Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans MUST START FAST v Jaguars, Calvin Ridley REVENGE GAME & Containing Edge Pressure

Starting point is 00:00:00 If the Tennessee Titans want to win in week 14, Calvin Ridley must get his revenge. I'll explain on today's edition of Locked on Titans. 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 Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans Podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. Today's edition of the Locked On Titans Podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. You can start the final third of the NFL season with a big return on FanDuel.

Starting point is 00:00:40 New customers can place a $5 bet and get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5 bet, visit FanDuel.com to get started. On today's episode, we are going to do a game plan preview. I'm going to give you my keys to victory for the Titans, including the Titans getting out to a fast start. We're going to look at the players to watch in this game. And of course, Calvin Ridley needs to get his revenge. And then finally, I'll do my score prediction in this game. Do some fantasy. Do some gambling as well before we get into all of it. Do want to thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day.

Starting point is 00:01:16 Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round. Always for free. You're not going to beat that anywhere else. Make sure that you get subscribed. Stay subscribed. It's your team every day here on the Locked On Titans podcast. Shout out to my everydayers out there. Tune in Monday through Friday.

Starting point is 00:01:33 Couldn't do it without you guys. If you aren't an everydayer, you need to be one. And as a reminder, I'll be going live immediately after the game ends on Sunday to break down all of the action and hopefully a Tennessee Titans victory. But with that being said, we do got to start with my keys to victory in this game. And I talked about it on Crossover Thursday yesterday with my guy Tony Wiggins from Locked On Jaguars. But the Titans absolutely must get out to a fast start in this game.

Starting point is 00:02:00 And it's more than just this game in itself. Like I talked about on yesterday's show. It's not just, hey, you always want to get out to a fast start. That's always going to be one of the goals of the team. You want to come out. You want to play good football from the start of the game, get good momentum, not allow the other team who you're better than to have momentum as well. So it's obvious that the Titans want to get out to a fast start. But again, it's bigger than just this game. It's bigger than just starting out week 14 with a fast start. The Titans have to put last week's slow start out of their minds. So if the Titans come out and get a slow start going, if they get the ball first and punt and then Jacksonville scores a touchdown or they happen to get down 10 to nothing early. All of those feelings from last week against the commanders where they got down big early,

Starting point is 00:02:50 those are going to come back and they're going to compound and it's going to feel like, like I said with Tony, it's not going to feel like you're down 10 to nothing. It's going to feel like you're down 52 to 19 based on what happened last week. So the Titans have to wash away the negative emotions and the bad vibes from their start against the Commanders and come out and play good football from the start here to remind themselves that that is something that they can do. So number one on my list, a fast start for the Tennessee Titans

Starting point is 00:03:18 is absolutely critical in this game. And moving from kind of the psychological aspect of the game into something tangibly on the field. The Titans have to run the football again. Last week, they were not able to run the football whatsoever. And that's not because Washington, you know, could stop the run so well or anything like that. It is essentially because the Titans got down so early. They just weren't able to go to the run consistently, and they had to start throwing the ball because they were down 28 to nothing before you could open up your beer. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:03:55 Like, it happened so fast that you had to abandon the run game because you had to be quicker and get points. Well, they're going up against another team that is not good at stopping the run. The Jacksonville Jaguars are a bottom 10 rushing defense, giving up 133 rushing yards per game. So the Titans have to continue to be balanced on offense. They have to get back to running the football with consistency. And one thing that I'm going to point out here,

Starting point is 00:04:23 kind of a bonus player to watch, the Titans have to get Tajay Spears more involved in this game. They have to, no doubt about it. I talked about Tajay Spears on Wednesday's show when I talked about players that I want to see more from this week. And getting Tajay Spears involved, not only is Tajay Spears a weapon in the offense, like we saw his rookie year, how he can help this team, and especially in that last game against Jacksonville, where he was able to catch a screen pass and

Starting point is 00:04:51 take it about 30 yards down the sideline for a touchdown. The Titans have to get Tajay Spears in space, and not only that, but they need to spell Tony Pollard some. I think the drops that we saw, Tony Pollard had like three drops in that game against the Washington Commanders, And I think part of the reason that we're seeing that is he is tired. Tony Pollard has taken on a workload

Starting point is 00:05:11 this year that I don't think that he's had to have in previous years in his career when he was a part of committee with Dallas, with Zeke Elliott and all that. They are asking a lot of Tony Pollard this year because Tajay Spears has missed so much time. So now that you have Tajay Spears back, get Tajay Spears involved in the run game. Spell Tony Pollard a little bit. I would love for Tajay Spears to have more carries and more touches in this game than Tony Pollard.

Starting point is 00:05:39 Let's finally give Tony Pollard a little bit of a rest so that he can be ready for the back half or the back stretch of this season here. I want to get Tajay Spears more involved. And if Tony Pollard is going to drop passes, then we have to get Tajay Spears more involved in the passing game in those situations as well. So the Titans have to get back to running the football with success. That's going to keep the offense balanced. It's going to allow Will Levis to have more success in the passing game as well and set up situations where they're not in third and long because Jacksonville is another man coverage defense, just like the commanders were, just like the Lions were. So the Titans struggle with man coverage. They have for years and years. It feels like it's something that I've been

Starting point is 00:06:20 talking about is their struggles with man coverage. So run the football, get back to that. And then my final key to victory for the Tennessee Titans is turnover prevention. Look, I don't even think that the Tennessee Titans have to win the turnover battle to win this game. As long as they don't lose the turnover battle, they're going to win this game. And I talked about it again on crossover Thursday with my guy guy Tony. But the great equalizer in football is turnovers. And I don't think that the Titans are so significantly better of a football team than Jacksonville that, you know, it's like some crazy upset for Jacksonville to win. But at the end of the day, I do believe that the Tennessee Titans

Starting point is 00:06:58 are a better football team than Jacksonville. And when you consider that Trevor Lawrence is most likely going to miss this game after that dirty hit from Aziz Alshire, you're going to be playing with a backup quarterback. Like, the Titans are the better team. The Titans are the favorite. The Titans are at home. The Titans should win this game.

Starting point is 00:07:14 And the easy way to flip all that on its head is to lose the turnover battle and to give Jacksonville short fields for their offense and to get your defense in short yardage situations immediately. Like the Titans simply cannot lose the turnover battle. If they tie it one to one, they tie it two to two, something like that, then the Titans should still be in a good spot. But if you lose the turnover battle, you are just putting yourself in a terrible, terrible position. So start fast, run the football, and don't lose the turnover battle. If the Titans do that, I think they win this game. And now let's zoom in, talk about the

Starting point is 00:07:51 individual players that I am watching in this game. And of course, Calvin Ridley needs to get his revenge. That and more on today's edition of Locked on Titans. Today's episode is brought to you by Omaha Steaks nothing delivers comfort and joy quite like the unrivaled quality and taste of Omaha Steaks it's guaranteed perfection in every single bite and right now you can save on

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Starting point is 00:11:11 of the Locked on Titans podcast. We looked at my keys to victory for the team as a whole. Now I want to zoom in and talk about my players to watch in this game. Before I get into it, thanks 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, always for free. You're not going to beat that anywhere else. Make sure that you get

Starting point is 00:11:31 subscribed. Stay subscribed. It's your team every day. But looking at the players to watch it again, Calvin Ridley needs to get his revenge. Alright, Jacksonville tried to play in his face. They tried to play with him.

Starting point is 00:11:48 They didn't want to give him an extension early because they wanted to cheat the Atlanta Falcons out of a draft pick. They wanted to kind of play it as late as they possibly could in the free agency process so they could go out and sign other players rather than taking care of Calvin Ridley and getting the contract done. Now, you could look back and say, well, because they didn't sign Calvin Ridley back, they went out and got Brian Thomas Jr., which ultimately probably was

Starting point is 00:12:12 the right move. But if you're Calvin Ridley, he said himself, he expected to be back in Jacksonville. He wanted to be back in Jacksonville. That was what his expectation was going into free agency. And they played in his face. And they tried to use him and they tried to deprioritize him. So you know, you know that Calvin Ridley's got something a little extra this week.

Starting point is 00:12:35 Okay, that is absolutely a fact. And, you know, everybody saw the Michael Jordan documentary. I took that personally. Professional athletes and pro sports, whether you agree with it or not, use every little possible thing for motivation that they can. I talked about this last week when I talked about Brian Callahan being extra motivated against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals didn't do Brian Callahan wrong in any way whatsoever, but that doesn't mean that when the Titans play the Bengals, there isn't going to be extra motivation

Starting point is 00:13:05 to beat Cincinnati for Brian Callahan in the locker room. You know what I mean? Like, this is pro sports. This is sports. This is how it works. You take crazy things and you turn it into motivation. So Calvin Ridley doesn't even need to do that with this one. They literally played in his face and said,

Starting point is 00:13:20 we're not as worried about losing you. And he came to Tennessee and now we're here. So Calvin Ridley has to go crazy. And outside, outside of the motivational factors here, you know what I mean? Purely football, Calvin Ridley has to have a great game. Again, it's the same exact concept that we talked about last week

Starting point is 00:13:38 when we talked about the commander schematically on defense. The Jacksonville Jaguars are a heavy man coverage defense. That is what they do. Ryan Nielsen is their defensive coordinator, and he wants to play tight man coverage. He wants to crowd the line of scrimmage. He wants to bring pressure.

Starting point is 00:13:54 And when you're going up against a team that's heavy man coverage, like the Titans saw with the Detroit Lions, you have to find a way to get Calvin Ridley free. That is what this is going to be about. The Titans did it with success last week, but a couple of little inches here and there, Calvin Ridley was open on a deep pass in the end zone and Will Levis put it just a little too far. You think about the deep crossing route from Calvin Ridley over the middle where he kind of stopped in the middle of a zone and Levis

Starting point is 00:14:20 thought he was going to keep going. You know, those little things, they got to hit on those this week. Those things got to happen. There was plenty of opportunity for Calvin Ridley to have a hundred yard game with a touchdown last week. And they were just a couple of inches away. They can't allow that to happen this week. They got to convert on those plays. Calvin Ridley is a pure separator. He's a route God. He is going to be open against man coverage. The Titans need to do a better job of getting him open on some rub routes and some mesh concepts where he's doing just a short drag route and make it easy on Will Levis, where Levis doesn't have to hit Calvin Ridley

Starting point is 00:14:52 40 yards down the field or 30 yards down the field to make the completion happen. Get Calvin Ridley going across the field on a little drag route. Hit him, let him catch the ball and turn up field and do the work himself. The Titans have to find a balance between just hitting Calvin Ridley deep and hitting Calvin Ridley underneath against that man coverage. So this has to be a huge, huge week for Calvin Ridley, not only for the emotional and motivational reasons, but also schematically going against the Jacksonville Jaguars coverage

Starting point is 00:15:19 and what they like to do. This is where Calvin Ridley makes his money. So very excited to see Calvin Ridley perform in this one. Outside of that, the offensive tackles. JC Latham, whether it's Leroy Watson back, whether it's Nicholas Petit-Ferrer, either way, the offensive tackles are going to have a much more difficult matchup this week and have to perform much better this week.

Starting point is 00:15:39 The offensive tackles actually had a pretty good game last week against Washington. JC Latham and NPF outside of Peter Skowronski, who has just been nails for like eight straight weeks now. Outside of Peter Skowronski, it was J.C. Latham and Nicholas Petit-Ferrer who had the best day on the offensive line. Now, Josh Hines-Allen and Trevon Walker are a totally different beast. That is a difficult edge rush group.

Starting point is 00:16:10 Very similar, not at the level, but similar to Will Anderson and Daniil Hunter for Houston. Like, the Jags edge rushers are much closer to Houston's than they are Washington's. You know what I mean? So this is going to be a much more difficult matchup than last week for the offensive tackles, and they have to come ready to play,

Starting point is 00:16:33 and the Titans have to be ready to help them as well with chips from the running backs and the tight ends. That has to be part of the plan here because those Jacksonville edge rushers can absolutely disrupt the game, and I'm less worried about the interior rushers from Jacksonville as well. I would expect Jacksonville to blitz a lot in this game to try to attack that interior if the tackles are having a good performance early on.

Starting point is 00:16:54 My final player to watch in this game is the return of Chito Awuzie. He should be back for the Titans this week and going up against Brian Thomas Jr. That is a match up to watch. I would imagine that if Roger McCreary doesn't play in this game, as we talked about on Wednesday's episode, that they're going to slide Jarvis Brownlee Jr. into the slot and have Daryl Baker Jr. and Cheeto on the outside.

Starting point is 00:17:17 And look, they're going to move Brian Thomas Jr. around and get him on Daryl Baker, which I'm a bit worried about. But if Cheeto is back, he's getting paid good money to be a good cornerback here. He needs to have a good game. If you're back out on the field, no excuses. You need to make sure that you don't let Brian Thomas Jr. go crazy because that's the one thing that the Jaguars can do on offense that can totally change the game and create explosive plays.

Starting point is 00:17:41 So I am looking for Calvin Ridley, the offensive tackles, and Chido Owosie back out on the field for the Tennessee Titans. But with that being said, let's get into my predictions. Game and score prediction, fantasy, gambling, all that coming right now. It's Locked on Titans, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I do want to let you guys know about our new sponsor, IceShaker.com. Locked on Titans fans,

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Starting point is 00:21:07 Let me know your players to watch, your keys to victory on Twitter, at TicTacTitans, or down below in the comments if you're watching on YouTube. But with that being said, we got to get into my predictions here. All right. And I think that

Starting point is 00:21:16 if you've been watching the show for the last few days, which you should be, and shout out to my everydayers who are, you probably know how I'm leaning on this one. And it's not even a lean. I feel pretty convinced. I'm pretty confident,

Starting point is 00:21:32 I would say, in what I think is going to happen in this game. Before I tell you, I do want to thank you again for making Locked on Titans your first listen. For your second listen, check out Locked on NFL. I'm the lead host of Locked on NFL. Get your Titans news here with me. Get your NFL news with me at Locked on NFL, part of the lead host of Locked On NFL. Get your Titans news here with me. Get your NFL news with me at Locked On NFL,

Starting point is 00:21:47 part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. My score prediction is 23-17 Titans. I think the Tennessee Titans win this game. I think that the Jaguars are just not a good enough team with Mac Jones to beat the Titans at home, a motivated Titans team after getting shellacked by the Commanders last week. I've talked about why this is an absolute must-win for Brian Callahan. Everything about this game leads me to believe that the Tennessee Titans

Starting point is 00:22:27 should win the game. If they don't, we are going to have quite the conversation on Sunday after the game into Monday morning. But the Titans are going to win this game. 23-17. I fully believe that. I'm fully on board. this game. 23-17.

Starting point is 00:22:44 I fully believe that. I'm fully on board. I think that the Titans could even be up 23-10 and Jacksonville kind of gets like a garbage time touchdown at the end to make it closer. If the Titans are really on their game, I could see it being 30-17, 31-17,

Starting point is 00:23:00 something like that. But the Titans need to come out and play good football here. And I think that they will. I mean, maybe that's a fool's errand at the end of the day, but I think that they will. Now, moving along to the gambling aspect of this game and keeping it plus 100, as I like to call it. The Titans are 3.5-point favorites right now at home, and the over-under is 39.5.

Starting point is 00:23:25 Well, if I think the Titans win by six points, clearly I like the spread at minus 3.5. I would love it even better if it was at three. Just, you know, I can say what I think is going to happen, but I found in my life that's not always what happens. So be a little less confident with your bets. That's probably the route that I would go, but minus three and a half, I would do it.

Starting point is 00:23:47 I would prefer the Tennessee Titans money line just to take the points out of it. The over-under, I mean, that's tough. I mean, I got 23 to 17, which would be over. That would be 40. If I had to, I hate doing over-unders. I talked about this last week. I hate doing over-unders.

Starting point is 00:24:05 I'm just, they never seem to go right for me. It's just difficult enough to guess who's going to win and by how many points, let alone how many points are going to be scored in the game. I would stay away from the over-under, but if I had to lean, I would lean over. But again, I don't feel super confident, but I feel much more confident in Titans minus three and a half

Starting point is 00:24:27 and then the Titans money line. And quite honestly, if you're somebody who does like to get a little action on FanDuel on these games, I would get there now and get the Titans minus three and a half because I have a feeling that the Sharps are going to be on the Titans and that line might go up to four or four and a half by the time we get to Sunday. So if it drops to three or two and a half,

Starting point is 00:24:50 you sprint there and you get that action. That's what I would tell you, but I do feel confident enough in the Titans to say minus three and a half. I like that bet. I'll take that bet for the Titans. And then finally, my dark, twisted fantasy player of the game. I'm going back to the well.

Starting point is 00:25:05 I'm going back to the well. I know I said it last week and it didn't necessarily work out. Calvin Ridley only had two catches for 45 yards. But like I said earlier, he was inches away from having a monster game with a long touchdown down the left side and the deep crossing route over the middle for another 20. Like Calvin Ridley was a couple inches away from having 100 yards and a touchdown in this game. And I think against a defense that's not as good as Washington's and not as well coached as Washington's and with the added additional layer of the motivation that Calvin Ridley is going to have, that he's going to find a way to put up monster numbers in this game. I think Calvin Ridley goes over a hundred yards.

Starting point is 00:25:45 I think he scores a touchdown in this one. Calvin Ridley is my dark, twisted, beautiful fantasy player of the game. But with that being said, that is going to do it for today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Get subscribed, stay subscribed, throw a thumbs up on the video, throw a Titan up down in the chat if you're watching on YouTube. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland,

Starting point is 00:26:06 and this was Locked on Titans.

Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans MUST START FAST v Jaguars, Calvin Ridley REVENGE GAME & Containing Edge Pressure

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