Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Re-Watch Wednesday: Offensive Adjustments, Defensive Coverages & Cluster Injuries At Edge

Episode Date: September 28, 2021

IT IS TIME!! Let's step into the film room for REWATCH WEDNESDAY!! Tyler is ready to dump out all of his film notes from re-watching the coaches tape. On Offense, Tyler breaks down how Todd Downing made key adjustments throughout the game to keep the Titans in an advantageous position. Then, on defense, Tyler talks about how the Titans used a particular coverage to take away the Colts screen game. Before all that, the Titans experienced significant injuries to one defensive position. Tyler tells you what group was affected and what the Titans can do to deal with it.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3332GMOh4y5PX3q9NFybwSupport 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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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. And as you guys probably know, this is my favorite episode of the week. For the last 24 to 36 hours, I have been re-watching the Titans win over the Colts. Not only the TV copy, but also the all 22 coaches tape. I have seen what the Titans were doing schematically on offense and defense, and I am excited to bring all of that information to you guys as we go over my rewatch Wednesday notes.

We are going to talk about the X's and O's on offense and defense. So excited to dive into the tape. But before we do that, the Titans made some roster moves on Tuesday. The Titans placed two players on injured reserve and unfortunately, both of them come from the same position. Folks, that is what we call cluster injuries. I'm going to tell you who was placed on IR,

what position both of those players came from, and how the Titans respond to these absences. So a lot to discuss on a re-watch 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. Rewatch Wednesday is here, folks. I am so excited to talk about these roster moves,

dive into all of my film notes on offense and defense, but first, just want to thank you guys for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. And make sure that you subscribe to the Locked On Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream

so that you never miss an episode of the number one Tennessee Titans podcast in the world. You can subscribe on whatever platform you stream podcasts. Make sure you subscribe to the Locked on Titans YouTube page. Smash that notification bell so you know when all of my content goes live. Have to follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans. I posted a bunch of film clips and film work on Tuesday.

Go back and check that out. Check out the show Facebook page at Locked on Titans pod as well. But the first thing that we have to discuss here is the injuries that the Titans have sustained at the edge rusher position, the outside linebacker spot. On Tuesday, the Titans placed Derek Roberson and rookie Rashad Weaver on injured reserve. Now that means that at minimum, they have to be out for three weeks. While that is a possibility for Derek Roberson, the rumor on the street is that Rashad Weaver actually broke his leg,

something in his lower leg, tibia, fibula, one of the two, and that'll probably keep him out for most of the season. So very concerning for the Titans to have cluster injuries at a position that, quite frankly, coming into the year was considered the biggest weakness on the team. The Titans had to sure up the pass rush. They had to do that going into the 2021 season. A lot of that had to do with the development of Derek Roberson, the addition of Rashad Weaver

in the draft, and of course, the signings of Danico Autry and Bud Dupree. But Bud Dupree has dealt with some injuries early on. He was only available in an emergency situation in Sunday's game against the Colts. And with Roberson and Weaver out now, that only leaves Bud Dupree, who's a question mark early on. Then Harold Landry, who's been balling, but you're going to wear him down very quickly if you don't have some guys who can rotate in at least. And then Ola Adani.

And Ola Adani has been a major surprise for the Titans early on, but how much can you rely on him as your starting outside linebacker or your second most important starting outside linebacker and edge rusher. That's not the position that the Titans wanted to be in. And that's why early on during free agency and even into the summer, I was pining for the Titans to go out and get a guy like Ryan Kerrigan, who signed with the Eagles for $3.5 million. A guy like Melvin Ingram, who openly campaigned to come to Tennessee

after the Julio Jones trade, who ended up going to the Steelers and has been incredibly productive for them for about $3.5 million. So I was disappointed at the time. This isn't hindsight. It's 2020. I was disappointed at the time

that the Titans didn't go out and add another guy to the address. I wanted two guys in free agency, a high-priced guy and a value guy, which would have been Kerrigan or Ingram or a Justin Houston, for example. And I wanted two young guys, two rookies, one early and one late. They went in the middle with Rashad Weaver, and that looked to be a decent pick. But my issue going into the season was there isn't enough valuable depth at outside linebacker, and now that is rearing its ugly head

with some cluster injuries there. What do the Titans do going forward now, though? Well, the first move that they make is adding a familiar face to the practice squad. The Titans have added Sharif Finch to the practice squad. He's back with the Titans, played with the Titans as an undrafted free agent out of Temple in 2018, then again in 2019. He dealt with some injuries during that time, and that was kind of his big downfall,

not being able to carve out a consistent spot at the back end of the roster. He played in 23 games with the Titans, had 35 tackles, 3.5 sacks. Since then, he's spent time with the Bengals, the Raiders, the Bears, and the Jets. Now you're thinking in your head, oh, well, the Titans probably brought him on not only because they needed bodies there, but they can get some info about the New York Jets. Well, unfortunately, Finch only played with the Jets in 2020, didn't really spend a lot of time with them early in the 2021 offseason.

And since the Jets have totally overhauled their coaching staff since Sharif played with them, I don't think that that's going to do the Titans much help. But again, they add Finch to the practice squad. They release defensive lineman Andrew Brown, who was on the Titans practice squad in that spot. Also, looking forward, could the Titans bring back a guy like John Simon? Simon was with the Titans during training camp.

And while he's an older guy who doesn't really give you much in the way of pass rush, he is somebody who could help the Titans on early downs in run defense. Played with Mike Rabel in Houston. He understands the system, understands what's being asked of him. Now the Titans did churn Simon pretty quickly, pretty early in training camp, so maybe they don't see much there, and Simon hasn't been picked up by anybody else since. So maybe his career is just over, but for a guy who knows the system,

can come in and contribute on first and second downs right away, I wouldn't be shocked to see that move. But either way, the Titans have cluster injuries at the outside linebacker spot. And with all of the reps that Harold Landry is getting with the increased role that Ola Adani was in already with the concern around Bud Dupree and how healthy he's going to be and how quickly, definitely something to monitor and definitely something to be worried about going forward for the Titans. Hopefully, Derek Roberson's injury will not keep him out a significant amount of time,

and he can be back as it does appear that Rashad Weaver will be out the rest of the season. But it is time to move into our Rewatch Wednesday segment. We are going to talk offense X's and O's. We are going to talk defense X's and O's. I'm going to talk scheme, route concepts, pressure concepts on defense. Going to talk some individual performances that popped out to me on tape as well.

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It is time to step into the film room and take a look at my re-watch Wednesday notes from my film study, from my film analysis over the past day, day and a half or so. We are going to start with the offensive side of the ball study from my film analysis over the past day, day and a half or so. We are going to start with the offensive side of the ball, and I am excited to tell you guys about what I saw from Todd Downing. So first and foremost, as we kind of got tipped off by Evan Sidery in last week's Crossover Thursday, if you guys aren't watching those, you are really missing out.

Some good nuggets that we get as we begin to preview the teams from the host of the other show. But Evan Sidery from Locked On Colts told us that the Colts were susceptible with perimeter runs. Of course, you don't want to run it up the middle at DeForest Buckner. You want to run it to the perimeter. And when Colts edge rusher, rookie edge rusher Quitty Pay was out for the game early in the game,

that made it even more advantageous for the Titans to run the perimeter. And they did it in a multitude of ways. They used pulls from the guards, from the center, pulling out to the perimeter. Something that doesn't really jive with the zone scheme for the Titans. So you love to see that versatility. They're not just going to run scheme specific plays. They're going to change up and do what's best to attack their opponent. Love that. So the Titans used pull plays and trap plays with their interior offensive linemen. They even did some pulls with the backside tight end. I

remember one particular perimeter run for Derrick Henry that got good yardage. They actually had Jeff Swaim on the backside of the play, and he pulled around to the front side. So I like seeing stuff like that from the Titans. They did tosses to Derrick Henry, pitch plays to Derrick Henry to get him out on the perimeter. They used counters and misdirection to try to get the defense leaning one way

and then let Derrick Henry bounce it out the other way. They didn't do this next part as much as they did against Seattle, but they did use a few condensed formations where they had two tight ends on one side, motion in that wide receiver to create a three tight end look, and then try to go to the weak side to the side with no tight end to get Derrick Henry one-on-one perimeter matchup. So the Titans did a great job there with their perimeter run scheme, and that was the foundation of them having success against the Colts. One thing that they did do as well going off of that, so I talked about how utilizing the fullback and fullback runs in this game would be important, and the Titans did utilize the fullback and fullback

alignments to have success against the Colts, but not in the way that I was expecting. I was expecting the Titans to use those full back alignments where they have a full back in the backfield to have success running the ball because the Colts like to use four man fronts. But what the Titans really did was they put a full back in the backfield and used the tight end. Basically, they'd come out in two tight ends. They'd have one of those tight ends, Michael Pruitt or Jeff Swaim.

They would motion that tight end into the backfield as a fullback, and then they would do a play-action bootleg, and here is why. So I talked about the Titans using fullback alignment because the Colts were going to have four-man fronts. That's four defensive linemen on the line of scrimmage. Remember we talked last week about the Seahawks, how they were putting five, six guys on the line of scrimmage. Remember, we talked last week about the Seahawks, how they were putting five, six guys on the line of scrimmage. Well, remember back to Ryan Tannehill's fumble against the Arizona Cardinals.

What happened there? He ran a play-action bootleg, and the Cardinals had five guys on the line of scrimmage as defenders, and Chandler Jones, instead of washing down the line with a play-action fake, he just went right after Tannehill off the backside edge. Well, there was nobody there. Well, the Colts didn't want to put as many guys on the line of scrimmage because they saw what the Titans did to the Seahawks.

So they kept their four defenders on the front, four-man fronts. Well, what does that do? That eliminates that backside pressure, that Chandler Jones, that fifth line of scrimmage defender. And that's going to get in Tannehill's face so that left that bootleg open and the second level defenders for the Colts were dropping back in zone coverages and there was a specific time where Ryan Tannehill had a really good gain up the middle where the second level linebacker literally turned his head I don't want to ruin the audio here as I'm turning my head on camera, but he literally turned his head backwards, located Julio Jones and sprinted straight backwards with Julio Jones. Well, nobody is accounting for Ryan Tannehill at that moment in time. So because the Colts went with

four man fronts, the Titans countered by putting that fullback in the backfield, like I said that they should do, but instead of running it out of that, they were using the play-action bootleg and getting Ryan Tannehill on the perimeter. He was able to have a lot of success with his legs because of that adjustment, because of that move by Todd Downing. So you love to see that there from the Titans,

the four-man front, motioning the tight end into the fullback position to create those four-man fronts. That's excellent stuff. Great tendency stuff from Todd Downing. You want to talk more about tendencies? Well, the Colts came out and broke their tendencies very early in the passing game. So we just talked about the running game, how the Titans had success there.

Now let's focus on the passing game. And the Colts are primarily a zone coverage team. They like to have all of their guys not playing man coverage, but having their eyes on the quarterback, their eyes in front of them breaking on the ball. But the Colts came out and in third down situations, fourth down situations, red zone situations, the Colts were playing man defense. That is a tendency breaker, as we would call that. The Colts typically do something, they did something else. And this was happening specifically early in the game on that very first touchdown drive for the Titans. Julio Jones had a

fourth down conversion where he crossed the field. Well, what happened there was the Colts were playing man defense. And how do you counter man defense so the guys can't get on the wide receiver's chest? Well, you run trips and you run bunch formations so that the Colts defenders can't all be lined up on the chest of the wide receivers. When there's a bunch and there's a triangle of Titans pass catchers, two of them are going to be off the line of scrimmage. One is on. That means the Colts defenders cannot press those off the line of scrimmage wide receivers in that trips bunch.

Well, what the Titans did was they ran rub routes and crossing routes to cross the middle of the field. And on that fourth down to Julio Jones, specifically, Jeff Swaim basically picked Julio Jones' defender and he did it in such a way. It was a rub route where he didn't get the penalty thrown for offensive pass interference. But because of the man coverage, the guy wasn't able to stay with Julio Jones. It left him wide

open on the side of the field by himself. Tannehill, easy completion on the short crosser. Julio turns it upfield. That's an easy first down on fourth. Then you get into the red zone. The Titans are in a trips bunch again, and Chester Rogers gets across the middle of the field. Ryan Tannehill holds the safety with his eyes so that he can't come up on Chester Rogers gets across the middle of the field. Ryan Tannehill holds the safety with his eyes so that he can't come up on Chester Rogers and because Chester Rogers is a pretty solid route runner with good quickness, he was able to beat his man in man coverage, get over the middle of the field, easy pitch and catch for the Titans first touchdown. Love that. Great adjustment to a tendency break for the Colts who typically play zone coverage.

They aren't a big man team. They came out and tried to play man against the Titans. Todd Downing was ready. But then when we saw the Colts defense transfer over to their zone coverages, Todd Downing was ready as well. What Todd Downing did was he ran a smash concept, which is where you have two wide receivers on one side of the field. One of the wide receivers is going to go about five yards up and then go directly to the sideline. The inside wide receiver is going to go about 10 to 12 up and then dart to the sideline himself.

Now think, the Colts were playing cover two. And when you think about the sideline in cover two, you're going to have one outside defender who's covering short. They're going to have line of scrimmage to 10 yards. Then you're going to have the deep defender who has the deep half of the field and they are covering basically 10 yards to the end zone on the sideline on that half of the field. Well, what the Titans did was they took their outside guy and they had him go directly out like I talked about and that brings the the inside defender not the inside defender but the the up front defender on the sideline it's going to bring him up to cover Chester Rogers and then Julio Jones goes up about 10 to 12 yards

cuts to the sideline and his goal is to get above that in front defender and then but stay in front of the behind defender as well. There's a little hole in cover two on the sideline. Remember A.J. Green catching that ball over Christian Fulton against the Titans in week one? That is a hole in cover two. And they found Julio Jones in that hole twice during this game. They ran other concepts like levels where you just have three guys going out.

Basically, I told you guys last week, and it's continuing, you have to flood the zone. There's only two zone defenders on the sideline. Flood that zone with two guys or three guys so that those defenders have no choice but to open up a hole. Todd Downing called the right plays and the right route concepts against the Colts' cover two zone defense when it mattered most. So you like to see those adjustments, route concepts,

route combinations that match what the tendency of the Colts is. It's beautiful stuff from Todd Downing. So that's exactly what I saw. And one other note here, the last note, the Colts were trying to go between man and zone. They're typically a zone team. Well, on the Nick Westbrook-Akina touchdown pass, that was a miscommunication. One guy

was playing for the Colts defense. One guy was playing man coverage. Another guy was playing zone coverage, and that opened up a huge hole on a miscommunication in the middle of the field that resulted in a Titans touchdown. So the Colts trying to change their tendencies, trying to break their tendencies. The Titans won that chess matchup.

Todd Downing over Matt Eberflus. Woo! Gets me going. What a great job by Todd Downing to continuously adjust during that game. Now we are going to talk about the defensive side of the ball next. Before we get into that, do got to remind you guys about the best tasting protein bars ever from our friends over at BuiltBar.com.

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by discussing my rewatch Wednesday notes on defense. We talked about the Titans roster moves and the cluster injury first, then we moved into a conversation about what the Titans did schematically on offense in the running game and in the passing game. Now, we are going to talk about the X's and O's on defense from the Titans win over the Colts.

First and foremost, the biggest thing that stood out to me was the Titans' use of four-man front. So I just explained what a four-man front is. For the offense, the Titans as a base 3-4 defense, yeah, they're a 3-4 with a five-man front is for the offense. The Titans, as a base 3-4 defense, yeah, they're a 3-4 with a five-man front, but Mike Vrabel said when he was hired, front multiplicity, and that's what we're seeing from the Titans. In the past two weeks,

they've run a ton of four-man fronts with only four down defensive linemen. Now, they can do a couple of different things when they do that. They can either have a Harold Landry go back up as a standing up linebacker, which he has the athleticism and versatility to do, or they can run a 4-3 out of nickel personnel

where they have a cornerback on the field and have a guy like Elijah Molden or Chris Jackson or Dane Cruikshank come down into the box and play as a stand-up second-level linebacker. So the Titans were doing that, and what that allowed was, like we talked about with Seattle, it allowed them to stay in some nickel packages but go against some heavier personnel groupings from the Colts, and they didn't really lose a lot in terms of run defense.

Now, when I don't know, I retweeted this on Twitter, I don't know how much we talked about it, but one of the big Colts writers, Stephen Holder, he talked about how the Titans, when he asked Frank Reich about not running the ball more in the second half with Jonathan Taylor, his response was, the Titans were showing some defensive fronts

that they weren't used to seeing. That caused Carson Wentz to check out of run plays into pass plays, which played right into the hand for the Titans. And they played four-man fronts early, but in the second half, they went to a lot of five-man fronts where they had their four down defensive linemen, but then would bring a linebacker onto the line of scrimmage

in the A gap or the B gap, basically in between the center or the guards outside shoulder. So the Titans adjusted in the second half, started throwing five man fronts out there. And when all of those five offensive linemen are covered by defenders, that is what's causing Carson Wentz to check out of the run. The Colts weren't prepared for the Titans adjustments. That is a win Shane Bowen over Frank Reich. I mean, this stuff gets me going.

So let's talk about what the Titans were doing in the run game. Basically, they were just playing physical, having good discipline, staying in their run fits. And Jonathan Taylor had some good runs in the game. But the Titans knew that if they just stayed sound in their fundamentals and in their techniques, they wouldn't have to worry about Jonathan Taylor breaking off any big ones. What they had to worry about was not getting exposed in the passing game.

And I talked about in my game preview how the Titans needed to run zone blitzes and zone pressures because whether they got Carson Wentz, whether they got Jacob Eason or Brett Hundley, it's a quarterback that does not process quickly. pressures because whether they got Carson Wentz, whether they got Jacob Eason or Brett Hunley, it's a quarterback that does not process quickly. You don't want to just be a show it and play it defense. Hey, we're doing this. We're playing this like the old Seahawks, Legion of Boom. They played cover three. Try to beat it, buddy. That's not what the Titans want to do. The Titans want to disguise coverage. They want to confuse quarterbacks. That's what they want to do. And they were able to do that. And the way that they were able to do that was inverted

cover two. So I've talked about invert cover two quite a bit. Basically, you guys know what a cover two coverage is at this time. Typically, the normal version is two deep safeties cover each half of the field. Everybody else covers zero to 10, 0-12 yards and across the line. Well, what the Titans were doing is, rather than having their two deep safeties do that, they would have either one of their outside cornerbacks or one of their slot cornerbacks go back for the deep half with one of the safeties. So one safety has one deep

half and then the Titans are shooting back a cornerback to take the other deep half. Well, the cornerback that isn't going back for one deep half and then the Titans are shooting back a cornerback to take the other deep half. Well, the cornerback that isn't going back for the deep half, that cornerback would stay as a low, flat, or hook defender. And what they would do is the Titans would have the cornerback that's going to play underneath. The Titans would have that cornerback on the running back side because what do the Colts like to do? Dump off the ball to the running back.

They like to run running back screens. That is their security blanket, especially with Carson Wentz having mobility issues. He's going to want to dump off the ball to the running back more often than not. Well, the Titans are running that inverted cover too. Not only are you confusing Carson Wentz on what the initial coverage is,

but by having one cornerback go back as the deep half, and then the cornerback on the running back side stay as the flat hook zone underneath the fender, now you're taking away that easy dump off to the running back as well. Beautiful stuff from Shane Bowen. Now, they've got to be careful. Playing too much invert cover too when you have to have a cornerback who's playing normal cornerback depth

and then he's got to sprint back to safety depth before the snap. That can get the Titans in a bad spot. And I remember last year against the Houston Texans, they hit a deep touchdown pass to I believe it was Will Fuller because the Titans were trying to get back an invert cover too. But Will Fuller beat the cornerback back deep in a race basically because the cornerback didn to get back and invert cover two, but Will Fuller beat the cornerback back deep in a race, basically, because the cornerback didn't get back deep enough because he was trying to disguise the coverage.

Titans have to be careful. Teams are going to see that on tape, and they're going to try to attack that, so be careful with the inverted cover two, Titans. But that's in the back end. In the front, the Titans' twist and stunts and loops are working so well on the defensive line. Harold Landry is getting a lot of pressure on the quarterback right now, and he's getting a lot of

the pub, but it's not like he's just one-on-one beating offensive tackles, and that's how he's getting to the quarterback. The Titans are running slants with their defensive line. They'll slant this way, and Harold Landry will loop around that slant and come right up the middle. We saw that over and over and over again. The Titans are doing so well with their games, their twists, their stunts up front, and that's exactly what Mike Vrabel wants to see. Some individual notes here.

I talked about Harold Landry on those loop stunts, but also Danico Autry as a defensive end and a defensive tackle, incredibly disruptive, and he is so, so good at those stunts and those games, not as the guy who gets to the quarterback, but as a guy who occupies multiple offensive linemen to allow those openings. So shout out to Danico Autry for that. Also, saw Jayon Brown out there for some third downs,

so glad they're working him back into the lineup, even if he's still recovering from injury. Elijah Molden, we talked about the Titans' safety position. Dane Cruikshank, Kevin Byard, the only ones who you really want to rely on out on the field. Who would be that third safety and dime? Well, number one, the Titans just didn't play a lot of dime. They mostly stuck with nickel with only five defensive backs instead of six.

But when the Titans did go dime late in the game when the Colts were trying to get back in it down nine, they brought Elijah Molden on. Molden didn't play deep. They left Crookshank deep. Had Kevin Byard as kind of the strong safety. Those two flipped around a little bit. But Elijah Molden would play that sub-package linebacker role

that we saw Crookshank in last week that we saw Kenny Vaccaro in last year. So nice to see Elijah Molden used that way. Again, the zone blitzes were awesome. They confused Carson Wentz on what the coverage was. They messed up the timing of the Colts routes on offense. And likewise, up front with the loops and stunts, they were getting home because the Titans were executing them so well. So cover to invert was a big thing for the Titans in this game, changing up their fronts throughout the game, a big part of this game.

So just masterful stuff from Shane Bowen. And wouldn't you know it when Mike Vrabel focuses on just being the leader of the team and being the CEO and allows good coordinator Shane Bowen and Todd Downing, I cannot believe I'm saying this, to do their thing. That's the best version of the Tennessee Titans. Ladies and gentlemen, we might be seeing Mike Vrabel evolve into the type of coach

he has to be for the Titans to win a Super Bowl. But that is going to do it for my re-watch Wednesday notes, my film notes, my film study. Again, tons of clips up at Tic Tac Titans on Twitter. Check out the visual aspect

of this breakdown to actually see what it is that I am describing. Also, want to let you guys know, as of today, I am officially a contributing writer for the USA Today's Titans Wire. I'm going to be

doing a film breakdown article whether it be a player spotlight or an offensive or defensive spotlight every single week on Wednesday or Thursday depending on how the schedule breaks. Please, I ask you guys, check out those articles. Click the article. I'm

excited to get back into writing. I love to podcast. I love to make videos. But my one true love from when I. I love to podcast. I love to make videos. But my one true love from when I decided I wanted to do this when I was younger is writing. The written word, the pen, is mightier than the sword. And I am so excited to get back into

writing, especially doing film work for you guys. So please check out The Titan's Wire by USA Today. My first article will be dropping most likely in the afternoon on Wednesday. But thank you guys all so much for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Make sure that you check out the Locked on Bets podcast

for all of your gambling advice. It's a great second listen as well. That's going to do it for me today, though, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.