Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Will Levis Expectations v Atlanta Falcons, Edges on Defense & Predicting a Titans Win

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

The Tennessee Titans take on the Atlanta Falcons in Week 8 and will like have rookie Will Levis at quarterback. If so, the Titans must design a game plan that fits Levis including rollouts and designed runs. Next, the Titans must slow down the running attack of the Atlanta Falcons led by rookie Bijan Robinson and that will require a tried and true Vrabel philosophy to be executed. Finally, DeAndre Hopkins will need to show up big for the rookie passer against A.J. Terrell.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!BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/NFL today to get 10% off your first month. birddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNFL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNFL for a water bottle with any order. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you. PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonnfl and use code lockedonnfl for a first deposit match up to $100!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It looks like it's Will Levis time for the Tennessee Titans, and if they want to beat the Falcons, they must design a smart game plan around the rookie quarterback. We're going to talk about what that looks like on today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast.

I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. Today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast is brought to you by PrizePix, the most easy and exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Go to prizepix.com slash locked on NFL. Use that code locked on NFL, all lowercase, for a first deposit match up to $100. It is a game plan edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, and I'm going to tell you guys how the Tennessee Titans can beat the Atlanta Falcons. I do think the Titans win this game,

so I'll go over what I want to see on offense and defense. Also talk about some individual matchups before I get into all of it. Thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free. I go live immediately after the games, two episodes on Sunday nights covering what happened, episodes throughout the week, Monday through Friday. I even did a bonus episode on Thursday for you guys.

So make sure that you get subscribed, stay subscribed. It's your team every day here on the Locked on Titans podcast. And look, we've talked about this all week. The Will Levis, Malik Willis rotating the quarterbacks. It's funny, I forget exactly who it was. It's like some sort of bot or something like that. But they replied to one of my tweets with a Mike Vrabel decision in 2018 where he talked about playing both Marcus Mariota and Blaine Gabbert

or talked about rotating two quarterbacks. The specifics are leaving me a little bit here. But before I covered the team, I was paid to make sure I remember everything. But anyway, Mike Vrabel talked about rotating the two quarterbacks all week. And then when it came to it, only Blaine Gabbert played in the game and Mike Vrabel didn't play the other quarterback at all. So I think that we're going to see a lot of Will Levis here. I think that Will Levis will be the quarterback and in the discussion all week of whether

Mike Vrabel is a fool or whether he's a liar in this circumstance, think that he's a liar okay that's where I'm leaning so I think we see a lot of Will Levis but what does that look like should the Titans offense be different than what we've seen yes the answer is simply yes why the increased mobility what's the reason why a large portion of Titans fans all year long said, I want to see Willis. I want to see Levis. It's because Tannehill is a 35-year-old quarterback who simply cannot move around the way that most quarterbacks in the NFL who are starters do.

But Will Levis can. Will Levis does have the mobility and the pocket movement skills to be able to do it. Now, pocket presence and all these other mental aspects of that, we can talk about that all day, and I'm sure we will for the next however long Will Levis is on this team. But he has the ability, he has the mobility, the youth, the juice to do it, and that is why the Titans have to, they have to utilize that skill set. They cannot allow Will Levis to go in there and play football like he's

Ryan Tannehill at 35 years old. Ask him to do things that use his best skill sets. Ask him to do things that are things that you can't normally incorporate in your offense with Ryan Tannehill that could potentially give your team a little bit more of an advantage. What are those things? I want to see rollouts. I want to see sprint outs. I want to see bootlegs. I want to see quarterback run game. Will Levis can do quarterback run game. We talk about Malik Willis being a runner. Having a package for Malik Willis.

Malik Willis is not Taysom Hill. He doesn't run anywhere near as physical. He doesn't read the defense anywhere near as well. Anytime the Titans have tried to use Malik Willis in a gadget way, it's been a disaster. All right? So use Will Levis in those situations. He has athleticism.

He has running ability. Do I think Will Levis can be Lamar Jackson or Jalen Hurts? No. But he can run like Daniel Jones or run like Josh Allen. Will Levis has that ability. So why don't the Titans go five wide, run a quarterback counter with a pulling tackle to the opposite side when you empty out the box with five wide?

Why not run some quarterback power straight up the gut on the goal line? The ability for Will Levis to run designed quarterback runs will help the Titans in the red zone. Okay? But I want to see that mobility taken advantage of throughout the rest of the game plan too. Again, rollouts, sprints, boots. Get this man

out on the perimeter. Allow him to make a passing read, and then tuck it and run and gain some yards. Do the things that having a 35-year-old quarterback don't allow you to do. And when you do those things, you help your offensive line. Because now you're moving the spot.

You're rolling the quarterback out. You're getting them away from the pressure, getting them out of a collapsing pocket. It collapses quite a bit for the Titans. You can't do that with Tannehill because he simply doesn't have the mobility at 35 years old to do those things. You have to do that with Levis. You have to. Don't leave him as a sitting duck in the pocket.

Do not do that. Roll outs, sprint outs, bootlegs, use his run game. Use that mobility. Also, the Titans are going to have to utilize the screen game here to protect their young quarterback. They're going to have to get the ball out quick. And I think personally, based on the Falcons defense, the right thing to do offensively outside of just Will Levis is to attack the perimeter. You guys see my glasses move when my hat bounces on the back of my glasses. So funny.

It's distracting me. But anyway, moving along. I digress. The Falcons, in my opinion, don't have a fast defense, at least in the front seven. In the front seven. The secondary, yeah, they got speed. Jesse Bates, good.

They have good. But the front seven, Bud Dupree in there, Calais Campbell, or Calais Campbell, why did I say that wrong? Either way, I think there are a lot of players in the Atlanta Falcons front seven that don't have a ton of speed. So the Titans need to attack outside,

attack the perimeter, force those big guys to chase Tajay Spears to the perimeter on a toss sweep. Use reverses, use jet sweeps, quick swing passes out to the perimeter on a toss sweep. Use reverses. Use jet sweeps. Quick swing passes out to the outside. Those tosses that the Titans run. Out of shotgun. Under center.

Get to the perimeter on this defense. Don't run up their gut. Make their slower front seven players run to the perimeter. That's what I want to see from the Titans. And ultimately, just open up the playbook. I want to see trick plays. I want to see tons of motions. I want to see reverses, double reverses,

double reverse passes. All of the stuff that we've seen from the Titans so far this year, I want to see all of it again in one game. If you go 2-5, Mike Vrabel can't even drive this team to believe that they can get back in it. 2-5 is death. It's over. So, throw the kitchen sink. It's the last game of the year. Can't hold anything back.

We know. We know. Little reference for you guys. Let me know down below if you know what movie I'm talking about there. But ultimately, let me know what you think the plan for Will Levis should be down below in the comments. That's what I think the Titans should do on offense. Now we're going to move to defense where a classic Mike Rabel philosophy, edge, wall, swarm, must be in full effect. We're going to talk about defense, finish up with some individual matchups to watch. Before we get into all that though,

I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, America's number one sportsbook. Look guys, FanDuel is so much fun and it's the perfect time to join FanDuel. You have the NFL season in full swing. The NBA season has tipped off. Tipped off. The MLB World Series is here.

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$200 in bonus bets guaranteed win or lose with a $5 bet. You can use those bonus bets to bet on spreads, props, over-unders, and more. Make sure that you visit fanduel.com slash locked on to kick off the NFL season. That's Fanduel, official partner of the NFL. Titans fans, let's continue today's game plan edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about Will Levis. We talked about the offense. What I want to see over there,

the Titans need to make sure they have a game plan that suits Will Levis and not 35-year-old Ryan Tannehill. But now I want to transition and talk about the defensive side of the ball because that's obviously going to be incredibly important for the Titans to get a win here as well. And again, I do think the Titans win this game. I'll confirm my prediction at the end. Let's talk about some individual matchups.

Before I get into that, though, thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. Remember Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year long, always for free. Make sure you get subscribed. Stay subscribed. It's your team every day. Speaking of every day, Sunday I'll be going live immediately

after the game to break it all down. I'll have a full 30-minute recap of the game later on on Sunday night. We'll talk about the tape and what the film showed from this game. Obviously, we're going to want to look into the quarterback performances with Tic Tac Tuesday,

What's Next Wednesday to look ahead to the Steelers game, and then Crossover Thursday, Game Plan Friday, get you guys ready to go for the game. Don't miss any of that. Get subscribed. With that being said, though,

edge, wall, swarm. Edge, wall, swarm edge, wall, swarm that is run defense for Mike Vrabel what does that mean? step by step edge the edge rushers and the slot cornerbacks

the edge players have to make a firm edge don't let the Falcons or in general all fences get around you to the perimeter and break contain. Edge. Set the edge. Alright? And when the running back gets to the edge

and they have to come inside, inside is going to be a wall because everybody inside is holding their gap, is flowing with the traffic. So you reach the edge, you turn back inside, you meet the wall, and then you swarm to tackle. Edge, wall, swarm.

The Falcons love to run outside. Their wide zone runs. We're talking about Arthur Smith here. Come on, guys. You knew that. I didn't have to tell you that. You knew that. Arthur Smith and his wide zone runs with his play action bootlegs off of him.

You have to do well on the edges. Set a firm edge so that they can't get to the perimeter. And you got to be smart on the backside edge in case there's a cutback or a bootleg. All right? So, edge, wall, swarm, and that starts with a firm edge. Okay? Titans have to set the edge, be physical, or they're going to let the Falcons get outside.

They're going to let their zone runs get to the perimeter. The Titans' defensive backs are going to be asked to tackle too much. The linebackers are going to have to flow too far. It's just going to be impossible to take down B. John Robinson and Tyler Algier in the physical running that they do, even Cordero Patterson for that matter. You know? Algier in the physical running that they do. Even Cordero Patterson, for that matter. You know? Really, in space, getting to the edge, really good player still.

So, the Titans have to, have to create a solid edge and force the Falcons back inside. Do not let them get on the outside. Outside of that, I think the Titans need to play zone in this game. It's my opinion of Desmond Ritter that he's not a very good quarterback. He's not. I think that Ritter is probably in the bottom 10 of quarterbacks in the NFL. He's right on that line of, okay, this guy could start,

but he's probably a backup. I think he's there. That's my opinion on Desmond Ritter, and Ritter has never been an incredibly accurate quarterback. That's something that everybody harped on with him coming out of college is his accuracy. Can he improve his accuracy? He seems to be a smart guy, can run an offense, has good size, has good mobility, all that, but can he improve his accuracy? Well, it hasn't been great. And in my opinion rather than you have an option here do you want to give

Drake London a one-on-one on Christian Fulton do you want to give Kyle Pitts a one-on-one against Roger McCreary do you want to give Bijan Robinson a one-on-one with Aziz Alshire do you want to give uh Matt Collins which we saw what Matt Collins can do to this Titans team. Do you want to give him a one-on-one with Roger McCreary on a slot fade? Stuff like that? No. Because if you play man coverage, it bails out Desmond Ritter

in my opinion. You're bailing him out. Because what Ritter can do is, he can be like, oh, they're in man coverage. I don't have to read the defense and make the right decision and make an accurate ball. I'm just going to toss this up to Drake London. Toss this up to Kyle Pitts. Toss this up to Matt Collins.

And then it's just a one-on-one battle for the ball between the cornerback or the defensive back or the coverage guy and the receiver in the option. And the Titans lose those one-on-one battles all the time. Do not bail out the Falcons and let Ritter throw easy one-on-one battles all the time. Do not bail out the Falcons and let Ritter throw easy one-on-one passes in man and take the chances. Play zone coverage.

Make him read defense. Make him know what the disguise is. Make him make pre-snap and then post-snap adjustments and reads in his head. Slow down his processing. Make him second guess. Allow the pressure to get closer. Mess up Desmond Ritter's base, and he will throw inaccurate passes that the Titans will have a chance to intercept. And, let's just say it what it is, in the Falcons' three losses this year,

they've lost the turnover battle 7-1. They beat the Buccaneers last week and had three turnovers in the red zone. Two of them at the goal line. This team will make mistakes. This team will turn over the ball. Desmond Ritter will make turnover-worthy plays. The Titans cannot bail him out by giving the Falcons situations that the Titans have struggled in for a year and six games.

Play zone. Play zone. Play zone. Allow everybody to have their eyes on Ritter, to break on his passes, to watch what he's doing. That is what the Titans need to do. This needs to be a zone-heavy game. Force those turnovers again.

The Falcons in their three losses lost the turnover battle 7-1. When the Falcons lose, it's because they play dumb football and they turn over the ball. The Titans cannot make it easier on them to avoid that by playing a bunch of man coverage and giving Ritter one-on-one opportunities

to get the ball to his guys. That would be a major mistake. Also worth noting here, red zone defense. Neither of these teams score a lot. The Falcons actually score less points a game than the Titans. Titans are at like 17.3 and the Falcons are like 16.8 or something like that. Either way, neither of these teams score a lot of points

because neither of these teams have been very good in the red zone. All right? The Falcons right now are only 22nd best in the NFL with a 47.8 touchdown conversion rate in the red zone. They don't score when they get to the red zone enough. Titans don't either. So if the Titans defense for some reason has a bad day in red zone defense and allows the Falcons to score three touchdowns,

they're not going to win the game. But I don't think that happens. I think the Titans play zone. I think the pass rush improves. We're going to talk about some individual matchups where I think that'll matter. But before we get into some of the individual stuff I think the pass rush improves. We're going to talk about some individual matchups where I think that'll matter. But before we get into some of the individual stuff that I want to talk about here, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix.

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That's prizepix.com slash LOCKEDONNFL. Use the code LOCKEDONNFL for a first deposit match up to $100. Again, PrizePix. It's daily fantasy sports made easy. Also want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by DoorDash. All right, guys. Home football game. Tennessee Titans. You're at, guys. Home football game. Tennessee Titans.

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whether it be groceries, whether it be your game time meal, it doesn't matter. Go to DoorDash, get 50% off up to $10 value when you spend $15 or more on your first order. When you download the DoorDash app, enter that code again, LOCKED23, L-O-C-K-E-D 23, subject to change, terms do apply. Titans fans, let's cap off this game plan edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about offense and what the Titans should do with Will Levis.

We talked about edge, wall, swarm on defense. Now I want to get into some more of the individual battles that I'm going to be watching for. Also confirm my prediction here, and I'll do that up at the start again. I think the Titans win this game. It seems like a game the Titans would lose. The world is crashing down on them. The sky is falling chicken little. They traded Bayard. They're tanking two and four young quarterback. No tanning. And the Titans win. Number one, they're at home. Titans have won both their real home games

this year. So that helps there. And I don't think the Falcons are a bad matchup for the Titans. I think both those teams are pretty similar. And that'll allow the Titans to stay in the game even if they're not playing great. So I think the Titans win this game 17-16. That's what I said on Thursday at the end of Crossover Thursday. I'm going to reaffirm that now.

With that being said, the Titans, two and a half point underdogs at home. Listen, there are times where I don't want that, but the Falcons are not a good enough team to be laying points on the road to the Titans. I don't care who the quarterback is. No way. No way. No way. No way. No way. So Titans 2.5. If I'm honest with you guys, though, and I'll give you my free FanDuel play of the week. This is my FanDuel play of the week. Titans at 2.5. Teased up to 8.5.

With the Bengals at 3.5. Top teased up to 9.5. Brock Purdy likely out. The Bengals are better than they looked early. Tease up the Titans. Tease up the Bengals. Boom. That's my free FanDuel play of the week.

But yeah, I like the Titans winning this game 17-16 outright. That means I love the Titans getting the 2.5 in a game I don't expect to see a lot of points in. The teaser makes a ton of sense. The Titans are a great teaser leg. If you don't like the teaser makes a ton of sense. The Titans are a great teaser leg. If you don't like the Bengals game, find another one. Titans are a great teaser leg this week. As for some individual matchups that I'm looking for in this one,

number one, Will Levis against Jesse Bates. Jesse Bates is the safety of the Atlanta Falcons. He's got three interceptions this year. He's amazing. He's a great player, all right? He intercepted Ryan Tannehill nearly every time they played when Bates was on the Bengals. He just

owned Ryan Tannehill. So, Levis can't have that happen again. Levis has to end that. He can't do what Tannehill did and throw picks to Jesse Bates over the middle of the field. Can't do it. Just can't do it. Shout out to my brother, Drew. Love you, man. Outside of that, Jeffrey Simmons against Matthew Bergeron.

Aaron Freeman from Locked On Falcons talked about that yesterday. Titans pass rush has to get back to good, and we haven't seen Jeffrey Simmons really have a freak-out performance in a couple of weeks. Simmons needs to get back to being high-level, all-pro, constant pressure, constant force. We haven't seen it in a little bit. He needs to step up his game, and this is the time to do it.

With Kevin Byard gone, the leaders have to step up that remain, and that is Jeffrey Simmons. So Simmons against Matthew Bergeron, the rookie offensive guard out of Syracuse. Simmons has to absolutely bully him all day long. Outside of Levis and Simmons, I'm looking at DeAndre Hopkins. AJ Terrell has given up 311 yards this year, had five penalties called against him. I think AJ Terrell is a pretty good player, but he hasn't had a very good year. And when you have a young quarterback, you need your superstar wide receiver to step up and make plays. Hopkins may not be what he once

was, but he still has the ability to do that. They need a big game from DeAndre Hopkins and Hopkins to win some of those one-on-one matchups. Because Levis is a guy, he's going to throw it up. He's going to throw it up. Hopkins needs to come down with it. So we need a big performance from DeAndre Hopkins if we're the Tennessee Titans. Lastly, I'll hearken back to what I was saying for the defense. Edge. Edge. Harold Landry. Arden Key. Danico Autry.

Travis Gibson. Rashad Weaver. The Titans used Luke Gifford as an edge player when he was healthy. He should be back. Molden should be back. Tart should be back. Burke should be back. Gifford should be back. Tannehill and Wiley are the only guys sitting out right now. Wiley will probably wait because he's got a concussion. You know, Vrabel is very sensitive about those. He got smoked too by Kyle Hamilton. Jesus.

So, I mean, these teams are very similar. They're very similar. They're very similar. They want to do the same things. So, whoever wins the turnover battle, whoever makes the least amount of mistakes,

will probably win the game. I like Arthur Smith. I think he's a great offensive coordinator. I think Mike Vrabel is a better head coach. So, Titans 17-16, that's how they win on offense, on defense, the individual matchups that needs to win,

how I would bet the game, who I think wins, all of that. That is going to do it for this week of the Locked on Titans podcast. It's been a banger. I'll be back with you guys on Sunday to break it all down, but as always, that will do it for me today, folks. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titan.