Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - #TicTacTuesday - Important Data Points, #TicTacFourPack Breakdown & Tuesday Temp Check

Episode Date: September 29, 2020

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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, this Tic Tac Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by Pepsi, made for football watching. Thanks to a lack of natural athleticism or commitment or overbearing sports parents, fewer than 1% of 1% of 1% of people will ever play professional football.

But instead of entering the NFL, they've joined another league, the League of Football Watchers. This football season will be different, and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day no matter how you watch. Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power through any game day because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game, it's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching. Go to madeforfootballwatching.com to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi. We are going to talk about a bunch of football that we watched from this weekend today

in this Tic Tac Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We are going to start things out looking at some statistics and some data points that were incredibly important coming out of Sunday's victory against the Vikings. We are going to examine snap counts from the offense and the defense, take a look at some player grades from the performance in Minnesota as well. Then we will dive into our first Tic Tac Titans film breakdown of the week, this week's Tic Tac Titans film breakdown of the week. This week's Tic Tac Four Pack, where I break down the four most impactful plays

from the Titans' victory on Sunday, and I will be pairing that up with a visual film breakdown on my Twitter account, at Tic Tac Titans, so make sure you follow me there. We will round out this Tic Tac Tuesday with a little bit of a Tuesday temperature check. And here are some highlights from Mike Vrabel's Zoom conference, including which member of the Tennessee Titans coaching staff

was not present for the game in Minnesota due to being in the COVID-19 protocol. So a lot to talk about on this Tic Tac Tuesday. Make sure that you subscribe to the Locked On Titans podcast for Rewatch Wednesday, our Crossover Thursday conversation with Chris from the Locked On Steelers podcast, and my Football Friday game preview to get you ready for a major game against the Steelers. But it is Tic Tac Tuesday. We have some major data points to take a look at, my Tic Tac 4-pack, and the highlights from Mike Rabel's Zoom conference. Let's get it!

Taking a look at some of the important data points coming out of the weekend for the Titans, we will start with the snap counts. And on the Titans offense, the biggest takeaway has to be how the reps were divvied up between the wide receiver group. The Titans played a total of 75 snaps on offense on Sunday, and Titans top wide receiver at the moment, Corey Davis, only played 55 of those 75 possible snaps. The Titans second best wide receiver at the moment that's active on the roster with A.J.

Brown being out with a bone bruise in his knee is Adam Humphreys, and he only played 39 of a possible 75 snaps. So a very curious decision from the Titans offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith, and head coach Mike Rabel to only play his top two wide receivers in such a limited fashion. The other snap counts for the rest of the wide receiver group, Cam Batson had 45 snaps on the day and was relatively insignificant. Kalief Raymond had only 20 snaps on the day but made a much more important impact on the game in those 20 snaps and then undrafted free agent wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Akeem managed to play in 12 snaps and was

actually targeted on a critical play late in the game that resulted in an incompletion so again very curious decision from the Titans offensive staff and coaching staff in general to divvy up the reps between the receivers in this way and limit the top two receivers for the Titans at this moment, Corey Davis and Adam Humphreys, to under 60 snaps out of the 75 possible. Shout out to backup offensive tackle Ty Sambrillo, who came in once Taylor LeJuan was injured and played 57 snaps for the offense. The Titans' best offensive player so far this season has been tight end Jonu Smith, who played in 66 of the possible 75 snaps.

And then in a quick small note, Titans rookie running back Darrington Evans did play in 8 snaps for the Titans' offense, but was out-snapped by the other backup running back, Jeremy McNichols. Going to the Titans' defense, the big takeaway here is that Jayon Brown, Kenny Vaccaro, Kevin Byard played all of the possible defensive snaps for the Titans. 65 out of 65. Harold Landry, again, whose reps were supposedly going to be reduced this season,

played 61 out of a 65 possible snaps. And then Jeffrey Simmons played 60 out of a 65 possible snaps and then Jeffrey Simmons played 60 out of a possible 65 snaps and it was completely warranted as Simmons was phenomenal. Speaking of Simmons performance he was the highest graded Tennessee Titan per pro football focus from Sunday with a 92.8 grade. These grades are out of 100. Simmons was incredibly impactful and was utterly dominant during the victory. Harold Landry had a 65.7 overall grade, but was again fantastic in coverage and showcased his versatility coming in with an 80.7 coverage grade. The biggest issue for the Titans defense on the day had to be at the cornerback position with Jonathan Joseph and Malcolm Butler struggling mightily. Joseph had a 48 overall grade.

Malcolm Butler had a 47.5 grade. So a very tough day for the Titans to outside starting corners. And then on the offensive side of the ball, the Titans offense was paced by wide receiver Kalief Raymond, who came in with the highest grade of the day, a 91.8 after those three catches for 118 yards. Jonu Smith, again, as mentioned before, the Titans most consistent and best offensive player so far this year, was second with a 91.1. And then Michael Pruitt, who played 25 snaps in the game, was absolutely excellent in those reps and came in with a 60.4 overall grade and only a 58 grade in his pass attempt. So not a banner day for Ryan Tannehill, but he was able to get the job done

for the Titans at the end of the game when it mattered most. And speaking of when it mattered most, it is time for us to continue this Tic Tac Tuesday and jump into this week's Tic Tac 4-pack where I break down the four most impactful plays from Sunday's victory over the Minnesota Vikings. So we will be talking about that shortly. Also, make sure that you follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans as I will be dropping the visual film breakdown to go along with my audio breakdown in the next segment on my Twitter on Tuesday for, of course, Tic Tac Tuesday. So make sure that you do that.

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It is time for this week's Tic Tac 4-Pack, where I break down the four most impactful plays from the Titans game the previous weekend. Of course, a victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. So let's jump right in here. Of course, as a general reminder, make sure you follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans, where I post the visual film breakdown for at Tic Tac Titans where I post the visual film breakdown for the Tic Tac 4-pack. If you enjoy this, there's no way that you can miss the visual breakdown that goes along

with this audio version. But we will jump right in. It is the third quarter for the Tennessee Titans. Five minutes and 48 seconds left. The Titans do have the ball and they are down 12 points. So this is a really important moment in the game for the Titans. They have just been put down. They haven't looked good all day. The offense has been up and down. The defense has been outright bad, but the Titans offense, of course, gets the ball rolling. And on this play, it's a 2nd and 4 on Minnesota's 46.

To this point in the game, the Titans had not been inside the Minnesota Vikings 10-yard line. So that just tells you the struggles that the Titans offense was clearly having. So that's why this is such an important play. The Titans just went down double digits. They have to answer here. They have to give the defense a break. There's psychological and physical reasons at play at this moment in time. The Titans offense also to this point hadn't scored a touchdown.

So you take all of those things into account and that tells you how impactful this play was. So what the Titans do is they have a three wide receiver set with Cam Batson, Corey Davis, and Adam Humphreys out on the field. Jonu Smith out there as well. And the Titans have Jonu Smith on the right side and a little bit of a bunch with Adam Humphreys and Corey Davis. Looks like the Minnesota Vikings are in a outside leverage cover one man. So basically the Minnesota Vikings outside corners have their backs turned to the sideline, inviting the Titans wide receivers to go inside because they're trying to force them into the underneath defenders on the inside. Well, the Titans, of course, as they are known to do, utilize a play action fake after Derrick Henry had gotten a few runs

and starting to get going, so clearly he was in the mind of the Vikings, and the play-action fake, of course, brings up the Vikings in the middle underneath defenders. The linebacker, the slot cornerback that's supposed to be playing in the middle draws them up, and it's to the point where the Vikings linebacker literally has to turn his back to Ryan Tannehill to run backwards to try to get to his zone right in the middle of the field. Well, he doesn't get back quick enough, and Ryan Tannehill finds Corey Davis over the middle of the field on a deep end, a short post, a long slant, whatever you want to call it, crosser, sure, you could call it that, hits Corey Davis on a crosser over the middle of the field.

Corey Davis then turns upfield and gets all the way inside the Minnesota Vikings 10-yard line down to the 8, a gain of 38 yards for the Tennessee Titans, which they, of course, turned into Derek Henry's first touchdown of the day and the offense's first touchdown of the day and the offense's first touchdown of the day. So all the reasons I explained at the beginning, setting up the play, and then, of course, what came directly after make this one of the most impactful plays of the day for the

Titans and an excellent throw and catch by Ryan Tannehill and Corey Davis. And shout out to the offensive line as well, who blocked up the play and gave Tannehill time to make the strike. Moving into play number two, we are still with the Tennessee Titans offense, and not too long after we left them in play one. The Titans have gotten the ball back at the end of the third quarter after the defense got a stop after the Derrick Henry touchdown that was set up by play one. There's about three minutes left in the third quarter here, and the Titans are still down by 5, 24-19.

The Titans come out in 12 personnel, Derrick Henry in the backfield, two tight ends, and they have Kalief Raymond as the wide receiver on the right-hand side. Now, the Titans come out in a two tight end formation because their goal is to draw the Vikings defenders up and get them to crowd the line of scrimmage and crowd the box. They're able to do that. Harrison Smith, the Vikings talented safety, does come up into the box giving them the

eight man front that they were hoping to get. Well, the Titans, because it is first down, know that the Vikings are expecting run. They have a play action fake to Derrick Henry which of course as mentioned is the staple of the Titans offense and what this does is this pulls Harrison Smith up just enough and the Vikings seem to be in a man coverage and here Harrison Smith is a deep safety so him and Anthony Harris are the safeties for the Vikings they are supposed to help deep with anything that happens and anybody that gets past the cornerbacks well Harrison Smith is

brought up by the play action fake and then the second wide receiver in the play on the left hand side is Nick Westbrook and Westbrook runs a crosser route not all that different from what Corey Davis was on in play number one. And Ryan Tannehill is staring down Westbrook. And what this does is Harrison Smith reads the quarterback's eyes here, and he tries to fly up and take away the crossing route to Westbrook. And all the while, one of the best double move route runners in the NFL, Kalief Raymond, does an excellent double move where he fakes a corner route and then bends it back in for a vertical.

Literally the same exact route we saw from Kalief Raymond in Baltimore in the playoffs last year. Tannehill throws a dime. Raymond catches it as he has the cornerback, Jeff Gladney, completely toasted on the double move. A 61-yard completion gets the Titans down to the 4-yard line, sets up a second Derrick Henry touchdown, and gives the Tennessee Titans a one-point lead.

Play number three brings us over to the defensive side of the ball for the Titans. And the reason I picked this play is because we are late in the fourth quarter in play number three, about five minutes left in the fourth. It is first down for the Vikings. Now it is first and 20, but the Titans defense so far throughout the day had not shown the ability to stop the Vikings passing attack whatsoever. So at this time, still a great opportunity for the Vikings to convert on first and 20 and keep the ball away from the Titans who need to score at this moment in time to get back into the ball game. So what we see from Kirk Cousins here is he motions Dalvin Cook out wide.

So the Vikings are in a five wide set. They do have a tight end close to a tackle on the right hand side with his hand on the ground, but they are in a five-wide formation trying to spread the Titans defense out. The Titans do a great job here of not giving away what coverage they are in. They are in a cover three, but what they do is they have Christian Fulton on the right-hand side. So they actually drop Kamalei Correa, who's playing left outside linebacker. They drop Correa into the flat on the left side to be part of the coverage. So they only rush three down linemen at the time. But they bring Christian Fulton on a blitz from the right slot,

which the Titans did not blitz a lot in the second half whatsoever. They barely blitzed and they really caught the Vikings off guard here. Now the real reason that this play works and that Fulton is able to get this sack is because of the attention paid to Jeffrey Simmons. So at the beginning of the play, Jeffrey Simmons is lined up as the left defensive tackle next to Kamalei Correa who's playing left outside linebacker. The right tackle and the right guard for the Vikings fly over to take on Jeffrey Simmons as he had been incredibly disruptive, as I have mentioned a multitude of different times throughout this first two shows of the week.

Jeffrey Simmons was completely dominant, and the Vikings right guard and right tackle both fly over to Jeffrey Simmons immediately once they think the Titans are only rushing three people. Well, Christian Fulton comes on the blitz off the opposite corner, off the opposite slot, and that guard, because he got so close to Jeffrey Simmons because he's worried about Simmons, was not able to get back in time to stop Fulton from blitzing in and sacking Kirk Cousins. After that, it's 2nd and 27. It's 3rd and 15. It's 4th and 7.

The Vikings punt back to the Titans, who are down by two at this moment in time. And we know exactly how this plays out. The Titans do go down and get a field goal to take the lead. But what we need to do when talking about the fourth play in this Tic Tac Four pack is go to the final drive for the Titans defense. For play number four, I am going to give you guys a little extra bang for

your buck here. I am giving you the entire final drive for the Titans defense as the fourth play of the Titans Tic Tac Four pack. And the reason I'm doing that is because I don't need to break down what coverage the Titans were playing I don't need to schematically tell you what was going on what we need to highlight is that the Titans defensive front showed up in the biggest way possible in the biggest moment of the game this is what we expected from the Titans front four going into this season. So first off, in this first play, Jeffrey Simmons was penalized for roughing the passer. It wasn't egregious. He put his hand up to try to block the vision of Kirk Cousins, and when he came down to make contact, he accidentally hit him in the face.

It's going to happen. It's unfortunate, but I'm not going to kill Jeffrey Simmons for it. But what was more impressive was the fact that Jeffrey Simmons literally picks up the Viking center and pushes him back five yards into Kirk Cousins face. Jeffrey Simmons destroyed Garrett Bradbury. And if not for that penalty, it would have been a easy incompletion as Cousins had zero time to throw. So although it was penalized and it didn't count, quote unquote, just a little bit of an appetizer for what comes next in the next four plays. The very next play is the first and ten that the Vikings got from the penalty on their own 40-yard line. They only need a field goal to win this game.

So the Titans cannot allow almost any yards to be gained or it's going to be too easy for the Vikings to get a feasible field goal. Well, here the Titans are back in a four-man rush and this is the package we came to see. Harold Landry on the left, Jeffrey Simmons at left defensive tackle, Jadavion Crowney at right defensive tackle, and then Vic Beasley at right edge. This is what the Titans are expecting to be their dominant pass rush package throughout the year and hey they came up when it mattered most so this first and 10 here for the Titans they're in that rush package with those four players and quite frankly

this is just one-on-one domination by not only Harold Landry, but Jadavion Clowney as well. So Harold Landry gets pressure from the left side, and that forces Kirk Cousins to move a little bit over in the pocket. Well, when he does that, Jadavion Clowney had a one-on-one matchup against the guard. Who's going to win that? Jadavion Clowney. And Clowney was able to get the pressure on Kirk Cousins and force another incompletion moving into second down here Vikings center clearly the whole Vikings offensive line clearly worried about the Tennessee Titans defensive line there's no fans and they have a mismanaged snap that goes back 16 yards and now the Vikings are looking at a third and 24

so you go to the third and 24 and in in my opinion, that second down is caused by the impact the Titans' pass rush has had. So you go to third down, and Jeffrey Simmons, once again, you guys should check out my Twitter account, not just for the Tic Tac 4-pack, but I'm doing a cut-up on Jeffrey Simmons' dominant performance, and we will talk about that more in Rewatch Wednesday. But Simmons absolutely barrels his way through a Vikings offensive lineman,

puts Cook Cousins on the ground. He throws the ball up just as best as he possibly can. Clowney knocks it down, and that's bringing up a 4th-and-24 for the Titans defense. We talked about Simmons. We talked about Clowney. We talked about Landry. But on 4th down, it's Vic Beasley who gets the pressure off the right edge, forces Kirk Cousins to run from his natural position, forces him to toss up a ball

maybe a little earlier than he wants to, and eventually the ball is batted around for an Imani Hooker interception that seals the game. And a second week in a row, the Titans defense gets a game-winning interception. So just wanted to highlight the Titans' defensive line, the package of Jeffrey Simmons, Harold Landry, Jadavion Clowney, and Vic Beasley. They came to play when it mattered most for the Titans, and they deserve to be highlighted in the fourth, quote-unquote, fourth play of this Tic-Tac-Four-Pack. Next, we are going to get a little temperature check

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And we are going to start where we should start. And that is the performance of Jeffrey Simmons. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was one of the most dominant performances by an interior defensive lineman that we've seen in quite some time, especially in Tennessee. So let's hear what Mike Vrabel had to say about Jeffrey Simmons' obviously stellar performance. I think it probably was. I think he's just getting a lot more comfortable. I think he's feeling better. He plays extremely hard. His technique is really improving for so long. And again, in college, I think Jeffrey just relied on his natural ability, which is very high.

And now I think he's really started to improve and understand how his technique can help him affect the game and make plays for us and be disruptive. And Vrabel is 100% right about Jeffrey Simmons. Obviously, he's starting to feel much better, and we can see it in his play. By my count, I charted 15 of the Vikings' 65 offensive snaps were completely disrupted by Jeffrey Simmons. So close to 25% of their offensive snaps, in my opinion, he completely destroyed. So going to have a cut up of those 15 snaps for you guys

on my Twitter account today at Tic Tac Titans for Tic Tac Tuesday. So make sure that you follow me there on Twitter, but we are going to get into what may be the biggest story surrounding the Titans and the Shadows, not on the field, but off the field. And that is a story that broke on Monday that the Titans outside linebacker coach and defensive play caller Shane Bowen was not with the team on Monday as he had been put into the COVID-19 protocol. So that was some breaking news we got midday on Monday. And this is what Mike Vrabel had to say about that situation.

You know, Shane Bowen wasn't with us and is not currently with us as it stands today because of the COVID protocol that we have to follow. protocol that we have to follow. That would have been, you know, I guess Saturday morning, you know, early Saturday morning when we get those results back and, you know, then we make, you know, plans and work through all those things, whether that be any sort of situation. That's our job is to be able to handle it and to function and move on and make sure that the team has everything it needs.

And one of the ways that the Titans made sure that the team has everything that it needs is through special teams coach Craig Aukerman. So Mike Rabel explained how Aukerman's role was elevated. And we knew this on the Locked on Titans podcast earlier in the offseason during the, I say, quote unquote, preseason time. We talked about how Mike Vrabel said that Craig Aukerman would be basically the backup head coach if he were to get COVID-19. So that kind of trickles down here.

Mike Vrabel had to spend more time with the defense. He most certainly was calling the defensive play since Shane was out, which meant that he didn't have as much time to dedicate to his duties as a head coach with the offense or with the special teams or time management or challenge flags, all those different things. So that's why it was a story that Craig Aukerman was the backup head coach. And we're seeing it play out already in the season. So important that the Titans had a plan for that. But this is what Mike Vrabel had to say about Craig Aukerman and his elevation in this, you know, honestly, this moment of confusion for the Titans coaching staff.

coaching staff? You know, I think at that point in time, I think Craig Aukerman takes on probably a little larger role if I'm over with the defense for an extended period of time. But, you know, for the most part, not much changed. I tried to, you know, still stay involved with the offense but if something would happen or we needed a timeout, Craig had a headset and would be able to

call timeout or challenge accordingly if I wasn't standing there normally the special teams coaches wouldn't wear a headset but in this instance we felt like that was the best thing to do it will be curious to see how the titans defense looks this upcoming week when mike rabel will know going into the game that he will have to call defensive plays so it'll be interesting to kind of juxtapose the first two games with the next two games

in terms of the defensive play calling and how things look. But we have a rewatch Wednesday scheduled for tomorrow. I'm going to give you guys all of my additional insights, extra little tidbits from my rewatches of the coaches tape. Thursday is crossover Thursday. We will have Chris on from the Locked On Steelers podcast to preview that game. And then of course additional preview will come on a Football Friday game preview where I give you my keys to the game, players to watch, schematic deep dive, fantasy, gambling,

injuries, and even more. So make sure that you are subscribed to the Locked On Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. And also follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. It's Tic Tac Tuesday. If you listen to the show, but don't follow me on Twitter,

you are missing out on those visual film breakdowns. So make sure you check that out. But that is going to do it for me today, folks. As you can tell, I am still questionable on the injury report with vocal cord injuries, but

I am pushing through for you guys throughout this week. Should be recovering and ready to go for the rest of the week of Locked on Titans, but that's going to do it for me. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you