Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - #TicTacTuesday - Major Titans News & #TicTacFourPack Film Breakdown

Episode Date: October 20, 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 Tick-Tack Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by Pepsi. This football season will be different and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day no matter how you watch this season. Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power through game day and become a member of the

League of Football Watchers. These passionate fans are the real generational talent that Pepsi fuels 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. It is a chocked full Tic Tac Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast today.

We have some major news on Monday for the Tennessee Titans, including two injury updates to some offensive stars. Also, we finally got a little bit of closure and a little bit of vindication for the Tennessee Titans on Monday with the closure of an NFL investigation. So I'm going to talk about the major Tennessee Titans news, both good and bad, coming out of Monday to lead off our show. And then we will get into our Tic Tac Titans film breakdown, this week's Tic Tac 4-Pack,

breaking down the four most impactful plays from week six from an X's and O's perspective. Remember, I will be posting the visual edition of the Tic Tac 4-pack on my Twitter account, at Tic Tac Titans, so make sure you follow me there and check that out. But we are going to talk about all four of the most impactful plays from the Titans' win over the Houston Texans that allowed them to remain undefeated and at the top of the AFC South. So excited to break down those four plays with you in the middle of our show. And then we will cap things off by looking forward at some moves the Titans could make to help deal with a major loss that we will talk about to start our show.

So we will cap things off looking at what the Titans could do next to help out an area of the roster that will need some reinforcement. So a big tic-tac Tuesday today on the Locked on Titans podcast. But I also have some excellent content coming up for you guys throughout the rest of the week. Tomorrow will be rewatch Wednesday where I give you all of my extra analysis and additional tidbits from rewatching the coaches tape looking at the victory over the Houston Texans. And then Thursday, we transition into our preparation for a matchup between two undefeated teams in the AFC, the Tennessee Titans and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I will have Chris Carter on from the Locked On Steelers podcast to help preview that game for us from a Steelers perspective, so you can't miss that. On Friday, it will be a football Friday. We will have our game preview here on the Locked on Titans podcast. Going over the keys to the game, the matchups to watch, fantasy, gambling, the injury report, and much more. So make sure that you're locked into the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. But it is a Tic Tac Tuesday. We have some major Tennessee Titans news and our Tic Tac 4-pack breaking down the four

most impactful plays from week six. Let's get it. The first major piece of Tennessee Titans news coming out of the headlines on Monday was a positive one that gave the organization not only some closure, but some slight vindication. Through multiple media reports, we learned that the NFL had concluded their investigation into the Tennessee Titans COVID-19 outbreak and that the final punishment would only be some minor fines. terms of the forfeiture of draft picks, possibly forfeiting games, possible suspensions to high-ranking team personnel, including the general manager and the head coach, also historic fines that would rival things like Bounty Gate and Spy Gate, earlier controversies. None of that ended up being true. The NFL did end up ruling that the Titans had some issues where they weren't wearing

masks at all times when they were supposed to be. Also, there was insufficient communication about the player workouts that took place before that league memo came out on October the 1st that caused a lot of hysteria in the media and within the NFL sphere. So the Titans got some positive news that Black Cloud is no longer going to be following them throughout the rest of the season and as mentioned they get some slight vindication in response to some uninformed and misleading media reports about these punishments that could

take place from earlier in the process that ended up resulting in the Tennessee Titans getting a lot of negative coverage in the media and getting a lot of heat from opposing fan bases online. So the Tennessee Titans get their closure and some slight vindication in what was some positive news for them on Monday. Everything is balanced though in life and that includes some negative news for the Tennessee Titans. Early indications on Sunday night mentioned that Taylor LeJuan could have suffered a torn ACL in his right knee but those reports were confirmed on Monday by the player himself when Taylor LeJuan took to Twitter to release a video announcing that he did in fact tear his ACL and would be out for the rest of the season.

Clearly a major blow to the Tennessee Titans offense. Now Ty Sambrillo seems like the logical person to step into that role. Titans backup tackle who had replaced LeJuan during certain situations throughout the beginning of the season when he dealt with some minor injuries. So right now that appears to be the case and Sambrillo was the one who replaced LeJuan in that game on Sunday when LeJuan went out in the third quarter. If the Titans make any moves going forward, we will report on them here on the Locked on Titans podcast. But that wasn't the only injury news and roster news the Titans got on Monday.

Injury news and roster news, the Titans got on Monday. Also, tight end Jonu Smith was injured during the third quarter of Sunday's game against the Houston Texans, and as Adam Schefter tweeted on Monday, it appears to be a minor ankle injury for Jonu Smith, and at this moment in time, he is considered questionable for a big game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday between two undefeated AFC teams. So that'll be something to monitor throughout the week. The health of Titans star tight end Jonu Smith. And some positive news for the Tennessee Titans to round out Monday's headlines.

Wide receiver Corey Davis was activated from the COVID-19 reserve list, so now he will join the roster and give the Titans potentially a full complement of their starting wide receivers with A.J. Brown, Adam Humphreys, and Corey Davis for the first time in quite some weeks. So that'll be an exciting thing for the Tennessee Titans offense, But of course, the health of Taylor LeJuan, the health of Jonu Smith, major negatives for the Titans on Monday. Taylor LeJuan will not be returning. Jonu Smith is questionable to return for a game on Sunday. So those are things that the Titans will have to rebound from, from a roster perspective

going forward. And we are going to talk about options that the Titans will have to replace Taylor LeJuan and what they could do with the starting offensive line. At the end of our show, I'll go over some options on the free agent market, also some trade options that the Titans could take a look at and how they would be able to make a move to get another player from another roster. So that is all coming up at the end of our show. But next, we have our Tic-Tac Titans film breakdown.

This week's Tic-Tac 4-Pack. I will be breaking down the four most impactful plays from the Titans' victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday. Also, make sure that you follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans as I post the visual breakdown to go along with my audio breakdown. So listen to the audio breakdown next on our show and then go to my Twitter account at TicTacTitans. Check out the video breakdown to go along with that.

It'll be a great experience to see, hear exactly how, and then see exactly how the Tennessee Titans were able to secure that victory over the division rival Houston Texans. So the Tic Tac 4-pack coming up next. Before we get into that, I want to tell you guys a little bit more about Pepsi. This football season will be different, and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day no matter how you watch this season. For me personally, it's on the couch in my living room with three TVs and a 12-pack of Pepsi.

Because Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power through game day and become a member of the League of Football Watchers. These passionate fans are the real generational talent that Pepsi fuels. Because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game, it's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, 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. Let's continue this Tic Tac Tuesday.

And that means it's time for this week's Tic Tac 4-Pack, where I break down the four most impactful plays from the Titans game on Sunday from an X's and O's perspective. Remember, I am going to be dropping the visual breakdown to go along with this audio recap on my Twitter account at TicTacTitans. So make sure that you follow me there and check that out on Tuesday as well. But play number one is Derrick Henry's 94-yard touchdown run. And this is an obvious selection, but let me set the stage for you on where the Titans

were at this moment in time during the game. They had come out flat after halftime and the Texans had been able to turn the tide. The Titans drive down into field goal range. The field goal gets blocked. The Texans go down. They score. Very next possession, the Titans are without Taylor LeJuan, J.J. Watt, strip sack.

The Texans get the ball again, score, but miss the extra point. So the Titans have seen a ton of things not go their way, including another missed field goal after that. So the Titans have had a string of bad momentum plays and now find themselves down by two points despite leading by 11 at halftime. This is where your stars have to step up in the moments that you need them the most, and Derrick Henry was able to do this, but he did not do it alone. So let's get into this play. First off, the Titans have this play originally set to go to the right, but Ryan Tannehill recognizes

that the Titans don't have an advantage to the right. Center Ben Jones, Nate Davis right guard, and then Dennis Kelly right tackle are all covered up by players from the Texans, and there's a linebacker right above the center, so the Titans have a three-on-four situation that's not an advantage. Ryan Tannehill then audibles, changes the run to go to the left side. Here's what happens next. Center Ben Jones then communicates the assignments based on the audible to the right side, Nate Davis and Dennis Kelly, letting them know they have a one-on-one matchup against their man that's covering them on the backside. Ben Jones is going to take number 50 or 92 who's the nose tackle directly over him

and then he goes over to the left side and he lets Roger Saffold and Ty Sambrillo know that they're going to double team the one player that's in between their shoulder pads. So Ben Jones communicates to the entire offensive line what their responsibilities are going to be. But after that, the ball is snapped. Derrick Henry is going to the left side, and what he sees is he sees a linebacker to the left where he's supposed to go, and then he also sees No. 41, Zach Cunningham, the linebacker that was over Ben Jones,

sees him in his cutback lane, so he doesn't really have a free lane. Well, here's what good runners do. They set up defenders, and Derrick Henry does this twice in really important situations to make this run possible, so it's well blocked, but Derrick Henry is a stud at the running back position in all facets, and what he does is he leans to the left-hand side right on course to hit the front side hole where 50 is. And then right when he gets the handoff in his belly, he jumps to the right side. What this does is it takes the backside linebacker number 41 and it moves him to the strong side because Derrick Henry is staying towards the left.

But then Derrick Henry makes a swift jump cut right when he gets the ball in his belly. No. 41 is now out of position. He's overaggressive too far to the right-hand side. Derrick Henry cuts the run back. And here is where we go back to right guard Nate Davis, who is the other superstar on this play, quite frankly. So Nate Davis is one on one against Brennan Scarlett. That's number 57 for the Texans, their linebacker. And you're going to hear his name come up quite a bit in this Tic Tac four pack for not so good reasons if you're a Brennan Scarlett. So what Nate Davis does here is he is supposed to be on the back side

of the run. He could simply just turn his man to the opposite side push him just a little bit and say that he did his job but he drives Brennan Scarlett back about four to five yards off the line of scrimmage and what this does is when Derrick Henry goes to cut back he has a wide open hole because of the extra effort that not only Nate Davis but also Dennis Kelly on JJ Watt both of those guys put in on the back side to drive their men backwards and it gives a huge lane for Derrick Henry on the cutback allows him to get up to full speed gets upfield then he's one-on-one with number 23 in the middle of the field Derrick Henry kind of gives him a rock to the right just to set him up, then breaks back left and uses a right-handed stiff arm, pushes the safety off of him, gets downfield,

and outruns every single Texans defender for a 94-yard touchdown to put the Titans back up 29-23 in the fourth quarter with less than 10 minutes remaining. A big time play to swing the momentum back to the Titans by their foundational player. Play number two sees us switch to the Tennessee Titans defense in a critical moment in the game with less than two minutes left. The Texans going for a two-point conversion that would have put them up by nine and effectively sealed the victory for Houston. going for a two-point conversion that would have put them up by nine and effectively sealed the victory for Houston.

And as was the case for the Titans throughout most of the day, their stars stepped up when it mattered most. So what takes place here is the Texans are on the two-yard line for the two-point conversion. They have trips to the left-hand side. They have a tight end in line on the line of scrimmage on the right side with a running back in the backfield the Titans go to a goal line specific man defense where they have every man covered all five receiving options are covered with man and then they have two defenders who are playing the line is like a zone on the line of scrimmage a quarterback spy and underneath the

hook zone just trying to cover any slants over the middle is really all they're trying to do if a quarterback tries to hit a draw or there's a run play you have two defenders in the middle and then you can play on the outside you can play man coverage with outside leverage basically using the sideline as your friend because you know that you have extra help inside not outside so you can kind of play that easier with the man on the outside. So the Titans do that, and it actually backfires on them in a terrible way. So what happens is, Kenny Vaccaro is one of those inside zone defenders, and he's the one on the trip side.

Well, the Texans run a great man coverage beater, and they run a rub route with the inside most inside receiver cutting outside and Randall Cobb runs a slant underneath him to the inside and Kenny Vaccaro is the zone defender actually blocks off Malcolm Butler who is in man coverage and it leaves Randall Cobb wide open over the middle now Deshaun Watson should have an easy completion to win the game and put the Texans up by nine, but Jack Crawford going up against the Texans' worst offensive lineman, Tyus Howard, makes a great play, gets pressure on Deshaun Watson from the edge. It pushes Deshaun Watson up in the pocket, makes him hesitate. He has to readjust his platform, and right as he does

that, big Jeffrey Simmons, the star of the Titans defense, steps in the middle of the throwing lane, knocks down the pass, holds the Texans lead to only seven points, which allows the Titans to dot, dot, dot, be continued. With the ever-increasing number of makes and models, it is now impossible to stock all the parts you need at a traditional chain storefront. Why endure often pointless or seemingly intimidating questioning and wait while the counterman orders the parts on his computer, choosing only the brands his warehouse happens to carry? You have computers with access to

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Let's continue this week's Tic Tac 4-Pack on a Tic Tac Tuesday where I break down the four most impactful plays from the Titans' previous game from an X's and O's perspective. Let's dive right into play three. And remember, we are coming off the heels of play number two, where Jeffrey Simmons prevented the Texans from going up by nine with less than two minutes left by tipping a Deshaun Watson pass on a two-point conversion. We are looking at the very next Tennessee Titans drive, and Ryan Tannehill was absolutely masterful for the Titans on a day where their stars stepped up non-stop when the Titans

needed them to. Tannehill made completions to Ferkser, to Raymond, to McNichols, to Humphreys on the drive, led the Titans all the way down to the seven yard line with about 10 seconds left and here's where Tannehill made his most cerebral move yet Ryan Tannehill goes up and lines up underneath the center like he's gonna take the snap and spike the ball with about seven seconds left to give the Titans one last opportunity at the end zone but instead he fakes out the Houston Texans defense momentarily, backs up into a shotgun formation.

You can see that the Texans defense is caught off guard, and they're scrambling a little bit, but Ryan Tannehill notices that star wide receiver A.J. Brown has a one-on-one matchup to the left side on the outside with Texans corner Bradley Roby. up to the left side on the outside with Texans corner Bradley Roby. I'm going to take A.J. Brown 10 out of 10 times in that matchup, and so isn't Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill lofts the ball up, and it is a perfect throw on a very difficult pass to make. The end zone fade to the back corner of the end zone is a difficult throw in the NFL, no matter who you are, and Tannehill places it perfectly to the back shoulder. A.J. Brown twists around, makes an amazing catch in

contested coverage, and scores the touchdown to force this game into overtime. Earlier in the season, Ryan Tannehill gave us the fadeaway and one for a touchdown. Well, here we get the classic buzzer beater to send the game into overtime. A fantastic play from the Titans superstars and quarterback Ryan Tannehill and wide receiver A.J. Brown. Play number three may have been the game tying touchdown, but play number four is the game winner. touchdown but play number four is the game winner and the Titans come out in what they have named King Cat formation which is Derrick Henry in a wildcat formation taking a snap out of shotgun like a quarterback would typically do and the Titans come out with Derrick Henry lined up there

in a five wide formation they have Jeff Swaim at tight end to the right they have Anthony Ferkser in the slot to the right and then they have Nick Westbrook out wide to the right and to the left out wide they have Ryan Tannehill with wide receiver AJ Brown in the left slot so they have a five wide formation here Derek Henry in the backfield in shotgun the Texans are clearly confused initially by the formation. Once again, just like in play three, the Titans finding a way to outsmart their opponent pre-snap and cause confusion. The Texans are looking to play man coverage in the red zone here, so they're flopping assignments and ultimately a cornerback runs from the middle of the field out to guard Ryan Tannehill in man coverage. The guy who was guarding A.J. Brown in the slot was Brennan Scarlett. He's the one switching

assignments. He's a linebacker, number 57. So basically, when he sees that his assignment is being picked up by a cornerback, he starts to come back inside. Well, at the same time that those assignments are being switched on the left-hand side by the Texans, on the right-hand side, the Titans bring Anthony Ferkser in motion from the right towards the left and towards the center, the middle of the formation. For some reason, Brennan Scarlett, who continues to come up in these plays, for some reason, he thinks that the Titans are going to be running to the right hand side or up the middle and he over commits to that motion pre-snap and sucks

himself inside inside of the defensive end on that side of the field well this is absolutely critical for the play that the Titans want to run because Scarlett gets himself sucked into the middle of the defense and the Titans are running outside to exactly where he used to be and although Derrick Henry takes the snap goes to the left hand side and scores the touchdown here the play is made by three blocks number one isambrillo. They run to the left-hand side. The Titans' backup tackle is in, and the Titans choose to go to the left-hand side. Now, of course, that is opposite of J.J. Watt, so I'm sure that has a lot to do with it, but Ty Sambrillo has a great seal block on number 91 for the Houston Texans to give Derrick Henry an outside lane and Anthony Ferkser was coming

in motion from the right hand side to the left hand side as I mentioned and after the ball is snapped he continues with that path and ends up becoming a lead blocker off the left side for Derrick Henry and this is where Brennan Scarlett getting himself too inside of the formation ends up killing the Texans on this play it allows Anthony Ferkser's momentum and speed to carry him outside of Brennan Scarlett and because he's so inside the formation Ferkser is able to get a seal on him and keep him inside which gives Derrick Henry just enough of a window and then A.J. Brown in the slot on the left-hand side gets a block on the cornerback that's guarding him, and it gives Derrick Henry just enough room to power through over the goal line with a walk-off game winner for the King.

Take the Titans to 5-0, undefeated on the season, a win over an AFC South division rival that keeps the Titans in the catbird seat in the AFC South after six weeks. So an incredible game for the Titans and four incredible plays that had a major impact on the outcome. This Tic Tac four pack has gone incredibly long. I just thoroughly enjoy breaking down the X's and O's. Going over all of the schematics of these plays and how the Titans, not only what they did, but how they were able to accomplish these things. So the Stars stepped up when it mattered most for the Titans.

We had Derrick Henry, Ryan Tannehill, A.J. Brown, Jeffrey Simmons, all making big plays in these four plays in this Tic Tac four pack. But also we saw some schematic things and some other performances some blocks being thrown some pressure on the quarterback some other things that made this thing work so football is the ultimate team game and we see that here but this Tic Tac four pack has run long so what I am going to do is for our re-watch Wednesday, I'm going to be breaking down the biggest news of the day, whatever that happens to be to kick off the show. Then we will go into my re-watch Wednesday segment, giving you all of my additional analysis and extra tidbits from

re-watching the coaches tape over the last 48 hours. And then at the end of the day I am going to give you guys on Wednesday a breakdown after my rewatch a little bit of a special rewatch edition on Ty Sambrillo letting you know whether or not I think he can be the long-term answer for the Titans for the rest of this season at left tackle and then also regardless of what I feel after my tape study I will give you guys some other options on the free agent market and on the trade market that the Titans could take a look at so I know we talked about talking about that on today's show but the tic-tac-four pack most certainly takes precedent talking about these schematics talking about the X's and O's will always take precedent on this show that's the number one thing that I want to constantly focus on

is how the game is won out on the field. So we will push that conversation about the left tackle replacement or what the Titans can do there to our rewatch Wednesday. And make sure that you guys check that out. You're subscribed to the show so you don't miss that episode. Remember, follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans for the visual breakdown of this Tic-Tac 4-pack. I know I've said it a thousand times, but how can you listen to this show but

not follow me on Twitter? Make sure you do so, so you get all of that additional content. But that is going to do it for me today, folks. I'm going to be back for a re-watch Wednesday. Make sure you don't miss it. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.