Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Offense Struggles in Loss & #TitanUpTitanDown Candidates v New York Giants

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

The Tennessee Titans took a Week One L to the New York Giants due to a number of factors. The biggest one being the relative ineffectiveness of the offense. Tell me if you have heard that before? Todd Downing had a terrible plan and called a poor game as the Titans offense only mustered 20 points even with the defense forcing two turnovers. Next, #TitanUpTitanDown for all the good and bad performances! The Titans rookie WRs stepped up in a big way along with the offensive line. The defensive line had their moments early as well! However, there were as many 'Titan Downs.' The Titans linebacker unit struggled and of course, offensive coordinator Todd Downing was a detriment.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitansSupport 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!BriteCoThe guys at BriteCo Jewelry Insurance made buying insurance for your engagement ring, your watch, or whatever so easy you can get covered in 2 minutes on your cell phone. You won't find a better deal on coverage that's so affordable. Go to https://brite.co/lockedonPrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONTuroDitch boring rental cars and find your drive at Turo.comAthletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NFLNETWORK. 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, the Titans lost their opening game of the season to the New York Giants 21-20 with a double-digit blown lead. It hurts, but we got to break down exactly what took place first. I'm going to give you my big takeaways on offense and defense. What did I see out there schematically that made the difference? Then we're going to look at individual performances,

both good and bad, in everybody's favorite segment, Tighten Up and Tighten Down. Breaking down week one of the Tennessee Titans 2022 season on today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Titans fans, we got to talk about this 21-20 loss to the New York Giants. I'm going to start with a macro view of things, talk about what I saw on offense and defense. Before I get into it, I do want to thank you guys

for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. I am going to be putting out daily, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content on all platforms, always for free, all year long. That includes on the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe there. Smash the notification bell and throw a thumbs up on the video if you think the Titans are going to bounce back with a win against the Buffalo Bills.

And even if you don't think the Titans are going to bounce back, throw a thumbs up on the video. I'd greatly appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans for my in-game analysis and film work that I'll be dropping later this week. You can check out the show Facebook page at LockedOnTitansPod. But again, 21-20. The Titans lose.

They're up 13-0 at halftime. I gave my instant raw reactions in the postcast, but now I kind of want to dive into some things that I think schematically made a difference in the game. Maybe schematically isn't the right word for it, but some overarching points here from a bird's eye view, I guess you could say. And I'm going to start on offense. And I got to go back and check out the tape, of course.

And my Rewatch Wednesday episode breaks down everything I saw on tape from the coverages to the route combinations, what really took place out there. And my initial read, there weren't a lot of guys open. I saw on multiple occasions from the Titans where Ryan Tannehill had plenty of time to make a throw, but he just didn't. And that indicates to me that no one was open downfield.

Now, I would say that's probably a combination of two things. Number one, we know that Todd Downing is outclassed every single week. He's not an NFL offensive coordinator, and the Titans are going to be behind the eight ball for as long as he's in charge of anything related to the Titans offense. But number two, I was worried about the Titans weapons the entire time Cody Hollister goes out there

gets a catch but great what else happened out there Nick Westbrook-Akina where was he at this stud that everybody loved coming into the season the reason why we didn't need to worry

is because he was a real threat where was Nick Westbrook-Akina I'll tell you guys where was Austin Hooper why was Jeff Sw tell you guys. Where was Austin Hooper? Why was Jeff Swaim out there more than Austin Hooper? What happened there? At the end of the day, the two best options that the Titans have

in the passing game right now are two rookies. Kyle Phillips was by far the best wide receiver for the Titans and almost got them in a position to win that game. Traylon Burks had three catches for 55 yards. I thought he looked explosive when he got the ball. Robert Woods looks slow to me. Robert Woods looks like a guy who's near 30 coming off an ACL, who was never a number one receiver in his entire life. And now all of the attention is on him when the Titans are out there. So I think it's a combination of Todd Downing's incompetence,

but also guys get, I mean, you know, strap in. This is what the Titans offense may look like throughout the year with the weapons that they have. Their two rookies are the only good receivers that they have right now until Woods gets through his ACL issues and gets back to top shape. And even then, like I've said all along, Robert Woods as a number one wide receiver is putting Robert Woods in a bad spot. It's not even necessarily his fault.

When you got Robert Woods out there and then the other guy is Nick Westbrook-Akina, what do you think is going to happen? So most of it is Todd Downing incompetence, which we'll talk about in Tighten Down, which the TD for Tighten Down is starting to just stand for Todd Downing. You can almost give it to him every single week. But yeah, that was a big thing for me is Ryan Tannehill had time to throw and wasn't throwing the ball,

which leads me to believe there weren't a lot of people open, and I could believe that. But I don't have the tape to cooperate that yet. That'll come later. But also on offense, the Titans couldn't get the run game going at all. They started going to counter plays and pool plays to try to get something going because the Giants' defense was just being overaggressive coming forward to the line of scrimmage, like Baltimore always does,

and like the Packers did a couple of years ago, and like teams do against the Titans. They run that 6-1 on defense, where they have six guys on the line of scrimmage, one linebacker, and then they have another defensive back hovering around. It makes it hard for the Titans to run their system, and that's why the Titans went away from zone run

and they started going to those pools and those counters and those trap plays to try to catch this over-aggressive defense slipping. But simply put, the Titans weren't explosive enough in the run game. The Titans had 93 yards as a team on the ground. The Giants had, what are they officially putting it here, 238.

The Tennessee Titans got out-gamed by nearly 140 yards. Over 140. They're never going to win when that happens with the way the offense is built. They don't have enough explosive playmakers in the pass game to win like that. So not only did the run game not get going, but then the Titans, I'm sure that they were expecting a blitz-heavy game plan from Wink Martindale. That was my expectation as well.

And you've got to say, when Wink did that and the Titans got Dontrell Hilliard one-on-one with a linebacker, they took advantage. But they couldn't take advantage anywhere else. I saw multiple times where Ryan Tannehill was throwing slants to guys who were just wrapped up and covered. Not even close to being open. Almost interceptions. Because there's just nobody open. Even with the time. So basically what ended up happening is, later in the game,

Wink Martindale stopped calling so many pressure blitzes, and the Titans were running man coverage beaters expecting to get that, and they didn't get that, and there was just no one there. So, a terrible job by Todd Downing. I just don't know where else to go from here. It's a broken record every week.

But Todd Downing is just not very good. And the Titans are going to struggle to do anything while he's in charge. Tim Kelly, please take over the reins. And that may happen during the season, and I bet Mike Vrabel wouldn't tell us about it. But that's my big takeaway on offense. Just a terrible job by Todd Downing, quite frankly.

And not a lot of guys who are going to get open. On defense, I thought the edges did a terrible job in run defense. Yeah, the Titans got sacks early on, but the Titans edges were getting washed down. They weren't quick. I mean, Danico Autry is just simply not fast enough to play edge rusher. How many times did Saquon Barkley or Daniel Jones bounce it outside and the Titans didn't have anybody athletic enough to chase that guy down? By the end of the game, the Titans had Dylan Cole playing at edge

because they just needed somebody with a little speed. It's not going to be Weaver. It's not going to be Adani. It's not going to be Autry. No speed at outside linebacker for the Titans without Harold Landry. And it killed them all day as the Giants were able to break contain.

The Giants were washing the Titans interior and edge rushers down. The linebackers weren't doing a good job of scraping over. The DBs, I don't think, did a very good job of coming up and making plays. And that's a recipe for disaster. And you can't just give up explosive plays nonstop.

60-yard run, 60-yard catch, 60-yard run. I mean, no defense is going to play very well doing that. So it looks like the Giants just took advantage of the Titans' defensive line crashing down and then they brought offensive linemen behind to pull and kick out the linebackers scraping over and it was just wide open holes all day. So, of course,

we'll dive back into all this conversation on Rewatch Wednesday, but for now, time to move to tighten up and tighten down, talk about some individual performances, both good and bad. Before we get into that, though, do want to tell you guys

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with the best jewelry insurance in the business. Titans fans, let's continue this full recap of the Titans opening week loss to the New York Giants 21-20. Boy, it does suck, but hey, this is classic Titans football, man. Classic Titans football. And speaking of classic Titans football, we're going to get into tighten up and tighten down. Make sure you guys put your tighten ups and your tighten downs in the comments. Thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen, though. Make sure you subscribe for free daily Tennessee Titans content on all platforms all year round.

It's your team every day. But my number one tighten up is Kyle Phillips. Yes, I know. He had the muffed punt. That sucks, but the one great punt return that he had set the Titans up to score their first touchdown, so thank God for Kyle Phillips. Where would they have been without his return? And consistently throughout the game, he made chain-moving plays, and he got the Titans in a position to kick that game winning field goal at the end that Randy Bullock missed. Kyle Phillips had six catches for 66 yards.

And I know he had the muff punt, but I got to give Kyle Phillips a tighten up. He was the best Titans receiving threat the entire day. He's a fifth round rookie. Got to give him a tighten up for that and putting the Titans in a position to score. Dontrell Hilliard. I told you guys all week it was going to be a big Hilliard game. Three catches,

61 yards, two touchdowns. The one run that Hilliard got actually out of the backfield, the one time he got to run the ball, he got two carries for eight yards. I thought he looked kind of explosive out there at times. I wanted to see some more Hilliard runs, quite honestly. Moving forward though, I thought, you know what, I'm going to give Cody Hollister. You got your one catch for 22 yards at the beginning of the game. Good job, Cody Hollister. You get a baby tighten

up from me on that. Outside of that, I thought the offensive line played pretty well. I don't think they did a great job in run blocking, but in pass protection, they gave Ryan Tannehill time. We were all worried about the pass protection. They had time. Ryan Tannehill had time. So I thought Taylor LeJuan, yeah, he had the false start penalty late. That didn't matter to the drive, in my opinion.

It wasn't a big difference maker. The Titans had plenty of chances to get going after that. LeJuan overall won his matchup throughout the day. Now you're going to say it was against backup edge rushers. Well, great. Say that. But still, Taylor LeJuan did a good job. I thought Nicholas Petit-Ferrer did a pretty good job on the day as well. Generally speaking, I thought the offensive line did very well in pass protection.

I would have liked to see some better running or run blocking. Absolutely. But I'm going to check the tape before I crush anybody too hard on that. I thought the Titans offensive line was pretty solid, especially in pass protection. Outside of that, the D-line in pass rush. Simmons, two sacks, two tackles for loss, the forced fumble, Bud Dupree had a sack and a fumble recovery. Rashad Weaver had two sacks.

They had that one as a tackle for loss at first, which I guess you could do that. But they ended up changing it to a sack, so two sacks for Weaver. I mean, that was good. But overall, Danico Autry, Rashawn Weaver, Ola, Dylan Cole, I guess. I mean, they did a very good job in run defense.

So this is a slightly couched, tighten up for the defensive line. I thought the defensive line did great in pass rush early, but once they started getting gashed in the run game, there were no easy pass rush opportunities, and they weren't able to take advantage. So, you don't get the opportunity to rush the passer unless you prove it with some run defense. And obviously, the defensive line and run defense was awful. But we'll get into tighten-ups here a little later on. Stonehouse!

Ryan Stonehouse! Bombs! All day! Bombs! And he put three inside the 20! Ryan Stonehouse bombs all day bombs and he put three inside the 20 Ryan Stonehouse was fantastic in this game he was absolutely awesome I thought he did a great job not only that

but gotta give Imani Hooker credit for that interception I thought Imani Hooker struggled at times and run defense but he did have a few good open field tackles

against Saquon Barkley and of course that big interception after the Kyle Phillips fumble, that was a monster moment. The Titans would have lost by even more if not for that. So great job by Imani Hooker there. A couple more tight nubs. You want to give a tight nub to Traylon Burks.

Again, clearly by far the most explosive player that the Titans have on offense right now. Three catches for 55 yards. I thought he did a very good job. Had that 27-yard catch late. Only got five targets. Kyle Phillips got nine. I'd like to see Traylon Burks get a few more targets.

Feed him the ball because Jeff Swaim got four targets. Jeff Swaim got four targets. Austin Hooper got two. Chig got one. N Hooper got two. Chig got one. NWI got two. Robert Woods got two. You're telling me that Jeff Swaim got more targets than anyone except for Traylon Burks and Kyle Phillips?

Doesn't make a lick of sense, in my opinion. So, tighten up for Traylon Burks. Definitely got to get that in there. Unfortunately, guys, also, Kevin Byard had 12 tackles. Consistently cleaning up for the other people missing tackles in the front seven. I mean, just a struggle. But we're going to get into Titan Down.

We got to talk about Titan Down. And my list for Titan Downs is just as long as the Titan Ups on this one. Some very poor performances from some individual players in this game from the Titans. But before we get into that, though, I do want to tell you guys about our friends over at PrizePix. PrizePix is daily fantasy football made simple. Here's what happens. PrizePix makes a projection in a particular statistic for a player.

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Go to prizepix.com right now or use their app and use the promo code LOCKEDON. You're going to get a 100% deposit match up to $100. So you use the promo code LOCKEDON at prizepix.com, you deposit $100, you get a free $100. You deposit $50, you get a free $50. So once again, use the promo code LOCKEDON for a 100% deposit match up to $100 at prizepix.com. Titans fans, let's cap off our first game recap, real game recap of the season.

The Titans lose 21 to 20, but I'm still here to break it all down for you guys. We talked about my big takeaways on offense and defense. Then we went into the tighten up portion of tighten up, tighten down. Now we do got to dive into these tighten downs. Before we get into it, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast

your first listen every day. As for your second listen, check out the Peacock and Williamson podcast. Brian Peacock, NFL analyst, former NFL scout Matt Williamson, breaking down all the big national stories in the NFL from a scout's perspective. Check out the Peacock and Williamson NFL show on whatever platform you do stream. But diving into my Titan downs here. Number one, Christian Fulton. Christian Fulton got roasted.

All game it felt like. I mean, I was just shocked. Richie James putting it on him. Sterling Shepard running right past him. And it was so confusing. I don't know what. I don't know what Christian Fulton was doing on that long touchdown. He was backpedaling as Sterling

Shepard was sprinting past him. I don't know if he expected him to sit down. He wasn't expecting the deep route. Either way, that's 100% on Christian Fulton. And the Titans need Fulton to be a lockdown number one corner. He can't have games like he had today. Curious to see what his individual stats were.

We'll talk about that some tomorrow, I believe. But Fulton, a Titan down, a very bad game from Christian Fulton. Also, this is really what I want to hit on. A terrible game for the Titans linebackers. If you're somebody who said the Titans needed to draft a linebacker in the first round, all these national media folks, you're going to put on the tape from today and say I told you so. While I don't think that's going to be right long term, David Long got moved everywhere. He's a small linebacker. He has to be able to dart

underneath tackles. He's not going tobacker. He has to be able to dart underneath tackles. He's not going to put his hands in a chest and shed. He's a guy who slides by. He slips by blocks. He doesn't shed blocks. And he wasn't doing much shedding today. I thought Zach Cunningham was awful. He looked slow.

He was bad on special teams as well. Zach Cunningham had a terrible, terrible day, in my opinion. They were toast all day long. I mentioned it earlier, but on the edges in run defense, I thought Danico Autry, I thought Rashad Weaver were terrible in run defense. They got washed down way too easy. If they didn't get washed down, they got moved up the field and were too slow to get off to the perimeter to get the guy.

I thought the run defense of the edge rushers and the linebackers was particularly horrible. Tiar Tart, Kevin Strong. You've got to include Jeffrey Simmons in there. The run defense up front. The Giants were just going in three wide receiver sets and running it I think a couple of times what they did was they would bring in two tight ends and shotgun

and they'd have all the offensive linemen washed down and they'd pull both tight ends from the back side and kick out the edge rushers and the Titans just didn't have enough athleticism on the edge to be able to deal with it. And their interior D linemen were getting washed down easily on down blocks. So the linebackers either were supposed to be scraping over and weren't doing

their job or the edge rushers, edge rushers were supposed to be setting a good edge. See what happens sometimes is what the Titans will do is they'll have their edge rushers, their defensive ends, they'll have them sink in to cover the inside gaps, and then the linebackers scrape to the outside to cover the edges. I can't tell you right now how many responsibilities were scraped and how many were not.

I have to look at the tape for that. But all I can tell you is whatever the plan was, it failed. And the linebackers and the edge rushers in run defense particularly did a very, very, very poor job. Some on the offensive side, Jeff Swaim, had the drop, had a terrible missed block at one point. They threw him a screen. You have Austin Hooper and Chika Konkwo on the team.

Why are you throwing tight end screens to combat boots Jeff Swain? Why is Jeff Swain having more snaps than Hooper or Konkwo? What are you doing? Jeff Swain is good as a tight end three, not a tight end one. What are you doing? Jeff Swain is good as a tight end three, not a tight end one. What are you doing? Tighten down for Jeff Swain. Tighten down for Dylan Cole. Like I said, the Titans were putting Dylan Cole outside linebacker

at the end of the game because they needed someone with some athleticism out there. But he was god awful. Just absolutely despicable on the last drive, quite frankly. He got Kevin Byron's way at one point. Got absolutely shook out of his shoes on the Saquon Barkley two-point conversion. Just disgusting. But you got Dylan Cole out on the field on defense.

And what did I tell you all season? Dylan Cole is a special teams only player. If he's out there playing on defense, it's like when the Titans had Nick DeZubnar. You knew that if DeZubnar was out on the field, disaster was waiting. Dylan Cole is just the new DeZubnar. And we're right back here again

with the Titans in their personnel decisions. Okay, I'm going to say this one. And I'm going to apologize up front. I know this is going to hurt feelings. But boy, Derrick Henry did not look good. He can't catch. He can't pass block. 21 for 82.

3.9. Just didn't look like he had explosion. Didn't look like he had balance. Didn't look like he had balance. I certainly hope that he rounds into form. I'm not saying that he can't round into form, but we got to call it what it is. Derrick Henry did not look good today. It looked like he got a little banged up early on too.

I hope he rounds into form, guys, but some of the things that the national media were worried about really showed up today Henry didn't look explosive the weapons didn't separate the Titans defense wasn't top three dominant defense

the whole game so it's week one wasn't top three dominant defense the whole game. So it's week one. No time to panic or freak. If we go back a year, it was time to press the panic button last year in week one and the Titans got the number one seed. Now do I think that the Cardinals or the Giants are as good as the Cardinals were last year?

No, but we don't know that. We don't know that. So like I said in my postcast, my final thoughts here are, I'm not overreacting to week one, but the one thing I will tell you is Todd Downing needs to go, and that's my final tighten down. Derek Henry wildcat.

It's third and inches. And everybody says, well, Henry fumbled the snap. Henry, why are you snapping the ball to your running back? How about that? When you do things like that, you set yourself up for mistakes like that. A tight end sweep!

A tight end sweep! Todd! Todd! A tight end sweep! A tight end sweep! Todd! Todd! A tight end sweep! And then we got to talk about the personnel. Early in the game, the Titans are in the red zone. They're within the 10-yard line. It's second and goal on like the five or the four.

And then four of the five options on the field, these are the skill position players on the field. Jeff Swain, Torrey Carter, Cody Hollister, Austin Hooper, and then Derrick Henry. What are you doing? What are you doing? Why is Cody Hollister getting snaps? Why do you have that group of players out on the field and a critical down? Robert Woods, Traylon Burks, Chig. Heck, I'd take NWI. Why are you doing this with this

personnel, Todd? Why are you doing this on critical downs? Todd Downing's despicable. And an extra Titan down for that clock management at the end of the game. Wasting the Titans' final time out there. Even if you get the delay a game and you lose the five yards, I would rather keep my time out so that I can go downfield

so that I can try to get more yards and give Randy Bullock a makeable kick. I just... How is Todd Downing still the offensive coordinator of this team? How? After that clown show in the AFC wildcard, or in the AFC divisional game last year,

just a clown show of offensive coordinating, he still survived. And is still doing this. Third, or, uh, three for 11 on third downs. 3 for 11. Against the Giants. Without their two best edge rushers.

It hurts, man. Don't want to overreact to week one, but some of the issues I thought the team would have did show up. So let's hope that they can clean those up because time waits for no man. Monday night football game against the

Buzzsaw Buffalo Bills is on the horizon and it would be classic Titans to lose this game and then go out and beat Buffalo. But hard to see it right now. Hard to see it right now. But I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow, breaking down the biggest stories coming out of press conferences

and what the players have to say and all that and all the little things that we pick up over the next 24 hours. Wednesday is rewatch Wednesday. Wednesday is Rewatch Wednesday. Thursday will be another crossover Thursday. Friday I'll have some sort of game plan type discussion and then Monday Monday show that comes out on Sunday night

on YouTube will be my official game preview edition of the Locked on Titans podcast for week two but that's going to do it for me today folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.