Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Victory Recap: Colts Domination Continues, Derrick Henry's Big Day & #TitanUpTitanDown

Episode Date: October 3, 2022

The Tennessee Titans defeated the Indianapolis Colts 24-17 on Sunday. A big win for the Titans was led by Derrick Henry who looked to be back in mid-season form! This is another game in a recent run of domination over Indy! Tyler revels in the win. Then, #TitanUpTitanDown. Tyler goes over the best performances of the day from Henry, Chig Okonkwo & Denico Autry then goes over the rough games for Caleb Farley & Nicolas Petit-Frere.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosSupport 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!Athletic 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.PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNFL to learn more.EliasTake this NFL season to the next level and download the Elias Game Plan App today and use promo code locked-on-nfl-25 to get 25% off your first month when you choose the monthly subscription 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's a Victory Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. The Tennessee Titans score a major divisional win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday 24-17. I'm going to give you guys all my big takeaways on offense and defense. Talk about all of the good and bad individual performances, and everyone's favorite segment, tighten up and tighten down, and then take a look at what lies ahead for the Titans

as they get to 2-2 and tie for first in the AFC South. A Victory Monday 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 Victory Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast or a Victory Sunday night for the YouTube crowd. And it is presented by PrizePix.

PrizePix is daily fantasy made easy. You pick two to five players, and if they score more or less than their PrizePix projection, you can win up to 10 times your money on your entry. First-time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That's prizepix.com. Promo code LOCKEDON.

Thank you guys for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first to listen every day if this is your first ever listen or you just haven't subscribed yet. Make sure you stay locked in to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am putting out Monday through Friday daily Tennessee Titans content all year

round on all platforms including the Locked On Titans YouTube channel. Subscribe there. Smash the notification bell and throw a thumbs up on the video if you think the Titans are going to win the AFC South. It feels good, Titans fans. The Titans just continue to dominate the Indianapolis Colts. Four straight wins over Indy.

Four straight road wins over Indy. Those are both franchise firsts for the Tennessee Titans. How did they do it? Well, on offense, the Titans simply got the ground game going with Derrick Henry. They came out, thought they ran a bunch of tight end, thought they ran a ton of fullback formations. They were in heavy and when they went into shotgun they were doing a great job of running traps and pool plays to get Derrick

Henry going downhill in those circumstances Derrick Henry people want to talk about Jonathan Taylor people want to talk about Nick Chubb Derrick Henry retook the crown on Sunday in Indianapolis. He went 22 for 114 yards, one touchdown on the ground, threw in three catches for 33 yards. And I mean, the offense came out. They were running the ball in play action, hitting chunk plays, hitting explosive plays, 20 plus yards, getting runs downhill. I mean, it was just absolutely beautiful football from the Titans. And we've seen that in the first half from the Titans before.

Just last week, the Titans scored 24 points in the first half, throwing the ball to Robert Woods. Like I said, Derrick Henry is running in a touchdown. I mean, it was just excellent stuff from the Titans on offense, putting everything together. was just excellent stuff from the Titans on offense, putting everything together. I got to tell you, I think that the Titans were helped by Darius Leonard, Shaquille Leonard being out there. He didn't look great. And yeah, I think that it hurt the Colts to have Leonard out there. They started rotating him in and out. He was going to be limited snaps anyway. They finally, he went out for the game with a concussion. I thought the Colts defense got a lot better. So take that for what it's worth, but just a great first half performance from the Titans. Again, touchdown to Robert Woods,

Derrick Henry touchdown, touchdown to Chigakonkwo, who had a huge game. And we'll talk more about the good performances in this game from individual players when we get into Titan Up, Titan Down. In the second half, you could call it execution, but I think at this point it's obvious that it's game planning. The Titans go into halftime. They come out. The team adjusts to what the Titans did in the first half, and the Titans don't have the counterpunch to the adjustment.

Now, there's execution problems as well on the offensive line, but it just seems like defenses know what's coming from the Titans in the second half. Something I'm going to dive into later on in the week for Rewatch Wednesday, Tic Tac Tuesday on Twitter, and then my film article later in the week, but

what I really think hurt the Titans, especially in the second half when the Colts started throwing the ball on defense, is Bud Dupree's injury. Now, Bud Dupree is not worth $20 million, and my feelings on Bud Dupree are known, covered him in the postcast. But he's still an NFL quality starting edge, and the Titans need that right now.

So the Titans couldn't get the pressure that they got in the first half, and with the deficiencies that the Titans have at linebacker, at safety, at that opposite outside corner spot where Caleb Farley and Terrence Mitchell just continue to toil away. If the Titans pass rush isn't going like it was early in the first half, once Bud Dupree went out of the game, now Matt Ryan has time to throw and you can take advantage of those weaknesses. So it's simple what happened to the defense. But at the end of the day, the defense forced three turnovers. That's what I talked about. The Titans needed to play a clean game and not lose the turnover battle,

not kill themselves with penalties, not kill themselves with mistakes. And while it wasn't pretty for the Titans, they did exactly that. They forced three turnovers on the Colts. And man, Christian Fulton jumping on that ball at the Titans. They did exactly that. They forced three turnovers on the Colts and man, Christian Fulton jumping on that ball at the end. It was Schober, it was Weaver, both in there getting that ball out from Jonathan Taylor at the end. Just huge. So the Titans

forced three turnovers and there you go. That's what allowed them to get up in the first half and not only that, get up in the first half with the two turnovers, but then seal the game with the final turnoff. Just great stuff from the Titans being opportunistic. They stopped the run.

Another key, Jonathan Taylor had 20 carries for 42 yards. Titans had 38 rushing yards as a, or the Colts had 38 rushing yards as a team, 1.7 yards per carry. I mean, excellent stuff from the Titans. Now, of course, their struggles. The Colts had 38 rushing yards as a team, 1.7 yards per carry. I mean, excellent stuff from the Titans. Now, of course, their struggles. I was worried about tight ends in the red zone. Titans did not cover tight ends in the red zone.

The tight ends ate the Titans alive, and that makes sense. With the depth issues at safety, the depth issues at linebacker, that does make sense that they would attack over the middle of the field with those tight ends. But regardless of that, regardless of the Colts attacking the weak spots in the Titans pass defense, regardless of the injury to Bud Dupree in the pass rush slowing down, regardless of the Titans execution and game plan issues in the second half. A big time win. 24-17 to set the Titans up to be in a great spot going forward these next three weeks.

This was a big five-week stand for the Titans after going 0-2 with the Raiders, the Colts twice, the Commanders, the Texans. They had to make their push and 2-0 so far throughout the five-game stretch. So we'll talk more about what comes ahead at the end of the show. But now we have to get into tighten up, tighten down to

talk about all the good performances from this game and some of the less than good performances from this game. Before we get into it though, I do want to tell you guys a little bit more about our title sponsor from PrizePix. So PrizePix is daily fantasy made simple. PrizePix has a projection for each player. Derrick Henry, 90 rushing yards. More or less. Traylon Burks, two catches. More or less. You get what I'm laying down here. So what you do is you pick a roster of two to five players and all you do is you pick a roster of two to five players, and all you do is you look at their projection on PrizePix,

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Thank you again for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. Make sure you check out our NFL key predictions every Friday on the Locked On NFL YouTube channel. Locked On local experts give you the inside scoop on the five biggest games of the NFL weekend, including Sunday and Monday night football plus. Betting advice from the field's leading expert, BetOnline. Follow NFL key Predictions every Friday on Locked On NFL, available on the Odyssey app,

YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. But moving forward, we got to go into tighten up, tighten down, and we have to start with the biggest tighten up of them all, and that is Derrick Henry. Derrick Henry has 22 carries, 114 yards, a touchdown, has three catches for 33 yards. I mean, the 23-yard screen pass early in the game was awesome.

Now, Derrick Henry had some drops. Yeah, he's not Alvin Kamara or Christian McCaffrey out there. No, he's not. But still good stuff, and respecting Derrick Henry as a pass catcher Alvin Kamara or Christian McCaffrey out there. No, he's not. But still good stuff. And respecting Derrick Henry as a pass catcher is important for the Titans and how defenses play them going forward. So a major tighten up for Derrick Henry. A tighten up for Chig Okonkwo.

We are getting Chiggy with it, folks. Chig had three catches for 38 yards and a touchdown. And the Titans used him in a lot of schematic ways, going across the formation, leaking out. He got a nice catch for 23 yards, I think, on a wheel route out of the backfield. I thought the creative ways that the Titans used Chigaconquo were absolutely fantastic.

And then on the touchdown, he just ran a classic shake route as a regular tight end. Just came in, shake, fake to the outside, cut back in. Tannehill fired it in, in between Colts defenders. He catches it and falls into the end zone for a touchdown. So not only is he doing like some creative gadget schematic things, which you hope that he would do early in the after-draft process. But now he's also making some just classic tight end plays.

And I got to go back and check the snap counts. But by my recollection, I saw a ton of Chigaconquo in this game. I think he might have out-snapped Austin Hooper. And that makes sense. In my opinion, watching Austin Hooper, he's basically the new Anthony Ferkser. The Titans need a second tight end who can actually block a little bit to keep their offense from being too predictable.

We thought that bringing in Austin Hooper would be that answer. But unfortunately, Hooper just hasn't blocked well enough to be that answer. So Chikokonkwo getting all the work that he did out there. And I think when the Titans go in shotgun and they want to run out of shotgun, having somebody with the speed of Okonkwo, but still the receiving ability and the blocking ability altogether is very important. So like seeing that, want to go back through it, but a big tighten up to rookie tight end Chigaconquo, who, as you guys know, if you followed me in the show, I was pounding the table for on draft night before he was selected.

Chig is my boy, and we stan Chigaconquo. Getting chiggy with it on Sunday night. Love to see that. Robert Woods, again, solid connection for Tannehill. Four catches, 30 yards on all four targets. He caught him, had the touchdown as well early in the game, wide open. Love to see that. Had a third down completion, I believe, on an RPO

where Robert Woods was in the slot in twins. I think Robert Woods is being the chain mover that the Titans need. The Titans need a more explosive element across from Robert Woods to truly open up the offense. Unfortunately, they may have lost that explosive element for quite some time after that game in Indy, but we'll talk more about that in just a moment.

On the offensive line, it's a tale of two halves, but I thought Ben Jones and Nate Davis had good days for the Titans on the interior. Obviously, with offensive line play, got to go back and check the film to make sure that the evaluation is correct, and I'll always keep it 100 with you guys if I get my initial evaluation

incorrect. For me, I thought Ben Jones and Nate Davis had a good day out there, especially in that first half. Hassan Haskins, great job on kickoff return. He had four returns for 105 return yards, 26.3 on average. Had a 37-yard return. I thought he was excellent out there.

Randy Bullock as well. One field goal, 44 yards. Made it. Three extra points. Made all of them. Did what he was asked. Hit some touchbacks as well. Ryan Stonehouse. Four punts, 211 yards, a 52.1 average. I thought Stonehouse was just okay in this game.

I thought there were some punts. He could have kicked it a little longer. He didn't really pin them inside the 20, but he had a few that were right outside the 20 that were still pretty good. So big shout out there. On defense, Danico Autry. Autry was awesome in this game. Had two sacks, had the forced fumble, had three quarterback hits, had two tackles, one tackle for loss. Danico Autry against his

former team. I mean, he led the defense in the first half and made the plays. Just great stuff from Danico Autry. Jeffrey Simmons had a major impact, especially early on. Had four tackles in the game. I thought Dylan Cole, I think in pass coverage, it was kind of rough for Cole. But he had some big moments in the run game early. He made a tackle for loss in the backfield. He made a lot of solid tackles. Had eight of them on the night.

Got to give credit where credit is due. Dylan Cole, good job in run defense. In run defense. Rashad Weaver, he was in there on that forced fumble. Weaver did have a sack, although it was kind of a botched situation, but hey, four sacks in four games for Weaver. Tackle for loss in the backfield.

I mean, I think it was a very good day, very good start for Rashad Weaver as a role player right now as they continue to groom him. Joe Sjobert was in on that forced fumble. He had six tackles on the day. Sjobert coming in early, trying to make a difference. Again, all the linebackers and the safeties kind of struggled in pass defense,

but you had to stop the run in this game and good run defense there. Christian Fulton. Fulton had his ups and downs in the game. Made some critical tackles. And forcing that fumble at the end, I mean, could not be more critical than that. Forcing that fumble for Christian Fulton. Just a great job.

A great job. Or recovering the fumble. Sorry, I misspoke. Misspoke. Recovering the fumble is what I'm saying. The fourth strip was by Weaver and Schobert. Excellent stuff from the Titans on the day.

And shout out to Bud Dupree who recovered the first fumble. I think Bud Dupree got hurt on that. We'll talk about that in just a moment. Wrapping up our tighten-ups though. Fulton gets one. Another tighten-up. Roger McCreary. I know it wasn't a great game for McCreary, but I thought he tackled excellently.

And especially that tackle for loss on Naheem Hines at the end that set up the long third down, that ultimately the Colts decided to kick the field goal. That was a critical play. So, again, up and down for Roger McCreary, but he made some big plays in some big moments and stuck his nose in there on run defense. And I was pretty happy with his effort,

even if it was a bit ugly in pass coverage. But it was a bit ugly for everyone in pass coverage throughout the day. The last tighten up, and of course I didn't forget, Pop Tart. Tiar Tart, I almost said his name wrong again. Struggled with that early on, boxed my ears. But he had two passes deflected. One of them he intercepted.

Had three tackles. Played well in run defense. Tierra Tart, what a game. I mean, this is an all-time Tierra Tart game. Legendary Tierra Tart game. Pop Tart, baby, in the building. But those are my Titan Ups. We are going

to go into my Titan downs and then look at the Titan schedule coming up in just a moment. 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. You get the best of both worlds with Built Bar. You get all the health benefits that you want from a protein bar. They're low calorie, low sugar, high protein, high fiber, but you get all the benefits of a candy bar as well. Delicious flavors like the cookie dough chunk puff. It's light, it's chewy, real cookie dough chunks, and of course covered in 100% real chocolate, but only 160 calories with 15 grams of protein.

Make sure that you guys check out all that Built Bar has to offer. Go to built.com right now. Use the promo code LOCKEDON15. You're going to get 15% off your order. Once again, that's promo code LOCKEDON15 for 15% off at built.com. Titans fans, we're going to cap off this Victory Monday with a little tighten down portion of tighten up, tighten down. Talk about some of the rough performances and some of the bad news coming out of Sunday's game. But we're also going to look ahead here to the Titans' next three games and what they need to do.

Before we get into that, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Now for your second listen, get all your national updates with the Peacock and Williamson NFL show. Brian Peacock, former NFL, or former current NFL analyst, my guy Brian Peacock from Locked on 49ers, and then the star of the show really, and Brian knows this as

well, Matt Williamson, former NFL scout, and Matt Williamson is somebody who thought the Titans would finish third in the division behind the Colts, so maybe tuning in today to get his reaction wouldn't be a bad idea. Check out the Peacock and Williamson NFL show on whatever platform you do, stream free and available Monday through Friday. But getting into the Titan downs, Caleb Farley, he had a good play on the sideline before the worst play

that he gave up all day. I thought he had some okay moments, man. I really did. And I was excited to put him in the Titan ups and say, hey, he just held his own. And all that can still be true, but you can't give up an explosive play multiple times a week or at least once a week. You just can't. You just can't. But the sad news is Terrence Mitchell wasn't any better. Sadly, Terrence Mitchell was not any better. Terrence Mitchell wasn't great in this game either. I thought Andrew Adams, the Titan Saint, who in the world is Andrew Adams?

I know he was just picked up this week, but what is going on out there, okay? What is going on? Josh Kalou didn't play very well. Again, if we're talking about pass coverage, the safeties and the linebackers got destroyed by the Colts' tight ends over the middle. Roger McCreary included in that as the nickel corner.

Pass coverage was rough. Now, you got to give credit to all those guys for what they did in run defense and knowing how important that was. But, ooh, ooh, buddy, pass coverage. It was rough out there. Nicholas Petit-Ferrer struggled. Especially in that second half, I thought he struggled to get his body on people.

Struggled. Now, of course, with offensive line play, I always have the caveat of, I got to go back and watch the film to know for sure, but my initial reaction, looked like a struggle bus for NPF out there. Got to give a Titan down to weekly Titan downing. I thought he did a lot of good stuff in this game,

but my God, man, it's freaking 64 to seven in the second half for the Titans. Now 64 to seven. They can't continue like this, man. They can't. Like, they're going to lose a bunch of games to good teams. If they do this, they have to find a way to play four quarters. We can blame execution all we want, but clearly, they're struggling to adjust to the adjustments. It just can't continue. Can't continue this way. And then what happened at the end of the first half?

Mike Vrabel just blew the time management. Ryan Traylon Burks didn't get out of bounds. Ryan Tannehill didn't throw it away. But the Titans wasted from like 1.30 to a minute, just zero urgency in some of these two-minute drills I've seen from the Titans this year. Zero urgency in saving time. It looks like they I've seen from the Titans this year. Zero urgency in saving time. It looks like they're

trying to just go for a field goal. The way they play so slowly and carelessly on these two-minute drills sometimes. That's on Mike Rabel. I don't know why that's continuing. So, a Titan down for the end of the first half time management, and a Titan down for the Titans' consistent failures

in the second half on offense. And then tighten down Bud Dupree, man. Hurt again. Hurt again. I've been against this contract since the moment it was signed. Last year he was hurt the whole time because he tried too hard to come back from ACL. Look, I get that the Titans, as I said in the beginning, the Titans are better in pass rush when Bud Dupree is out there. But that is not because Bud Dupree is amazing. It's because he's just a decent mid-level NFL starter. And just that with Jeffrey Simmons, with Danico Autry, and then last year with Harold Landry,

just having a competent guy, an NFL-level starter, as that fourth rusher, makes the Titans way better. It's not because Bud Dupree is awesome. It's just because he's an average NFL starter. And you can't pay that guy $20 million. The fact that he's not even out there to be that NFL average guy

which gives the Titans enough to be an effective pass rush. I mean, do something worth the money, bud. Yeah, the Titans are better when he's out there. Well, yeah. He's an average NFL starter. the Titans are better when he's out there. Well, yeah. He's an average NFL starter. Of course they're better than having practice squad edge rushers out there. That's the comparison.

When you think about how good Bud Dupree is, you can't compare it to these practice squad dudes that the Titans roll out when he's not out there. You got to compare it to other NFL average starters. And heck, if you compare it to other NFL players making $20 million, it's a big yikes. So just another tighten down for Bud Dupree who didn't play last week, played like the first quarter this week

or the first couple of drives and then was out again. $20 million on the cap this year. Hurts the soul. It hurts the soul. But hopefully he can get healthy and come back because when he's out there, just having an NFL average player makes the Titans so much better

than the other options that they have. But outside of that, Traylon Burks' injury sucks. Sucks. I do not look forward to giving the update on that. Doesn't look good. At minimum, it's probably like a high ankle sprain,

which he'd be out a month. At worst, it's like a Jones fracture or a plantar fascia tear, and he's out two months or whatever. You know? So, hope for good news on that. Sucks.

But the good news that I do have for you is the Titans are now 2-2. Jacksonville lost to Philly. The Titans are tied for the AFC South. And they play their next three games, the Commanders, the Texans, and then the Colts again after a bye. They have to win these three games, the Commanders, the Texans, and then the Colts again after

a bye. They have to win these three games. After that, we're looking at Chiefs, Broncos, Packers, Bengals, Eagles,

Chargers, Jags. I mean, these next three weeks, the Titans need to stack some wins. Stack some wins ASAP. But off to a very good start in this five-game stretch that I said the Titans needed to go 4-1. They needed to go 4-1 to have a chance. So, 2-0 to start.

Love to see it. So, that's tighten up, tighten down. That's my key takeaways from the game. We're going to continue breaking down this game on tomorrow's show. Rewatch Wednesday to go over the film. Thursday will be crossover Thursday with my guy David Harrison from Locked On Commanders.

And then on Friday, another Game Plan Friday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Free and available on all platforms Monday through Friday. Your team every day here on the Locked On Titans podcast. That's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.