Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Lose to Houston Texans, 22-13: Takeaways, #TitanUpTitanDown & Therapy Session

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

The Tennessee Titans lost in embarrassing fashion to the Houston Texans on Sunday, 22-13. Tyler gives you his big takeaways on offense, defense & special teams! Why did the Titans lose this game. Spoiler Alert: TURNOVERS!! Then, Tyler gets into the individual performances in #TitanUpTitanDown. Finally, Tyler talks you off the ledge and eases your concerns about the Titans going forward with the Titans Therapy session.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.StatHeroStatHero is the first of its kind Daily Fantasy Sports platform where it’s YOU vs. the HOUSE in head to head fantasy matchups - winner take all. Sign up for FREE - RIGHT NOW - at StatHero.com/LOCKEDON and use promo code LOCKEDON for a One Hundred Percent Deposit Match. 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 Misery Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast as the Tennessee Titans lose at home to the Houston Texans 22-13. I'm breaking down exactly what happened in this disaster of a game for the Titans. We're going to look at my big picture takeaways on offense, defense, and special teams. Then we're going to zoom in, look at the individual performances, both good and bad, and tighten up, tighten down.

And ultimately, I will talk you all off the ledge with a little bit of a therapy session to end our show. So all of that on this Misery Monday 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. It was a massacre out there for the Titans as they lose to the Texans and drop to 8-3. I'm going to go over my big picture keys to the loss,

exactly what happened out there, my takeaways from the offense, defense, and special teams before I get into that. I 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, make sure that you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. You can find the Titans podcast on basically whatever platform you can listen to podcasts.

And the best part, it's always free. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Locked on Titans YouTube channel where I do the show on video Monday through Friday. Make sure you smash that notification bell so you know when all of my content goes live. Follow me on Twitter for all my film breakdowns at Tic Tac Titans and check out the show Facebook page at Locked onTitansPod as well. But diving into this game, got to start with the offensive side of the ball. And the number one thing that was my key to victory coming in was the turnovers.

The Texans defense had nine interceptions on the year. They were top 10 in interceptions in the NFL. The Titans had thrown a bunch of interceptions on the season with eight of them, and Ryan Tannehill threw four interceptions in this game. Now, the reality is not all of them were his fault. On at least two, by my count, it looks like it was Des Fitzpatrick's fault cutting off his route, not running the correct route. And, you know, I may not know the exact play call, so it's still somewhat of an educated guess. But in the game on a critical third down in the second half, Ryan Tannehill

had to ask Dez Fitzpatrick twice, Dez, you got it? Dez, you got it? On an audible that he made. So clearly there's a lack of trust in Dez Fitzpatrick, knowing what routes to run, knowing where to be. And Tannehill threw two interceptions trying to get the ball to him. Now, I'm not going to crush Des Fitzpatrick coming up from the practice squad onto the active roster and get some early plays. He did catch a touchdown in this game, but it just goes to show you that it's not all of Ryan Tannehill's fault, but at least two of those interceptions right now, I can tell you, were just terrible decisions and terrible throws.

And the first interception Ryan Tannehill had on the day put the Texans within their own 10-yard line. You just cannot do that when you're in the red zone and losing in a game in the first quarter. You just can't force in a pass like that. And outside the turnovers, well, one more, the Chester Rodgers. Muffed punt where the ball goes off his foot. I mean, just a boneheaded mistake from Chester Rodgers. Another

turnover for the Titans that put the Texans directly inside their own 10-yard line. And those two turnovers right there specifically turned into 10 Houston Texans points. So, I mean, the offense overall, it was ugly early on, but they were able to move the ball against this terrible Houston Texans team. They had 420 total yards. They had 26 first downs. I mean, the Titans were able to move the ball for the most part,

but five turnovers in a game on fourth down opportunities. They missed two of those. So, I mean, you go two of game on fourth down opportunities. They missed two of those. So, I mean, you go two of four on fourth down. It's basically like two turnovers right there with the turnovers on downs. That's basically seven turnovers for the Titans in the game. You play offensive football like that. It's impossible. But, you know, I kind of mentioned this when we talk about Des Fitzpatrick

not necessarily knowing where to be. But the Titans are out there with a skeleton crew. Two big things. You don't have AJ. You don't have Julio. You don't have Derrick Henry. You don't have Marcus Johnson. You don't have Jeff Swaim. Your starting offense is gone. Literally, your number one tight end, your number one running back, and your top three wide receivers. Gone. The offensive line is one of the worst pass protection offensive lines in the league what is Tannehill to do

and the Titans still almost had a chance to win the game I mean what is Tannehill to do anyways moving forward special teams Randy Bullock misses an extra point and it turned out you know to be a big deal, obviously with the Titans down nine at the end of the game.

Not to mention the Chester Rogers special teams blunder. Then Mike Vrabel, the Titans score their second touchdown. It's 19-12. Do you kick the extra point or do you go for two? You go for two. If you don't get it, you're still only down seven. So you're still in the game. One score.

Regular touchdown, an extra point. If you get it, now you're down five. And even if they kick a field goal, you're still within one score, eight points. But Vrabel did the worst thing that you could do. He kicked a field goal. and put the Titans down six. Now, if the Texans score a field goal, you're down nine. What is the risk? If you don't get it, you're still only down seven. That was a confusing play

from Mike Vrabel. The last thing that I wanted to talk about is the defense. I'm not going to give the defense a bunch of blame. Yeah, the pass rush wasn't super there, but the Texans were getting the ball out quick. They were targeting Chris Jackson on the outside on short, quick throws over and over. The Titans basically were able to stuff up the run game for the most part outside of a couple of drives in the first half. I mean, with the situation that the Titans were put in on defense with five turnovers, basically seven turnovers with the turnovers on downs, what are we expecting? They held the Texans to 190 total yards on offense,

101 passing yards for Tyrod Taylor. They only had 83 rushing yards on the game, the Texans. I mean, the defense did the job. The defense was fine. And they got the ball back to the Titans offense a bunch in the second half when they needed to. So I'm not blaming the Titans defense at all in this game. They're dealing with it.

They're handling their business. It was the offense for the Titans, the turnovers, and the special teams that really let them down. They're the two-faced titans. They can beat the best team in the NFL at any time, or they can lose to the worst team in the NFL at any time. It's unfortunate, but that's where they're at. And we're going to talk about the individual performances next

and tighten up, tighten down. And spoiler alert, I got a lot more downs than I have ups this week. But before we get into that, I do want to remind you guys about DirecTV Stream. Does this sound familiar? You've got one device that lets you catch the game live, another that lets you stream your favorite shows, you're watching sports highlights on your phone,

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here on the Locked on Titans podcast. We're going to talk the individual performances and tighten up and tighten down before we end the show. Doing a little therapy session as I try to maybe talk you guys off the ledge after this tough loss. But I do want to thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Let's get into tighten up and tighten down.

Starting with the tighten down stuff for me. Ryan Tannehill, I know that I said it wasn't all his fault, and it certainly wasn't, but he had a few high throws that went over his guys' hands that almost turned into more other interceptions. He had the intentional grounding at the end of the first half that stopped the Titans from getting three points, three points that they really needed.

I thought that he didn't keep the ball on a critical fourth down when he handed it up the middle. And of course, he threw four interceptions, two of them being really bad decisions that he made. So Ryan Tannehill has got to have a tight end down, even though I gave him a bunch of qualifiers. He was 35 for 52. Anytime Tannehill has to throw the ball 50 times,

it's a recipe for disaster. 323 yards, the one touchdown to Des Fitzpatrick, and four interceptions. Not good. Not good. Sacked twice in the game. So Tannehill's got to get a Titan down because it's just the rules, guys. It's just the rules.

Uh, Adrian Peterson, he had a couple of good runs, uh, nine for 40, but stuffed on a first down. The Titans brought him in to be a short yardage guy that they could count on. And he really has shown to,

to not have a good propensity to find those, those tiny creases on important down stuffed on a fourth down. Um, not a terrible day. I feel bad. I'm going to take him out of the Titan down. Not a terrible day. I feel bad. I'm going to take him out of the tight end downs. But I was disappointed with that fourth down play. It really caught my eye, or is what it came down to.

A.J. Brown. Five catches for 84 yards. Finished the game in the locker room. It just seems like every time A every time AJ has a bad play, he ends up hurt afterwards. He drops a pass over the middle, oh, my hand hurts. Drops a pass on the sideline,

my shoulder hurts. Now, I'm sure his injury is real, but it's just so weird. I'm not casting judgment on him, saying that he gets, you know, but it's just so strange that every time he has a bad play, he ends up hurt. And that drop, the first drop on the first drive,

I just thought it wasn't typical AJ putting himself out in the middle and making a play. So I'm kind of disappointed by how he's played here in recent weeks. Anthony Ferkser, I know that he dove on top of the fumble in the end zone to get a touchdown. dove on top of the fumble in the end zone to get a touchdown. But the one catch that he had that was on a critical third down, he had to get two yards, and he couldn't even lean forward and get the first down.

Just not a great year for Anthony Fergster, despite the five catches for 26 yards. Been disappointed with this play. David Questenberry struggled in this game. Roger Saffold struggled in this game primarily with pass protection. The Titans were able to run the ball okay. They went over 100 yards, but the pass protection just wasn't there again consistently

for Ryan Tannehill. Danico Autry, Ola Dainey, Harold Landry on the edges. I thought that they didn't have a great game getting an edge pressure, and they got sucked too far inside on both the touchdown runs for Tyrod Taylor. Just can't have that happen. Chris Jackson targeted again a bunch in the first half over and over.

I know he's dealing with a foot injury, so I don't want to crush Chris Jackson here. He is banged up, and he's trying to go out there and play. While Jackrabbit Jenkins didn't play in this game. The Titans are trying to patch it together. No Greg Maven. I mean, Chris Jackson's trying. He's going out there and he's trying his best, but with him banged up right now with the foot injury, it's just not good enough and people are picking on him. Plus, they know the Titans are going to run cover four and cover three on early downs, so people know that the cornerback, because they don't want to get beat deep on their deep third,

the cornerback's going to have some depth, and it's going to make it easy to throw those passes to the sideline and just get easy completions on first down. So, tighten down for Chris Jackson. Chester Rogers, I mean, what are we doing here? What are we doing here, man? I mean, that was despicable. That really broke the back of the Titans.

Next, Des Fitzpatrick. He had the three catches for 35 yards, had the touchdown. I feel bad putting him in the Titan down section, but two interceptions, he didn't run the right route. I mean, what are we doing? What are we doing out here? I feel so bad for Tannehill, man. Oh, that poor guy.

That poor guy. Anyways, moving right along. Randy Bullock misses the extra point. Can't miss extra points, man. The guy misses extra points more than he misses actual field goals nowadays. It's crazy. Just another weird blunder for the Titans. Mike Vrabel not going for two. I explained the decision in the first segment, but what the heck was that? What the heck was that, Mike? I am shocked that he made that bad of a call. What are we doing? Gotta go for two there.

There's no downside. You're down a touchdown if you don't get it. Either way, moving right along. The Titan ups. A little positivity here to finish things off before we go into a therapy session. Dontre Hilliard. Seven catches, or seven carries, 35 yards. That's five yards per carry. He's run the ball about as good as I've seen

since Derrick Henry got hurt. He also was the third leading receiver for the Titans in yards with 47. Had the most catches on the day with eight. I mean, and he fumbled forward into the end zone so that Ferkser could get on it. He did that on purpose. Yeah, let's just go with that. Let's just go with that. So, great day from Dontrell Hilliard,

who really stood out. Returned some kicks as well. Thought he played well. Nick Westbrook-Akina, 7 catches, 107 yards. Really was there for Ryan Tannehill when he had no one left. So really impressed with NWI on the day. I also thought Taylor LeJuan had a pretty good day.

Always have to watch the tape to know for sure with the offensive line, but just my initial thoughts, my initial reaction here is that Taylor LeJuan did have a good day from what I was seeing out there. I thought the interior defensive line, Tahir Tart, Jeffrey Simmons, Kyle Pecco, Naquan Jones, I thought those guys all had a pretty good day. The Titans really stuffed the run of the Texans. Like I said,

they only had 83 yards. So, I thought the interior defensive line of the Titans did good. And also Dylan Cole got some snaps at linebacker and I thought he played all right. I really did. I thought he played okay. Jayon Brown, 14 tackles. I mean, he had to be all over the place on the day. So I'm going to give him a tighten up and Elijah Molden. That's the big one for me. Elijah Molden had a great day, had a big hit to force the Texans to punt. He got some bad spots early on. The Texans did a good job of finding a way to get Elijah Molden on Brandon Cooks one-on-one on third down situations. But when the Titans didn't have Elijah Molden on Cooks, he did a great job. He had to be responsible for the tight end a lot in this game, and he knocked the ball out of Brevin Jordan's hands a couple of times. I thought Elijah Morton had a fantastic game in this one, so good to see they're finding the positives as we go along, but I'm going to do a little therapy session for you guys to end today's show. I know that it was a bad loss, but I'm going to tell you why it's not

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football action. BetOnline.ag has you covered for all of your holiday bets. So go to BetOnline where they're stuffed with deals for this Thanksgiving. Titans fans, we are going to cap off this Misery Monday with a little bit of a Titans therapy session. I'm going to talk you guys off the ledge a little bit here after a terrible loss to the Houston Texans. Before we do that, though, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day.

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and Lee Sterling's lock of the day. So make sure that you check out the Locked on Bets podcast presented by betonline.ag, wherever you get your podcasts. So taking a look at what happened in the AFC over the weekend, well, at least as I'm recording this, the Chiefs are up 9-3 on the Dallas Cowboys, so they're probably going to win that game and go to 7-4.

The Patriots won on Thursday night football. They have moved to 7-4. That's a huge game for the Titans next week. They play down to their competition, but they do usually play up to their competition as well. So hopefully the Titans have a good performance next week. The Colts absolutely throttled the Bills. So the Bills are 6-4. The Colts

move to 6-5. Something to watch for the Titans as they're now at three losses. They're going to have to stack some wins late in the season. Hopefully they get healthy. The Browns move to 6-5 on the year as they win 13-10 over the Lions. The Jaguars got

destroyed by the 49ers 30-10. So overall, the Titans have a lead still in the AFC. The Ravens, the Ravens game, looking for the final score of that. The Ravens did win against the Chicago Bears, 16-13. So the Ravens are right there, right behind the Titans as well. They're 7-3 now, tied with the Titans. But conference record, the Titans should be good to go for the number one seed still. And they have an extra win.

So the Titans are still at the top of the AFC. So we'll use that as a jumping off point here. A big game against the Patriots that if the Titans win next week, it's all okay. Everything's okay. So here's what I'll say. Right now, the Titans have so many injuries. So many injuries.

That, I guess my optimism for the end of the year isn't shaking. If they could just get some guys healthy. Julio's on IR. Bud Dupree's on IR, which happened over the weekend. If these guys can take that IR stint and get healthy, the Titans will be fine. The Titans will be fine.

The schedule is still very soft. After that Patriots game, the Titans finally get their bye week. Then they come out and they get to play the Jags. So they should be able to get a win there. It's coming out of the bye. They play Pittsburgh, who looks pretty rough overall. I think it's going to be a tough game, though. I'm not going to lie to you.

But then, they're going to get to play San Francisco at home. They're going to get to play Miami at home. They're going to get to play San Francisco at home. They're going to get to play Miami at home. They're going to get to play the Texans again. And the Titans should win that game. So, still a soft schedule going down the line. The Titans' problems right now aren't because they aren't good. Because they're not a great football team. It's the injuries.

They've just finally caught up to the Titans. They're out there on offense with a practice squad lineup. And in this game, the Titans still would have been able to win, but there were just weird blunders throughout. The rain pouring down. I mean, there were a lot of factors. I'm not making excuses for the Titans losing the game. I'm just saying there are a lot of reasons why the Titans looked really bad in this game.

And there's no way that I am going to expect that they're going to continue to look like that. Everything's going to be fine here if the Titans can get healthy. Now, that's a big if. I understand that. But my overall point is the Titans aren't a bad football team. They aren't any worse of a football team than what we thought they could be after the six game win streak. They're not. They're just not as healthy. You're missing Bud Dupree. You're missing Julio. AJ didn't play the second half.

You're missing Derrick Henry. Don't forget that. I know this is our new normal. I hate that term, but you guys know Derrick Henry. Don't forget that. I know this is our new normal. Hate that term, but you guys know what I mean. I'm just saying, don't give up hope. We got positive news on Derrick Henry on Friday from Diana Rossini saying that there is optimism right now that Derrick Henry could be back in early January for a playoff run.

So just don't panic. Nothing about this game changes the way that I view the Titans and their potential this year. The Titans can still win the Super Bowl. They still can get the No. 1 seed in the ASC. They still can make a deep playoff run. They're just going to need to get some of their key guys back

and going to need to get some of their key guys healthy, and I still believe that that can happen as we get closer to the season. The six-game win streak against the difficult stretch allowed the Titans some cushion to where they should make the playoffs still, and they can get these guys healthy for that run. So just everyone relax. It was a bad loss, but nothing about that loss changes the way I feel about the Titans going forward the rest of the season. Hope that makes you guys feel a little bit better. Hope there's a little bit more optimism in your Monday. I got great news

for you guys. I'm going to have a Tennessee Titans player on the show on Tuesday for an interview and it's the first time that's ever happened since I've been on the show. Very, very excited to debut that for you guys. I'm going to give you the opportunity to

guess, but it's a defensive player with a great attitude. And I can't wait to be back with you guys tomorrow to unveil it. So that's going to do it for me. Make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you