Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Win Ugly Over Colts, 25-16: Big Takeaways, #TitanUpTitanDown & AFC South Recap

Episode Date: September 26, 2021

The Tennessee Titans took control of the AFC South on Sunday with a 25-16 ugly win over the Colts. The Titans had role players step up in a big way throughout the game on both sides of the ball, Tyler tells you who it was and the big picture items of note. Then, look at the individual performances in #TitanUpTitanDown. Finally, a look at the AFC South, where the Titans stand and what lies ahead in the coming weeks. Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3332GMOh4y5PX3q9NFybwSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a Victory Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. The Tennessee Titans defeat the Indianapolis Colts 25-16. They move to 2-1 on the year. They have sole possession of the AFC South early in the season. Not only that, but they knocked their most legitimate division rival, the Colts, down to 0-3. So a big time win for the Titans. And although it was not pretty,

it is a victory nonetheless. We are going to break down everything you need to know from the Titans 25-16 win over the Colts. First, we are going to talk about the big picture team takeaways, how the Titans were able to win this game. After that, we are going to talk about the big picture team takeaways, how the Titans were able to win this game. After that, we are going to zoom in our lens, look at the individual performances, and everyone's favorite segment, Tighten Up and Tighten Down. Make sure to let me know in the comments who your Tighten Ups and Tighten Downs were. And then finally, we are going to take a look at what happened in the AFC South over the weekend of football. And I'm going to let you know where the Titans go from here.

We're going to look at their schedule in the coming weeks and kind of take a peek at what could happen after this big win in week three. So 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. It did, it did at times look like your classic. Tennessee Titans let you down in a big spot game.

The turnovers, the players coming out of the game, the injuries, the Colts with some timely scores themselves. All of it came together to make you very, very nervous late in that game. But the Titans continue to show that they can respond. They can rebound. And we're seeing exactly what kind of team the Titans are going to be. They end up winning by nine points over the Colts. Again, 25-16.

And I'm breaking down everything you need to know from the game. Before we get into it, just want to remind you guys, I'm going to be putting out daily, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content here on the Locked On Titans podcast, not only during the regular season, but all year long. Make sure that you never miss an episode of the number one Tennessee Titans podcast in the world by subscribing on whatever platform you stream podcasts and make sure that you subscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel and smash that notification bell so you always know when my new episodes go live.

Follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans for all kinds of film analysis and film breakdowns that I do on there. Also check out the Locked on Titans Facebook page at Locked on Titans Pod. But let's dive into my big picture takeaways from this game. And number one, the biggest takeaway is the Titans role players. A.J. Brown goes out early. Bud Dupree is active but doesn't play. We see some other injuries here.

We see Julio Jones sitting out at the end of the game. The Titans got a touchdown from Chester Rogers, from Nick Westbrook-Akina, from Jeremy McNichols. Ola Adani could have been the Titans' best defensive player in this game. Breon Borders came in for Christian Fulton for a couple of plays and made two big pass breakups. Randy Bullock, again, making the kicks that matter for the Titans. Michael Pruitt did a great job blocking, but also had a catch himself. Cam Batson with a big reception.

David Long had some big plays. Dane Crookshank was all over the field. So the Titans' role players really stepping up in a game where things were not going well. And we are going to talk about that. The offense was ugly. Three turnovers, two interceptions for Ryan Tannehill. One of them was absolutely a terrible decision,

the first throw over the middle. Mike Brable even said on the two interceptions, the first one we threw into a pep rally, the second one we tried to catch with our shoulder pads. And that's what happened. Ryan Tannehill with a bad decision, throwing it over the middle on the first interception. Then Chester Rogers with a drop straight off his chest pads,

goes right up into the air, into the Colts' hands. So two bad turnovers there. Nick Westbrook-Akina, although he had the touchdown catch and was the Titans' best receiver into the air, into the Colts' hands. So two bad turnovers there. Nick Westbrook, a keen although he had the touchdown catch and was the Titans' best receiver on the day. He did have a terrible fumble as the Titans were driving to give themselves some distance from the Colts. So the turnovers were ugly, but overall, Ryan Tannehill had a gritty performance.

He kept battling. He did a lot of work with his legs. Derrick Henry was getting hit over and over at the line of scrimmage, but they kept chugging along, and the Titans' offensive line kept battling. He did a lot of work with his legs. Derrick Henry was getting hit over and over at the line of scrimmage, but they kept chugging along, and the Titans' offensive line kept pushing. Derrick Henry continued to take blows, but he was out there giving some blows as well. Darius Leonard on the receiving end of one of those. There were injuries, of course, A.J. early on offense. I didn't think there was enough play action on first down from Todd Downing. Tons of shotgun.

They went to trips over and over. So that's something that they're going to have to break the tendency of as we go forward into the season. But overall, not a poorly called game. Just a lot of poor execution out there with the turnovers for the Titans. But the offense stepped up when it mattered most. They got the points

on the board that the Titans needed to win this game. So ugly, but they'll take it. On defense though, that's really where the Titans shine. The Titans defense playing against a lackluster Colts offense. Of course, Carson Wentz clearly hobbled, was throwing the ball into the ground rather than taking sacks or running around to make plays. So that helps out a lot. But the Colts also lost Quentin Nelson on the offensive line. The Titans had injuries though, so no excuses there. Next man up, who is going to win this game to give themselves a good first step to win the division early in the year? And the Titans were

the one who answered the call on the defense. They held the Colts to under 100 rushing yards on the day. On Friday's episode, we talked about holding the Colts' offense under 100 yards being a real key in stopping them over the last few years. It's almost a guaranteed win if you can stop that Colts' rushing attack, especially with the watered-down quarterback situation. So I'm sure you guys are paying attention to that phrase there. Other than that, though, the Titans on third down. Three for 12.

They hold the Colts offense, too. That's absolutely incredible. Last year, the Titans gave up 51% of the third down opportunities for first downs. Now they're down to 37% on the year when you take the first three weeks into account. That would be one of the best rates in the league and a major improvement on last year's rate. So the Titans third down defense, they held the Colts to one for three in the red zone. That was critical, getting three field goals on the board instead of touchdowns. The Titans defense continues to impress and the sack numbers weren't gaudy. They only had two sacks on the day. A lot of that had to come from Ola Adani, but only two sacks on the day.

But a lot of those situations where they would have gotten sacks, Carson Wentz just threw the ball into the ground, even took intentional grounding a couple of times just to avoid getting hit. So those would have been sacks. So the box score doesn't completely tell the story. The Titans got some good pressure on Wentz. They shut down the running game of the Colts, and that led to a victory despite the turnover.

So a really gritty, tough-fought division win for the Titans. Again, gets them to 2-1 on the year, puts the Colts down to 0-3, and the Titans' most legitimate division rival and division challenger is the Colts, even at 0-3, and now the Titans have a pretty good lead over them, but both teams have a pretty tough schedule ahead,

and we'll talk more about that at the end of the show. But for now, it is time to dive into the individual performances, both good and bad, and everybody's favorite segment, Tighten Up and Tighten Down. Before we get into that, though, I do want to tell you guys about the GetUpside app. Titans fans, I got an incredible app for anyone who buys gas. You guys have to know about GetUpside. My listeners are making up to 25 cents for every gallon of gas every time they fill up. Just

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Don't wait to take advantage of all these amazing offers. Go to betonline.ag today. Use that promo code LOCKEDON. BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. It is time for Tighten Up, Tighten tighten down everybody's favorite segment make sure in the chat that you put your tighten ups and your tighten downs tag me on twitter at tic tac titans as well use hashtag tighten up tighten down and I have a lot to get into here and there are some guys who are going to show up in both columns,

but either way, the number one Titan up for me is Ryan Tannehill, and I know that he threw two interceptions on the day, but considering the weapons that he had and that his second interception wasn't even his fault, it bounced right off of Chester Rogers' chest, I can't give Ryan Tannehill a tighten down because of the turnovers. He went out there, was 18 for 27, threw for 197 yards, did throw three touchdowns, all to Titans role players

who you wouldn't want to be your starting wide receivers out there. So incredibly impressive from Ryan Tannehill. It wasn't only his arm, though. On the ground, Ryan Tannehill had five carries for 56 yards. I would have loved to have seen him maybe slide a little bit more and take less contact, but he was out there doing everything he could to will this team down the field, no matter who was around him. And speaking of someone who was around him, Derrick Henry, again, just getting a heavy workload. He had 31 touches on the day, 28 carries, 113 yards,

had three catches for 31 yards. And although he didn't get a touchdown, he did hit some big runs when the Titans needed it most. And although the Colts defense generally did a very good job bottling Derrick Henry up, he was able to get a few big runs on the perimeter here and there to keep drives going for the Titans. He did enough as the Titans star player and engine

to keep them going to win this game against a watered-down Colts offense. But the guys who allowed them to do that were the offensive line. The Titans offensive line only gave up one sack. That was something we talked about coming into this game. The Colts pass rush had been struggling throughout the season, getting pressure consistently on quarterbacks. The Titans couldn't let the pass rush get off. Now, there was an injury to a rookie for the Colts, Quiddie Paye,

one of their better edge rushers, even as a rookie. But the Titans had their own injuries. They didn't have Bud Dupree in this game. So for my money, I just call it even. Anyways, the Titans' offensive line did very well. I want to give a shout-out to Taylor LeJuan specifically as well. Very tough start to the beginning of the year. What happened with Chandler Jones in week one, all that attention. Then in Seattle has the setback. Taylor LeJuan explained

that finally on Sunday after the Colts game. He said that he heard a pop in his knee. The training staff was worried. They weren't able to get an MRI because of that. They didn't want to risk it just in case there was structural damage. Taylor LeJuan thanked the training staff and thank the organization for looking out for players. That does make a lot of sense. So thank you very much, Taylor LeJuan, for struggling through coming back from that ACL and had a very good game out there today. The Titans offensive line only gave up one sack, as I said. Allowed the Titans to rush for over 180 rushing yards as a team. A great day for the

Titans offensive line against a very tough Colts defense, even if they haven't been as good as they have been in recent years, early on in the year. A good day from the line. Talking about the defense now, got to mention some guys there. Three quarterback hits for Ola Adani. One and a half sacks. He's been absolutely tremendous at the beginning of the year.

Found money for the Titans. John Robinson even said in an interview over the weekend that they expected him to be a special team stud, but what they're getting on defense is surprising, and he's only going to earn more opportunities with Bud Dupree coming back slowly from the ACL and having some issues there. Very important for the Titans to have a consistent edge rusher. We saw Rashad Weaver get hurt. For some reason, Derek Roberson is inactive, even though the Titans have struggles on the edge. It looks like Derek Roberson has to be active next week just in case Ola Adani gets hurt.

The Titans are down to a very thin group at edge rusher, but Ola Adani answered the call. Ola Adani, I always want to blend his name together. Also, Harold Landry, five quarterback hits on the day, had a half sack himself. Danico Autry, again, like I said, the box score won't always show it because Carson Wentz was throwing the ball into the ground, even sacrificing the intentional grounding penalty if he had to do it.

But Danico Autry had two quarterback hits and was in Carson Wentz's face throughout the day. In the secondary, Christian Fulton, four tackles, had a big pass breakup over the middle of the field against Michael Pittman. A great day. Fulton continues to impress. He did get injured but came back into the game after that, so should be good to go.

Kevin Byard, I thought, was great over the middle of the field. The Titans are really using Byard in a great way now that they have Dane Crookshank to kind of play that strong safety role. It's allowing Byard to play a little bit more as a free safety back in the back end, and that's helping him make more plays on the ball. Breon Borders as well. Fulton got hurt for two plays, a second and a third down. Critical near the end zone.

Breon Borders, Borders closed, baby. He had two pass breakups that were in a big spot for the Titans. Have to mention Fat Randy, Randy Bullock, man. Fit Randy at this point. One for one on his field goal is a big one that gave the Titans a nine-point lead and really sealed the game. Two for two on his extra points. Every extra point was important as that game was so close

and the scores were going back and forth until the Titans got that final field goal. Some other guys I want to mention here, Michael Pruitt. I just thought he's been excellent. One catch for seven yards, but it was a big one over the middle of the field. I thought he blocked pretty well on the edge as well. Jeff Swaim, he's a tighten up and also a tighten down. Three catches for 27 yards. Struggled at some times in the blocking game,

but he lined up his fullback a few times and helped the Titans out. So I'll give him a half tighten up. I also, before we go, got to mention David Long. He was flying all over the field. Big hits. He had two hit sticks back to back in the third quarter, I believe. Eight tackles for the day, one tackle for loss. David Long has been a revelation for the Titans. And when Jayon comes back, which hopefully is next week, David Long should be the starter out there, in my opinion. Tighten downs. Going to go to some tighten downs.

Remember, if you thought I missed any tighten ups, put those in the comments. Tag me on Twitter. Let me know. Tighten downs. Julio Jones, he had three catches for 47 yards. He wasn't out there on the field for the last, I don't know, felt like 10 plays, the last whole drive for the Titans.

Mike Vrabel kind of hinted in his press conference that he wasn't happy with Julio's blocking out there. Also did say it was a management thing. You could argue that Vrabel felt the game was in hand and they were just going to be running the ball so they didn't need Julio out there. But I don't know if that excuse works for me. I think Vrabel being mad that Julio wasn't blocking well enough makes a lot more sense.

So I'll have to check that on tape for you guys. Jeff Swaim, again, like I said, a half-tighten up, half-tighten down to give him a neutral. Had some missed blocks. Very little yards after catch ability. Swaim struggled early on, but he had more good plays in this game than he's had throughout the year. Not quite time to play the Swaim, but we're getting there. Rashawn Evans had eight tackles, one tackle for loss, but I thought he was late a lot of the time getting to his run lane and getting to the ball carrier. He gets attacked sometimes over the middle of the field in pass coverage.

He gives great effort out there, but just a little slow-footed for me, and I thought that getting him moving sideline to sideline and laterally is something that teams have tried to do his entire career. Like on the Naheem Hines touchdown run, Rashawn Evans just not quick enough to get where he needs to be. And I saw that throughout the day as well. Todd Downing, not enough play action on first down, man. The Titans so many times just went with the run-run pass.

And I'm going to be the first person to tell you when those complaints are out of place. That's something that people easily go to. It's a lazy take online to go to that. We saw those complaints in week one, even though the Titans passed more on first down than they ran in the first half. So that's not always true, but in this game it was. Got to see more play action on first down for the Titans when teams are really vulnerable and looking for Henry.

The efficiency on first down has to get a lot better if the Titans want to compete with the better teams. The turnovers, the Titans cannot win like that. The Titans have six turnovers already this year. It'll be seven now. That's three and they already had four. They have seven turnovers in three weeks this year. They had 12 all of last year.

They're not the type of offense that can have turnovers nonstop. They just cannot do that. They've got to clean that up. Almost let the Colts win offense that can have turnovers nonstop. They just cannot do that. They've got to clean that up. Almost let the Colts win this game with the turnovers. Some of the injuries, Bud Dupree, A.J. Brown, Rashad Weaver got carted off and was even carted out of the locker room. Jayon didn't end up playing. Ferkser didn't end up playing, so that's concerning.

And then the third and short defense for the Titans, yes, the Colts have typically had a very good running offense and were really stout on the offensive line, but the Titans gave up multiple third and short situations and they're going to have to get better at those. They've been one of the best teams in the league over the last two or three seasons at those one yard situations. They're going to have to get back to that in the future with some of the games that they have in a few weeks. But we're going to talk about some of the games that the Titans have in a few weeks. The next couple of weeks, the Titans have a chance to put some W's on the board

before they go into their toughest five-game stretch of the season. So getting some victories against teams they should beat will be very, very important. We're going to talk about that and what happened with the other AFC South teams in our final segment. Before we get into that, though, I do want to tell you guys about DirecTV Stream. Does this sound familiar? You've got one device that lets you catch the game live. You've got another that lets you stream your favorite shows.

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and you'll get 15% off your next order. Once again, that's promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at BiltBar.com. Let's cap off this Victory Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, taking a look at what happened in the AFC South over the weekend, where the Titans stand right now, and what lies ahead. We just talked about my big picture team takeaways in our first segment. We then talked about the individual performances and tighten up and tighten down. Now, I want to tell you before we get into what happened in the AFC South

that I do appreciate everybody watching the show on YouTube, everybody listening to the podcast on whatever platform you do stream. Thanks for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen of the day every day. And remember, you can find the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you use and always free. But let's dive into this AFC South recap here. So on Thursday night, the Houston Texans lost to the Carolina Panthers. I believe that score was 24-9. I think it was so long ago.

But either way, the Texans lost Tyrod Taylor. We're hearing that trade rumors for Deshaun Watson are starting to pick up and that the Texans have officially lowered their price. How much we believe those rumors, who really knows. But either way, the Texans are starting to look like who we thought that they were going to be. They got that win over the Jags, and it really does smell like the Jags season last year, how the Jags got that win over the Colts

in Week 1 and then didn't win another game again. Well, it kind of feels like that might be what's taking place with the Texans right now. So the Texans looking rough, move to one and two. And I feel like I don't want to be overzealous here, don't want to count the chickens before they hatch. But I think that it is fair to say the Texans are not going to win this division. So that's good news for the Titans that the Texans season could be over and they could stop being competitive pretty early on because the Titans do play the Texans later in the

year and when it should be in their best interest to lose as many games as possible and try to get a quarterback in the draft. But either way, the Texans go to one and two. They are floundering with Davis Mills at quarterback. Also, the Jaguars go to 0-3, and boy, do they look bad. They lost 31-19, and six of those points came on a missed field goal returned for a touchdown at the end of the half. So basically, my point is it's some nonsense.

The Jags are bad. They are a terrible football team. And if the Texans are really bad, as it seems they are, and the Jaguars are really bad, which it seems they are, that's great news for the Titans now that the Colts have gone to 0-3. I still think that the Colts finished second in this division. And now that they're 0-3, the Titans are 2-1, have a head-to-head win. I mean, that's kind of like a two-game advantage already,

a three-game advantage already for the Titans. So this was a big win. And I also want to mention all those Houston Oilers were in the building. The Titans were honoring Bum Phillips and the Love Ya Blue, Houston Oilers team, and all that pomp and circumstance and pageantry. This really is the type of game that the Titans have found a way to lose, and it looked like that performance, but they were able to pull it out. And considering the division stakes, super, super important.

Now let's take a look at what's coming for the Colts. They play at the Miami Dolphins and then they have to play at the Baltimore Ravens, which the Ravens won on a Justin Tucker 66 yard field goal NFL record. My God, man. The NFL is absolutely

incredible. Absolutely amazing. Had such a good time watching football today. I'm happy the Titans were able to take care of business themselves. But again, a big win for the Titans. They take the lead of the AFC South early in the season. They're at a critical juncture in the year. Here's what comes next for them. They're at the New York Jets who are struggling as a football team overall. They're not looking very good with Zach Wilson early in the year. They've had a bunch of injuries on defense as well. They're currently losing 17 to nothing to Denver at halftime. So the Jets are a terrible football team. Even on the road, the Titans have to find a way to win

that game. Then they go on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who I just talked about how terrible of a football team they are losing to the Cardinals on Sunday, but then the tough stretch starts. Home against the Bills, Monday night football. Home against the Chiefs. On the road at Indianapolis, who Carson Wentz could be healthier, they'll be looking for blood. Then on the road across the entire United States on Sunday night football against the Rams. Then the Titans play at home against the Saints, who weren't a bad team and were able to beat New England on Sunday. So, really

tough stretch of five games for the Titans after they play the Jets and the Jags on the road. They're going to have to find a way to go 2-0 against two teams that they absolutely should beat. And hopefully the Titans are able to get healthy, get guys like Bud Dupree, A.J. Brown, Taylor LeJuan, Jayon Brown,

Anthony Ferkser back to 100% health over the next two weeks in some games that they should win by close to double digits and then they'll be ready to go with their team looking good, feeling hot at 4-1 to take on the toughest stretch of the year. A big victory for the Tennessee

Titans. I hope you guys enjoyed this Victory Monday edition of the Locked on Titans Titans. I hope you guys enjoyed this Victory Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow. It's a big week of Locked on Titans. Tomorrow, we're going to go over all of the big storylines coming out of the game. Check in on some injuries.

Look at some stats, most likely. Some snap counts. Some PFF grades. All those little analytical and numbers things coming out of the game. Wednesday will be rewatch Wednesday. Had some great film stuff, and I have a big surprise for you guys on Wednesday as well. Thursday will be crossover Thursday with the host of Locked on Jets, and then Friday, another

game preview. So can't wait for another week here on the Locked on Titans podcast. Subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. That's going to do it for me today folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.