Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Slay Jaguars: Victory Monday Game Review, #TitanUpTitanDown & AFC Recap

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

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You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, this Victory Monday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by Pepsi. Thanks to a lack of natural athleticism or commitment or overbearing sports parents, fewer than 1% of 1% of 1% of people

will ever play professional football. But instead of entering the NFL, they've joined another league, the League of Football Watchers. This football season will be different and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day no matter how you watch. Pepsi is the refreshment you need

to power through any game day because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game. It's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching. Go to madeforfootballwatching.com to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi. The Tennessee Titans were able to defeat the division rival Jacksonville Jaguars 31-10 on Sunday. Led by the king himself, Derrick Henry. But the Titans offense didn't get off to the best start.

But they eventually kicked it on. But the Titans defense was very impressive throughout. Aided by another good day by the Titans special team. So the Titans take care of business and still lead the AFC South sitting at 9-4 coming out of the weekend. I'm breaking down everything that took place in that victory. First, we're going to look at my big picture takeaways here on offense, on defense, and of course on special teams.

Exactly how the Tennessee Titans were able to get this victory and get back in the win column. And then we will zoom in, take a look at the individual performances and everyone's favorite segment, Tighten Up, Tighten Down. So I will tell you which players I think had a good day and which players had a not-so-good day. Make sure you go on Twitter, at TicTacTitans, follow me, and let me know who your Tighten and your Titan downs were from Sunday. And then we will cap off the show recapping everything that took place in the AFC.

And I'll let you know exactly where the Titans sit after this weekend of football. So a victory Monday here on the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it. The Tennessee Titans were able to handle business against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday and defeat them 31-10. In a game the Titans should have won against a team, the Titans should have beaten. But in true Tennessee Titans fashion, they had to play with their food a little bit early on, specifically on the offensive side of the ball. While the Titans defense came out ready to play and gave up zero points in their first

four possessions, the Titans offense was only able to convert those four opportunities into one scoring drive. And of course, that was the incredible A.J. Brown one-handed touchdown pass on the flea flicker throw by Ryan Tannehill. But eventually, the Titans' offense kicked things into gear, and on their next four possessions, were able to score all four times. Three touchdowns and one field goal. And that offensive effort was led by the King himself, Derrick Henry, who continues to dominate the Jacksonville Jaguars at every opportunity.

Derrick Henry had 26 carries for 215 yards and two touchdowns. He was an absolute beast. But remember that Tennessee Titans defense was the big surprise on the day. Despite the fact that the Jaguars were not a good team, the Titans defense had not been very good all season long. And they stepped up in this game, especially on third downs, third down defense. The Titans are the worst in this game, especially on third downs, third down defense. The Titans are the worst in the NFL, but they held the Jags offense to five of 14 on third downs on this day, one for three on their fourth down conversion opportunities.

And a lot of that had to do with the Titans bottling up the Jacksonville Jaguars running game led by undrafted free agent rookie running back James Robinson. running game led by undrafted free agent rookie running back James Robinson. Robinson had 12 carries for 67 yards on the day and 47 of those yards came on one carry in the second half. So the Titans completely eliminated Robinson. The Jags as a total offense only had 91 rushing yards. So a great job there by the Tennessee Titans defense not only in coverage but also in run defense also on special teams the Tennessee Titans were able to be a plus on the day and win that matchup the Titans as I mentioned previously did block a field goal attempt on the Jags first offensive drive of the day that was defensive tackle Daquan Jones, who was able to get a hand on the kick.

But Jeffrey Simmons created incredible penetration, which gave Daquan Jones a lane to get that block. So a good play on special teams. But also, Titans all-pro punter Brett Kern continued to prove his worth. All four of his punts were downed inside the 20-yard line, so a great weapon for the Titans special teams there with punter Brett Kern, but also the often discussed, the often maligned kicker Steven Gostkowski continued to be solid for the Titans. He made all four of his extra points and made his only field goal attempt a 50-yard field

goal late in the first half. So an overall fantastic performance from the Tennessee Titans in all three phases. An incredibly important victory to get the Titans season back on a positive track. Get this team having some positive momentum rolling into a matchup against the Detroit Lions that the Titans should win as well. And these victories are incredibly important as the Indianapolis Colts were able to win on Sunday as well. So the Titans keep pace with the Colts and keep their AFC South lead, improve to 9-4 after a 31-10 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. 9-4 after a 31-10 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. But it's time for us to zoom in our lens and take a look at some of the individual performances from this victory.

We are going to talk about the good and the bad and tighten up and tighten down. Remember, follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my selections and if there's any Titan ups or Titan downs that you think that I missed. So we are going to dive into that. Remember, we are capping off today's show and doing a recap of what took place in the AFC.

I will let you know exactly where the Titans stand after the weekend of games. And remember, a lot more coming up this week on the Locked on Titans podcast. So subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. But we are going to move into Titan Up and Titan Down. It is time to zoom in our lens and take a look at the individual performances from this victory over the Jaguars and tighten up and tighten down. Before we do, I want to remind you guys tomorrow is Tic Tac Tuesday. I will have this week's Tic Tac 4-pack where I break down from an X's and O's perspective the four most impactful plays from the Titans win over the Jags.

You will not want to miss that. I also do a visual film breakdown every single week to go along with that audio breakdown. But you get the audio breakdown first here on the Locked on Titans podcast. And then Tuesday during the day, afternoon, or evening, I throw up that film breakdown. So make sure that you don't miss tomorrow's episode for Tic Tac Tuesday. But let's do tighten up, tighten down. And I will start with the tighten ups. And we will start on the offensive side of the ball.

A.J. Brown. So yeah, he had another drop on a third down, but how can you argue with everything that he does for this team? He's just so explosive, he scores points. That's what it comes down to at the end of the day. You can make all the catches in the world, but can you turn those into points? And A.J. Brown is a point producer, point blank.

You see what I did? Anyways, moving on, I give A.J. Brown the love, but obviously, Derrick Henry. I mean, what else can be said? The guy's an absolute stud. We've been getting some pretty incredible stats for Derrick Henry here as well. So I'm going to read some of those to you guys, some things that we are seeing from Derrick Henry that are, I guess, historic. So since 2018, Derrick Henry has four 200-yard rushing games. The rest of the NFL has four, so a tie there. Derrick Henry is the first player with back-to-back 1,500 rushing yard seasons since Tiki Barber and Larry Johnson in 2005 and 2006.

This is just a miscellaneous one here, but the Titans have scored 30-plus points with 400 yards of offense in four straight games for the first time in franchise history. I do believe that Ryan Tannehill got the record for most passing touchdowns in Titans history today. Ryan Tannehill also another Titan up. He was 19 for 24 for 212 passing yards, I believe, and two touchdowns. So an absolute fantastic day from Ryan Tannehill, from Derrick Henry, and here's another one. Derrick Henry

now has the most 200-yard rushing days with two touchdowns. He has the most games with 200 yards rushing and two touchdowns in NFL history! He passed Jim Brown. He passed Barry Sanders. I mean,

just an incredible performance. Can't say enough about Derrick Henry. He passed Barry Sanders. I mean, just an incredible performance. Can't say enough about Derrick Henry. He's a Hall of Famer, guys. He's a Hall of Famer. I mean, he's got more time. He's got to prove it a little bit more. But look at what we're watching here. A Hall of Famer in their prime.

One of the maybe top 6 to 10 running backs of all time. We might be witnessing right now. So just the biggest tighten up ever for Derrick Henry, man. What a stud. And all the don't pay running back people. I mean, this is just proof, man. Unicorns exist. And Derrick Henry's a unicorn.

What an absolute fantastic day for Derrick Henry as he continues to be the mayor of Jacksonville. But the guy who I'm going to give my offensive game ball to, so A.J. Brown, great. Tannehill, great. Derrick Henry, great. The trio stars, great, as always. Jeff Swaim, baby. The Swaim star.

A Titan Swaim. I am officially declaring myself the mayor of Swaimville. Okay? I am the guy. Tic Tac Tyler, I am the mayor of Swaimville. I love the man. Just the blocking. Three catches, 34 yards, a touchdown.

But the blocking. I put one of his clips on my Twitter account, at Tic Tac Titans. An incredible lead block from Swaim. It didn't count. It ended up coming back because of a penalty, a holding by A.J. Brown. But, man, just the physicality that Swaim played with, his blocking, his ability to actually catch the ball and be somewhat of a weapon in the passing game. I mean, he's not an explosive guy, but, I mean, you don't have to be an explosive guy

to be a top five tight end in the NFL. Baby Jeff Swaim. That's all I got to say. The Swaim star. At it, baby. What an incredible day for Jeff Swaim. A Titan Swaim. Not even a Titan up, not a Titan down.

A Titan Swaim. Let's go, the mayor of Swaimville. Then, moving to the defensive side of the ball, Malcolm Butler. I mean, he gets the overall game ball I know everybody's saying Derrick Henry Derrick Henry but I'm sorry I was just much more impressed by Malcolm Butler and Jeff Swaim and because we know that Derrick Henry's as a beast we we've come to expect this maybe I'm ungrateful I need to appreciate it a little bit more but just what a day for Malcolm Butler and man coverage on DJ Chark. I talked about that being a key matchup on Friday, and just what a day.

What a day for Malcolm Butler. Three tackles, two pass breakups, an interception. I can't wait to see the targeted stats, but a monster day. At this point, Malcolm Butler 100% deserves all of the Pro Bowl votes that he is getting. He deserves it. He's been fantastic this year. Incredible for the Titans. Imagine if they had two number one cornerbacks.

Never mind. Never mind. Let's continue forward. Next, Rashawn Evans. I thought Rashawn Evans had a heck of a day. Maybe his best day of the season so far. He was good in pass coverage early on besides being detached in a zone in the very first drive.

Very first third down, he was a little detached in a zone and gave up a first down. But outside of that, a great job covering the hole in cover two, running up the middle of the field with a tight end. A great job coming downhill, making some pass breakups. Had eight tackles on the day. Thought he was effective in run defense. I talked about that being a big matchup, him versus James Robinson.

Was he going to be able to tackle him? And I thought Rashawn Evans won that matchup. So a great day by Rashawn Evans, but he needs to get an assist from the guys up front. I thought Daquan Jones, Jeffrey Simmons, and Jack Crawford. Despite not having a big showy game, Simmons didn't make a bunch of tackles for loss and a bunch of plays behind the line of scrimmage, but they were just so solid not giving up an inch. Got to give a lot of credit to those three in the interior.

Daquan Jones, Jeff Simmons, Jack Crawford. They deserve a lot of love there. But moving forward, away from the Titan Ups, if I missed any, feel free to let me know. But moving into the Titan Downs, going to make quick work of the Titan Downs here. Don't want to spend too much time being negative, but we definitely got to talk about some of the people who didn't have their best game. And number one, Corey Davis, maybe his worst game of the season so far three catches 34 yards but had that fumble now let me talk about that play on the fumble that's a bad play by Corey

Davis he's got to secure the ball he can't be giving up any fumbles and here's the big problem is the Titans offense was in a rut at that moment in time and you need your playmakers to get you out of that rut not continue to drop you further in that and and the Titans were having they got stopped on fourth down and Corey Davis had a fumble in a moment when the Titans needed him to lift him up so more of a Titan down than just the fumble itself was the timing on that so Corey Davis kind of needed to step up there wasn't able to do it a Titan down for down for Corey. But also, speaking of things on offense, Arthur Smith, I'm not going to give him a full

tight end down here, but just a couple of times every week, he's going to do something really freaking weird, man. And that fourth down call, running it to the left-hand side, Questenberry had gotten whooped multiple plays on that drive,

and it's fourth and two. You have Derrick Henry, the best running back in the NFL. You have Ryan Tannehill, one of the top seven, eight quarterbacks in the NFL. You have A.J. Brown, a top ten wide receiver in the NFL, and you run the ball to David Questenberry with Jeremy McNichols? What are you doing, Arthur Smith? What are you doing? There's always going to be a couple of plays every single game where I'm just so, so frustrated by something that

Arthur Smith does. Look, guys, he's an awesome offensive coordinator, probably a top five offensive coordinator in the NFL, but man, some of those weird play calls and decisions, they'll just never sit well with me no matter what. So moving forward, something that I mentioned, David Questenberry, probably his worst day since he's been in the starting lineup, gave up a couple of pressures, was responsible for the one sack, had a couple of rough plays in run defense. I'm not going to crush anybody on the offensive line. Tighten ups I missed.

Tighten ups I missed. Tighten-ups, I missed. I'm so sorry, but Ben Jones and Dennis Kelly were awesome in this game. They were awesome in this game. So I just want to throw that out there. Ben Jones, Dennis Kelly, major tighten-ups on the offensive line. But Questenberry, a tighten down here, he wasn't terrible by any stretch of the imagination. So I don't want to say that he wasn't a game killer or anything, but just not his best day. Struggled a little bit with Caleb on chase on, some other guys on the Jacksonville front. So a tighten down for Questenberry.

I think it was deserved there. Next, on the defensive side of the ball, Amani Hooker. He needs to do a better job of tackling. I thought he missed a couple tackles today. He did a pretty good job in pass coverage. I'm not going to give him a lot of crap there, but just he missed a few tackles that really hurt the Titans and against the Jags, maybe that won't matter. But if he's going to play a lot more safety, Kenny Vaccaro was out for this game. If he's going to play a lot more safety and he's the Titans strong safety or second safety of the future to keep paired with Kevin Bayard,

I like that idea. I like Amani Hooker, but he's just got to do a better job of not diving on his tackles. He's got to keep his head up. He's got to keep a sound base. I know guys are going real fast out there and I know sometimes you've got to dive and take that chance, but he's just got to do a lot better tackling the ball coming up in his run fit. So I want to see Imani Hooker do better in the run game, being physical and making tackles and getting guys to the ground. David Long, he had five tackles on the day, but I wasn't incredibly impressed with his effort either.

He missed a few tackles on that big, long 47-yard run for James Robinson, the one lone explosive play that he had in this game. It was David Long who overcommitted or I guess was too aggressive, hit the wrong hole. He hit the B gap. Robinson was able to get through the C gap where he should have been flowing over to stop him. So David Long often is overaggressive,

and that's getting him beat in certain scenarios. I like the aggressiveness, and the Titans really do need that on defense, but he's just got to be a little more sound in his gap responsibilities in run defense and in the run fit. So that's what I need to see from David Long to take that next step. If it was Madden, his awareness rating needs to go up. He's got the athleticism, he's got the aggression, needs the awareness rating to go up a little bit to make him more of an every down reliable player and then the last titan down that i have is the damn field what kind of amateur field do they have there in jacksonville everyone's slipping their kicker was slipping we saw aj brown slip down one time we saw der Derrick Henry and Jeremy McNichols slip on some runs.

Just a putrid job by their groundskeeping crew there and their facilities management crew. Just absolutely miserable. So that field is dangerous, and I'm glad that the Titans players just got out of there without any serious injuries. It's embarrassing what their football field looks like and the condition that it's in.

I don't care how late it is in the season. There are plenty of fields that get played on by multiple teams. Just despicable to have NFL professional athletes out there playing on that type of field. So that's all I'll say about that. We are going to move into the cap off, the nightcap of our show here. Even though you're probably listening in the morning, off the nightcap of our show here even though you're probably listening in the morning it is a nightcap for me here at about 11 30 p.m eastern standard time but before we get into recapping

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for 20% off at builtbar.com. Let's cap off this Victory Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, taking a look at the other results in the AFC. Before we do that, I do want to let you guys know about another podcast you can find on the Locked On Podcast Network, and that is the Locked On NBA Show. They are currently doing their NBA season preview with the NBA season right around the corner, the shortest professional offseason in American sports history. The NBA is back, and make sure that you get ready to go with the Locked On NBA, NBA season

preview. Make sure that you don't miss that. But let's dive into this AFC recap here. We took a look at how the Titans finished, of course. We covered that game in depth, my big picture takeaways, tighten up and tighten down for our individual performances. But around the AFC, I already mentioned the Colts. The big game that the Titans needed to watch.

The Colts definitely took care of business against the Las Vegas Raiders. They beat them handily by a score of 44-27. So Phillip Rivers is getting healthy. That offense was running the ball with ease. Jonathan Taylor 150 yards. So the Colts are not going anywhere folks. They're still going to be a very difficult out in the playoffs and the Titans are going to have to continue winning games to fend them off despite having the tiebreaker advantage in multiple different places. But the Titans cannot afford to slip whatsoever

because the Colts are a good team and keep on winning. Once again, that's a 44-27 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, but that wasn't the only result that the Titans needed to pay attention to if something, for some reason, does go wrong with the Titans' chances to win the AFC South. They will be squarely in the mix for an AFC wildcard spot. So let's take a look at some of the other teams that were vying for a wildcard spot in the AFC. We talked about the Raiders already.

They moved to 7-6 now, and AFC conference loss brings them to 5-4, so that's a big win for the Titans if, for some reason, they do need to battle it out in the wild card if they get leapt by the Indianapolis Colts. But continuing to look at some of the wild card options that the Titans had to go against, one, a strong challenger, the Miami Dolphins. And the Dolphins really gave Kansas City a tough game. They were able to turn over the Chiefs offense multiple times. So a really well-coached unit there for Brian Flores in Miami.

Tua had his best game as a professional. Thought he was pretty solid. Tried to make some plays late and had some interceptions. But I thought Tua played a really solid game. So Miami is a good team with a good defense and a good coaching staff, but they did lose to Kansas City 33-27. So Kansas City continues to be the class of the NFL. They have to be the favorites for the Super Bowl and for the AFC's No. 1 seed.

Miami moves to 8-5 after the 33 to 27 loss Miami right now would be the seventh and final wild card team in the AFC but this is critical that the Chiefs were able to beat them in this game that's an AFC loss also drops the Dolphins to five losses on the year so if the Titans do lose they're going to be battling it out with the Dolphins at that moment in time. But because the Dolphins just lost this AFC game, their AFC record, like the Raiders, is now 5-4. So the Titans have a 7-4 AFC record. So that's definitely helpful in terms of tiebreakers. So something to watch for the Titans.

Another wildcard contender is the Baltimore Ravens, along with the Cleveland Browns. The Browns sit at 9-3. The Ravens are 7-5. They play on Monday Night Football, however, though. Obviously, I'm not going to be able to discuss that with you guys until Wednesday, but I will obviously rehash this conversation then to keep you guys updated. The big game, though, that was one of the best games of the NFL year, and although it didn't end up having the outcome that the Titans wanted,

it was still a great game to watch. And that was Buffalo versus Pittsburgh. And at this time, it's not over, but we're very, very late in the fourth quarter. And it looks like Buffalo will be able to win this game. It's about 26-15 at this moment in time. So if that holds and Buffalo wins, that's actually bad for the Titans because the reality is they're not going to catch Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh would have the head-to-head tiebreaker over them for the third seed anyway.

This just means that the Titans have less of a chance to catch Buffalo for that third seed because now they're 10-3, and we know they're not going to catch Pittsburgh at 11-2. So this game kind of puts the Titans squarely in that number four seed, which means they would be going up against the best wildcard team, which at this moment in time would mean a rematch with the Cleveland Browns. And I got to tell you guys, I'd rather go against the Browns again in the playoffs in round one than take on the Colts. That's just how I feel about it right now. You may feel different, but that's how I'm feeling about things. So how things shake out, of course, three weeks left in this NFL season.

The Titans take on the Lions, then take on the Packers, then finish with the Texans. There are some other games for these teams, obviously, as they finish out their year. And we're going to continue watching everything. But at the end of the day, what matters most is if the Titans keep winning, they will get a home playoff game, and they will win the AFC South. So the Titans don't control their own destiny

because destiny is predetermined, but they control their own path. And I hope that you control your listening to this podcast the rest of the week. Subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. Tic Tac Tuesday, Rewatch Wednesday, Crossover Thursday, next week's game preview, or this week's game preview, I guess. A lot coming up on the show, so make sure that you're locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast. 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. ... ... ... ...