Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Will Silence New Orleans Saints If..Attacking Man Coverage, Disguising Zone & Tyjae Spears X Factor

Episode Date: September 7, 2023

The Tennessee Titans season is about to begin and today is all about how the Titans can defeat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. First, on offense the Titans need to focus on spreading the Saints out or attacking the perimeter while making sure to have a plan for the man coverage they will see. Also, the Titans defense must use disguised zone coverages to confuse Carr and create turnovers. Finally, Hopkins should have a big day, Okonkwo and Spears are great matchups and the Titans betting line is favorable.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!Harry'sGet your best shave ever this summer with Harry’s razors and skin care products. Get a $13 Starter Set for just $3 at harrys.com/NFL.  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. NutrafolTake the first step to visibly thicker, healthier hair. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com/men and enter the promo code LOCKEDONMLB. 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. eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot 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

The Tennessee Titans will silence the New Orleans Saints if they do these things. I'm going to tell you what they are and how the Titans can come out victorious on a game plan 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.

It is back. Our first game plan Friday of the regular season. Cannot believe that Tennessee Titans football is finally here. I'm going to tell you exactly how the Tennessee Titans can defeat the New Orleans Saints in week one. It is game plan Friday. Before we get into it, do want to 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 on all apps

and always for free. You're not going to beat that anywhere else. Make sure that you get subscribed. Stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, where it's your team every day. Shout out to my everydayers out there listening Monday through Friday. Couldn't do it without you guys.

Let me know who you are down below. Want to let my everydayers know, on Sunday, immediately after the game, I'm going to be going live here on the Locked on Titans YouTube channel with a 10-minute recap. Then on Sunday night, I'm going to put out my full 30-minute breakdown, which includes tighten up and tighten down. Then on Tuesday, it is going to be tick-tack Tuesday

where I break down the tape, dive into the All-22 to let you guys know what I saw from an X's and O's standpoint. Wednesday is What's Next Wednesday, where we look ahead to the next game and what the biggest storylines are for the Titans. Thursday will be Crossover Thursday. Once again, you guys all loved Ross Jackson. You're going to love all the Crossover Thursdays all year.

And then a week from today, we'll be back with another game playing Friday. And I'll tell you exactly how the Tennessee Titans can defeat the Los Angeles Chargers. But before we go through the rest of the week, we got to start with today's Game Plan Friday, and I'm going to start with the Tennessee Titans offense. And look, the Titans need to spread the Saints out. And I'm talking about the run game, not necessarily the passing game.

So I think what the Titans need to do here is they need to come out in 12 personnel, one running back, two tight ends, maybe even 13 personnel at time, one running back with three tight ends, and then use a guy like Chigaconquo. Use a guy like Josh Wiley and spread those guys out. You're going to get the Saints in their base defense, but then you're going to spread them thin.

It's going to create avenues to run through the inside because I think it's going to be difficult for the Titans to run through the inside consistently. So when they go to those opportunities and they want to run the ball up the middle, I think the best way to do that is to spread the Saints out, but with heavy personnel. I think a guy like Kevin Rader is going to be called up from the practice squad in this game because the Titans are also going to need a tight end that can do some fullback responsibilities. We'll talk about that a little bit more.

But for me, again, spread the Saints defense out, use motion to get the defense going side to side so that you can go vertically down the field in the run game. And I don't just think the Titans should go to their normal run plays of outside zone, inside zone. I want to see some of that multiple and varied run game that we've heard about with Tim Kelly and that we've seen a little bit of in the preseason

with counters, with pull pins, with toss plays. We heard in training camp that Traylon Burks was getting toss sweeps. We're getting jet sweeps to Chigga Conquo. I think all of that is going to need to be factored in because you're going to want to get the Titans playmakers on the edge. Again, don't run through the teeth of the Saints defense. Either spread them out or get to the perimeter. And that's why I think a guy that I'm going to mention a lot is Tajay Spears in this game. You can get Tajay Spears out on the perimeter. You can get Tajay Spears on a jet sweep. He's going to be better at a toss sweep than Derrick Henry is just skill set wise. Also those counters and those misdirection runs. Spears has the quickness and

the speed to take advantage of an overly aggressive defense from the New Orleans Saints. So in the run game, spread the Saints out, get to the perimeter, use motion. I love all that. And one other thing I want to mention about the run game here. The Saints typically use a four-man front. There are four-three defense. When you do that, you're able to balance the defense on both sides, which means if the Titans have two tight ends to one side, the Saints can shift to that direction.

But a fullback will be important in this game because the one equalizer, when you're looking, if you guys have ever played Mad, it's just simple people understand it, and you're running a run play. One play where you have a blocking advantage, it'll be green on one side of the front seven. Where you don't have the advantage, it'll be red on one side.

The way that it's going to look for the Titans because of the balanced 4-3 defense of the Saints is they're going to have red on both sides, and the Saints are going to stay balanced. Probably eight guys in the box, four on either side of the balanced 4-3 defense of the Saints is they're going to have red on both sides and the Saints are going to stay balanced. Probably eight guys in the box, four on either side of the center. They're going to stay balanced. Well, how do you outflank a team that stays balanced? You use a fullback.

Think, you have two tight ends, one on either side of the formation. Now you're even. And then you have that fullback. The fullback can go right. The fullback can go left. That allows you to win the math problem inside the box on run plays. So I would expect the Titans to call up Kevin Rader in this game and to use Rader and Chigokonkwo as a fullback

to help defeat the math problem that the Saints are going to give you with their four-man front. But moving into the passing game, the Saints love cover to man. That means they're going to have two deep safeties covering each half of the field, and then they're going to play man coverage underneath. What does that do? That puts stress on your linebackers,

because now both of your safeties are going to be playing zone responsibility back deep, and that means that both your linebackers are going to have to play man coverage against one of the five eligibles for the Titans. That means consistently throughout the day, the Titans are going to get Chigaconquo. The Titans are going to get Tajay Spears against linebackers. And that is an advantage that the Titans will have to take. They'll have to find a way to get the ball into the hands of Chigaconquo

and Tajay Spears when they get those man coverage matchups against linebackers. Outside of those matchups, when you're looking at the wide receivers, some things that stand out to me, bunch formations. That's when the Titans have three wide receivers or three eligibles in a triangle at the line of scrimmage. That makes it hard for man defenses to pick their matchups. That makes it hard for guys to press at the line of scrimmage. You can't have three guys all next to each other at the line of scrimmage pressing.

You're going to get hit, and they're going to get rubbed and bumped and it's going to cross the wires. All right. So if the Titans come out in bunch formations with their wide receivers, if the Titans come out in stacks where they have one wide receiver on the line of scrimmage and another wide receiver literally directly behind them, stacks, trips, bunches, all of that different stuff is really going to help the Titans at snap motion. Again, not just motion before the play, at snap motion is going to make it hard for

somebody. Think, if you're in man coverage against a guy and he goes across the formation in motion and the ball gets snapped, think if the Titans had trips on the left-hand side and they bring an eligible in motion across the formation, all three of the trips guys then go from the left to the inside,

and the guy in motion at snap goes into the flat. How hard is it going to be for a Saints man defender to follow that guy all the way across the formation? It's going to be incredibly difficult. So use all those things to go against the two-man coverage, cover five, some people call it, that the Saints like to use on defense. So use all those things to go against the two-man coverage, cover five, some people call it, that the Saints like to use on defense.

With that being said, though, I do want to say from a philosophical standpoint, the most important thing for the Titans offense is red zone offense. This is going to be maybe not a super low-scoring game. It might be a low-scoring game, but I think it's going to be a close game nonetheless. And what can decide the game when it's close? Which team takes advantage of their red zone opportunities? If the Titans

can score touchdowns in the red zone and then hold the Saints to field goals in the red zone, that's going to be absolutely huge. So when the Titans get down there, which they may not do a ton against this tough Saints defense, they need to take advantage and score. But with that being said, we're going to move into a schematic breakdown of what the Titans need to do on defense.

Before we get into that though, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by Nutrafol. Look guys, you don't have to choose between better hair growth and your health. Nutrafol provides a whole body health approach for men that promotes healthier hair. No drugs, no compromises, just better hair.

Men think losing their hair is inevitable. Take control of your hair's future with Nutrafol science-backed hair growth supplement for men. Did you know that 80% of men will experience hair thinning in their lifetime? It's normal, but it doesn't have to be your fate. You can get ahead of thinning with Nutrafol. Nutrafol is the number one dermatologist-recommended

hair growth supplement clinically shown to improve your hair growth, visible thickness, and visible scalp coverage. To take the first step to visibly thicker, healthier hair for a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com slash men and enter the promo code LOCKEDONNFL. Find out why 4,000 healthcare professionals recommend Nutrafol for healthier hair.

Nutrafol.com slash men. That's N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L dot com slash men. And enter promo code LOCKEDONNFL. That's Nutrafol slash men. Promo code LOCKEDONNFL. Titans fans, let's continue today's game plan edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I just talked about schematically what the Titans offense should be looking to do against the Saints and what they need to do to come out victorious on offense.

Now I want to flip that over and talk about the defense. At the end of today's show, I'm going to zoom in and talk about some individual players who I think will make the biggest difference for the Titans in this game. And I'm going to give you some fantasy advice, some betting advice, all that. Before we get into it, though, thanks again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. Remember, I'm going to be live here on the Locked on Titans YouTube channel immediately after the game.

I'm going to have a full 30-minute recap later. We're going to dive into the tape on Tuesday's show. Dive into what's coming up next on Wednesday. Another crossover Thursday. And then Game Plan Friday comes back around again before the Titans take on the Chargers. So a lot of great content coming your way for free every single day. Make sure you get subscribed. Stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast.

But with that being said, let's talk about this Tennessee Titans defense. The defense needs to win the day for the Titans. The Titans offense needs to do their job by not turning over the ball, but the Titans need to create turnovers on defense and that'll make a big difference in this game and how do they do it? Schematically speaking, X's and O's, how do they do it? For me, it's more zone coverage. The Titans are going to play their tight man coverage. They're going to do it.

There's no way they're not. Especially third and short opportunities, the Titans are going to play man. But I think as much as they possibly can, the Titans need to stay in zone. Alright? And here's my reason why. When you stay in zone,

all eyes are on the quarterback. Okay? When you stay in zone defenders can break forward on the ball to create those turnovers. Derek Carr gets rid of the ball quickly. Okay? It's not in his nature to hold the ball

against man coverage and wait for something anyway. Derek Carr gets rid of the ball quickly. Last year he was in the top half of the league in time to throw with 2.84 seconds. Well, think about this. If you're a cornerback in cover two for the Titans,

you're Fulton, Sean Murphy bunting on the outside, playing flat zone coverage. You can bolt forward on some of those quick throws that Derek Carr is trying to make. If you're a linebacker, if you're a safety playing down in the box, you can drive on a throw that's a quick throw by Derek Carr and try to create a turnover. When the Titans are in zone coverage,

they know they have deep protection. So play cover too. That's what I want to see so that the Titans underneath defenders can drive on those passes. Again, Derek Carr is going to make quick throws. Another way to force turnovers, I want to see the Titans use zone coverage,

roll coverage, disguise coverage. Start with a single high safety as opposed to safety at the top of the field and roll into two high. Show cover three, roll into cover two or quarters. Similarly, on the flip side of that, show two high, show cover two, show cover four. Roll down into cover three at the last second. Roll down into man one. I want to see the Titans confuse Derek Carr. Make him think.

Make him take a split second before he gets the ball out of his hands. Slow down that quick release and those little timing routes that the Saints are going to want to do. The Saints are going to want to get the ball out quickly and get the ball to their playmakers and make the Titans tackle. That's what they're going to want to get the ball out quickly and get the ball to their playmakers and make the Titans tackle. That's what they're going to want to do. You could slow that down by confusing Derek Carr, by disguising your coverages.

Also, letting Derek Carr know we are going to sit in zones, we're going to have our eyes on you, and we are going to drive forward on throws. If you do that, you are going to force Derek Carr into mistakes because I believe that the Titans' pressure will eventually get there. The Titans' defensive, now look, the Saints have a pretty good offensive line. No doubt about it. They have a pretty good offensive line. But the Titans' defensive front is better.

So they will get there eventually. If the Titans can create doubt in Derek Carr's mind by driving on passes early out of zone, by rotating coverages, disguising coverages, I think that'll go a long way to creating those turnovers. And once the Titans create turnovers, again, not only does it stop the Saints' offense, it gives the Titans' offense a shorter field

to work with against a good Saints defense. Winning the turnover battle will be key, and to me, that starts with the Titans' defense. Winning the turnover battle will be key, and to me, that starts with the Titans defense. So, that's what I like. I know the Titans are going to play their man. There's no way around it, but at the end of the day, I want to see a good mixture of

zone, because I think it gives them the best opportunity. Also, the Titans struggled at times last year in man coverage down the field, giving up explosive plays, because they would bring pressure. They'd be in cover one man, and they'd get beaten one-on-one isolated situations down the sideline. A guy like Michael Thomas on Christian Fulton could make that happen.

I would like to see Sean Murphy bunting against Michael Thomas and then have the quicker Christian Fulton go up against Chris Alave, but the Titans don't really shadow like that. It's not something that they do a lot. So I wouldn't expect to see that. So if Michael Thomas gets matched up on the outside against Christian Fulton, that's an opportunity if the Titans are in man coverage that I think the Saints will look to take advantage of.

And it makes me worry a little bit. So just more zone than man, please. But we'll talk about that after the game because I'll be looking for it for sure. I talked about red zone offense on offense is kind of a general overarching philosophy not really something schematically that I'm looking for but that on the defensive side of the ball for me is tackling the Titans must tackle it's week one usually the physical aspects of the game take a couple of weeks to get going because a lot of the Titans starters on defense didn't play a ton in the preseason. So it may take a while to adjust to the physicality and the tackling and the blocking and all those things may suffer for the first couple of weeks. The

Titans can't afford that. With Jake Hainer, the Saints backup quarterback, being suspended, Taysom Hill is probably going to be backup quarterback for the Saints. And I think Taysom Hill is going to get a lot of work running the ball in this game. I think they're going to use him in Wildcat. They're going to use him as a quarterback. And with Alvin Kamara out, with rookie running back Kendra Miller most likely missing this game, the Saints are going to have Jamal Williams, and they're going to have Taysom Hill to run the ball.

And both of those dudes run with great power. Also, like I said, the Saints are going to try to quick throw the Titans to death. They're going to try to get the ball out on quick screens. They're going to try to get the ball out of Derek Carr's hands very quickly, which means the Titans' perimeter guys are going to have to tackle and get guys on the ground. So more important than that, yes, I want to see the Titans create turnovers. I want to see the Titans play zone coverage and confuse Derek Carr.

But more than anything, the Titans defense has to tackle. They absolutely have to tackle in this game. So with that being said, though, we're going to move away from offense, defense, and dive into the individual portion of today's show. I'm going to talk about DeAndre Hopkins. I'm going to talk about Tajay Spears. Get my final prediction for the game. Talk betting and fantasy as well.

Before we get into all of that though, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix. Look, guys. PrizePix is the simple way to do daily fantasy. When you play daily fantasy football, you're always going up against a bunch of sharks, a bunch of pros that are trying to put in a million different lineups and do all these different things to kind of cheat the system. With prize picks, you don't got to worry about any of that. It's

just you against the prize picks projections. So what you do is you create a lineup of two to six players. All right? And you just look at a statistical projection like Ryan Tannehill, 225 passing yards. Is he going to do more or is he going to do less? Derrick Henry, 100 rushing yards. Is he going to have more?

Is he going to have less? Derrick Carr, one and a half interceptions. Is he going to have more? Is he going to do less? Derrick Henry, 100 rushing yards. Is he going to have more? Is he going to have less? Derrick Carr, one and a half interceptions. Is he going to have more? Is he going to have less? You just pick two to six guys and say whether they're going to do more or less. And if you hit, you hit big. That's how you win.

It's really that simple. I've really enjoyed how simple it is compared to other daily fantasy operations. I love PrizePix. I know you guys are going to as well. Go to prizepix.com slash locked on NFL and use the code locked on NFL for a first deposit match up to $100.

Again, that's prizepix.com slash locked on NFL. Use that code locked on NFL for a first deposit match up to $100. Prize picks. It's Daily Fantasy Sports. Made easy. Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. It's our first game plan Friday of the year. So excited for Tennessee Titans football coming our way.

Make sure that you stay locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast. Make sure it's your first listen each and every day, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free. It's your team every day here at the Locked on Titans podcast. So we talked about what I think the Titans should do schematically on offense and defense, but I want to talk about some individual players now. And I'm going to start with DeAndre Hopkins. So, I think that Hopkins has a very good game in this game. I think he goes for over 80 yards. I think he catches a touchdown pass.

I think DeAndre Hopkins really shows out. I think one of the things that we're going to be talking about coming out of this game is, wow, DeAndre Hopkins is really going to break this curse for the Titans. He's really going to be able to go out there and be what we thought he could be. I think DeAndre Hopkins has a good game. I think the Titans will put DeAndre Hopkins in the slot against Delonte Taylor, where he'll be able to use his size, his physicality, and his ball control, or his ball skills. I think that they'll be able to move DeAndre Hopkins around the formation to get him to be able to sit down in between defenders for the Saints.

I think he's going to be able to win on the outside in one-on-one coverage. Paulson Adebo, I think it's going to be a matchup that DeAndre Hopkins will take advantage of. I think Hopkins is going to have a good game in this one. Not only that, but another bold prediction. Imani Hooker will get an interception in this game. That's my bold prediction. Imani Hooker will get an interception in this game.

Don't know exactly how it'll happen, when it'll happen, but I think Hooker gets his hands on one here and turns over Derek Carr. So, Hopkins over 80 yards and a touchdown. Imani Hooker with an interception. Those are my bold predictions for the game. As for X factors in the game for fantasy football, call this my beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy picks of the week.

Tajay Spears and Chica Conkle. If you're playing daily fantasy football, if you're looking to play on prize picks and do a little more or less, I would look Spears and Chica Conklow up and find their receiving yards and go more. Spears, total yards in general. I think this is going to be a very good game for Tajay Spears.

Tajay Spears grew up less than an hour north of New Orleans. This is a homecoming for him. He also went to Tulane. I think Spears is going to have a good game. And if you recall, week one last year against the New York Giants, I did tell all you guys it was going to be a Dontrell Hilliard game. And I'm telling you now, it's going to be a Tajay Spears game. Not only that, but I love Chigga Conqua this week in Daily Fantasy.

I absolutely love Chigga Conqua. Again, I think the Saints are going to play cover two man. And Chigaconquo is going to get a lot of opportunities against linebackers. And the Saints have good linebackers. Don't get me wrong. Pete Werner and Demario Davis, they have good linebackers.

They do. But Chigaconquo is maybe the fastest tight end in the NFL. I think the Titans are going to be able to get in the ball. And, like I talked about in the first segment. I think the Titans are going to be able to get him the ball. And like I talked about in the first segment, I think the Titans are going to use fullbacks, well, tight ends that are lined up at fullback. And I think Chigaconquo going in motion out of the backfield from the fullback spot, play action.

Chigaconquo coming across the formation into the flat and getting a quick dump off. I think the Titans are going to look to use Chig in the backfield and use him as their fullback at times to get him good opportunities to get the ball on the perimeter and then make run after catch-up plays. So I like Tajay Spears and Chig Aconquo as my fantasy X-factors. My bold predictions are Hopkins over 80 yards and a touchdown.

Hooker gets an interception. The Titans' betting line on FanDuel right now is plus three. I love that. If you could tease that up a now is plus 3 I love that if you could tease that up a little bit more I love that even more so Titans plus 3 would be my pick on the betting line and again 23-3 Titans win

that's my final prediction for the game 23-3 Titans win or 23-20 23-23-3 I don't think the Titans are winning by 20 23-20 I think-23-3. I don't think the Titans are winning by 20. 23-20, I think, is the final score. Again, I think the Titans find a way to get more opportunities with some turnovers in the game.

But again, I'll be here on Sunday, immediately after the game. I'll be going live to break everything down. And then, of course, I'll have my full 30-minute recap out on Sunday night as well. Tennessee Titans football is back, baby. 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.