Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - #TicTacTitans - Tannehill to Start, Film Breakdown & Rowland's Rewind

Episode Date: October 17, 2019

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is the kickoff to the football week. Couldn't be more excited to get closer to game day and to talk about some actual football with you guys. In our first segment, we are going to talk about Ryan Tannehill becoming the starting quarterback of this team and how that affects the offense and what we need to see going forward and why this change has been made. So we'll cover all of that in our first segment. In our second segment, we are going to get into Tick-Tack Titans, and I'm going to give you a breakdown of four big plays and four throws from Ryan Tannehill on Sunday that I think tell the whole story. Three of them are positive throws, and in the fourth play, I do want to make sure that

I'm balanced for you guys and show you a mistake that Tannehill did make that's something he'll have to clean up as well. He is not a perfect player. In our third segment, we will do Roland's Rewind, go back to last season when we played the Chargers in London, and talk about how that game went and see if there's anything we can learn from that. I do think there is one thing from last year's game that will be vitally important going into Sunday.

So we're going to get into all of that today. Let's get it. Your Tennessee Titans lead story is Ryan Tannehill starting at quarterback on Sunday against the San Diego Chargers. It's obvious at this moment in time that a change needed to be made to spark the offense. Now one could argue who is completely to blame for the offensive struggles on this show. We have gone over how everyone is responsible for the blame, but in the NFL when an offense is struggling, one of the easiest changes you can make is at the quarterback position, and unfortunately Marcus was not playing well enough to prevent it from

being him. This Titans offense is in the mud at this moment in time. They are 19th in the NFL at 53% success rate in the red zone. They are 28th in the NFL with fewest opportunities in the red zone at 15. They are the fourth worst team in the NFL and third down conversion rate at 29.5. And they are seventh worst in the NFL and most three and outs. So this Titans offense across the board, the run game, the passing game has not been doing well. And Marcus hasn't done enough personally to prevent him being pulled either. At this time through six games, he has 1,179 yards. That's 196 yards per game. Not going to cut it in today's NFL. He's only having a completion rate of 59.1%. He's had seven touchdowns, only those two interceptions in Denver,

and he's been a part of 25 sacks. Now the sacks obviously aren't all his fault, but he definitely has a role to play in the offensive line struggling with how he changes protections, slides protections, how he moves in the pocket, how quickly he gets the ball out of his hands. Marcus has held the ball longer than a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL this year, so that's something that he definitely struggles with, is seeing how the pocket is setting up to move. That's something that Tannehill is a little bit better at.

Tannehill played in 11 games for the Dolphins last year. He was 64% on his completion percentage, about 179 yards per game, 17 touchdowns, 9 interceptions, and he was 5-6 in the games that he played for the Dolphins. The Dolphins only won 7 games last year, and Tannehill was the quarterback for 5 of those, and they lost more games when he was out due to him obviously not playing so Tannehill does have success to point to in this league he has been a starter for multiple years in this league he was able to get to the playoffs with the Dolphins in one of his seasons

just like Marcus was able to get to the playoffs in one of his seasons with the Titans so one thing to point out here is Titans fans should not expect a massive upgrade. Ryan Tannehill by no means is the quarterback of the future, and I do not believe that the Titans are going to strike gold here and luck into a brand new quarterback who can keep things going on the same trajectory. I do believe that Ryan Tannehill is just a bridge quarterback, whether he's brought back next year to help groom a rookie or whether he's brought back next year with another veteran to have a competition. Either way, I don't view Ryan Tannehill as the answer for this football team,

but for this team right now in the position they're in with the options that they have right now compared to next year and everything they can do in the offseason, I do think that Ryan Tannehill will help this offense be more successful than Marcus was able to do. And some reasons for that is the offensive line is struggling. Tannehill gets the ball out quicker and has a stronger arm to get the ball to the routes on the outsides without as much time needed to be protected for him to make those throws. He has similar enough athletic ability. Marcus has not run the ball very much this year.

We've only seen a few design runs. So if we're not getting that aspect and the plays aren't being called for us to see that, then any of the bootlegs and any of the action that we see and any of the non-design scrambles that we're getting in these games for the Titans offense, we should still be able to get all of those. Nothing is going to prevent those from happening. Tannehill has enough athleticism to make that happen as much as we've seen it throughout the season.

So I don't expect a huge change from the Titans' offense in terms of the way they play, but Tannehill's increased arm strength, his increased accuracy, and his ability to get the ball out of his hands quicker should help this offense be able to be a little bit more successful against a Chargers defense that does like to play zone. So we will see what we get on Sunday,

but hopefully the change made at quarterback will help the Titans put some more points up on the board. That's going to do it for our first segment. Now we are going to get into Tick-Tack Titans, and let's get in the film room and break down some plays from Tannehill on Sunday after he took over from Marcus and some things that we should expect going forward in the next game. I do want to let you guys know before we do that that Peloton is offering a limited time offer. Get $100 off accessories when you purchase the Peloton bike and get a great

cardio workout at home. Go to onepeloton.com and use promo code LOCKED to get started. Tick, tack, Titans. Let's step into the film room, break down some X's and O's. This week, I want to look at Ryan Tannehill and some of his better throws and one bad one against the Broncos on Sunday so we can get an idea of what we're going to be seeing from the offense and some of his strengths that he has that are different than Marcus so we're going to cover that right now with four plays do want to remind you guys that I'm going to be putting the visual breakdowns of these the plays to match what I'm talking about on my Twitter account at tic-tac-titans so please follow me there if you

aren't already and you'll get to see the plays that I'm actually talking about so you can hear these breakdowns and then kind of match them up with the videos that I post on there. So we'll jump into it with play one. At this time there's about 453 left in the fourth quarter. Tannehill is in shotgun. He has A.J. Brown and Adam Humphreys to his right. He has Corey Davis and Delaney Walker to his left with Deion Lewis in the backfield. The reason I want to point this out is it's a simple play, but these are the type of plays that the Titans offense are missing. So the Broncos are in a cover four. So they have a cornerback and three linebackers kind of at like seven, eight yards deep playing a zone.

Derek Wolfe, the defensive tackle of the Broncos, walks Nate Davis all the way back into Tannehill's lap. Even Nate Davis hits Tannehill at the end. Tannehill bounces back because Derek Wolfe just on the snap pushes Nate Davis five yards deep into the backfield. Now, in previous games, we've seen the quarterback drop his head, run into the back of some linemen, and probably take a sack in that circumstance. But what Tannehill does, even though it's not his first

option, he comes back over the middle. He finds Adam Humphreys running just a short cross route, about four or five yards. He dumps it to him accurately. Humphreys makes an easy catch on a well-thrown ball and is able to cut up field for a couple more yards. This is a first and 10, and Adam Humphreys is able to produce six yards on a play where Tannehill got some pressure right in his face from the defensive tackle. So these kind of plays are going to be really important for the Titans offense to not turn into sacks and to actually have those turn into some short gains, even if you can just get the ball out quickly to your check down

or to someone coming short over the middle. It'll be very valuable for the Titans offense to get these kind of plays. Very simple play, very simple throw, but I'm telling you these are the type of throws and plays that the Titans have been missing throughout the season. So nice to see that. We'll go to play two. The Titans are in shotgun again in play two. The only difference here is the type of coverage. We're going to see the previous coverage. We got a cover four, which is a little bit deeper. We're going to see a traditional cover three right here. So the Broncos cornerbacks are playing off probably seven to eight yards. The Titans are in shotgun with A.J. Brown to the left side, Adam Humphreys, Delaney Walker, and Corey Davis to the opposite side in a trips formation, and Deion Lewis in the backfield again. Now, what I like about this play is Tannehill's arm strength and accuracy on boundary throws towards the sidelines.

So the Broncos are playing a cover three, like I said, which means the outside corner on A.J. Brown cannot get beat vertically. He has the responsibility vertically for that third of the field. Well, this is going to allow the Titans to run some outbreaking routes where they press up the field and make it seem like they're going to keep going up the field, and the cornerback has to honor that because he has that deep third. Well, A.J. Brown beautifully breaks it off at the last second to the sideline. The Broncos quarterback does read this and breaks with him, and he's on A.J.'s back,

but the ball is right there to A.J. as soon as he starts breaking to the sideline. It is a tough catch. Tannehill throws it low so that the Broncos quarterback can't have a way to get around A.J.'s body and get to the ball. Only A.J. Brown can get this football on the sideline. He makes it for a completion. It's a 10-yard gain, another first down for the Titans. These kind of throws against cover three, which San Diego does like to play,

are going to be important. And even if that's man coverage, which we'll see here soon, it's important to hit those throws on the sideline that just require great arm strength and great accuracy. So nice to see the Titans offense be able to capitalize on some of those. We'll go to play three. This was the best throw of the day for Ryan. This one is one that I'm pretty impressed with. I can't wait for you guys to see it. These are the kind of throws that I'm hoping he can make a few times a game, and they'll really help out the Titans offense. So here we got a little bit different of a personnel grouping. Anthony Ferkser is in the slot on the right with Corey Davis on the outside. You have Tajay Sharp and Adam Humphreys on the

other side, on the left side of the field. The Titans are in shotgun with Derrick Henry in the backfield. On this play, the Broncos go to cover to man. So basically what they're going to do in this circumstance, they're going to have their safeties both playing the deep halves of the field. So one safety has one half. The other safety has another half. And everybody underneath them, the other corners and the two linebackers, are going to be playing man against somebody.

So what we'll see here is the Broncos have a safety on Anthony Ferkser. Now, any time that you're going to see a cover two look from the deep safeties, whether it's man up top or zone in front of them, where is cover two going to be vulnerable? The middle, because the safeties are covering either half. So if you can get them spread out, a lot of the times you'll see throws up the middle, because the safeties are covering either half. So if you can get them spread out, a lot of the times you'll see throws up the middle. They call that the seam, right up the middle where the hash marks are. So what happens here is the Broncos do have man up top, and they have two safeties playing each of the halves of the field. Well, Anthony Ferkser is able to get around the safety for the Broncos, Harris,

just get his shoulders past him, and Tannehill delivers a beautiful ball for a gain of 25 yards that Anthony Ferkser adjusts to. Basically, Anthony Ferkser is coming in towards the middle of the field, and the safety can feel that. So Tannehill throws the ball kind of high into Ferkser's back shoulder, his shoulder towards the closest sideline on the right-hand side. So Ferkser basically can jump into the air, turn his body to the left, and catch the back shoulder fade on his left side of his body.

So it keeps him away from the defender. In the NFL, it's not all about your accuracy, just having the ball to the wide receiver. Sometimes you have to throw to a certain spot to make sure that your guy can get it. We saw that on the throw with A.J. throwing it low towards the sideline. We see that here with Anthony Ferkser. Pinpoint accuracy on a back shoulder seam. Really important that the Titans have this normal average level quarterback accuracy to be able to get the offense going.

We saw some missed throws on some easy layups that NFL quarterbacks should make every time on throws out in the flat and checkdowns, and the accuracy was just not good enough throwing the ball into the dirt. It just wasn't getting the job done, wasn't giving the Titans playmakers a chance. So if not only we can hit on those easy layups, but have a couple of good and really accurate throws a game out of Tannehill, that'll be a big boon for the Titans offense and at least allow them to get some points. So we're going to go over the last play here. It is a negative play, so I want to keep it honest with you guys.

I don't want to just sit up here and fluff up Ryan Tannehill like he is some awesome quarterback making all these great throws. So I want to be honest with you about this one. Last offensive play of the game for the Titans, it is Tannehill's interception. They have a similar formation that they like to go to. They have Tripps to the right, Delaney Walker on the line of scrimmage, Corey Davis to the outside, and Adam Humphreys in the slot, but they are in a Tripps formation to the right side. A.J. Brown is alone on the opposite side of the formation.

Shotgun and Deion Lewis is back with Ryan Tannehill. The play initially doesn't work correctly. It looks like he wants to go over the middle to Delaney Walker on kind of a deep end, over the middle in the end zone. He doesn't see him. Now, here's where I'm going to criticize Tannehill. He gets some pressure from the right defensive end, which is Von Miller. Von Miller comes into Jack Conklin's chest, and Conklin actually has a great block and takes Von Miller and kind of spins him away. Tannehill could get out to his right side. There's tons of field on the right side. He should have rolled out to the right side if he would have done so, even if he didn't I still think he made a major miss right here we see Adam Humphreys is faking a flat route and then he turns it up and turns it into a wheel route if Tannehill is just a little more patient steps to the right which Jack Conklin

gives him an easy route to do and he even takes a couple steps to the right but then for some reason comes back left and throws the interception if If he just takes a few more steps right, even one, and sees Adam Humphreys beat his man into the corner of the end zone, that's a touchdown for the Titans. So Tannehill missed that read. He missed Adam Humphreys on his route wide open in the corner of the end zone and had bad pocket presence and went to the wrong direction that wasn't open. So that's a criticism of Tannehill, and the Titans' offense is going to need to limit those as well. He's not a perfect player.

So I wanted to make sure that I showcased the throws that I thought were really important for the Titans going forward and something that Tannehill is going to have to be better at as well. So I wanted to keep it honest with you guys and just show you exactly what I saw on tape, the good and the bad. Obviously, there were limited snaps for Tannehill in the playing time that he had, but what we saw was encouraging,

at least from my perspective going forward. So thank you for joining me at Tic Tac Titans. As I said, I'm going to be posting all of that stuff to my Twitter account, at Tic Tac Titans, so you guys can see the visuals and actually see those plays from the coaches' tape. In our third segment, we're going to do Roland's Rewind and go back to last season

when we played the Chargers in London. It was a fun game to watch. Wish the outcome would have been different, but there is something that the Titans need to take from last year's game

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So real fast for you guys, I just want to get into last year's Chargers game. In week seven, if you recall, the Titans played the Chargers in London in one of those 930 games. I love the 930 morning football games. Waking up here in the East Coast time zone and immediately having a football game to get to at 9 o'clock in the morning, it's excellent. I really enjoy that, and the NFL should take note with these London games and have that more often. Let me know on Twitter, at TicTacTitans,

if you guys agree with that and if you enjoy the morning football, and even if you would like the Titans to have a couple morning games here in the next few seasons. But we will get into last year's game as I said in London the Titans did lose to the Chargers 20 to 19 but it was a super competitive game unfortunately the Titans gave up a few big plays that really crushed them they missed a two-point conversion at the end of the game with an opportunity to win the game and not go into overtime. I agree with the call there. Go for it. Try to win the game. You're in London against a team that's probably more talented than you, at least last year. So I didn't mind that call. That was a really divisive thing in the Titans community at the time, if you do remember whether Mike

Vrabel should have went for it, kicked the field goal, gone into overtime, all those different things. But I did like the call to go for it. What I didn't like was the play call. The Titans ran a slant to Tywon Taylor, and of course it didn't work out. It was a tip throw. Throwing it in the middle on a slant with all the defenders in the middle was a terrible play call. It wasn't a great throw either.

So just a completely botched last play, even if I like the decision to go for it. Like I said, one thing that really hurt the Titans in that were some deep shots that the Chargers were able to capitalize on. The Williams brothers, Tyrell Williams and Mike Williams, were able to go for five catches, 173 yards, and two touchdowns. The only two touchdowns that the Chargers were able to score, one of those was on a 55-yard strike to Mike Williams. So the Titans struggled with the Chargers' big body receivers on long, deep passes. That's something that may come up. So I'll talk about that here in a second. But just to round this out, it was a good Deion Lewis game. Really surprising. But Deion Lewis had 19 touches for 155 total yards.

He was effective in the run game for 91 yards. He was effective in the pass game for, I believe, 64 yards. Just a really good effort from Deion Lewis, and man, it would be a welcome sight for the Titans to have him come back and bounce back and just be an effective player for this team. They need his skill set, so hopefully some changes on the offense will help him get going as well. One other thing I wanted to point out was there was no pressure on the Chargers on offense. The Titans' pass rush was nonexistent. They weren't able to get any heat whatsoever on Phillip Rivers with the front four,

which is something that the Titans' defense still struggles with now. And giving up big plays in the passing game is another thing that the Titans' defense can struggle with, even though they're pretty solid, typically week to week. So those are things that the Titans have to take from last year's game and correct. Jeffrey Simmons could get some snaps in this game. Hopefully he'll help Harold Landry, who's the only person doing his job on the front four in terms of the pass rush right now. So the Titans have to find a way to get pressure on Phillip Rivers and not let him sit back there and carve them up and get long shot plays down the field like he was able to do last year. And they are going to have to prevent those big long plays, at least with Mike Williams. Tyrell Williams has gone to the Raiders now, but Mike Williams, a big wide receiver from Clemson

who came out the same exact time that Corey Davis did. And some say maybe Mike Williams should have been our pick. At this point, it's impossible to know because of how unhealthy the Titans' offense consistently is, but Mike Williams and his size will pose threats for the Titans down the field, so they have to get pressure, and if you get pressure, that won't allow Phillip Rivers enough time to hit some of those big shots down the field to that big-bodied receiver in Mike Williams. So that's going to be important. 20-1919 the Titans lost to the Chargers last year in London in week 7. That's going to do it for Roland's Rewind. So in our first segment we talked about Tannehill starting and how that changes the offense. In our second segment we did Tic Tac Titans and I actually gave you an audio presentation of the film of what we

saw from Tannehill in Ford plays that showcase the good and the bad. Please follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans to get the visual breakdowns of those as well. And then in our third segment, we did Roland's Rewind just for a little nostalgia. And hopefully the Titans can learn from their past mistakes and help them get a win on Sunday. I'll be back with you guys on Friday to preview the game, to go over the fantasy, the gambling aspect, to talk about the ins and outs and give you my prediction. Can't wait for the game, to go over the fantasy, the gambling aspect, to talk about the ins and outs and give you my prediction.

Can't wait for the game on Sunday. I know that times are dark right now, but I'm feeling very optimistic about the Titans' ability to beat the Chargers. I'll talk about some of the things that give me optimism in our Keeping It Plus 100 segment tomorrow, so look out for that. Anyways, had a great time breaking it all down with you guys. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.