Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Should the Tennessee Titans Tank?? Titans Approach Going Forward & #TitanUpTitanDown

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

The Tennessee Titans dropped to 7-6 after an embarrassing loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that have some fans questioning where this team should go from here. Should the Titans tank the rest of the season? Tyler doesn't think that is the right route to go. Also, #TitanUpTitanDown for all the good and bad performances including great games from Chi Okonkwo and Bud Dupree, but also some poor games from Dennis Daley and the Titans cornerbacks.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNFL to learn more.TuroForget boring rental cars and find your drive at Turo.comAudibleHead over to Locked On NFL for a sneak peak of Block Forever or catch the full series available anywhere you get your podcast. Available everywhere now!NHTSADrive sober or get pulled over. Click HERE to learn more. 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 was an ugly loss to Jacksonville on Sunday. The Titans got embarrassed, quite frankly, by their divisional little brother. Where do they go from here? What should be the Titans' mindset and goal the rest of the season? After looking at that loss on Sunday, I'm going to tell you guys what I think the Titans should do going forward.

Then we do got to break down the game, talk some Titan up, Titan down, talk about Chick Oconquo out there who had a fantastic game for the Titans. So all that and more on today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are lockeded On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Titans fans, I know that that was a tough one on Sunday, but I got to tell you guys,

I'm not as down maybe as some of you guys are after having a moment to kind of let the emotion wash over you, kind of go through what really took place out there. So let's talk about where the Titans go from here after their third straight loss in a row. Before we get into it, I want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix. PrizePix is daily fantasy made easy. You pick two to five players, and if they score more or less than their PrizePix projection, you can win up to 10 times your money on your entry. First-time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match

up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That's prizepix.com, promo code LOCKEDON. Thank you guys for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. Tomorrow, we're going to look at the Titans schedule, look at where they sit within the division, think about what could happen next, break down the game a little bit more. Wednesday, continue

our breakdown, doing rewatch Wednesday talking about what I saw on film. Thursday, crossover Thursday and Friday will be a game plan preview. So a lot of great content coming up. Make sure you make the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Subscribe on whatever platform you do stream for Monday through Friday,

Tennessee Titans content all year round. But just to quickly go through, in the postcast, we talked about what happened here. On offense, the Titans turned over the ball four times. They had a great chance to take control of this game multiple times early in the game in the first half. They didn't because they turned it over and gave Jacksonville life. Number two, the injuries on defense. You give all the credit in the world to Jacksonville.

They came out and won a game. If the Titans would have won, there wouldn't have been any excuses made for Jacksonville. But you also have to at least be honest. Titans are missing six starters on defense from the preseason right now. Six starters, including Harold Landry, of course. Six.

In some cases, they've lost backups and they're playing backups to backups. The Titans' defense is just not good enough to play the way they want to play defense. The Titans want to be pass rush forward. The pass rush gets pressure. It helps out the defense to disguise coverage, do different things,

which then in turn can create turnovers. But the Titans' defense doesn't have the pass rush it needs. With three of the four pass rushers it's doable with two it is not that's what we learned the Titans have three sacks since Danico Autry went out of the lineup a few weeks ago

three is doable which we learned last year and this year two is not so the Titans defense too banged up quite frankly to play the kind of game that they had to play and this year, two is none. So the Titans defense too banged up, quite frankly, to play the kind of game that they had to play because the Titans offense continued to screw them over with turnovers. And then, of course, the same things that come up every week, the offensive tackle and offensive line performance,

the cornerback performance in one-on-one situations, the offensive coordinator. It's the same organizational failures. It's not like John Robinson got fired all of a sudden, you know, this is a new team or something like that. But the turnovers really at the end of the day ruin it. But the conversation becomes, where do the Titans go from here? Well, I know that before the season, I said,

this is a one and done in the playoffs team. It's not going to be anything important this year that happens. I know. But throughout the season, when the Titans have played their best football, it's become obvious to me that they can win a playoff game. The Titans could win a wildcard playoff game. If they get the right matchup, they get the right team.

Not Cincinnati. No. If they get the right matchup, they get the right team. The Dolphins, the Jets, the Patriots, somewhere in there. I think the Titans have a chance to win that game. The Dolphins, the Bills, the Chiefs. Say they get the Ravens. I think there are teams that the Titans, when healthy, have the ability to

beat in the playoffs, which would be awesome. A playoff win is worth it. So that's why I don't think you throw in the towel. I know a lot of people are saying, blow it up right now, put Malik in, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, this and that, try to get the best draft pick that you can. I'm just not there.

I think if you can get the defense, and I know a lot of you guys are rolling your eyes, if they get healthy, when have they been healthy? I know, and I get it. But there are too many guys in that locker room who work too hard to throw away the season right now when you're 7-6 and at least still leading the division. I think you try to get healthy.

You try to get hot at the end of the year. You get a rematch against Jacksonville. You get the Texans. You get a whole Thursday night football game against the Cowboys all after this game against the Chargers. You get healthy. And you get ready to try to get hot and see if you can win a playoff game. And hey,

you'll win a playoff game. You get to the Final Four in the AFC. Some injuries, some things break your way. Who knows after that? So I know this may surprise some people, but I think you ride it out as best as you can and try as hard as you can to get the most you can out of this

core right here. Because I think in the offseason, that's when big changes need to occur. Big changes. But I think you owe it to the players in the locker room. And with what we've seen when the Titans play their best football on offense and defense, I think you owe it to this core to try your best to win as many games as you possibly can the rest of the year

and see if you can get hot before the playoffs and maybe win a playoff game. And then who knows? But what I will say is, on the other side of it is, in the offseason, probably time to make some real, real changes. But that's how I feel about the rest of the season going forward and what the Titans mentality should be

before we get into tighten up and tighten down. Talk about all the good and the bad performances in that game. And, you know, it was ugly for the Titans, but there were a lot of good performances to discuss. So excited to dive into that. Before we do, I want to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by Turo. Turo is the world's largest car sharing marketplace. With Turo, you can book any car you want

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Champion right now as a bonus episode on the Locked On Presents and Locked On NFL podcast feed. Think Like a Champion is a brand new podcast from Russell Wilson and Audible. Each episode features interviews with Olympic medalists, NFL stars, and business leaders. It's available for free on Audible. Each episode features interviews with Olympic medalists, NFL stars, and business leaders.

It's available for free on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts. So head over to Locked On Presents for a sneak peek of Think Like a Champion or catch the full series available anywhere you get your podcasts available everywhere. Now, Audible, get in the game. Titans fans, like I mentioned, there were a lot of good things to take out of that game against Jacksonville. Well, maybe a lot is a strong word, but there were enough tight nubs in here that I wanted to lead with that. Let's have some positivity here.

We'll start with the reality of the Titans situation, what they should do going forward, which me, I'm personally a little positive about what the Titans need to do going forward. Now, I want to continue that before we end with the Titan downs, which we will get to. But as for the Titan ups, number one, you got to start with Chigaconquo. Chigaconquo had six catches, six targets, one touchdown. He had a two-point conversion mixed in there as well.

Chigaconquo was a bright star for the Titans. And the more that he gets involved, like we've been asking for all year, the more that he gets involved, the more good he starts to do. And I thought Chig was a pretty decent blocker out there on Sunday as well, which is the next step he needs to take to being an every-down-full-star tight end. He's already incredibly explosive with the ball in his hands. And as a receiver, incredibly impressed with Chigokonkwo. This was a game where you really saw what he could be

if he's featured and the Titans look to get him the ball consistently. Also, I know that he had the fumble. I know that he had the fumble. I know. And it turned into a touchdown because Roger McCreary can't catch. You got to give a tighten up to Derrick Henry. He had nearly 100 rushing yards in the first quarter. He ended up with 121 rushing yards, seven yards per carry and a touchdown with a run of 50 yards, a run of 25 yards. I mean, Derrick Henry even had a few catches.

He had three catches for 34 yards, 11 yards per catch. I realize he had the fumble, and maybe you could just tear him down for that, but I thought Derrick Henry tried his best out there. If Derrick Henry's fumble alone doesn't kill the Titans, I mean, there wasn't a lot of time left in the first half, and the Jacks still had to march more than half the field to get a touchdown, and the Titans' defense let them.

So, terrible turnover, but I thought Dennis Daly getting absolutely whooped and giving up a sack and a strip sack after getting chip help was a much worse turnover. I thought Tannehill and NWI not being on the same page as whether it was a run or a pass and that turning into an interception. I thought that was a worse turnover. The fumble

on the weird trick play going wrong in the second half. Whatever. But I mean, other than that one mistake by Derrick Henry, it's hard not to give him a tighten up. Also, gotta give a tighten up to Ben Jones. I thought Ben Jones and Nate Davis in particular were doing a great job in the run game of moving bodies.

I saw them numerous times on the inside getting seals and creating lanes for Derrick Henry to run through. So I want to give a shout out to those two guys on the offensive line. Nick Westbrook-Akina put in a proper role. Does an okay job. Three catches, 23 yards, had the touchdown. I thought he could have given a better effort on the first play of the game, the flea flicker.

I think when you look at that in slow motion, he's got a better chance to catch the ball than maybe it seemed like, but still a tough catch. But at the end of the day, he was targeted eight times. With Burks out, I get it, but man, Woods and Chig and Hooper, I don't know why they're throwing the ball eight times to NWI, but I thought NWI did okay with those chances when they were realistic. So good job to get the touchdown catch at minimum. Moving forward here onto the defensive side, well, Austin

Hooper. Let me say this, Austin Hooper, five targets, five catches, 68 yards. I said that the middle of the field is where the Titans needed to attack. I thought the tight ends could have a really good day. And they did. Chick and Hooper were great in this game. So, tighten up for those guys. Might as well give a tighten up to Robert Woods. Five catches, 49 yards. Made some tough catches as well on seven targets.

The Titans passing offense wasn't awful. It was, I mean, the Titans would have won this game by so much if they didn't turn over the ball. I mean, just wild the way that it went and how it ended. Knowing that football is a crazy game. On defense, I thought Bud Dupree had a pretty solid game. You guys know I'm not a guy who goes out of my way to give Bud Dupree credit, but he had three tackles for loss.

He had six tackles total. I thought he had some pressure when the Titans were getting pressure early in the game. I thought Bud Dupree was a big part of that. So pretty good game from Bud Dupree. Worth $20 million on the cap hit this year? Absolutely not. He got cooked in pass coverage,

but why are we dropping Bud Dupree into pass coverage in that situation against a wide receiver? The Titans do that, but, I mean, it's just tough. It's tough not having Harold Landry. But, yeah, I thought Bud Dupree played pretty solid overall. Rashad Weaver, I also thought, had a pretty solid game out there. Had some pressures. Had two deflected passes.

Had a tackle for loss. I thought Weaver had a pretty good game. Do also want to point out Monte Rice. I thought Monte Rice had an okay game out there. 12 total tackles. Had a tackle for loss. Had some tough moments in pass coverage. But, I mean, that was

everybody on the Titans, really. So I thought Monty Rice filling in there, did his best, got targeted a lot. I'm going to give him a tighten up, even though it was a tough performance for everybody at the second level for the defense overall, really. We're going to get into tighten down, though, because there were a lot tight end downs that we do have to discuss. Before we get into those though, do want to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix. PrizePix's daily fantasy made simple. Here's the reality guys. You go to PrizePix and every player has a projection. So Derrick Henry, 100 rushing yards. Patrick Mahomes, projection. So Derek Henry, 100 rushing yards. Patrick Mahomes, 275 passing yards. Trevor Lawrence,

two touchdowns. And all you do is you pick two to five players. You look at their projection and you say whether that player is going to do more or less than the projection. If you get it right, you could get up to 10 times your money on your entry. What you should do right now is go to prizepix.com or just download the PrizePix app to your phone, enter the promo code LOCKEDON, and if you're a first-time user, you're going to get a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. So you sign up, use that promo code LOCKEDON, deposit $100, get a free $100, deposit $50, get a free $50. So don't forget, use the promo code LOCKEDON when you sign up at prizepix.com for an instant deposit match up to $100. Titans fans, let's cap off today's game recap.

It was an ugly one out there. We talked about where the Titans should go from here. And maybe surprisingly to some of you, I think they should try their best to win as many games as they can throughout the rest of the season. We talked about the Titan ups. There were some good performances in there. But as for the Titan Downs, we're going to get into those 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 Locked on Sports today from the biggest stories of the day, instant reactions, big game recaps, and the take of the day. Check out Locked on Sports

today available on the Odyssey app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. We got to start with Dennis Daly. I mean, I'm not saying that the Titans have a lot of better options out there. I really don't. But to continue to trot out the worst starting left tackle of the last decade in the NFL

when he is consistently just... I mean, on that sack strip, he literally got chip help from Chigukonkwo and it wasn't just a chip. Chig literally blocked the guy for a second and then passed him off

to Dennis Daly. Dennis Daly completely whiffs and it's a strip sack with a helmet and Tannehill is back. You just cannot tell me. You just cannot tell me that Dylan Radins or LaRaven Clark don't deserve a look.

Just give them a chance. If it's worse, then go back to Daly. But I don't see how continuing to trot Dennis Daly out there over and over again is not just pure insanity, quite frankly. So,

just a rough day there. Roger McCreary, I said this was going to be a big day for him. He didn't even spend a lot of time in the slot. Honestly, it was just outside against Zay Jones. He just doesn't win well in one-on-one contested catch situations.

And the ball went off his hands for an interception. And you got to think about to the knock on him on draft day. Short arms. His biggest issue was short arms. And losing contested catch situations all the time. That's how that trait manifests in the game. That's why people care about that stuff. We're just seeing it show up. So

tighten down for McCreary today. Terrence Mitchell as well. Just didn't really give you anything out there. Dylan Cole. Look, Dylan Cole's trying his best. He really is. I know he is. You can see that he is, but he is just not the athlete that you have to be

to be a starter in the NFL, to play on defense in the NFL. He is a special teams guy. He's had good moments this year. I mean, he's really tried hard. You got to give a lot of credit to Dylan Cole. But the way that he just absolutely juked out of his shorts by Trevor Lawrence, ETN, Evident, Ingram, I mean,

he just can't play in space out there with the athletes that are in the NFL. He's simply not good enough to. Jeff Swain did absolutely nothing except get a penalty. Embarrassing. Todd Downing, that surrender drive, the Titans are down by

three touchdowns, and he runs the ball with Derrick Henry. He throws a screen pass. I mean, come on, man. Come on. What are we doing? Andrew Adams, again, like Dylan Cole, he's just not the athlete to be a consistent starter for the Titans. He's had some good moments when the Titans defense has played well

and he's been asked to play a small role, but asking him to carry enough weight as a starter would, just not going to work out well. Amani Hooker, just not been impressed with Amani Hooker often this year. He's obviously banged up the shoulder,

the concussion. He almost went out today with a concussion. Looked like that wasn't the case, and he was clear, and he was good to go. But just Amani Hooker hasn't been himself. And on Saturday, David Long placed on IR. Not a Titan down for David Long, but a Titan down for the linebacker situation. No Zach Cunningham, no David Long, no Elijah Molden. The Titans are just in a rough spot with their second-level defenders.

And it doesn't look like it's going to improve anytime soon. So good luck against the Chargers next week. It's going to be interesting. I mean, the Titans are really at a tough spot with Jacksonville knocking on the door with the division. They could be playing for their playoff lives now. And we didn't think that it could get that bad, but here we are. So, tighten down for all

of that. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. I'll be back with you guys tomorrow. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this is Locked on Titans. you