Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Re-Watch Wednesday: Defensive Packages, Offensive Manufacturing & Roster Moves

Episode Date: November 17, 2021

It is time to step into the film room for Week 10 Re-Watch Wednesday!! Tyler is giving you the X's & O's behind the Tennessee Titans big win over the New Orleans Saints! First, go over Tuesday's roster moves. Then, Tyler dives into his defensive film notes. What personnel packages where used and how were they deployed? What coverages were run and what adjustments were made at halftime? Finally, Tyler talks the tape on the offensive side of the ball. How the Titans tried to manufacture short yardage and how the Saints tried to slow them down!#TicTacTuesday Film Thread: https://twitter.com/TicTacTitans/status/1460616418404323328?s=20Follow 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!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.GetupsideJust download the FREE GetUpside App and use promo code TOUCHDOWN to get up to 50¢/gallon cash back on your first tank. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a re-watch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. That means it is time to step into the film room, review the All-22 Coaches tape, and I'm going to tell you guys what the Tennessee Titans did schematically against the New Orleans Saints in a week 10 victory. So breaking down everything you need to know from an X's and O's standpoint from the Titans win over the Saints 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 a re-watch Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. It is a rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. My favorite episode of the week as we do what I love to do the most, talk scheme. Talk ball, talk X's and O's. So I'm going to tell you everything I saw on tape from the Titans on offense and defense.

Before we get into that though, do want to talk about some roster moves that the Tennessee Titans made on Tuesday and explain why those moves are happening and what move I could see happening in the future as well. Also, do got to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. If this is your first ever listen to the Locked on Titans podcast, make sure that you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. Subscribe to the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Smash that

notification bell so you know when all of my content goes live. Also, more than ever before, you have to follow me on social media on Twitter at TicTacTitans. I put out my TicTacTuesday film thread. I'll link that in the description

of today's show, but just excellent film content. I'll link that in the description of today's show. But just excellent film content. That's where all the clips and all the breakdowns I put together go. So make sure you check me out on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. Check out the show Facebook page as well at LockedOnTitansPod. If you don't know, guys, my name's Tyler Rowland. I've been a Tennessee Titans fan since they moved to Nashville, My name's Tyler Rowland.

I've been a Tennessee Titans fan since they moved to Nashville, covering the team, focusing on the X's and O's every single day, telling you what I'm seeing schematically, formations, personnel, play calls, all of that. That is what I like to focus on. But, of course, we always talk about the news and the notes coming from the team, and that includes some roster moves. So let's start there. A big

activation off injured reserve happened on Tuesday. It was outside linebacker slash pass rusher, Derek Roberson. And that is huge. Roberson's been out for quite some time. He was on IR once he got activated from IR in his 21 day window window. He took the full 21-day window to be activated, so obviously it took him some time to get back from injury, but now Roberson is officially back on the active roster, and it could not come at a better time because Titans' primary pass rusher outside of Harold Landry, Bud Dupree, is banged up.

He's got an abdominal injury. He played basically one play against the Saints and then came out and was out ruled out immediately in that game as a matter of fact. And anytime that you see a guy get ruled out on a Sunday that fast, it's obviously concerning because that typically means that the injury is pretty bad and the medical team knows it early on and they know that there's no chance he's coming back. But we got some good news on the Bud Dupree front on Tuesday per Jeremy Fowler from ESPN. Bud Dupree is considered day-to-day currently and that's a great designation. If it was week-to-week,

well, that means that he could be out multiple weeks, of course. Honestly, I was thinking it could be even worse than that, an abdominal tear, something that could potentially knock Bud Dupree out for the rest of the season, but that doesn't appear to be the case, and while we don't know the exact injury right now,

getting a day-to-day designation, that's a big win for the Titans, who literally cannot afford any more injuries. It's absolutely insane what the Titans have been going through. 82 players have been used so far this year. The record in the NFL for a single season is 84 players. I mean, the Titans still have seven games to play, and they're two players away from the record.

As Mike Vrabel told Chris Collinsworth when discussing the record for roster moves or roster players, Mike Vrabel said, take the over. Well, take the over, and we might see the over coming this weekend because the Titans could make some corresponding moves if Bud Dupree is out even longer. They made some more moves on Monday. Special teams star from Sunday, Dylan Cole, the linebacker who made the big hit to force the fumble on the opening kickoff of the second half. He was officially signed from the practice squad to the active roster, so he is on there and good to go. And then to take his place on the practice squad,

a familiar name, wide receiver Cody Hollister is back with the organization. So Derek Roberson activated from IR to the active roster. Dylan Cole signed from practice squad to the active roster. Cody Hollister signed to the practice squad. Those are the Titans' three roster moves corresponding with Bud Dupree's injury designation being day-to-day. Now, a future signing, I could see the Titans bringing back John Simon again. It'd be the third time that he'd been with the team this year, but when you're losing outside linebacker depth like that, you don't have a lot of guys that you can count on. John Simon is a guy that knows the system, a veteran.

While he's not going to pop for you, he's not going to give you good pass rush, he's not really a guy who's going to be tremendous and run defense at this stage of his career either. He's going to be able to help on special teams. He knows the system so he can help some of the younger guys get in the right spots, learning what they need to do as they're going to probably have an increased role. Bud Dupree is out whatsoever.

So I could see John Simon being brought back for the Titans as well. But those are the roster moves that you need to know about. Now, it is time to step into the film room with me for our Rewatch Wednesday segments. We are going to start on the defensive side of the ball. We're talking personnel. We're talking coverages. We're talking halftime adjustments

and what the Titans started to do in the second half and how the Saints tried to counter that. So we're going to start with defense before we talk about the offense, how they varied their formations based on their personnel groupings, the type of plays that they were trying to run and why they were trying to run them. So a lot to discuss as always. Before we get into that though, I do have to tell you guys about a tremendous app that's free called Get Upside. And anybody who buys gas has to know about it. Get Upside, my listeners are making up to 25 cents for every gallon of gas every time they fill up. Just download the free Get Upside app in the App Store or on Google Play.

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touchdown, and get up to 50 cents a gallon cash back on your first tank. That's promo code touchdown on the free GetUpside app. Titans fans, let's continue this Rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We are going to dive into

my all 22, my coaches tape review of the Titans defense. Before we do, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Make sure that you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream and do me a favor. Tell a friend. It's not a lot to ask. Tell a couple of buddies about the Locked On Titans podcast and all the great information that we are breaking down on the show. So let's get into the defensive review from the coach's tape,

my Rewatch Wednesday notes here. Number one, I want to start by talking personnel. So as we talked about leading up to this game, the Saints had a top 10 rushing attack in the NFL. So this may come as no surprise, but it was still a little bit surprising to me based on what the Titans have done from a personnel standpoint throughout the season. In this game, the Titans used a ton of four defensive linemen, and I mean traditional four down defensive linemen. Danico Autry at

a defensive end position with Laurel Murchison or Amani Bledsoe as the other defensive end. Not Harold Landry, not Ola Adani. And then on the interior, having guys like Naquan Jones, Jeffrey Simmons,

Kyle Pecco, Laurel Murchison. So you're using Bledsoe, Murchison, and Autry as the defensive ends. You're using Murchison, Simmons, Naquan Jones, and Kyle Pecco as your interior defensive line. The Titans played a ton of four defensive linemen down traditional defensive linemen as well. Now, like I said, that probably had a lot to do with the fact that the Saints were going to run the ball a ton.

Got a guy like Taysom Hill. Got a guy like Mark Ingram, both power runners. You want to have some beef out there. But also, it leaves us to wonder, how much did Bud Dupree's absence change the Titans' approach in this game? I don't know for certain. We can't know that for certain. But what I do know is, is after Bud Dupree went out, the Titans just played a four down defensive line of big guys.

Not Harold Landry at defensive end, not Ola Dainey at defensive end, just four big dudes. And with that in mind, the Titans on early downs played a ton of 4-3. Now the Titans would play a ton of 4-3 alignment with Bud Dupree out there or Harold Landry out there as one of the defensive ends. But in this game, like I said, they just went with the four heavy defensive linemen. They had Jayon Brown, Monte Rice, and then Harold Landry as a stand-up linebacker.

The versatility of Harold Landry really allows the Titans to do a lot. They used some 4-3 alignments with Harold Landry as a second-level stand-up linebacker throughout the season, but usually those were aggressive situations where they're trying to blitz Harold Landry and do things like that. In this game, no, it was just a traditional 4-3 defense principles that the Titans were running with Harold Landry playing a second-level stand-up linebacker.

So that was pretty impressive, and the Titans had to get creative with their linebacker rotation. I mean, I saw Joe Jones out there getting some rush opportunities. Remember how the Titans used to use Rashawn Evans as a defensive tackle in pass rush situations when they didn't have as good of a defensive line? They did that with Dylan Cole in this game. So I thought that was very interesting. Even Nick DeZumnar got some snaps playing stand-up linebackers.

So the Titans were definitely getting creative with their personnel groupings in the front seven, mostly going to 4-3 principles using those heavy four-down defensive linemen with three stand-up linebackers and doing the rotation that way. But that wasn't the only personnel grouping that we saw get changed a little bit.

As you guys know, the Titans love playing nickel and dime with five defensive backs and six defensive backs respectively. But when you don't have David Long to be your single linebacker, and you may say, why can't Jayon Brown be the single linebacker in a dime package? Well, the problem is David Long looks faster than Jayon Brown, and David Long's more physical than Jayon Brown. So you're really sacrificing any modicum of physicality at the linebacker spot when you play Jayon Brown, and we'll talk a little more about Jayon

when we talk about the second half adjustments for the New Orleans Saints. But for my money, you can't have Jayon Brown as your only linebacker out on the field in most situations. He's just not physical enough. So, the Titans kind of had to avoid the dime package because they didn't have David Long and they didn't have Dane Cruikshank. And Dane Cruikshank, again, physicality. That's what we're talking about.

You can play six defensive backs when you have a physical linebacker like David Long and a physical safety like Dane Cruikshank, 6'1", 220. Well, when you don't have those two guys and you have significantly less physical guys, Jayon Brown and then, in this case, Elijah Moulton, it kind of shies you away from playing that way, especially against a physical run team like the New Orleans Saints. So it just didn't match up to use that dime personnel a ton.

So the Titans played mostly nickel in this game in passing situations. We talked about 4-3 alignment in run-down situations and early-down situations. But in passing situations, they'd go nickel. They'd have Jayon and Monte Rice out there with the four rushers. They would have five defensive backs, and it would be Elijah Molden on early downs if they went that way. It would be Chris Jackson in the slot on passing downs in second and third and long situations. So the Titans mostly stayed nickel instead of the dime that they like to go to.

I will say when they went to dime, though, rather than having three safeties and bringing Matthias Farley out on the field, they did bring Elijah Molden back out on the field in passing situations. So you'd have Elijah Molden. You'd have Chris Jackson. You'd have Christian Fulton and Jackrabbit. You'd have Bayard and Hooker. Then you would have Jayon Brown and then your four down linemen.

So the Titans did run a little bit of that here and there throughout the game. And Elijah Molden was the one who got that dang crookshank role where he would be manned up on the tight end when the Titans go to man coverage. And speaking of coverage, perfect segue into talking about what the Titans did from a coverage standpoint. So we just talked about personnel and how they deployed the personnel. Now let's talk about coverage. The Titans ran a ton of cover three and cover four at the beginning of this game.

Now they mixed it in throughout the game because that's what the Titans do, but it was heavy cover three and cover four, not cover two. And why? Why would that be? Well, the reality here is Trevor Simeon doesn't have a super strong arm. The Titans know from having Simeon

in the organization last year that Trevor Simeon is not going to beat you consistently throughout the day throwing towards the sidelines. He's not going to throw a ton of corner routes. He's not going to throw a ton of outbreakingelines. He's not going to throw a ton of corner routes. He's not going to throw a ton of out-breaking routes. He's not going to throw a ton of deep outs or deep double moves down the sideline. Trevor Simeon doesn't have the arm strength to make those throws.

So he's going to try to throw short, over the middle, dump it off quick, hit the screens, things like that, which means the Titans' focus had to be on the interior and making sure they covered up the middle of the field. So you just got cover three zone, four guys get to cover underneath and over the middle. You run cover four, but the Titans run cover four in a way that both their safeties have, you know, their deep middle quarters of the field,

but they can pass it off and turn it into cover three. Excuse me. They can pass it off and turn it into cover three. If there's a deep crossing route, one of those safeties will go ahead and come up on the deep crosser and ride them over the middle, and then the other safety will drop back even deeper and make sure that they keep the deep middle of the field covered.

So there's a lot of communication. There's a lot of, I guess, playing it on the fly. Improvisation is the word I'm looking for in the way that the Titans play defense. A ton of cover three, a ton of cover four, inviting the Saints to take those shots to the outside of the field. And they certainly hit a couple of those shots, but consistently the Titans knew that Trevor Simeon's arm strength couldn't beat them in that department. But what did happen was the Titans weren't getting as much pressure in the second half without Bud Dupree. The Titans also, you know, their guys getting a

little bit tired. People are banged up as well. Harold Landry was doing some different things, as I mentioned. So the Titans weren't getting as much pressure on the Saints in the second half. And because Trevor Simeon had extra time to throw, it was allowing guys to find holes in the zone. And Trevor Simeon had more time to work through that. And the more time that guys have to dissect the zone, the more they're going to be able to find those holes and get open. So the Titans said, you know what?

Screw it. We're going to play a bunch of man coverage. And even if you have time to throw, at least we know that this guy isn't sitting in a zone by himself. There's somebody assigned to covering him. And rather than having to play zone, the play goes for a few extra seconds and then you plaster up and try to man up at that point. Let's just go man from the beginning. And the Titans had some good success playing man coverage in the second half. But one thing that got them in trouble, the Saints were targeting

Jayon Brown on Mark Ingram in man coverage. I can't believe I'm saying that. I cannot believe I'm saying that to you guys. But Jayon Brown got smoked, got whooped, got destroyed, got ate alive by Mark Ingram in man coverage.

Jayon looked really slow, and it was sad to me. It was sad, quite frankly. They were targeting Mark Ingram over and over and over again. Hey, you're playing man coverage? We're attacking Jayon Brown with Mark Ingram. Mark Ingram is in his 30s. He should not be whooping Jayon Brown

one-on-one in coverage. That should not be the case. That was very tough to watch. And luckily for the Titans, Jack Rabbit Jenkins came over and helped make a play because Mark Ingram had Jayon Brown beat on the two-point conversion on the wheel route. He'd beat him on the wheel route two times before that already. So, the Saints definitely made a concerted effort to attack Jayon Brown in man coverage against Mark Ingram. Can't believe that it worked as much as it did,

but it did, and the Titans got lucky at the end that Jackrabbit peeled off his zone and helped Jayon Brown in the end zone to knock away that two-point conversion. But that was kind of the thing that was craziest to me. And talking about not getting pressure, in the second half, I even saw the Titans do some DV blitzes. They brought Imani Hooker on a blitz one time.

They brought Elijah Molden on a blitz one time. They even brought on the ill-executed flea flicker the Saints tried to run. They brought Christian Fulton on a blitz on that one. So the Titans tried to help out their defensive line by throwing some blitzes in in the second half. They went heavy man coverage in the second half, and unfortunately, Jayon Brown got smoked by Mark Ingram, and he got attacked, and that led to a lot of the productive Saints drives

in that second half. But that is my defensive breakdown. That is what I saw on tape. We are going to do the same thing for the offensive side of the ball before we get into that, though. Do want to tell you guys about the best-tasting protein bars in the galaxy from our friends over at Built Bar. If you haven't tried a Built Bar by now, you're just missing out.

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So, excuse me. We are going to get into the offensive side of the ball. And the big thing that stood out to me first and foremost was formation variation. So what the Titans were trying to do is pretty simple. They wanted to get the Saints in their base defense with three linebackers on the field, but then spread the Saints out. So the Titans were coming out in two tight end with

Swaim and Pruitt. Coming out in three tight end with Ferkser, Swaim, and Pruitt. But, they weren't running those heavy, condensed formations that we've seen them run throughout the year. They were spreading it out and going five wide shotgun. So they're doing it with two tight ends, three tight ends on the field

to try to get the Saints in their base defense, and then they're spreading them out in five wide shotgun. Why are the Titans doing that? Well, number one, they want to create matchups. Oh, I see you got your slowest linebacker on Anthony Ferkser. Oh, I see you got your worst cornerback on A.J. Brown. Now I know that because you're spread out and I can see the matchups. Also, the Saints were really trying to crowd the line of scrimmage.

As teams have been doing against the Titans all year, if you listen to the Rewatch Wednesday episode every week, then you know that that is a constant theme. Teams want to crowd the line of scrimmage, confuse blocking assignments. You don't know who you're double teaming. You can't double team because each guy has a guy over top of them, so you can't double team. In pass rush, they're trying to confuse which way you're going to slide

the protection, confuse assignments and pass protection as well, so crowd the line of scrimmage. Well, it makes it harder to crowd the line of scrimmage when the Titans are completely spread out like that. If you do that, then you're going to tell the Titans exactly what you're doing from a coverage standpoint. So the Titans were trying to easily diagnose the defense,

create matchups, and also clear out the line of scrimmage to create less confusion for the Titans offensive line. The Titans also wanted to get the ball out quick. So when you have it spread out like that and you can, all the things I just mentioned, you can see your matchups, you know what they are, there's more room everywhere,

you can get the ball out quick. Or the Titans knew that the Saints have a good pass rush, they have a good defensive line, the Titans have a bad pass protection offensive line right now. You don't want to get in a situation where Tannehill's dropping back and just sitting there and looking around to pass. You don't want to do that. So you want to get the ball out of your hands quick.

You want to create matchups. You want to clear out the line of scrimmage. All of that lined up with the Titans using heavy personnel packages with multiple tight ends, but coming out in spread formation. So I really like that stuff as well. Also, I like how the Titans tried to manufacture offense. So the Titans' run game like that stuff as well. Also, like how the Titans tried to manufacture offense. So the Titans run game is not working as well. And I can talk

about that. I put out some film clips on Tuesday on my Twitter at TicTacTitans showing run plays where, in my opinion, there was plenty of room for the Titans running backs to get more yards than what they got. Adrian Peterson not reading the correct hole,

moving too late to the hole. Deontay Foreman just going the wrong direction, not reading the blocking very well, not making quick moves in the backfield. Let's just be honest with ourselves. There is a reason that Adrian Peterson and Deontay Foreman were free agents, guys. There's a reason for that.

Foreman has vision issues. He's got change of direction issues. Adrian Peterson hasn't really worked in a scheme like this very much throughout his career. He's been more of a gap and power-based guy rather than a zone guy. So while the Titans are trying to mix in some of those things, not every run play that the Titans want to run

works with what Adrian Peterson is used to. Plus, Peterson will get a little better. He's still rusty. He's still 36 years old. So it'll improve. I'm not casting a final judgment on these running backs. But all I can tell you is there are a lot of area of opportunity for the running backs to get more yards based on the blocking that they got

than what they actually ended up getting. And I'm trying to pull this number out of the top of my head. Expected yards is a big analytic that people use in football now. EPA is what expected points added on a play is another big one that people go to. So basically, on a play, the EPA judges how many yards the Titans running back should get based on down, distance, situation, time, score, all of that. Personnel.

It takes all that into account. The Titans running backs were minus 10 on EPA expected points added. And to translate that into normal terms, basically there was 10 points worth or, or yeah, that's, that is the way to do it. There are 10 points worth of yards out there that the Titans running backs didn't get that they should have got. To put it in layman's terms even further, the Titans running backs didn't get as many yards as they could have gotten

based on how good the blocking was. And that's a problem. That's an issue for the Titans. So what do they do? They have to manufacture small gains and medium gains through other ways, talking four, five, six-yard gains on first and second down. How'd they do it? They tried to run reverses.

We saw the reverse to Tannehill where he threw it to A.J. We saw the reverse to A.J. Brown on the run on third down in the red zone. Screen passes. The Titans tried a couple tight end screens. They ran a couple screen passes to running backs as well. I'd like to see some more wide receiver screens mixed in there. The Titans ran swing passes. So they had A.J. Brown coming in motion,

going into the backfield, and having two people on either side of Ryan Tannehill, one running back and one A.J. Brown. And then they'd continue motioning A.J. Brown out into the flat. They'd try swing passes. One time they ran A.J. Brown in motion out there, and then they had McNichols follow him immediately. And then they passed it to McNichols,

and it almost created kind of a screen pass with A.J. Brown as the lead blocker out of the backfield. Now, A.J.'s been doing a really bad job with blocking lately on those screen passes. It was a terrible block by A.J.'s been doing a really bad job with blocking lately on those screen passes. It was a terrible block by A.J., and Jeremy McNichols got stonewalled and didn't pick up the first down. But the point is, Todd Downing is trying to create an extension of the run game to manufacture some easy yards for the Titans,

who are really struggling just to pick up a couple of yards in their run game. So he's doing all these other things, Todd Downing, to try to create and manufacture kind of run situations. You could say. The last thing that I want to hit on here is about that run game. The Titans are a zone team, but again, they've been a varied run team even more as of late. Pulls, counters.

Notice the Titans are pulling tight ends from one side of the formation to the other side. They're pulling guards like Nate Davis or like Roger Saffold across the formation into a hole. Aaron Brewer got a couple of pools as well. The Titans have athletic offensive linemen so they can do some of those things, but that's just new. The Titans haven't run a ton of pools, misdirections, counters, delays. The Titans don't run a lot of plays like that, historically speaking, over the last three years since they kind of adapted this outside zone offense. So to see them work in those running plays, it means a couple of things for me.

It means Todd Downing is willing to evolve the offense past just what they typically have had success with. And it also shows that they're doing more to try to make the running backs comfortable because, like I said, Adrian Peterson has played in systems that run more of those type of plays with pools and counters and things like that than he has zone running schemes. So I like what Todd Downing's doing. He's trying his best with the offensive line not performing their best, with Julio Jones out, with no Derrick Henry.

It's been a struggle, and it's going to continue to be a struggle. But I like the creative things that Todd Downing is trying to do to make the offense have a little bit more success. But that is going to do it for my all 22 breakdown and my all 22 review of what the Titans did schematically against the Saints in week 10. I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow for a crossover Thursday episode with John and Cody from Locked on Texans. That'll be a really, really fun conversation,

so make sure that you don't miss that. 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.