Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Malik Willis Flashes GREATNESS, Titans Complex Coverages & 2nd Half Offensive Issues

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

The Tennessee Titans almost pulled off an upset victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football, but fell short. A lot of folks are blaming rookie QB Malik Willis, but the tape tells a different story. Malik showcased all the traits that made him exciting coming out of college and got little help from those around him to do better. Next, the Titans coverage unit was more impactful than the pass rush on Sunday night, but how? Tyler goes over how the Titans used complex versions of Cover 1 and Cover 4 to make it tough on the Chiefs passing attack. Finally, what happened to the offense in the second half? One adjustment by the Chiefs and an absent offensive coordinator are the two biggest factors.#TicTacTuesday Film Thread: https://twitter.com/TicTacTitans/status/1589998886554247168?s=20&t=taeAlpT9RHEaBVisZRPWIwFollow 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.BlueNileMake your moment sparkle with Blue Nile. Go to BlueNile.com and use code lockedon to save fifty dollars on your purchase of five-hundred dollars or more.BetterHelpThis episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn and get on your way to being your best self. 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's rewatch Wednesday. That means it's time to step into the film room for my all 22 review of the Titans week nine loss against Kansas City. Let's deep dive into Malik Willis' second NFL start and I'll tell you why all the things that get you excited

about Malik Willis were evident on tape. Then we'll look at the defensive side of the ball. The Titans used one specific coverage in a multitude of different ways to take away Kansas City's favorite route. Then on offense, I'll tell you how Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing completely left the offense out to dry in the second half. 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 Rewatch Wednesday, my favorite episode of the week. Ready to dive into the film with you guys. Before we do, I want to let you know that today's Rewatch Wednesday is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before.

BetOnline, where the game starts. Also want to thank you guys for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. If this is your first ever listen or you just haven't subscribed yet, make sure that you stay locked into the Locked on Titans podcast for free Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content on all platforms all year round, including the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Subscribe there, smash the notification bell and throw a thumbs up on the video right now. It goes a long way to help support the channel.

Also, follow me on social media at TicTacTitans on Twitter. Great day for that as my TicTac Tuesday film thread is available. It's going to be down in the description for you guys as well to go through the actual film clips that I have posted on my Twitter account. Again, at TicTacTitans on Twitter. Check out the show Facebook page at Locked on Titans Pod. But let's talk about Malik Willis and his second NFL start.

And the number one thing that stood out to me is he had much more poise in this game. You could tell that the game was definitely going a lot slower for him than it was going in Houston. Now, obviously, it's not quite where you want it to be yet. You can tell that things are still moving pretty quick for him, that he's still trying to rush. And when you consider that the number one critique that people have for him and that the coaching staff had for him is to get the ball out of his hands

and stop holding the ball so long, it would make sense that maybe his process would be a little bit rushed. But overall, very, very impressed with the poise. And I thought Malik Willis, going through the tape today, Malik Willis exceeded my expectations. In the first half, Todd Downing did a good job of putting him in positions to succeed. We saw a rollout, backside rollout for Malik Willis. We saw a play-action bootleg as well that created opportunities for him to use his legs and get on the perimeter. We saw them use the read option, which got Malik

Willis one-on-one against a safety in the alley. He was able to shake him and get a good game. Not only that, but we saw some solid throws as well. We saw Malik Willis go towards the sideline, rolling outright, and throw the ball to Austin Hooper on one of the touchdown drives. And if you go back and you look at Malik Willis taking the pressure as he's rolling out, he throws the ball off one foot, falling backwards, but he has the arm talent to get the ball to the sideline and get it to Austin Hooper for a completion. It was absolutely fantastic.

There's no way around it. So not only do you get the off-platform rolling right throw to Hooper on the sideline, but then later in the drive, you get the back shoulder fade to Austin Hooper in the red zone to get the Titans down to the one-yard line. So you're seeing ball placement on things that you thought Malik Willis would have success with coming out of college. He was good at throwing the ball to the outside, and obviously he has the talent with his legs.

So you're seeing all the things that you thought you liked about Malik Willis in this game against Kansas City, maybe the best team, if not a top three team in the NFL. So all of that was fantastic. Now, you do got to mention some of the plays that didn't go well, but that were still very much pluses for Malik Willis. Three throws down the sideline. One, the one to Chris Conley.

Should have been caught. Perfect placement. Hit Conley right in the hands, right in the arms, and he dropped it. Then you have the throw down the sideline to Nick Westbrook-Akina. And yes, the throw could have been out a little bit further, but at the end of the day, you throw the ball up to your wide receivers, and we can't just count on the quarterback to nonstop make perfect pinpoint accurate passes all the time. At some point, some of the burden has to go to the receiving threat.

Make a play for your quarterback, your 6'4", your Nick Westbrook-Akina. Malik throws it down the sideline and gives you a chance to jump over top of a defensive back and use your best physical asset, your size, to make a play. And if Nick Westbrook-Akina catches that pass, gets the Titans down in the red zone, even if they get a field goal, they go up 20-9 and they win that game. Somebody help your rookie quarterback out. And then later, you have Malik Willis throwing a ball down the sideline in the final minutes of the game. And you got Cody Hollister blocking 30 yards downfield on the sideline

instead of looking for the pass and the ball hits his ankles. I mean, Malik made some really good throws in this game. And his wide receiver group just didn't help him out whatsoever. Now, I do want to be fair. There's the off- off target pass to Dontrell Hilliard in the red zone. I think the ball might have been tipped, but you would like to see him get it out a little bit earlier. He was a little too early getting off of Cody Hollister on a play. Cody Hollister comes across the formation. He's in the flat. There's a defender there kind of guarding Cody Hollister, but he comes up and he goes after Malik. Malik could have just dumped it to Hollister. It would have been about a 10 to 15

yard gain. So those are the things I'm talking about where he played with much more poise, but he's still rushing just a little bit. But those are really the only issues that I saw. We didn't have all the false starts, all the operational issues. And on the flip side, we saw off-platform arm talent and playmaking. We saw him use his legs and create yards in the run game. We saw the arm strength and the placement on the outside throws on the sideline. I mean, all of that is excellent stuff from Malik Willis with real examples in the game of plays where he showcased this ability. So, excellent stuff.

I thought, yes, a long way to go. We all know and we all admit Malik needs a red shirt year. But the progression that I saw from game to game in the preseason and then the progression that I saw from the Texans game to the Chiefs on the road, prime time, and maybe the toughest environment on the road in the entire NFL, I thought Malik Willis had a lot of good plays. And even though the stat line looks kind of ugly, if you go back and you go

through the game and you go through the tape play by play and look at what's going on, there was absolutely nobody open. No one open on six plays. And I have filmed to prove it. I'm going to put it out later this week. Six plays at least out of his 18 throws where no one is open with three-man routes. But overall again, secondary playmaking, off-platform throws, using his legs,

arm strength and placement on the sideline. A lot to like from what we saw from Malik Willis. Excited to see what he can be in 2023 and even 2024 if needed. But we're going to continue today's All-22 review. We're going to go to the defensive side of the ball. The Titans used cover one coverages, and they did it in a variety of ways. And it was just absolutely fantastic to watch. Not only that, but some cover four split field zone concepts in there

that I thought were excellent. And the Titans had a few wrinkles that I thought were pretty cool. And then ultimately one big fatal flaw that the Titans made on defense that ultimately got them beat in this game. So we're going to get into all of that. Before we do, I want to let you know that today's episode is sponsored by SimpliSafe. SimpliSafe home security is fantastic. I sponsored by SimpliSafe. SimpliSafe home security is fantastic. I am a SimpliSafe customer. I have two outdoor cameras. I have two indoor cameras. I have motion sensors in a few hallways. I have glass break sensors. I have door entry sensors. It's all

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SimpliSafe.com slash LockedOnNFL. There is no safe like SimpliSafe. Titans fans, let's continue today's re-watch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I can already hear the YouTube comments. It's Tuesday. It's Tuesday. Just be happy you get the content early. Before we move into my defensive review, do want to remind you guys,

at Tic Tac Titans on Twitter, my Tic Tac Tuesday film thread with the actual film clips going over everything that I'm describing. You can find a link to the Tic Tac Tuesday film thread down in the description. You don't have to have a Twitter. You can click on it.

It'll pop up and you can scroll through and just click play on all of the different clips that you want to watch. I think there's about 40 clips with the 150 plays that happened on Sunday Night Football. But we got to talk about the Titans coverages they used in that game because it was

amazing to watch. Before we get into it, I want to thank you guys for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. Make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. Tomorrow will be crossover Thursday. We'll talk to Cody Roart from Locked On Broncos and get some inside information.

Then I'll have a game plan Friday for you and then on Sunday I'll be here live after the game to break down whatever happens between the Broncos and the Titans. But looking at the defense, cover one. Cover one man. So man coverage across the board. And then one defender who's over the middle of the field as a zone defender

reading the quarterback's eyes. And then you have a deep defender who's covering anything deep. That is cover one man. So think about that. The general base generic cover one man coverage. We'll have a deep safety as the deep man, have a linebacker over the middle as

the over the middle zone man, and then the other defensive backs will be charged with playing man coverage against the five receiving options of the offense. Well, the Titans use cover one man but in a ton of different

ways. So one way that they would do it, the general sense, like I'm saying, linebacker is his own defender, deep safety is his own defender, everybody else in man. They would do it a different way where they would have two deep safeties and they would have one safety

drop down, let's say the safety on the field side. They're on the right hash. So to the left side where there's the most field, there's the boundary side and the field side. The field safety would drop down over the middle and then the other safety would drop back deep. They do it the other way too, where the safety closest to the sideline would be the guy who dropped down over the middle of the field and the guy with the most field to his side would go over the top to be the deep defender. Now, why were they doing this? They wanted to confuse Kansas City on where the help would come from.

And one specific route that Kansas City loves the most is the deep crossing route, the deep over, going across the middle of the field from the inside slot position. The Titans wanted to take that away. So think, for example, there's trips to the left side of the field, three guys and man coverage on those three players. You have two deep safeties. The safety to the side of the trips will go deep, and the safety to the opposite side of the trips will then slide into the middle of the field. If the Chiefs are running a deep crossing route from the inside most receiver, that

would mean that the opposite field safety sliding down into the middle can now take that deep crossing route and you got the guy who was in man coverage on the receiver initially and then the safety floating down from the opposite side of the field, and those guys together take away the deep crosser over the middle of the field. And here's an awesome wrinkle to continue that. Once the deep crossing route has gone further enough across the field, they would pass it off. The Titans defenders would pass it off.

So that deep safety that came over to take away the crosser would then start playing man coverage on that deep crossing route. And the cornerback that was initially in man coverage on the deep crosser, once he gets to the middle of the field and can pass off the receiver to that zone defender, then

he turns around and drops and becomes the middle field zone defender. They switch responsibilities during the middle of the play. I mean, it was incredible coverage. The Titans defensive line did not affect this game as much as it seems. It was coverage, coverage, coverage that won this game. And the Titans using different variations of cover one to confuse the Chiefs on who that middle of the

field zone defender would be, that was critical to slowing down Patrick Mahomes' progression and then ultimately creating coverage sacks. It was absolutely fantastic. Not only that, but when the Titans weren't playing cover man one, they would go with cover four. And I talked about split field coverage throughout the year. Look at the Raiders game in week three for the Titans, how they tried to take away Devontae Adams and Darren Waller at the same time. They would basically split the field down the half. There's three defenders on one side, and then there's four defenders on the other. And of course, four defenders are rushing the quarterback that leaves the back seven. So there'd be four defenders on one side,

and they're running cover four with two deep quarters and then some underneath guys, a flat and a hook zone. And then on the other side, they're running cover two where the deep safety has the deep half, and then you have two guys who are playing flat and hook. So what the Titans would do is if there were three receiving options to one side, that's the side they'd play cover four, and then there'd be two receiving options on the other side, and that's the side that they'd play cover two.

So they got cover four going on on one side, and they've got cover two going on on the other side. And the way that they do this, sometimes the Titans would have a safety, two cornerbacks, and a linebacker as the four on one side. Sometimes they would have a cornerback, a safety, two cornerbacks, and a linebacker as the four on one side. Sometimes they would have a cornerback, a safety, and then two linebackers on one side. So they were switching the variations of how they wanted to group those players

on either side of the field so they could take away what Kansas City likes to do. I mean, the coverage in this game was incredible. Again, check it out on my Twitter, at TicTacTitans. The last things I wanted to say here, a nice wrinkle that the Titans were using. The Chiefs use a lot of motion. The Titans would have one guy stick with the motion man like they were in man coverage, and that was their man responsibility. But then they drop back into zone.

That requires incredible communication about zone responsibilities, and it's just a nice wrinkle to confuse Patrick Mahomes a little bit. Hey, we're in man coverage. We're following that motion man directly. Oh, no, now we're dropping into zone. So that's a nice wrinkle. And the last thing I wanted to say was Patrick Mahomes was able to run the ball for 63 yards and break the Titans back,

getting out of the pocket. Rashad Weaver, he lost contain. He got too far up the field on multiple occasions. On the 17-yard run, or the 20-yard run, where Patrick Mahomes converted third and 17 on the last touchdown drive, and the touchdown run itself, the 14-yard scramble by Mahomes, both of those plays, Rashad Weaver lost contain as the edge rusher and opened up a wide open lane for Patrick Mahomes.

So there's your answer to that. You have to have rush integrity when you go against Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Pat Mahomes. And if you don't and you leave open rushing lanes for the quarterback, they're going to beat you with your legs. And that's exactly what happened to the Titans, despite excellent coverage plans that they had in this game. You're not going to find a better freaking film breakdown on the Titans

defense than that, baby. not going to find a better freaking film breakdown on the Titans defense than that, baby. Not going to find it anywhere. Subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast. Before we move into the offensive side of the ball, do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by Blue

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Titans fans, we are going to cap off today's rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast with the offensive side of the ball. Why did the Titans collapse in the second half? There are a few things to blame. We deep-dived into Malik Willis' start and what he looked like on tape. We talked about the defensive side of the ball. Before we get into the offense, I do want to thank you guys again for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. Now for your second listen, check out the Locked On Sports Today

podcast from the games that matter most to the biggest stories in sports. Go beyond the scoreboard and behind the scenes with local experts and insights only Locked On can provide. Locked On Sports Today, available on this app, YouTube, or wherever you get

your podcasts. On the offensive side of the ball, guys, I want to remind you, at Tic Tac Titans, look in the description, my Tic Tac Tuesday film thread, all of the film clips to go with what I'm describing so you can see all of it. You don't need Twitter.

Just click on the link, scroll through, have a day. It was a great, great film thread, and I hope you guys enjoy it and pair it with today's episode. But on offense, so what really blew my mind is just the lack of creativity in the second half with Malik

Willis. So it's second and eight in the second half. The Titans are in the shadow of their own goalpost. They just had a two-yard run by Derek Henry. It's second and eight. This would be a great time to run a read option with Malik Willis. How about the Titans do a lot of wildcat with Derrick Henry? How about doing that stuff with Malik Willis?

Quarterback sweep, quarterback counter, quarterback power. Heck, if you don't want to do any of that, how about a play-action bootleg? How about a play-action naked rollout? Any of that stuff? A little bit of jet motion with a fake jet handoff into a read option with Malik Willis and Derrick Henry? Anything like that?

No. What are we going to do? We're going to do a drop-back pass with Malik Willis like he's freaking Peyton Manning. Like, what are we doing here? What are we doing? Number one, number one,

you're not using Malik Willis creatively enough and you're making him do the number one thing that he shouldn't be doing right now, just pure drop back passing. And then the second thing is, how dangerous are you being to do something like that in the shadow of your own goalpost?

If you're not going to do something creative with Malik Willis to get him in a situation to succeed, then at minimum, just run the ball to Derrick Henry three times and then punt because you're in the shadow of your own goalpost and don't want to make a mistake. So either way, just a terrible play call. Then, in the game as well, it's 3rd and 15. The Titans are on the fringe of field goal range.

They need nine yards, nine yards to get a field goal. If it's third and 15 and you need nine yards, maybe run a draw, maybe run a screen. Again, maybe utilize Malik's legs and run a read option with a trail guy in front of him as a lead blocker. Do something like that. What you don't want to do is with Malik Willis making his second start ever in his rookie year, you don't want to have him just drop back to pass and then run five yard routes. Even if he completes the pass, you're only going to get five yards, not the nine yards you

need for the field goal. And again, you're asking Malik Willis just to drop back and pass like any old quarterback. We know that he's not ready to do that. You're literally putting him in a position that is the worst possible position he could be put in. and even if he succeeds, it's not going to be enough for you to get a field goal out of it on 3rd and 15. If you're going to do a drop back pass on 3rd and 15, have some routes that you could potentially pick up the first down

at minimum. It's mind-boggling to say the least. Then in the second half, Kansas City said, screw it, we're playing tight man coverage.

We're getting in your face every single time, no zone, tight man coverage, you have bum wide receivers, there's no way you're going to win one-on-one. There's no way you're going to do it. Malik Willis throws a guy open

three times, in my opinion, at least twice. If you're a hater, NWI and Cody Hollister throws them balls that should be caught, or Chris Conley and NWI throws them balls that should be caught, and they drop them. So not only are the Chiefs making it super tough because they're in tight man coverage, but Malik is still finding ways to get guys the ball in positions to catch the ball, and they drop it on him. Then, if you want to be pro Malik and give him a big leash,

you can talk about the Cody Hollister blocking down the field 30 yards when the ball hits his ankles. All he has to do is look for the ball, naturally slow up. You're either going to get a pass interference, or you're going to be wide open to make the play. We see it every single week in every game

where quarterbacks throw that back shoulder fade a little short to allow their wide receiver to pull up and get it. But no, nobody helped him. So not only are the wide receivers not helping Malik in the second half, but if a team, if you're playing Madden, if you're playing Madden and the other team that you're playing against is playing tight man coverage nonstop,

what do you do? You start running trips bunch. You start running bunch formations so that you can create traffic on the release for the wide receivers. You start running wide receiver stacks where you have two wide receivers stacked on top of each other

so they can switch release and you can confuse man coverage or create openings. You use man coverage or you use motion going back and forth so that you can create confusion and man coverage responsibilities for the defense. Did the Titans utilize at-snap motion? Did the Titans go into bunches? Did the Titans go into stacks?

Did the Titans use drag routes and crossing routes and mesh routes to get people open against man? No, they didn't. They did none of that. Why? How? I truly can't understand. I can't understand. I can't understand. The last thing that I want to say here is with the run game, the reason that the Chiefs were able to stop up the Titans' run game in the second half is because they smothered the B gaps.

So basically they were putting a guy either head up on the tackle or inside shoulder of the tackle, and then head up over the guard or inside shoulder of the guard. And what they were trying to do is they were trying to squeeze down. They'd have their defensive end kick in real hard on the snap because they're trying to squeeze down. What they were doing is they wanted to make the Titans' offensive tackle have to be the guy who climbs to the second level on the linebacker

instead of the Titans' guards. They wanted to kind of create traffic for the guards and make the center and the guard have to play one-on-one football and then the offensive tackle for the Titans is now responsible for climbing to the second level. Well, the Titans' offensive tackles are not as good as the Titans' interior offensive line, so it didn't work as well. And the Titans' interior offensive line isn't as good at winning one-on-one blocks. They want to get on the move, double team, climb to the second level.

The tight ends and the tackles are the ones who are primarily tasked with double team blocks and one-on-one blocks where they got to kick out and seal. So the Chiefs were smothering the B-gap, making it impossible for the Titans' interior offensive linemen to get up to the second level. That shifts the responsibility of the second level blocks to the tackles, creates one-on-one opportunities for the Chiefs defensive linemen against that interior offensive line.

They did a great job. The Chiefs made great halftime adjustments. They put all the Titans offensive linemen in situations where they're not their best. And hats off to Steve Spagnola and the coaching staff over in Kansas City for a great defensive game plan. But guys, I got to tell you, this may be the best rewatch Wednesday I've ever put together in depth, actual evidence. Make sure you guys check

out the Tic Tac Tuesday film thread that goes with this. That's going to do it for me today. I'll be back with you guys tomorrow for Crossover Thursday. I am your host Tyler Rowland and this was Locked on Titans.