continue our march through the playoffs and beyond. BetOnline remains the number one spot for all the best sports wagering action in 2022. It's a new year and BetOnline.ag has a new updated desktop

and mobile website. Go there. Sign up today and when you do, use the promo code LOCKEDON. That's one word, LOCKEDON. You're going to get a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. That's free money from betonline.ag. But whether it be NFL playoffs

or pro college basketball, hockey, boxing, UFC, even your favorite Vegas casino games, don't wait to take advantage of all the amazing offers that betonline.ag has available in 2022. UFC, even your favorite Vegas casino games. Don't wait to take advantage of all the amazing offers that BetOnline.ag has available in 2022. BetOnline is the fastest and easiest way to wager on all your favorite sports.

BetOnline, where the game starts. Titans fans, we are going to cap off this Rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast by talking about the Cincinnati Bengals defense from a schematic standpoint. What do they like to do? What am I expecting? Boy, I got to tell you guys, I'm sweating. I'm having such a good time. I hope you guys are too. Nothing I love more than getting down into the X's and O's. Really going over the film, looking at tendencies, looking at scheme, personnel, coverage. are to nothing. I love more than getting down into the X's and O's. Really,

going over the film, looking at tendencies, looking at scheme, personnel, coverage. Oh my god. I am in heaven. I am in heaven right now. I'm so excited. It's playoff time, baby. Let's go. Ratchet up the intensity. I hope you guys are with me on that. Let's move into this Cincinnati defense. Before we do, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked

on Titans podcast your first listen every day. As for your second listen, check out the Locked on Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q, handicapping expert Lee Sterling, presented by betonline.ag, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. That's Locked on Bets,

wherever you get your podcasts. But as for the Cincinnati defense, so there's no way that they're going to be able to do this. Okay. But they went basically nickel the entire game against Las Vegas. And my idea here is it's like when the Titans, um, who am I thinking of? Uh, Mike Gusecki, the Miami Dolphins. So the Titans played nickel the entire game against the Dolphins when Gusecki was in the game. So even if the Dolphins had two tight ends in the game, if they had Gusecki in, the Titans basically treated him as a wide receiver and said, nah, we're going to play nickel against

that not base. Well, the Bengals did the same thing against the Raiders, and I wonder if it's because they have Darren Waller. Well, that's not going to work against the Titans. The Titans are going to go with 12 personnel. Remember, one running back, two tight ends. The Titans are going to go with 13 personnel, one running back, three tight ends. The Titans are going to go with 13 personnel,

one running back, three tight ends. I mean, what are the Bengals going to do then? And here's why. The Bengals have depth issues on their defensive line with injuries and just talent-wise. The Bengals have a better defense when they're in nickel. When they have three cornerbacks out on the field, they have Mike Hilton out there as their slot cornerback.

The Bengals even played a lot of dime where they brought Flowers in to be like Dan Cruikshank. Basically, it was a tight end matchup in man coverage on third and longs. So, what are the Bengals going to do? What are you going to do, brother? What are the Bengals going to do when the Titans go with 13 personnel and say, okay, you don't want to play a big, heavy monster personnel game. You don't want to play in your base defense, Cincinnati. Well, now you have no choice because if the Titans go three tight end,

if the Titans go 22 personnel, which two tight ends, and then a fullback with Derrick Henry in the backfield, that's right, I said Derrick Henry in the backfield. Let's go. What are the Bengals going to do with that? Are they going to be able to hold up there? I don't think so. I really don't. So, with your

personnel, you are forcing the Bengals to get away from their personnel package that they like most. And I love seeing that. And I hope that the Titans definitely come out with a heavy, heavy game plan. Tons of tight ends. Get the fullbacks out there. They might activate Kari Blossom game and Torrey Carter in this game and let Blossom game function

as a little bit of a third tight end. I want to see a bunch of Aaron Brewer at tight end in this game. I don't care if the Bengals know the Titans are running it. I don't think the Bengals can stop it. I don't. So that's what I want to see. Moving forward though, with those personnel groupings, so the Bengals, like I said, they come out in a lot of nickel. That's four down linemen, two linebackers, five defensive backs. Sometimes they play a three to six, which is three down linemen, two linebackers, six defensive backs. Well, what they'll do is they'll take the two linebackers and walk them down on the line of scrimmage. So it looks like

a five-man front, but those linebackers are dropping out. And what the Bengals were doing is they were dropping out both linebackers, but then bringing a slot blitz. Now, they only did that a couple of times. The Bengals weren't blitzing very heavy in this game, and I wouldn't expect them to blitz a ton against the Titans either. They rely on their front four to get pressure. But,

but, I would expect the Bengals to bring some linebacker blitzes from that walk-down 3-2-6 formation because the Titans have just struggled with stuff like that throughout the year. So that'll be something to watch. Let's dive into the coverages.

What do the Bengals like to do in coverage? They either play man or they play cover three. Those are their bread and butter coverages. Now they do run some cover two, but in my opinion, it was only long distance situations. Second long, third and long. The Bengals didn't want to play a lot of cover, too. They want to put Vaughn Bell back deep as a free safety.

They want to bring Jesse Bates into the box over the middle and let him roam. Because Jesse Bates, like Kevin Bayard, has a nose for the football. He intercepted Ryan Tannehill when these guys played last year. So not a lot of cover, too. Mostly cover three, mostly man coverage. The Titans better be ready for those looks. And I think they will be. And because of that cover three, the Titans play a lot of cover three and a lot of cover man. And what do I say that that always leaves them open towards? Short throws to the sideline. So I hope that the Titans have a

lot of short throws, five yard outs, quick flat routes, stuff like that to AJ and Julio. Hopefully they can get one-on-one matchups against the Bengals' cornerbacks in space, break a tackle, take advantage. Also, the Bengals may show a lot of too high safety, two safeties up high, but like I said, they want Bates to creep down and get in the box. Ryan Tannehill has to be ready for that

and can't be confused by that. That's what the Bengals love to do. Now, one thing I will say about the Bengals when they're in zone coverage, they drop deep. Like, they get very deep in their zone coverages. They clearly don't want to give up big plays. That's going to leave openings for checkdowns.

So expect Dontrell Hilliard to have to make some plays. Expect Anthony Fergser to chip on Trey Hendrickson and then dart out over the middle and have to make some plays. The Bengals love dropping deep in those zones. So Tano has to be smart. Take your check down. Take your five, six yards and keep the offense going. On third and long,

like I said, you get a 3-2-6 package out of the Bengals on defense. But one thing I noticed is they would have a linebacker and then that Flowers play man coverage on the tight end and the running back

so that you can't do an easy check down and then drop everybody else into a zone. So the Titans need to take advantage of that and flood certain zones and make sure that there are more receiving options in the zone area than the Bengals have defenders to guard those zones. Now quickly, this is the last thing I want to talk about about the Bengals defense. I want to talk about their red zone defense. So the Bengals are going to do two things in the red zone. They're either going to run man coverage, or they're going to run red zone cover four. That's what I'm going to call it.

So think about a cover four, the four defensive backs, the two safeties in the middle, and then the cornerbacks on the outside. They split the field in four segments, and they each have the furthest back place of those four segments. Well, what the Bengals do is, and the Titans do this a lot, but not as much in the red zone. The two safeties in the middle, if there's a crossing route that's a little bit short over the middle, one of those safeties will drop down and take that crossing route. And then the safety that's left, we'll just go ahead and turn that into cover three and take the whole entire middle area.

Well, the Raiders got a touchdown against that coverage against the Bengals because here's what can happen. Think if you have Julio Jones and A.J. Brown on the same side of the field, A.J. Brown on the outside, Julio Jones in the slot. Julio Jones runs a deep crosser. The safety on Julio Jones and A.J. Brown's side of the field drops down to take A.J. Brown. Well, the outside cornerback or to take Julio Jones on the deep crosser. The outside cornerback in that scenario is expecting to play cover four. He thinks that

he has a safety directly next to him to play the inside fourth next to him. He's going to play with his back to the sideline and saying, okay, nobody's getting outside of me. I'm going to see if anybody's in front of me. Well, that safety that's next to him drops down a little bit. That creates an opening right past that safety and right to the inside of that outside cornerback. And Julio Jones runs a deep crosser to pull the safety up. A.J. Brown runs a deep skinny post to get in front of that cornerback and Julio Jones runs a deep crosser to pull the safety up. A.J. Brown runs a deep skinny post

to get in front of that cornerback and there's a hole right there for the Titans to hit the skinny post to A.J. Brown. The Raiders hit this on a touchdown pass to Zay Jones where they had Hunter Renfro on the crosser, on the shallow crosser over the middle. The safety bit up on Renfro

and Zay Jones snuck right in between the corner and above the safety. Easy touchdown. The Titans got to hit that. Once they hit that, the Bengals are going to counter. They're going to go with man coverage in the red zone, and Todd Downing has to go to a trips bunch formation. I also want to say this, and it's the last tidbit that I'm going to give.

The Titans have to have a bunch of pre-snap motion and at-snap motion in this game because the Bengals will show man and go zone. They'll show zone and go man, and they have to identify what the coverage is pre-snap using motion. The Raiders didn't do it enough. I was shocked by that. The Titans have to use a ton of motion in this game

to identify defensive coverage as pre-snap from the Bengals. That's going to do it for me today, folks. Man, I am jazzed up. I got to take a shower. Woo! I hope you guys had as good of a time going over the Cincinnati Bengals scouting report as I had making it.

I'm going to have a ton of that stuff going for it as we get closer to the game. Going to have crossover Thursday tomorrow with Jake Lisko, with James Rapian. They're awesome. They do great work for the Bengals, and I can't wait to talk to them about what they expect to see from the Bengals in this game.

Do not miss out on that. Friday, I will have my game preview, and I'm thinking of having an extended big-time playoff game preview where I spend 45 minutes, maybe an hour, on the podcast breaking down this game. All of that is in flux, but either way, make sure you're subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast so you don't miss any of the pertinent information that I will be pushing out over the next few days.

That's going to do it for me today, though, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.