Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans BRILLIANT Offense Outsmarts Chargers, Defense Confuses Herbert & Dillon Radunz Recap

Starting point is 00:00:00 Titans new offensive coordinator Tim Kelly is already a massive upgrade over Todd Downing, and we saw it in week two. Time for my all 22 review on today's 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. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans.

Starting point is 00:00:47 Today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of Locked on. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get 200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started. It is Tic Tac Tuesday, ladies and gentlemen. This day, every week, I dive into the tape to tell you what I saw schematically on offense and defense.

Starting point is 00:01:16 First, we're going to talk about Tim Kelly's offense because he is just dialing up magic right now. Also, going to talk about how the Titans disguised their coverages to confuse Justin Herbert and create opportunities to get off the field. And then finally, I'll dive into the performance of Dylan Radins and his return from an ACL injury. He was the best Tennessee Titans offensive lineman out there on Sunday. So we got a lot to talk about that's on the film before I get into it.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year long, always for free. Make sure you get subscribed, stay subscribed. It's your team every day here on the Locked on Titans podcast. And speaking of every day, shout out to my everydayers. I got a ton of content all week long for you guys. Of course, yesterday we recapped the game. Today we're diving into the film.

Starting point is 00:02:11 Tomorrow is what's next Wednesday. We're going to look ahead to this next matchup in week three. Thursday is crossover. Thursday to get some information from behind enemy lines. And then Friday is game plan Friday where I break down exactly what the Titans need to do schematically to win their next game. But we got to dive into this tape today. I love doing this every week. So let's talk about Tim Kelly. First, I want to talk about the two bombs

Starting point is 00:02:36 that Ryan Tannehill hit. First, the 70-yarder to Traylon Burks, and then the 50-yarder to Chris Moore. Because it's funny how Tim Kelly set up the defense for this but he did it in a way that took advantage of something that the Chargers were doing schematically. So what were the Chargers doing? Number one the Chargers were going into too high safety that's two safeties deep all right they would show too high and then when it was snapped what they would do is they would roll one safety down into the middle of the field. And then they just have one safety deep. So they're showing too high at the snap, they're rolling a safety down and turn it into single high safety looks. Okay. But what

Starting point is 00:03:15 they would do is the single high safety would not roll into the middle of the field. The single high safety who was a two high safety would just stay over there like he was in two high. And what they would do is they would leave that safety to the better receiver side. So if DeAndre Hopkins and Traylon Burks are out on the field, they would leave the safety over DeAndre Hopkins. If it was NWI or Chris Moore and then Traylon Burks on the other side, they would leave that high safety over Traylon Burks.

Starting point is 00:03:47 So whoever the better receiver was on the field, they would roll the safety on the opposite direction down, keep that two high safety high, and have him kind of shadow over top. And it makes sense. Have your guys go one-on-one on the backside, and then have a safety over top of the better receiver on one side. That totally makes sense from the Chargers' point of view. But Tim Kelly took

Starting point is 00:04:06 advantage of this. So on the first bomb to Traylon Burks, on the throw to Traylon Burks, what happened was the Chargers rolled the safety to Traylon Burks' side and brought that safety down on Traylon Burks' side. So the Titans went

Starting point is 00:04:21 classic play action outside zone. It was man-to-man coverage on the backside because the safety's all the way over on the other side of the field worried about Hopkins. That left Traylon Burks one-on-one with Asante Samuel Jr. and he just beat him down the field with speed. Not only is Burks four inches taller and 40 pounds heavier, but he's faster too. And Burks beat him downfield. Tannehill had time and hit him with a great throw. All right, the Titans knew to take advantage of that

Starting point is 00:04:50 because the Chargers were going to bring the safety on Burks' side down, leave the safety over towards Hopkins' side. So they knew they'd get that one-on-one opportunity. That is Tim Kelly taking advantage of the defense. That is Tim Kelly taking advantage of the defense. On the Chris Moore bomb, it was the same exact thing. Same exact thing.

Starting point is 00:05:13 The Chargers showed too high safety. They rolled one safety down over Traylon because it was Burks and Moore on opposite sides this time. They rolled their safety down towards Chris Moore, left the other safety high over Traylon Burks. Tannehill play action, Chris Moore deep one-on-one, and Tannehill threw it a dime right to Chris Moore who made a fantastic catch as well. They knew that the Chargers were going to run that coverage on first down,

Starting point is 00:05:39 and they took advantage of it two times, one in either half. And what's crazy is we are going to segue into some run game stuff real quick. But in the first half, the Chargers were covering all three interior offensive linemen with a defensive lineman. So they had a guy covering the center and the guards. Where does that leave the defense susceptible? Between the guards and the tackles. So the Titans were running outside zone, and they were running pull plays to get their running backs

Starting point is 00:06:09 to go towards the tackles and run off the guards in between the tackles because the Chargers' defense was stacking the interior. So the Titans, running outside zone in the first half, the bomb to Burks in the first half, play action off outside zone. We get to the second half, the Chargers widen their defensive line. Now they're in between the guards and the tackles with a guy over the center wider than they were in the first half. So the Titans started running inside zone and duo

Starting point is 00:06:37 and attacking the middle of the defense. And the bomb to Burks, or the bomb to Chris Moore in the second half, you guessed it, play action, but off inside zone this time. Tim Kelly matching the play action passes to the run plays that he's calling in that particular half, taking advantage of a coverage tail and a thing that the Chargers like to do on first down that he saw multiple times. Tim Kelly, this is real offensive coordination.

Starting point is 00:07:08 The last thing that I want to talk about here is the red zone plays. The last two touchdowns. That first touchdown, 70-yard bomb to Burks. Give it to Henry twice, score a touchdown. Not a lot to talk about there. But Tannehill's 12-yard touchdown run, and then Tannehill's throw to NWI on the last touchdown. The red zone coordination from Tim Kelly,

Starting point is 00:07:27 which was magnificent. So on the Tannehill run, you have Tajay Spears on the right in the backfield next to Tannehill and Shotgun, and then you have Derrick Henry on the left. The Titans run a fake handoff to Tajay Spears and then run an option with Derrick Henry. Triple option out of Shotgun with Spears and Henry. That an option with Derrick Henry. Triple option out of shotgun with Spears and Henry. That's good enough on its own.

Starting point is 00:07:50 But what Tim Kelly did was, they ran to the right-hand side on that play. He took Chris Hubbard, who was the right tackle, and had him pull to the left side, even though the Titans were going to the right. When Chris Hubbard pulled to the left side, the defensive end, who is taught to follow a pull man, you're taught that your whole life in football.

Starting point is 00:08:10 If your man pulls, follow him down the line of scrimmage. Tim Kelly took that defensive rule and turned it on its head. So Chris Hubbard pulls the opposite direction to the left. The defensive end on the right-hand side follows him, which takes away him from Tannehill and Derrick Henry's equation. The linebackers are worried about the fake handoff to Tajay Spears. They see the right tackle pull into the left. They keep their eyes on the inside.

Starting point is 00:08:35 And that gives Tannehill all the room that he needs to get out. And then the final touch, Tannehill fakes a pitch to Derrick Henry, which keeps the safety Derwin James on Henry and gives Tannehill the lane that he needs to get to the end zone. Tim Kelly, baby. Quickly, the last touchdown to NWI. Ryan Tannehill play-action fake. And then he throws a quick slant to NWI into the end zone on third down.

Starting point is 00:08:59 Big play for the Titans to give him the lead. Play-action holds the backside safety. Tannehill after the play action fake continues to look straight down the field not to tip off the safety that he's going to the right hand side to NWI.

Starting point is 00:09:18 The safety holds hesitates and then realizes oh he is going to throw it to NWI over the middle. But it's too late for the safety because of the play-action fake and Tannehill keeping his eyes in the middle, not giving it away to the safety with his eyes. NWI comes out, looks like he's going to block.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Boom, darts inside for the slant, catches it for a touchdown. What great play design and execution by Tim Kelly and Ryan Tannehill. Two explosive pass plays and red zone offense. That is how you do it right there, folks. But we're going to move forward to the defense and the disguises that they showed to the Chargers and how they won that game on defense. It was absolutely beautiful. We'll talk a little bit of Dylan Radins at the end of the show as well.

Starting point is 00:10:03 Before we get into that, though, We'll talk a little bit of Dylan Radins at the end of the show as well. Before we get into that though, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by Jace Medical. Look guys, everyone should be empowered to care for themselves and their loved ones during the unexpected. That's why Jace Medical offers the Jace Case. The Jace Case provides five life-saving antibiotics for emergency use and gives you a peace of mind so that you are not just hoping

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Starting point is 00:11:42 FanDuel, official partner of the NFL. Titans fans, we are going to continue today's Tic Tac Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Every single week, I dive into the tape for my all 22 review to break down what I saw out there. If you guys want to see the actual film breakdowns, which legally I'm not allowed to have on the channel, of course, make sure that you follow me on Twitter at at TicTacTitans. I already posted a bunch of film clips on Monday and stuff

Starting point is 00:12:28 to get you guys ready to go. On Tuesday, I'm going to have my full 10-minute recap. I'm going to have a ton of different film work on the offense, the defense. Make sure, again, that you follow me on Twitter, at TicTacTitans. Make sure you follow my work at Sports Illustrated as well, where I post most of that film work at alltitans.com. I write over there. So just want to let you guys know where you can find the film

Starting point is 00:12:49 to pair up with the conversations that we're having here. But talking about the defense, the Tennessee Titans defense, I mentioned last week on the game plan episode when we talked about what the Titans needed to do schematically to win, I said the Titans had to be able to stop the run in their nickel defense, which required an incredible effort from the interior defensive line and the slot cornerbacks.

Starting point is 00:13:19 Did you guys see Roger McCreary making physical plays all over the field on Sunday? He stepped up to the plate. It wasn't just him either. Elijah Molden got in on the physicality. Kevin Byard came down and made physical tackles. The Tennessee Titans defensive backs were heavily involved in run defense, and that allows the Titans to do so many things

Starting point is 00:13:40 and allows them to show so many different looks. So, T. Air Tart and Jeffrey Simmons up front dominated this game. They were fantastic against the run. But, again, the linebackers in the middle, in Aziz, Al Shire, and Jack Gibbons, and then the slot cornerbacks and people, safeties who dropped down to play in the second level of the defense like Bayard and Molden. Those guys were, the second level of the Titans defense

Starting point is 00:14:09 was so good against the run in this game. And again, it allowed them to play run defense in nickel with five defensive backs on the field, which also allows them to stay prepared and ready for that passing offense, which is the real fear for the Titans. They want to make sure that they're in a position to cover the pass, first down, second down, third down, at all times. But you can only do that in nickel,

Starting point is 00:14:34 and you can only play nickel if you can stop the run in nickel. And the Titans can. Because of Tartt and Simmons, and because of the physicality of their defensive backs. That's why the Titans' run defense was number one in the NFL last year, despite playing a ton of nickel all year long. That's why. And they saw it.

Starting point is 00:14:53 And the Chargers ran for 60 yards after rushing for 200 last week. That's not an X's and O's. That's not a cover three run blitz. That's just the physical nature of a Mike Vrabel football team. What they require on defense in Tennessee. That is a culture win right there for the Titans. More than scheme. But getting into some schematic things.

Starting point is 00:15:17 The Titans were able to, because of Harold Landry's versatility to line up as an edge rusher or as a standoff linebacker. The Titans ran a ton of 4-3 in this game, where they had Harold Landry as an off-ball linebacker on the second level, and then they would have Danico Autry or Arden Key as a defensive end, and then they would literally have three defensive tackles. T.R. Tartt, Kyle Pecco, Naquan Jones, Jeffrey Simmons. They would have three of those guys as three of the four defensive linemen,

Starting point is 00:15:44 with Jeff Simmons or Kyle Pecco as the defensive end. And then Autry, the defensive end on the other side. And then they would have Landry, Aziz, and Gibby as the three linebackers, and they would show a four-man front and a 4-3. The Titans can play a 3-4 or a 4-3 because Harold Landry is the fulcrum that that can pivot off of. And that's why I said that he was worth paying. Now, Landry hasn't played too well at the beginning of the year,

Starting point is 00:16:09 but his presence and his skill set still allows the Titans to be versatile and multiple up front. And that's big because you can come out with two tight ends on one side and the Titans will say, okay, we'll go with a five-man front and show a 3-4 so that we have width on the line of scrimmage. Oh, you want to stack things up and have your tight ends even? Oh, you want to put a fullback in the backfield?

Starting point is 00:16:36 We're going to go to a four-man front so that you don't have any kind of numbers advantage if you go this way or that way. I mean, the versatility of Harold Landry allows them to do this. So that's how run defense went. The Titans could get a line correctly because of the versatility and multiplicity of their front. Their physical defensive backs were able to come in and help and run defense,

Starting point is 00:16:57 and their interior defensive line up front dominated and were able to win against double teams. Tennessee Titans football. It was absolutely miraculous. But what I want to talk about now is the disguises that the Titans did in the back end. The Titans played so much cover two in this game, which is something that we talked about on Friday.

Starting point is 00:17:14 I wanted to see the Titans play a ton of cover two, limit the explosive plays of the Chargers offense, don't give them anything free downfield, don't put your cornerbacks on an island on the sideline too often in man coverage. Have a safety deep at all times. And the Titans did that. But the way that they got to those looks,

Starting point is 00:17:30 excuse me, I get too excited when we break down disguised defenses, but the Titans were showing two high safeties, rolling a safety down to being single high, and then going back to cover two anyways. I mean, that is diabolical from Shane Bowen. That, I mean, how as a quarterback, you're in two high, at snap, they rolled a single high. Okay, it's cover three.

Starting point is 00:17:56 It's man one. For the safety to then back out and get deep half and play cover two again? Woo! My lord. And then other times they were showing too high, rolling down and just playing cover three from that. So it's like, I don't know what you're going

Starting point is 00:18:12 to do because you're doing everything that you could possibly do and things that teams don't do. Okay? On that first sack of the game, the Titans muddled the A-gap. They had six guys on the line of scrimmage with Aziz Alshire and Elijah Moulton walked up over top of the center.

Starting point is 00:18:29 So six guys on the line of scrimmage. All right. They drop out into cover three. And Sean Murphy Bunting makes an incredible play as a deep third coming inside a little bit more and covering the seam route down the hash. Takes it away. Nobody there.

Starting point is 00:18:46 Autry wins one-on-one. Sack. I mean, it's just a total team effort and the disguises that the Titans are showing and showing pressure and backing out and showing pressure on the right side and then coming from the left side with a slot blitz. All of those different things are just confusing Justin Herbert

Starting point is 00:19:02 and making him wait just a split second longer to make the throw and make the decision. And those split seconds mean everything, mean everything. So the Titans rolling their coverage, disguising their coverage, doing different things and ultimately getting themselves into two high looks and cover two so that Justin Herbert can't get anything down the field and create any explosive plays. That is what won the game for the Titans on the defensive side of the ball. The disguises and the incredible run defense. It got the job done. So with that being said though we're going to kind of zoom in a little bit. I want to talk about an individual performance

Starting point is 00:19:40 from Dylan Radins who came in and played 50 plus snaps after tearing his ACL against the Chargers in December. And he was the Titans' best offensive lineman on the day. So we're going to get into that in just a moment. Before we do, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix. Look, guys, PrizePix is daily fantasy sports made easy. All you do is pick two to six players and say

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Starting point is 00:21:31 We talked about Tim Kelly and his coordination of the offense. We talked about the disguise of the defense and the physical run defense that they played as well. Now I want to zoom in, talk about Dylan Radins and his performance out there and his return from an ACL injury. Before we get into that, thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round on all apps,

Starting point is 00:21:58 always for free. Make sure you get subscribed, stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast. You're not going to get this kind of podcast content anywhere else. There is nobody else breaking down the film in podcast form like I am, providing you places to go to look at the film work, Sports Illustrated, AllTitans.com where I write, my Twitter account at TicTacTitans.com. You guys got to make sure that you follow my work,

Starting point is 00:22:24 both those places as well, so you get the full picture of what we talk about. But I want to dive into Dylan Radin's performance here. He was the highest graded Tennessee Titans offensive lineman per pro football focus with a 74.3 overall grade. He had an 85.2 in run blocking, and the film matches those grades, ladies and gentlemen. Let me just tell you that.

Starting point is 00:22:48 Now, he did struggle in pass blocking. 41.7 grade there. Gave up zero sacks, but did give up three pressures. So, Dylan Radins played well. But at the end of the day, it's still a mixed bag. And it's his first game back from an ACL tear. He wasn't expected to play because he wasn't expected to be the starter. The Titans said,

Starting point is 00:23:06 man, we don't necessarily want to put Raidens out there right now, but we got to because Xavier Newman Johnson was so bad. And Raidens stabilized the ship. Not only was he better than Xavier Newman Johnson, again, he was the highest rated Tennessee Titans offensive lineman all day.

Starting point is 00:23:21 And let's talk about what I saw on tape. With Raidens, he is a better positional blocker than a drive blocker. So he's somebody who kind of just gets in the way and uses his body to shield the guy that he's supposed to be blocking rather than actually driving them back off their spot. Now, you may think I'd rather have a guy who drives the guy off their spot. I would too. But at the end of the guy who drives the guy off their spot, and I would too, but at the end of the day, it's about getting the job done. And a lot of the runs that the Titans execute, zone runs, at the end of the day, it's just about positioning. That's why a guy like

Starting point is 00:23:55 Taylor LeJuan was very successful with the Titans. More of a positional blocker than a guy who's literally going to drive a guy back because of his strength. Dylan Radins is more of an athlete than he is like a road grading offensive lineman. You know what I mean? So he just uses that athleticism, gets his body in the way of guys and lets the running back run off his butt. And that works and that wins. He did a pretty good job at times climbing up to the second level and again, positioning. Just getting in somebody's way to continue to open the hole. That's huge. In pass protection, it's not as great.

Starting point is 00:24:28 It's not. Because here's some of the problems. Radins has terrible balance, man. I mean, he just can't stay upright. There was a time during the game where he pulled from the left-hand side to the right side and he needed to kick out Joey Bosa. He makes great contact with

Starting point is 00:24:45 Bosa. He's in great position, but he just kind of gets a little top-heavy. Bosa is able to get right around him and get him off balance, and Radins falls over. The initial contact on Bosa is good. He's in the right spot, but he just can't hold his balance and, again, drive a guy backwards. It's just not what he does. He has some balance issues. He can get a little over his toes, and he leans forward trying to get movement because he knows he, one, isn't a great drive blocker, and he doesn't have a great punch. Radins doesn't have strong hands

Starting point is 00:25:13 where he hits you with his hands and can knock you back. He doesn't have good knockback. He doesn't. So he got the Joey Bosa, was right there, but he doesn't have a great punch to get hands on him, and he kind of loses his balance as he's trying to go forward to make up for that, and that can get him in bad positions. At the end of the day, though,

Starting point is 00:25:33 and Radins really struggles against stunts, and teams are starting to really stunt hard to the left side of the offensive line. The Chargers definitely did with Skowronski out, but that was happening against the Saints because they're going after Dillard. So if you have Dillard and Radins who both have balance issues,

Starting point is 00:25:49 who both don't have strong punches, who are both kind of liabilities in pass protection, then teams are going to stunt and twist and go after them all game long. And that's kind of what happened. So it's a mixed bag from Radins. Definitely better than Xavier Newman-Johnson. Definitely like what I saw from him in run blocking

Starting point is 00:26:06 and positionally moving guys around. Hopefully he gets better in space and more comfortable in space as the knee just gets more comfortable. It's his first game back from Nacy Altair. Same thing as we talk about with Harold Landry, who hasn't played well in two weeks. Got to give those guys a little bit of time before we start to criticize them too heavily.

Starting point is 00:26:22 But I think what it comes down to is, I still think that Dylan Radins is one of the top five offensive linemen on this team. Like, if you get the best five offensive linemen on the field, I think Radins probably is out there. Now it becomes difficult with Skoronsky. Skoronsky at left tackle and then Radins at left guard with, honestly, Brunskill at center, NPF at right guard, Hubbard at right tackle.

Starting point is 00:26:47 That might be the Titans' best five in the middle of the season because Aaron Brewer is struggling and Andre Dillard is struggling. Now, I don't think that's going to happen. I think that Radins goes back to the bench when Skowronski is back in a couple of weeks. But next week, Radins has to start at left guard from the get-go. Absolutely has to happen, but with that being said, folks, that is going to complete my week two all 22 film review.

Starting point is 00:27:12 Remember, go to my Twitter account, at TicTacTitans. Go to alltitans.com on Tuesday. I'm going to have full film breakdowns. You guys can see what I'm talking about here. It'll be very interesting. I was able to break down and kind of give you guys an idea of what I'm seeing. I do this

Starting point is 00:27:28 every single week to make sure that you never miss it. And I hear all you YouTube people, it's Mondays. I've never seen people so ungrateful to get stuff early. Killing me out there. Killing me. But anyways, with that being said, that is going to do it for this Tic

Starting point is 00:27:43 Tac Tuesday of week two. As always, I am your host, Tyler with that being said that is going to do it for this Tick Tack Tuesday of week two as always I am your host Tyler Rowland gotta time out the outro right and this was Locked on Titans

Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans BRILLIANT Offense Outsmarts Chargers, Defense Confuses Herbert & Dillon Radunz Recap

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