Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - REWATCH WEDNESDAY: Offensive Red Zone, Defensive Letdown & Playoff Power Rankings

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

The Tennessee Titans didn't play their best game against the Houston Texans on Sunday, but they did some interesting things on tape worth discussing. Step into the Film Room for REWATCH WEDNESDAY as Tyler gives you his All-22 review. First, Tyler takes a look at the LOCKED ON Playoff Power Rankings. Where are the Titans? Teams that are too high or too low? Then, Tyler dives into the tape starting with the offense. How did the passing game come alive? How did the Titans find success in the red zone? Finally, Tyler talks about the Titans defense. What happened in the second half??#TicTacTuesday Film Thread: https://twitter.com/TicTacTitans/status/1480906290683645963?s=20Follow 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 guys know what that means. Time to step into the film room for my week 18 all 22 review. I'm going to tell you guys what I saw on the tape from an X's and O's perspective. We're going to talk about the Titans offense and some clever things that they did in the red zone to create open opportunities. We're going to talk about the Titans defense and what the heck

happened in that second half. Before we get into my all 22 review though, going Gonna look at some playoff power rankings. 1 through 14. How do the locked on hosts have these playoff teams ranked? I'm gonna tell you where I had them ranked and talk about any teams that are high, that are low, and where do the Tennessee Titans come in? So all of that and more on a 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. I'm excited to dive into the film, dive into the tape with you guys, and break down everything I saw from the Tennessee Titans from a schematic standpoint.

We also are going to talk a little playoff power rankings. We'll start there. Before we get into that, though, do got 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, make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. You're going to find the Locked on Titans podcast on any podcast platform. And here's the thing.

It's always free. Speaking of free, the Locked on Titans YouTube channel is also free. Head there. Smash that subscribe button. Smash that notification button so you get notified when all of my content goes live. If you're watching on YouTube right now, hit that thumbs up button for me as well. Greatly do appreciate that. You guys are going to want to check me out on social media as well on Twitter at TicTacTitans

because I focus on the X's and O's and TicTacTuesday was yesterday. My full length film thread is out. I'll link that in the YouTube description and the podcast description as well. Also check out the Facebook page at LockedOnTitansPod. As well, also check out the Facebook page at LockedOnTitansPod. But with the housekeeping out of the way, I want to dive into a little playoff power rankings. And I'm going to show you guys and talk about the LockedOn Podcast Network's power rankings. So I'm going to go ahead and pull that up now for the people who are watching on YouTube. You get the visual aid that I have thrown up on the screen showing you the rankings.

But for those of you who are just listening to the audio version, I will break it down for you as well. Number one, the Green Bay Packers. Number two, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Number three, the Kansas City Chiefs. Number four, your Tennessee Titans. Number five, the Los Angeles Rams. Number six, the Dallas Cowboys. Number seven, the Buffalo Bills. Number six, the Dallas Cowboys. Number seven,

the Buffalo Bills. Number eight, the Cincinnati Bengals. Number nine, the Arizona Cardinals. Number 10, the New England Patriots. Number 11, the San Francisco 49ers. Number 12, the Las Vegas Raiders. Number 13, the Philadelphia Eagles. And number 14, the Pittsburgh Steelers. So let's start the conversation off talking about where the Tennessee Titans actually sit within this ranking. And as I mentioned, they're going to come in at number four. And personally, I think that's a perfect spot for the Titans. And let me explain the rationale.

The Green Bay Packers have been better than the Tennessee Titans this year, and they have a better quarterback. That's just the reality here. So you've got to have the Green Bay Packers, number one, in my opinion. That is the right ranking as well. I said yesterday that I think the most realistic outcome for the Titans in their playoff path is to play the Packers in the Super Bowl. So I obviously have to stick to that, thinking that they're the best team in the NFC. Number two, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom Brady, the defending Super Bowl champions, still an incredible defense, still got some good weapons on offense despite the

upheaval at wide receiver, really. So I'm okay with Tampa Bay. I trust Tampa Bay more than I trust the Titans. That's just the truth. They've proved that they can do it, and they're led by Tom Brady. Once again, a better quarterback. Then you look at Kansas City, and I know that the Titans beat Kansas City handily. But Kansas City's been playing great ball, and let's just be real here. They have Patrick Mahomes. I don't know how else to break it down. He's the most talented quarterback in the league.

Kansas City's been to two Super Bowls in a row. If you were sitting down to make a rankings of who you really think would beat who right now, and you had Tennessee over Kansas City, I just can't get down with that either. I know that the Titans won earlier in the year, but with everything on the line, how can you go against the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes?

You just can't for my money. You can't do that. So I'm okay with those three teams being ahead of the line, how can you go against the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes? You just can't for my money. You can't do that. So I'm okay with those three teams being ahead of the Titans, but this is exactly where the Titans should be. And some people may say the ranking is too high. I don't agree with that. I think this ranking is perfect. Let's pull it up on the screen one more time as we look at the Tennessee Titans at No. 4 with the 12-5 record. Now let's talk about some teams that I think may be too high or too low. And the number one team that I think is too high here is the Rams.

I don't trust the Rams. I don't trust Matthew Stafford whatsoever. And after what they did against San Francisco in the last week of the season, how could you have them at number five? I just don't understand that I expressed uh in yesterday's video my belief in the Dallas Cowboys and their roster and what they can do I think they're a better football team than the Los Angeles Rams and quite frankly I would have the bills even though they've been up and down over the Rams I don't trust Stafford I don't trust

the Rams I don't trust McVay so maybe that's just my personal feelings and you guys disagree, but I think the Rams are too high and I would have them two spots lower. Also, looking at the Arizona Cardinals, I don't trust the Cardinals at all. Back-to-back seasons, they've been terrible at the end of the year. They play their worst football at the end of the season. That is the opposite of what a good team would do that's properly coached. I don't trust the Arizona Cardinals at all. I would not have them above the 49ers. If it were me, I would have the 49ers at No. 8 over the Cincinnati Bengals. I would drop the Bengals to 9.

I would have the Patriots at 10. And then I would have the Cardinals at number 11 just above the Raiders. So that's how I would kind of shuffle certain spots. I think the 49ers should be higher and I think the Cowboys should be a spot higher. I think the Rams and the Cardinals

should be lower. Other than that I'm pretty much in agreement with the rankings and it makes sense because my votes were part of these power rankings. So I like where the Titans are at. I think that the Rams are too high. I think the 49ers are too low. And that is kind of my analysis on these power rankings. But I wanted to dive into that just to have some fun before we really dive into the tape, dive into the film and do my all22 review from Week 18. Again, I'm going to talk about some clever things I saw from the Titans

in the red zone on offense, and talk about what happened in the second half to the Titans' defense. Now, before we get into all of that, I do want to tell you guys a little bit about the best-tasting protein bars in the galaxy from our friends over at Built Bar. It's a new year. It means a new you. And if your New Year's resolutions are anything like mine or like everybody else's, they probably include getting in better shape and eating healthier. Well, you can do both of those

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Once again, that's promo code locked 15 at built.com. Titans fans, let's continue this rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We just talked about some playoff power rankings. Now, it is time to step into the film room for my weekly All-22 review, taking a look at the Titans' previous game. Of course, a Week 18 matchup against the Houston Texans.

I am going to start on the offensive side of the ball. So, number one, life without Michael Pruitt. The Titans use Michael as their number two tight end. You may be thinking, what about Anthony Ferkser? Well, Ferkser just simply is not the caliber of blocker that Pruitt is, so the Titans can't run their typical two tight end sets on early downs with Berkshire as just a natural replacement. It's just not going to work. So what we saw from the Titans was more 21 personnel.

And as I reiterate every week, personnel groupings are the backs first, the tight end second. So 21 personnel would be two backs, one tight end, think a fullback, and I formation. So the Titans went with a lot more 21 personnel in this game with a fullback in the backfield, but majority of the time they went with 11 personnel, which remember the formula, one back, one tight end.

That means three wide receivers. And that accomplished a couple of different things. So you go 11 personnel to try to lighten the box. You got three wide receivers out there. Hopefully that takes some people out of the box and gives the Titans some more room to run. And that is exactly what happened. The Titans were able to run some outside zone

out of 11 personnel and have success. Now, unfortunately, Jeff Swaim and Taylor LeJuan really struggled in this game. The Titans tried to run outside zone to weak side so they would run away from the tight end. And in those scenarios, Taylor LeJuan's job is super, super important because he's got to set the edge. Well, he did struggle a little bit. Now it wasn't all bad, wasn't all terrible, but certain run plays that didn't work, it was LeJuan or the Titans would run strong side towards

the tight end and Swain would get beat. So either way, setting the edge was a problem for the Titans in this game, but the run game really was the run game. It wasn't terrible. It wasn't bad. The Titans went over a hundred yards, so nothing terrible, but it wasn't a great day either. And the Texans had a really good plan and a really good approach to defense. They played four man fronts. And if you notice the teams that play the Titans the most, the Jags, the Texans, and the Colts, they all come out in four-man fronts. Four down defensive linemen, and they stack the second level

because it makes it harder for the offensive line because there's less people at the line of scrimmage. So that means that offensive linemen have to get up on the second level. They have to do a better job of taking away those second-level flowers. And it just makes it difficult on the Titans' offensive line to consistently hit all of those blocks, even if it's easier to double-team at the line of scrimmage. And teams who do that, they really play aggressively,

shooting forward through the gaps with their linebackers and their safeties. And sometimes linebackers are coming through gaps so fast that the linemen can't even get to them at the second level because they're already in their face coming through them. So that creates some problems for the Titans, and the Texans did that pretty well. I must say one wrinkle that I want to mention here that I did notice. When the Titans had a fullback and they would run outside zone

or run a run play, they would send the fullback off the edge, and you're thinking that the fullback's about to block somebody, but it would be Kari Blossom game, and he actually just went out into the flat like he was running a passing route. Now, I'm sure what the Titans are trying to do is they're trying to get on tape. Hey, look, sometimes the fullback goes to the flat like it's a pass, but it's still a run. And eventually, teams are going to be like, oh, he's going out like it's a pass, but it's still a run. And eventually, teams are going to be like, oh, he's going out like it's a pass, but it's still a run. We saw that on tape.

Oh, nope, it's a pass. Quick dump to the fullback down the sideline for a big gain. So watch for that in the coming weeks. Todd's setting that up on tape. The Titans really did focus on perimeter runs, outside zone pitch sweeps to Dontrell Hilliard. Again, they want to try to confuse the second-level defenders, get them moving the wrong direction with some motion,

and then run it the other way. On Dontrell Hilliard's final big run of the day, A.J. Brown started on the side that the pitch went to, but before the snap, he motioned across the formation to the other side. It confused the Texans. Two defenders tried to run with A.J. Brown across the formation, and the Titans run a pitch sweep back the other way, and now there is a numbers advantage

because the Texans paid too much attention to A.J. Brown. So good stuff like that in the run game. Let's move forward, talk about the play-action pass game. In the quick game, quick passing game, so the Titans tried to run a lot of quick wide receiver screens to Chester Rogers. You guys saw them. Quick, boom, throw it to Chester Rogers. You guys saw them quick, boom, throw it to Chester Rogers. Well, here's the problem. Some of those screens worked okay, but Chester Rogers

is a practice level player. That's where the Titans need to upgrade in the offense. We're going to talk about needs and upgrades after the season. Hopefully that's not until February, but when we do, one of the big things I'm going to highlight is what roles need to be improved. We can't just say wide receiver, tight end. What specific role within the Titans offense do they need a better player at? And the number one thing is that slot wide receiver that they have Chester Rogers playing right now. They need a more explosive, better dynamic athlete at that spot. Just a better player overall to take advantage of those opportunities. The Titans want to run those quick pop passes out to the slot wide receiver,

but the problem is they're going to get one-on-one matchups. Chester Rogers is not going to make a guy miss consistently, and he didn't in this game. So you're getting two to three yards when if you had a better player there, you would be getting five, six, seven yards. So the Titans got to hit that role in their offense to get a better, more explosive athlete

to take advantage of those opportunities. A.J. Brown and Julio Jones are going to get too much attention for them to consistently be that guy. It's not going to be as advantageous as you want it to be. Also, I do want to mention the Titans were lining up in 13 personnel or just traditional single back with two wide receivers and a full back. Basically, they have one wide receiver out wide, and it's an RPO. The Titans, Ryan Tannehill can hand it off,

or he can throw the quick slant as well, and they tried to throw one to Julio Jones. It was complete. He got smacked. They tried to throw one to Rayce McMath. It didn't get complete. They tried to throw another one. I can't recall who the third person was,

but it was incomplete. So the Titans have to get better at those. It's a great way to take advantage of that over-aggression of everybody coming up in the box. Quick, oh, RPO, you think it's a run, it looks like a run, I'm going to hit the quick slant in a one-on-one opportunity. The Titans have to get better at hitting those. They're not good at screens, they're not good at those RPO quick hitters, they just have to improve the timing of those plays. Moving forward to the red zone, this is really what I wanted to talk about with you guys.

So, in the first half, the Texans went man in the red zone. And that's how you saw a touchdown pass to, let's go in order here. There was a touchdown pass to A.J. Brown. And the way that it worked was, A.J. Brown was on one side with the tight end and the running back. So the Titans are in

shotgun. Running back is on the left hand side. Tight end is on the line of scrimmage next to Taylor LeJuan on the left hand side and then AJ Brown is condensed right by the tight end as kind of like a wing player. So what happened was the Titans ran vertical routes with Ferkser and ran

a wheel route with the running back. So in man coverage, they're taking two guys and sending them vertically back to the back of the end zone. Well, Desmond King was playing one-on-one man coverage with A.J. Brown. Well, what Anthony Ferkser did was when he ran his vertical route, he ran it so A.J. Brown is doing a quick out route, a little sit- down curl with a little outside bend. So Anthony Ferkser bent his route, his vertical route, just a little bit and he was

able to run in between Desmond King and A.J. Brown and that created the separation needed for Tannehill to hit A.J. Brown and he had enough room to turn around and run straight into the end zone. The Anthony Ferkser touchdown, another great job here. The Titans were in just a balanced shotgun formation, and they ran Anthony Ferkser across the middle of the field. Well, the Titans do this on defense a lot. A lot of teams do. The Texans were in man coverage, and they had two linebackers,

and basically they're playing like I'll take who you don't take. So when Anthony Ferkser comes across the field, the first linebacker closest to Ferkser is like, all right, I got him. And then the idea is you're going to pass Ferkser off to the other linebacker as he crosses his face and moves to the other side of the field. Well, when you put people in those positions, sometimes mistakes get made. The linebackers didn't communicate properly who was taking Ferkser. Instead of the side that Ferkser ended up on, linebacker taking him in man coverage, he floated back and stayed in sort of a zone while the initial linebacker who had Ferkser passed him off,

and there was no in there easy drop-off. And then the Nick Westbrook-Akina touchdown was a simple pick play. You got two wide receivers on the right-hand side. Nick Westbrook-Akina is the slot guy, the inside wide receiver. The outside wide receiver is A.J. Brown. A.J. Brown comes in on a little short pass and he kind of boxes out the defender that's supposed to be guarding Nick Westbrook-Akina. He

doesn't make complete contact, so that's a penalty. Just slightly gets a little bit of contact. It gives Nick Westbrook-Akina the space that he needs to run the flat route, gets the ball from Tannehill, goes right past the pylon, and it's a touchdown. But in the second half, the Texans switched

a zone. Well, the Titans had a similar concept there. So think about the formation that I expressed to you guys earlier where they were running verticals. There were a lot of people running vertical routes. Well, Julio Jones was in the slot on the right-hand side on the second half touchdown.

A couple people ran vertical routes, and it took the attention of the deep safeties in the end zone. Julio Jones got right past the defender that was lined up in front of him who sat down in the zone, and then he looked and saw a hole in the zone because the deep safeties in the back of the end zone were paying attention to the vertical routes. Nick Westbrook-Akina, for example, was on a vertical route. The safety was paying attention to him, and because of that,

Julio Jones settled in right in the zone, right past the defender that was in front of his face at the snap, and right before the safety who was looking at Nick Westbrook-Akina on the vertical route going across the back of the end zone. So Julio got to sit down right there in that zone. Tannehill fires it in. A great job. I do want to just mention quickly,

guys, we saw exactly what we hope to see in this game. The Texans were in a cover three shell with a single high safety with eight guys in the box. That's what the Titans are going to see. Okay, it's a play-action pass. A.J. Brown runs a deep post, and what do you think that deep safety does?

The deep safety and the cornerback both stay with A.J. Brown as he goes deep. Well, what does that create? It creates a one-on-one opportunity for Julio Jones against the other outside cornerback. Julio smokes him with a nasty route, hits the out route, and Tannehill completes it for about a 15-yard gain. That right there, folks, is exactly what we've been looking for. Eight in

the box because they're worried about the run game. Two defensive backs go with A.J. because they're worried about A.J. leaving one-on-one opportunities for Julio Jones, which he has to take advantage of, and he did take advantage of in this game. So just to get you excited, that's what we've been hoping for all year, and that's what we saw right there. Now Tannehill did miss two deep shots to Julio Jones, but him taking those deep shots gives me confidence that he'll be able to hit some in the playoffs. We are going to talk about the defensive side of the ball before we do.

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BetOnline is the fastest and easiest way to wager on all your favorite sports. BetOnline, where the game starts. Titans fans, let's cap off this Rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, breaking down what I saw from the defense schematically in that game against the Houston Texans. And obviously it was a little bit of a second half collapse, but I saw what happened. I get what happened here.

It doesn't excuse it, but I get what happened. Let's just say this quickly. In the first half, the Titans played their game on defense. They mixed coverages. They got pressure on Davis Mills. They played good game on defense. They mixed coverages. They got pressure on Davis Mills. They played good in run defense. The Titans were basically in nickel the entire game with four linemen, two linebackers, and five defensive backs,

with obviously Elijah Molden playing that nickel cornerback spot, functioning as a pseudo linebacker for the Titans. The Titans really took away everything that the Texans wanted to do. Davis Mills had pressure on him, so he couldn't really make the throws he wanted to make. And I do want to point out that the Titans, as they did in the last game against the Texans that worked, they spent a lot of time at the line of scrimmage. The Titans don't blitz a lot, and they do line up over the line of scrimmage with crowds, but it's normally only five people.

You'll have the four down linemen, and then David Long will be walked up over the center, and that just doesn't allow the offensive line to know exactly where to slide to. But in this game, the Titans put about six or seven on the line of scrimmage, especially they would put six, double mug the A-gaps, which means there's a linebacker on both sides of the center, and then the four defensive linemen. That really causes confusion.

And what the Titans were doing is, one time they brought a blitz where they brought all four guys in the middle, Simmons, Autry, Long, and Cunningham, and then they dropped off Bud Dupree and Harold Landry on the outsides. So that was a pretty good, Titans were trying to get interior pressure. So that's a pretty good way to do that. Also, you guys I'm sure remember the delayed Kevin Byard blitz where the Titans basically did that same exact thing

and they had Byard in the linebacker spot about five yards off the ball. Byard kind of faked like he was going back and then came right up the middle and that created a good opportunity for the Titans defense as well. So using Kevin Byard and the linebackers to create interior pressure was a plan against the Texans. They wanted to flush Davis Mills out of the pocket. That's not where he does his best work. So that was all working in the first half to the tune of zero points

for the Texans. The second half though, the Titans went super vanilla. I didn't see any cover to Inver. They went simple man coverage. They went cover four. They went cover three, and they didn't roll safeties a lot or try to confuse the quarterback. They just wanted to be in their spots, play solid defense, so they didn't give up a big play. solid defense, so they didn't give up a big play. Excuse me. But here are some things that the Texans did that, I mean, it was awesome. I mean, I like the Titans and want the Titans to win,

but I recognize great scheme. And Tim Kelly, the offensive coordinator of the Houston Texans, Dennis Kelly's brother, just did a great job. Just did a great job. He's somebody I wanted the Titans to hire in the offseason, but the Texans retained him. I'm sure they gave him a good amount of money as well, so I get why he stayed. But, number one, the Texans went spread.

They spread it out, and this is the best way to deal with the Titans' defense because you spread it out, you see your matchups clearly, you get rid of the ball quickly, and then the Titans' pass rush in front can't't stop you and you're not running into the teeth and running into the strength of the Titans defense by running the ball. So the Texans were spreading out the defense with spread shotgun and then to combine that they were going up tempo. So now when you go up tempo and you don't make substitutions, the Titans can't make

substitutions either and we know what the Titans like to do on defense. They want Elijah Molden out there as their slot cornerback on early downs and rundowns. They want to bring in Buster Screen, Dane Cruikshank, and get that package in on passing downs. Well, the Titans couldn't do that because the Texans were going up tempo. So they were spreading it out with one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers going full spread, full five wide, and saying, hey, we're going to hunt matchups. We're going to find matchups, and you're not going to be able to change personnel because we're going up tempo.

That means the defensive line gets more tired, which affects the pass rush. That means you've got Molden out there playing man-to-man coverage, and that's not his specialty or what he needs to be doing right now, which is why they rotate him out in those situations all year long. So good job by the Texans getting the Titans in packages they didn't want to stay in and spreading them out to get the advantages they want, and that's how you find Elijah Molden getting killed by Danny Amendola.

So that's part of that. Also, do want to mention here that there were a few lucky catches for the Texans. One ball gets popped up in the air and Nico Collins comes down with it. One pass on a wheel route to Rex Burkhead over Zach Cunningham. I mean, some of this stuff was just kind of lucky plays. Well, maybe not lucky, but just guys making plays. And at the end of the day, there's nothing you can do to scheme up to stop a guy making an awesome play.

And that's kind of what happened in some of these situations. So also, I talk about clearing vertical in the red zone period of the offense, but the Texans, and this is something San Francisco did really well as well, they would use vertical routes to clear. Now, they wouldn't do vertical routes on the outsides every time. Sometimes the vertical route would come from the slot guy. Okay, but in this scenario, the Texans were doing a lot of outside vertical routes.

Well, what happens there is the Titans are playing cover two. So you got a deep defender. Well, normally when the Titans run cover two, they'll have like a whole defender, whether it be a Monty Hooker coming down and a deep defender. Well, normally when the Titans run cover two, they'll have like a whole defender, whether it be a Monty Hooker coming down and a cover to Inver, whether it be Jayon Brown or Rashawn Evans

or one of them running vertically with the seam route. But the Titans weren't doing that in this game. They were just having a traditional cover two where you didn't have a specific guy covering the hole in the middle. And the Texans were running vertical routes, which took the attention of both deep safeties. And then they'd run a deep dig router, a crosser in the middle. And the Texans were running vertical routes, which took the attention of both deep safeties. And then they'd run a deep dig router, a crosser over the middle.

And there was nobody there on the big Amendola catch. It was a cover two. The Texans had two vertical routes that took the attention of the safeties. Danny Amendola came across the middle, settled down like he was going to do a short curl by the linebackers and Elijah Mullen. And then he went vertically all of a sudden through the middle of the field. And he was wide open. So these are just schematic touches that Tim Kelly was making

to take advantage of the vanilla coverages that the Titans decided to go with in the second half. The Titans weren't super aggressive. The Titans weren't super creative in the second half. They're up 21-0. They don't want to blow it. They don't want to get caught in a cover to invert, not getting back deep enough and have the ball go over their head. But in turn, because they weren't doing those traditional or those normal things that they do, they were going

with more traditional coverages. That makes it easier for the offensive coordinator scheme wins in those scenarios because these are coverages that aren't super complex, that aren't super advanced. You're not, you know, looking like you're going to play cover two with two high safeties, dropping one safety down into the middle and using a cornerback as the other deep half. You're not doing those things. So, oh, they're going to run cover two a lot. Oh, they're going to run man a lot. Well, I'm going to use simple plays that are going to take advantage of those coverages.

So that's what happened with the Titans. They went vanilla in the second half with their zone coverages and their pass coverages. The Texans went up tempo and spread them out so they couldn't make the personnel changes that they wanted to make throughout. And all of that combined to a big run for the Texans, but nothing that I am long-term worried about because the Titans aren't going to go away from what they do best in a playoff game. So either way, that is my breakdown of the Titans offense and the Titans defense. Of course, always long-winded on these Wednesday pods. No crossover Thursday tomorrow. So I'm going to have some fun and think of something to discuss with you guys.

There's a lot going on. The Titans are starting to have some roster moves happen. So I might go over all of the roster news from the week with you guys. That's probably the plan right now. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.