Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Miraculous Comeback Win Over Ravens: Big Takeaways, #TitanUpTitanDown & AFC Recap

Episode Date: November 23, 2020

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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, this Victory Monday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by Pepsi. Thanks to a lack of natural athleticism or commitment or overbearing sports parents, fewer than 1% of 1% of 1% of people will ever play professional football. But instead of entering the NFL, they've joined another league, the League of Football Watchers.

This football season will be different and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day no matter how you watch. Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power through any game day because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game. It's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching. Go to madeforfootballwatching.com to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi.

And what an incredible football game we got to watch on Sunday from the Tennessee Titans as they go to Baltimore, go down 21-10 and find a way to come back and end up victorious in overtime 30-24. And I am breaking everything down on today's Locked on Titans podcast. To start off our show, I'm going to take a look at the big takeaways. Look at things from a broad standpoint. How were the Titans able to accomplish this victory? And what does it mean for them going forward throughout the season?

And then we are going to zoom in and take a look at some individual performances in everyone's favorite segment, Tighten Up and Tighten Down. So I'm going to take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from an individual perspective. And then we will cap off today's show taking a look at all the results that took place over the football Sunday that have an impact on the Titans' playoff chances. So of course, we're going to recap what took place in the AFC South, but also take a look at what happened in the conference as well and where the Titans sit right now after this victory over the Ravens.

So one of the more incredible comebacks in Tennessee Titans history. We're breaking it all down today on the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. An incredible victory for the Tennessee Titans when you consider the circumstances. victory for the Tennessee Titans when you consider the circumstances. One, a game against the Baltimore Ravens has so many playoff implications in the AFC that the result was absolutely critical on its own, but then also you consider the injuries that the Titans were dealing with going into this game. Obviously already missing their starting left tackle in Taylor LeJuan for the season with an ACL, but now without left guard Roger Saffold. Also dealing with a banged up center in Ben Jones

without your slot wide receiver in Adam Humphreys on the defensive side of the ball. The Titans are without their high-priced edge rusher Jadavion Clowney. Missing starting safety Kenny Vaccaro. Already missing Adory Jackson. so the injuries had piled up for the Titans but this was the biggest game of the year and they came out hot in this game to start things off the defense held the Ravens offense to a three and out to start the game the Titans came out responded Arthur Smith's opening script was fantastic the Titans go down the field and score at seven to0. The Ravens do rebound though and come back, get a field goal to make it 7-3, but then the Titans make their first big

mistake of the game. Ryan Tannehill is fooled by an exotic pressure by the Baltimore Ravens defense, throws an interception. It gives the Ravens fantastic field position, and they're able to go down and get another field goal. Now critical there that the Titans defense was able to hold the Ravens offense to field goals early. That mattered late. The Titans got the ball back after the Ravens had made the game 7-6 and had a 3-and-out of their own. The Ravens then capitalized, drove the ball all the way down the field including a 30-yard completion to Mark Andrews and a coverage that Joshua Kalou at safety just didn't handle very well. And then ultimately, the Ravens were able to get a touchdown with J.K.

Dobbins on a two-yard run, get the two-point conversion, and make a 14-7 game. The Titans luckily were able to have a 14-play, four-and-a-half-minute drive near halftime to make it 14-play, 4.5-minute drive near halftime to make it 14-10, but the Titans did go into half without the lead, and that's not where you want to be against a Baltimore Ravens team that really struggles when they're behind like the Titans showed them in the playoffs last year. The Titans come out of the gate and almost have the opposite,

the exact opposite result out of halftime. They have a three and out on offense and punt. The Ravens get the ball and score a touchdown on a deep 31-yard pass to, once again, Mark Andrews. Tight ends do give the Titans trouble. The score is 21-10 at that time, but from that moment, the Titans win the game 20-3. They really kick it on. They go down, get a field goal. Then, Imani Hooker gets an interception on Lamar Jackson. The Titans get the ball back again. Some questionable play calling here and there, but they get themselves a field goal, making it 21-16, heading into the fourth

quarter. And here's where the Titans really take over in the fourth quarter. They hold the Ravens offense to a punt to start the quarter. They come down. They score a touchdown on an incredible A.J. Brown score. I have not seen a touchdown like that in quite some time from a Tennessee Titans wide receiver. He literally broke four tackles on a critical third down in the red zone and is able to get a touchdown on the board for the Titans the first since their opening drive

of the game and that results in a 24 to 21 score that after the Titans are able to convert a critical two-point conversion then the Titans hold the Ravens to a field goal to end regulation 24 to 24 heading into overtime the Titans defense again up huge, is able to force a three and out led by a sack from Harold Landry, the only Titans sack on the day, but a critical one in a critical moment. And then the Titans get the ball back, drive 73 yards on six plays, led by Ryan Tannehill's precision passing along with some Derrick Henry runs and culminates with a long 29-yard walk-off touchdown for the King. But at the end of the day, what really won this game is when all the chips were on the

table. The Titans defense last four drives had an interception, a punt, a field goal, and then forced another punt. The Titans offenses last four drives were field goal, field goal, and then forced another punt, the Titans' offense's last four drives were field goal, field goal, touchdown, touchdown. At the end of the day, the Titans' season was on the line, and when it mattered most on offense and defense, they came up clutch. And speaking of coming up clutch, we need to talk about some clutch individual performances

from Sunday's game against the Ravens, and we are going to do that with tighten up and tighten down. So I'm going to give you my good and bad standout performances from the win over the Ravens on Sunday. Make sure that you follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. Let me know which of my tighten ups and tighten downs that you agree or disagree with. And if you feel like I missed any tighten ups or tighten downs, make sure to let me know. Once again, that's at Tic Tac Titans on Twitter.

But remember, after we do tighten up, tighten down, we are going to recap the AFC as well and let you know exactly where the Titans sit right now going into another critical matchup, a rematch against the Indianapolis Colts next week. So make sure that you don't miss that as well. Also, since we are talking about clutch performances, if you need something to come through in the clutch for you during your at-home workout, then you have to check out Echelon. When it comes to getting or staying in shape,

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This football season will be different, and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day, no matter how you watch. Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power through any game day, because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game It's made for those who watch it Pepsi made for football watching go to made for football watching Comm to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi Let's get into Tighten Up and Tighten Down and take a look at some individual performances, both good and bad, to go over from Sunday's victory over the Baltimore Ravens. Remember, as I mentioned earlier, make sure you follow me on Twitter, at TicTacTitans and let me

know your Titan Ups and Titan Downs and how you feel about my selections. But also, while you're doing that, make sure that you subscribe to the Locked On Titans podcast on Apple Podcast, follow on Spotify, Stitcher,

Google Podcast, whatever platform you do stream. Make sure that you're locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast. Tomorrow will be our Tic Tac Tuesday episode with the Tic Tac 4-Pack where I break down from an X's and O's standpoint the four most impactful plays from the game against the Ravens. Wednesday will be Rewatch Wednesday where I give you all of my additional schematic insights and analysis from rewatching the coaches tape

multiple times throughout the beginning of the week. Thursday is a crossover Thursday conversation, and we will be talking with Evan Sidery from Locked On Colts again to begin our preparation for the rematch. Friday will always be a Football Friday game preview here on the Locked on Titans with my keys to victory, my players to watch. We talk injuries, fantasy, gambling, and my game and score prediction each week.

So make sure you never miss any of the content that I'm putting out Monday through Friday all year long here on the Locked on Titans podcast by subscribing on whatever platform you do stream. But let's dive into the Titan Ups and the Titan Downs. And I am going to start with all of the positives to go over here. The Titan Ups. And number one, going to start on the offensive side of the ball. And we got to talk

about Corey Davis five catches 113 yards made a bunch of critical catches when it mattered most for the Titans on a ton of outbreaking routes as well gonna talk more about that in rewatch Wednesday maybe highlight some of that in some film later on throughout the week but the Titans made some great adjustments in the second half to how teams are playing them and have been all year. Been waiting on these adjustments all year. The Titans started kind of faking those inside crossers and then darting outside. It was great.

Corey Davis was who they were targeting on a lot of those. Like I said, five catches, 113 yards. Just a great day for Corey Davis and what's been a fantastic season for him so long. And especially after the family tragedy, you've got to be rooting for Corey Davis as hard as any player on this team. Cam Batson only had two catches for 21 yards and one rush for four yards. But his explosiveness, his speed, his wiggle out on the field, it's so noticeable whenever he does anything that I think his presence still helps the Titans out. So a Titan up for him, if maybe not the most highly weighted one of them all.

Henry, Derrick Henry, of course, the king, 28 carries, 133 yards, one touchdown. But what I want to mention is he had 37 yards at half. So how everyone talks about Derrick Henry wears on you, he beats on you throughout the game, wears you down. That's real. And we saw that take place. Derrick Henry had 96 yards in the second half and overtime of his 133. Also the late version of A.J. Brown. A.J. Brown had seven targets. He had two or three drops, or I would say two drops out of those seven targets. The one incompletion other than those two drops was on Tannehill. It was a bad read, a bad throw, a bad decision, so not blaming him. But other than

that, in the second half, A.J. Brown came to play he had four catches, 62 yards that incredible go ahead touchdown at the end of regulation so A.J. Brown went into superstar mode in the second half and specifically in the fourth quarter of this game

he had a terrible beginning of the game but really made up for it late with those four catches for 62 yards and a touchdown in the second half. Anthony Ferkser has had a different role with Adam Humphreys out. His importance has increased and the attention that he gets has increased. But four catches, 33 yards. Thought he was fantastic for the Titans. Made some critical catches on some third downs, some chain movers.

So Anthony Ferkser just doing his role. Four catches for 33 yards. How is that a tighten up? Cam Batson. These guys are superstars in their roles today. In their role. Critical. I know that you guys understand that.

Also, late Tannehill. Tannehill was pretty rough in the first half. He had his moments moments a lot of you guys were mad at me on Twitter for pointing out some of the inaccurate throws that he had he wasn't miserable but he just wasn't raising his teammates up when they needed him to make a play well he did that late 217 yards 15 for 18 and a touchdown in the second half, the Ravens are a very blitz-heavy team, and they were bringing the pressure and playing man coverage against the Titans for most of the day, and Ryan Tannehill stepped up when it mattered.

He completed 91% of his passes for two touchdowns against the Blitz on Sunday against the Ravens, going 8-of-8 with a touchdown in the second half. That's the highest completion percentage against the Ravens Blitz over the last 15 seasons with a minimum of 10 attempts. That comes from ESPN Stats and Info Guys. Teron Davenport retweeted that as well or tweeted that out as well. So Ryan Tannehill in the face of one of the blitz heaviest teams in the NFL, some of the most exotic pressures you will ever see. Tannehill stepped up in the second half and got it done. I

also want to shout out the offensive line. I thought Nate Davis and Dennis Kelly were fantastic. I thought Aaron Brewer in his first appearance or first start of the season was a big upgrade over Jameel Douglas. I thought David Questenberry came in and did a great job when Ty Sambrillo got hurt there late in the game. And I also want to shout out Ben Jones who didn't have a great day, but it's obvious he's fighting through a ton of injuries and a lot of pain. So shout out to him who also got poked in the eye during the game other than the injuries he was already dealing with.

On the defensive side of the ball, Amani Hooker and increased snaps. Finally got a start, strong safety. I thought he was great outside of that pick. He just made a lot of great plays in zone coverage, great plays in man coverage, had three tackles. Rashawn Evans had up and down moments, but overall he was aggressive towards the line of scrimmage. He always does a good job hanging with Lamar Jackson as best as possible. Had five tackles. Harold Landry was a stud. Four tackles. A tackle for

loss. The lone sack on the day for the Titans. Harold Landry was excellent. The Titans edges have to come to play when they play against the Ravens because you got to pin everything to the inside. Funnel everything inside. Landry was fantastic. I thought Breon Borders and Desmond King were excellent in coverage. The Titans mixed things up, but they played a ton of man on the day, especially in the red zone. I thought King and Borders did a pretty dang good job. And then Tyere Tartt and Daquan Jones, not fantastic, but at the nose tackle position throughout the day, I thought they did a pretty good job of holding the Ravens running backs down. J.K. Dobbins had about 70 yards, but other than that,

the Ravens running backs were ineffective because Tyre Tart, Daquan Jones, Jeff Simmons were clogging up the middle on special teams. Well, not completely special teams, but Will Compton was good on special teams, but when he came in for Jayon Brown, who got hurt in the game, I thought Will Compton did an excellent job, three tackles. Darren Bates was great on special teams as well. It makes you wonder why they have a guy like Nip Duzumnar on the roster when they had guys like Compton and Bates who do such a great job. I'll talk more about that in the Titan Downs. Gostkowski, everybody wants to hate on Gostkowski all the time, and I know that he misses kicks. I know

that he's missed eight kicks on the year, but this is why you don't change kickers every freaking week when he misses a kick. He made some big kicks at the beginning of the year to win the Titans games at the end of games. He made big kicks today. At the end of the day, you can't date forever. You have to settle down, young man man and the Titans settled down and I think it was the right decision I have stand for Gostkowski throughout the entire year through the

ups and downs and I will continue to do so three for three on the day made his only extra point attempt Gostkowski delivered for the Titans and then Logan Woodside and Nick Westbrook a king on that fake punt one completion seven yards really needed it got to give them a tighten up we are going to go into the Titan downs but before we do that I want to tell you guys about Built Bar the best tasting protein bar ever first time we had a promo code going with Built Bar you guys sold out their inventory and that was with their 12 original flavors now Now they have six brand new, even more delicious flavors, caramel brownie, cookies and cream, cherry barcia, lemon almond cheesecake, carrot cake, apple almond crisp, still covered

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mean, the opening drive was schemed up. So if you guys don't know, I will refer to it as the script, the opening script. So a lot of the time, pretty much every time, college football, high school football, definitely the NFL, the offensive coordinator or the play caller on offense will chart out what plays they run, the first 10, the first 15 plays that they want to run against the opposing defense based on what they saw on tape. So that's the opening script. The Titans usually do a pretty good job. Arthur Smith does a good job with that opening script and they're able to score on their first couple of possessions and that took place for the Titans on Sunday. They scored on that opening possession. They went right down the field, looked good.

Arthur Smith had a good script. He knew exactly what the Ravens were bad at on defense. He was lining up, had a fullback in the backfield, was attacking their man coverage. Did a pretty good job. And it resulted in that Jonu Smith touchdown in the red zone. So that was a great job. Good drive by Tannehill. But that was all schemed up

stuff. That was all stuff that was pre-planned. Of course your script should be well put together. If you have an entire week to plan out the first 10 to 15 plays and you don't do a good job, well that's not a very good sign for how you're going to adjust. So the Titans come out strong there, but after that, Tannehill just really didn't look good. Seven for 13, 42 yards, one touchdown, one interception in the first half, and I caught a ton of flack, so I'm going to spend some time on this. Tannehill is getting pressure. I understand that. I understand that. The drops are a problem. A.J. Brown had two. Corey had one. I think John might have had one in there as well.

So there were two or three drops in there in the first half. And drops have been a problem throughout the last few weeks. And then again, like I said, the pressure. It's on Tannehill. I get it. It hasn't been perfect. But here's the reality. Is when the Titans wide receivers are having some drops here and there.

When the offensive line is struggling to give good protection, when everybody on the offense is kind of playing blah, who's going to be the guy to make the play? Who's going to be the guy to hang in there in the pressure for one extra second and make an accurate throw? Who's going to be the guy that when he does have time to make the play is going to make an accurate throw? The reality is that Ryan Tannehill over the last five to six games has missed throws that

he has time to make and should make. Does that excuse the pass protection? Does that excuse the drops? No, but there are plays where the ball isn't dropped and he has time and he is not making the play. And at some point, you can't have your $100 million, 30-year-old-plus veteran quarterback being a guy who's making mental mistakes or just making mistakes similarly to your backup left side of the offensive line

or your second-year wide receiver. Out of those guys, the 30-plus-year-old veteran $100 million quarterback, the second-year wide receiver, the backup offensive lineman, who is the person who needs to step up and make a play? It's the $100 million quarterback. He's got to raise his teammates. You can't be a hundred million dollar quarterback and fall into the same lull that everyone else falls into yeah there's going to be drops yeah there's going

to be bad pass protection but it's Tannehill's job that when there is enough protection and there is a guy open he gets them the ball and throws an accurate pass so he wasn't holding up his end of the bargain over the last few weeks either. Not saying that, you know, everyone else is playing perfect. It's a team game. But I'm just saying that Tannehill has not been playing his best. Tannehill played great at the beginning of the year. We saw his best football last year. Tannehill had not been playing that well over the last five, four to five games. It's just a reality. I'm not saying that he played bad, played poorly, but he hadn't been playing his best football

or the top quality style of football we're used to now. And we're holding him to a higher standard. I'm not holding Tannehill to the Mariota standard. I'm holding him to the Tannehill standard. And he hadn't been playing good football the last four weeks. Well, that changed in the second half. And we talked about that in Tighten Up. But I just want to get that off my chest.

Got some heat on Twitter about that. And that's my best explanation. It's not all on him, but he is not holding up his end of the bargain at times either. But that changed in the second half. It changed in the second half. The Tannehill that we saw at the beginning of the year and last year they got on the same page he was dealing out there the Ravens defense was tired so water under the bridge and hopefully this is a springboard for Tannehill to get back on track and get hot again and start making some of those plays that

he was making earlier in the season and last season and showing that consistency really is what it comes down to. A.J. Brown was terrible in the first half as well. Zero catches, zero yards, two drops. He's really got to figure out the drops thing. It's obviously in his head, and although he made some big plays in this game, his hands have to be something that he's got to work on and that we've got to watch throughout the rest of the year. Ty Sambrillo, I thought was bad.

He gave up the forced fumble sack to Yannick Ngakwe. That's just Yannick Ngakwe is a bad matchup for him. But I thought Questenberry looked better in his spot snaps. So going to be curious to see what the Titans do going forward at tackle. Are they going to try Questenberry out now? Does Sambrillo slide right back in? Maybe Dennis Kelly goes to left tackle and Isaiah Wilson goes to right tackle. I severely doubt that, but just saying, you know,

we'll see how Ty Sambrillo is feeling afterwards, but I thought Questenberry did a pretty good job, as I mentioned before, but I didn't think Sambrillo did a good job. And Jameel Douglas as well, terrible. It's obvious that Brewer is a way better football player than Douglas Douglas came in for one snap snapped it over Derrick Henry's head for a 20 yard loss in the red zone a critical mistake Douglas quite frankly would probably get cut he shouldn't even be on this team at this point we've seen enough so

major tight down there for Douglas for Sanbrillo for the first half version of AJ Brown Ryan Tanne. Jeremy McNichols also was terrible in pass protection in this game, missed a bunch of his assignments. Jeremy McNichols is not a good guy running the ball. He's not a good guy catching the ball out of the backfield, so if he's blowing assignments in pass protection, there's really no reason for him to be on the field, but there's also a tight end down for Tony Dews, the running backs coach, for not being able to develop Derrick Henry enough for him to be consistent enough in that area to be on the field. The Titans, I'm going to talk about this on Wednesday, but the Titans offense really hurts

because Derrick Henry can't be out there on third downs or second and longs in a lot of situations. So if they were able to develop Derrick Henry a little bit better as coaches and get him better in pass protection, then maybe that wouldn't be such an issue and the Titans telegraphing what they're doing on offense we'll talk about that more on Wednesday on defense Jayon got hurt he's out for the season uh he dislocated and broke his elbow want to wish him a speedy recovery there's a good chance that's the last snap Jayon Brown will ever play for the Titans. It came on a dirty, dirty play to an illegal chip to the knee, an illegal chop block. So dirty play. It's unfortunate.

Jayon probably be gone from the Titans going forward. That's a reality I don't want to talk about. But the other reality that we do need to talk about is Jayon hadn't been playing very good football this year. He had bright spots throughout the year. He had certain segments of games. He had certain games where he played pretty solidly, but he had been playing the worst football of his career since his rookie year. You could maybe blame some of that on the coaching from Jim Haslett as well. It has to be a factor, but the Titans should be able to rebound from this, getting David Long back, playing a little bit of Will Compton on rundowns, playing

Kenny Vaccaro as a linebacker with Imani Hooker looking even better as a backup safety. So the Titans can deal with this injury because Jalen Brown, quite frankly, hadn't been playing that great. Now Jalen Brown had played 97% of the snaps for the Titans defense this year. I'm not doubting his importance. I'm just saying based on the level of play that he had given them this year, I think the Titans can use Will Compton on rundowns. He's a better run-stopping linebacker anyway. They can use Kenny Vaccaro on passing downs. I think Kenny Vaccaro is better in pass coverage than Jayon Brown anyway, and then give an increased role to Amani Hooker to take Kenny Vaccaro's role as that safety and allow Vaccaro to play more linebacker in passing down situations. backer and passing down situations so that's how I think that gets fixed it's a it's a loss you never want to see that for Jayon but I don't think it's something that can prevent the Titans from hitting their ultimate goals at the end of the day you're just going to need a little bit more from Amani Hooker and Will Compton two players who I highlighted early on in the day on Sunday on

Twitter as well moving to the next Titan down Malcolm Butler and I thought he played pretty good throughout the game but it's obvious that he is just terrible in deep zones on that touchdown to Mark Andrews it was a cover three and basically what happened was Malcolm Butler stayed with his man running a post too far inside and it left a wide open hole to find Mark Andrews above Amani Hooker who was supposed to be playing kind of a hook curl towards the sideline. So a blown deep coverage by Malcolm Butler. We saw that happen against the Texans earlier in the year on an inverted cover too. It's obvious that Malcolm Butler needs to be press man coverage at the line of scrimmage or playing a downhill flat and an underneath zone in a cover too.

He can't play deep zone down the field. He just doesn't have the wherewithal and zone coverage down the field to be able to do it. So a tighten down for him in that aspect, not for the entire game. And then got to talk about Trevor Daniel, the punter. I just don't see it. I don't get it. Had a 52-yard punt, but had a 41-yard punt. I mean, just a colossal failure by the organization that he's still on the team.

And whatever he does going forward that's bad is on the organization and on Mike Vrabel and on Craig Ackerman. It's not on him. He shouldn't be in this opportunity. He should be off the team. Jeremy McNichols, well, McNichols, whatever, but Jameel Douglas and Trevor Daniels should not be on this football team by next Sunday, period.

They serve no role on this team. Get them off this team. Along with Nick DeZubnar. Okay, if we have Will Compton, if we have Darren Bates, who both help on special teams, Compton can actually play some defense, which DeZubnar can't. And Bates really can't. So, if we have Bates and we have Compton, why is Nick DeZubnar out there? I saw him get washed away from his rushing lane multiple times in coverage today on special teams units.

Nick DeZubnar has been a bust of a signing for John Robinson as a special teams ace. He is far from that. And he had a penalty today on a return. So just serving no purpose. DeZubnar, Jameel Douglas, Trevor Daniel, maybe Jeremy McNichols. I don't really see the purpose for them going forward. And then finally, a great job to end the game. A good opening script. But Arthur Smith, baby, what is you doing? They're on the two late drives that resulted in field goals one when Jamil Douglas comes in

you don't run a wildcat play on his first play to have that snap over Derrick Henry's head we can blame Douglas but Arthur Smith should never have called that play on Douglas's first snap in the game that's way too critical of a snap from the center to do that. You run something under center with Ryan Tannehill, get the ball in his hands, or you have Tannehill at center. So it's just a normal play for Jameel Douglas. Running a fancy back-of-the-playbook wildcat play with your third-string center or backup center is just a terrible idea. So I don't know what you're doing there, Arthur.

And then some of the red zone plays and some of the substitutions that were made in the red zone on those final two field goals, just really baffling from Arthur Smith. And also, it's taken him 11 weeks into the season to make some adjustments to how teams are playing them on those crossers over the middle and those underneath crosses and digs and in on those crossers over the middle and those underneath

crosses and digs and in-routes over the middle. Finally, Arthur Smith adjusts in the second half and starts throwing some counters out there with some out-breaking routes after faking crossers. I'll talk more about that Wednesday as I mentioned, but finally, so a mini tighten down for some situational stuff that Arthur Smith did on Sunday. But that's going to do it for the tightened downs. We are going to jump into the AFC recap right after this. Let's cap off this Monster Victory Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast by recapping not only what took place in the AFC over the weekend, but also wanted to mention, wasn't something that I was able to get into earlier in the show,

but have to talk about that little pregame dust-up between John Harbaugh and Malcolm Butler and some of the other players, and then Mike Vrabel came over and kind of tried to quiet things down. Didn't really seem like things were very polite between Vrabel and Harbaugh, and then at the end of the game, Vrabel went to shake Harbaugh's hand. And there is some debate over whether or not that happened. Kind of seems like Harbaugh could have brushed him off. Now, Vrabel didn't make anything of it in his post-game press conference. But, you know, of course, he's not going to.

He wants to not have any distractions or anything like that. But just interesting how this, you know, what's been a rivalry from the beginning is definitely still a rivalry. The Ravens absolutely have to hate the Titans. I personally just hate the Ravens now. And I love that there is some hatred in the air and some animosity when these two teams play. And heck, who knows, might play again later this year if the Titans are able to win the AFC South so this is a good springboard into the recap of the AFC South

and we'll do this quickly see if we can get this in under 40 minutes for you guys on this Monster Monday but the biggest game of the day for the Titans to watch was that Colts game, and the Green Bay Packers had a great opportunity to beat the Indianapolis Colts, but ultimately the Colts come back, win in overtime 34-31, to hell with the Packers, to hell with MVS and his fumble in overtime, cannot believe that the Colts were able to win that game, the Titans are going to have to take them down themselves, they're not going to get any help from anybody else. That's the way this is going to work. If the Titans want the division, they're going to have to go through the Colts and they're going to have to beat them next week in the rematch. So that's all that

matters. 34-31. Colts beat the Packers. Colts moved to 7-3 and with the tie, but the head-to-head matchup win are leading the AFC South. Then the Texans beat the New England Patriots, which was kind of good for the Titans because it kind of knocks New England out of playoff contention. The Texans move to 3-7. New England moves to 4-6. After that game, 27-20, Texans victory. And Jacksonville has lost nine straight.

They're a garbage can. 27-23 23 Pittsburgh moves to 10 and 0 just complete outclassing not surprised to see that result Pittsburgh's the real deal man they're going to be a very difficult team to beat going forward let's get out of the AFC South move into some of the just other AFC general contenders the Cleveland Browns 73. A big win over the Eagles, 22-17. The Titans have another big matchup on their schedule in just a few short weeks with the Browns. Then the Dolphins, the Broncos, help out the Titans

by beating the Miami Dolphins, 20-13. Tua was benched in that game. Just not sold on Tua Tongvailoa going forward for the Dolphins. If they have a high enough pick because of Houston, they're going to have to consider a quarterback in my opinion. But Denver's 4-6, like the Patriots, won't really consider them for playoff contention going forward. This knocks Miami down to 6-4, a big win by the Broncos for the Titans helping them out. And then the Oakland Raiders do not get a sweep over the Kansas City Chiefs. They lose to the Chiefs 35-31 in a crazy end-of-the-game situation where the Chiefs were able to secure a victory with less than two minutes left.

Patrick Mahomes, man, he's just an animal at the end of the day. But the Chiefs move to 9-1. This is actually pretty good for the Titans. The Vegas Raiders drop to 6-4. So that helps the Titans out in the playoff picture. Going into the playoff picture right now, the Titans are the number one wildcard team. They are the fifth seed in the AFC.

The Bills did not play this week, so they're still at 7-3. But the Titans would have the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bills. So if they can somehow find a way to beat Indianapolis in Indianapolis next week, the Titans would have the number three seed in the AFC. So that's how things shook out over the weekend. Pretty good results for the most part for the Titans other than that Colts matchup, but it makes sense that if the Titans want the division, they're going to have to go through the Colts and they're not going to get any help. That's just the

way that it is going to be Tennessee Titans fans, but that's going to do it. What a game. I've rewatched it already twice since it ended. Just a fantastic win. The Titans had their season on the brink, slipping out of their fingers, and in the fourth quarter, late in that game and in the second half, they turned it on and were able to secure a victory. A.J. Brown makes a big play. Ryan Tannehill makes big plays. Derrick Henry makes a big play. Just absolutely insane, insane game to watch. What an enjoyable time.

Oh man, it feels so good to beat the Baltimore Ravens. But I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow on Tic Tac Tuesday breaking down the Tic Tac four-pack, the four most impactful plays from the Titans' victory over the Ravens. Make sure that you don't miss that.

Make sure that you're subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. But that's going to do it for me today. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. Thank you.