Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - #TicTacTuesday - Titans Playoff Paths, AJ Brown's Emergence & Song of the AFC South

Episode Date: December 17, 2019

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a tick-tack Tuesday, and we are going to step into the film room and talk some X's and O's in our second segment, as we do on Tuesdays. And I'm going to give you guys something positive this week. I think we need some positivity in the atmosphere,

so we're going to do that in our second segment. In our first segment, we are going to start off talking about the different avenues for the Titans to still make the playoffs. I know that the loss to the Texans was tough, but plenty of chances for this team to make the playoffs. We're going to discuss all of the different ways that they can do that and what kind of help they need and from whom.

So we will do that in our first segment before jumping into our Tic Tac Tuesday, and then we will round out the show in our third segment with a little quick Song of the AFC South playoff picture preview. I just want to give you guys an update on the other AFC results that don't have to do with the different playoff outcomes that we'll discuss in the first segment. And we'll finish out with a quick Rollins rant as well in that third segment and give you guys kind of a double up there to end out the show.

So excited to jump into everything with you guys. Let's get it. Your Tennessee Titans lead story. Although the loss to the Texans on Sunday made the path to the playoffs much more difficult, there are still plenty of opportunities for this Titans team to make the playoffs, whether that be winning the AFC South or securing the second wildcard spot. Let's discuss those different routes and all the different factors that go into how the Titans can secure this playoff spot. So we'll start with the AFC South Crown, the division championship. How can

the Titans still obtain that although they lost to the Texans already? First, the Titans will need the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who have been playing better football as of late but are pretty banged up overall as most teams are this late in the season. They will need the Buccaneers to beat the Texans in Tampa Bay on Saturday. Tampa Bay can be very up and down, as can the Texans. So coming off a big road win, will the Texans falter on the road again in Tampa Bay with only six days of preparation being a Saturday night game? That's what the Titans need. The Titans need the Buccaneers to win that game, and then the Titans will have to beat the Saints, and then ultimately, of course, beat the Texans in Houston in Week 17 to be able to win the division championship and secure home field for the first round of the playoffs. At that point in time, they would

probably see the Buffalo Bills, which I think in a rematch, the Titans would have a pretty good chance. But that is the least likely of the outcomes, just because having the Titans beating the Saints and the Texans losing to the Buccaneers makes the chances go down. You need too many results to go in your favor. However, the more likely outcome is going to be the Titans securing the second wildcard spot as the Buffalo Bills win over the Steelers did clinch them a playoff berth and it's only to be expected that

they will get the first wildcard spot and it's possible that they could beat the New England Patriots coming up and win that division but either way the Titans cannot get the fifth wildcard spot as things currently stand so moving on to how they could secure the second wildcard spot. Well, let's do this by what record the Titans finish at. It seems to be the easiest route to explain things. So first, if the Titans go 10-6, all they need is the Steelers to lose one game, whether that be to the Jets this week or to the Ravens in week 17. And the reason for that will be that the Titans' conference record at that moment in time in week 17, and the reason for that will be that the Titans' conference record at that moment in time, since they haven't played head-to-head, the Titans'

conference record will be better 7-5 to 6-6, and the Titans will get the second wildcard spot. If the Titans go 9-7 and beat the Texans in week 17, so they would lose to the Saints this week, all they need is the Steelers to lose one of their games. If they both go 9-7, but the Titans beat the Texans, the Titans get the spot, and that's same thing, conference record. The Texans are a conference opponent. The Steelers have two conference games left. The Titans have one, so that's where we're going here. So, on the flip side of that, if the Titans beat the Saints, but they lose to the Texans, that means they lose their next conference game. Then they need the Steelers to lose both of their games so that the conference record still gives

the Titans the tiebreaker. If for some reason the Titans lose both of their final games and go 8-8, not a high likelihood that they will make the playoffs at that point, and at that point they don't deserve it either, but they could still back their way into the playoffs. And here's how, since the Colts did lose to the Saints on Monday night football, the Colts need to lose a game to make sure that they go seven and nine. So the Colts would need to lose one game. And then the Steelers would need to lose both of their remaining conference games as well. The reason that the Titans would need the Colts to lose a game and go 7-9 in that scenario, because if the Colts, Titans, and Steelers all tie at 8-8, the tiebreaker goes

back to the Steelers, and here's why. They do a round robin of sorts. So when the Colts go up against the Titans, the Colts have them beat because of the division record there. The Colts will have a better division record than the Titans. They'll be second place in the division. So then that eliminates the Titans, leaves Colts versus Steelers, and the Steelers beat the Colts in week nine. So then by de facto, the Steelers would get the spot. So those are all the different ways that the Titans could still make the playoffs. FiveThirtyEight, which is a data analytics company, Five38.com. You can see them. They do tons of work. They have the Titans playoff chances currently at 57%. That's obviously above 50% isn't bad, but the Titans will still need major help and will need to take care of their business to make sure that

they make the playoffs as well. Very interesting to see what happens the last few weeks of the season here, but the Titans are definitely still alive. Let's go ahead and jump into our second segment. It is Tick Tack Tuesday, so let's step into the film room, break down some X's and O's. Like I said, I am going to keep it positive for you guys, so I want to talk about A.J. Brown, the rookie offensive explosive weapon that the Titans drafted

with the 51st pick. Show you guys what kind of work he's been doing, how he's progressed. Show you four plays from the Texans game where he was absolutely dominant and basically a matchup advantage for the Titans at all times. So we are going to jump into our second segment and talk about him. Before we do, I want to remind you that if you are a Spotify listener, use Spotify Wrapped to show us your top Locked On podcasts for the year. Take a screenshot and tag us at LockedOnLive and at TicTacTitans on Twitter, and we will share and retweet. After collaborating with Google for the last year, we're excited to see your news Update launch on Google Assistant today. Now you can listen to a mix of stories assembled in moments based on your interests, your location, and top headlines.

Try it today on the Google Assistant app by selecting your profile, then tapping News, News Playlist Format, Your News Update. and tapping News, News Playlist Format, Your News Update. Make sure you add Locked on Titans in your available news sources and add Locked on Titans to your news update. Titans fans, it is Tick Tack Tuesday. Step into the film room with me. Let's break down some X's and O's. And like I said, I want to keep it positive and talk about the Tennessee Titans stud wide receiver, A.J. Brown.

He's developed throughout the year, gotten better and better, and he has just become a dynamic threat that teams have to focus on at all times when the Titans have the ball. Even Tony Romo said on the broadcast, he's one of the best receivers in the NFL. People just haven't seen it yet. So people are starting to see it right now with his explosion the last four weeks. We'll talk about that in today's segment. Showcase four plays from the Texans game where he gave them fits and kind of highlight everything that he brings to the table. He's put

47 catches up, 893 yards, seven touchdowns. Just in the past four weeks, he's been essentially dominant against the Texans. Eight catches, 114 yards, a touchdown. That's his most catches for the year, even though he's caught a pass in every game for the Titans this season. His snaps have gone up and up and up from at the beginning of the season. The first four weeks, he didn't break 50% snaps on offense. Got into the high 50s, low 60s for the next five weeks, and then boom, explosion. 94% of the snaps, 70% of the snaps, 90% of the snaps, and then 84% of the snaps last week. So obviously the coaches are seeing what we're seeing on the field on Sundays. He's just dominant and you can't take him off the field at any time. So let's talk about what he was able to do to the Texans.

Our first play is going to be in the first quarter, 8.54 left. I'm sure you all remember it. 60-yard bomb to A.J. Brown. Got the Titans out of a bad spot. So the Titans got an interception, which was great, Kenny Vaccaro, but he landed on the one-yard line. And with the field position battle going on in the first half that we saw with the teams not scoring in their first few drives,

it was very important for the Titans to be able to flip the field there and kind of get out of the shadow of their own goalpost. A.J. Brown helped them do that. So in this play, the Texans essentially go to what we talked about last week on Thursday and on Friday that they would do. They run cover one. So they they run cover one so they'll run man and they'll bring a fifth guy in the rush so they're rushing five they got manned up coverage with five and then they'll have one safety in the back covering anybody deep well where you're going

to have an opportunity there is on the sidelines because then the safety in the middle might not have the opportunity to get to the sideline as fast as possible. So if your outside receivers beat the cornerback that's in man coverage against them to the outside towards the sideline and the quarterback can fit the ball in that little pocket between where the safety is coming in and right above the corner that's going to be trailing the wide receiver, then you've got an easy completion there. Now, A.J. Brown is able to get away from Jonathan Joseph, who's a very good veteran cornerback in the NFL, has been doing a great job, a solid starter for many years now, and he kind of does a veteran move. He knows A.J.'s pretty quick, so he puts a hand on A.J.'s shoulder. A.J. Brown's physicality and strength come through here, and

this is why he's so good after the catch, but it's starting to come into play in his route running as well. He's just running a vertical route down the sideline, a go route, a fly route, but he uses his inside hand and clubs away the hand on his shoulder. And when he does that, he not only is creating separation with the cornerback, Jonathan Joseph, but he's also using that as like a momentum push and it kind of propels him forward and gives him the separation he needs to catch the ball. His hands are just incredible in his focus while he's making the catch. ball isn't directly over his back shoulder. He kind of has to bring his hands inside, but he doesn't change his body. He continues running. He keeps his shoulder square and just moves his hand to the inside and makes a great catch. Like I said, 60-yard completion, flips the field. Unfortunately,

Ryan Suck missed the field goal on this one, and that's something that we'll talk about a little later on, but just a great play, an explosive play, and the type of thing we're seeing from A.J. Brown every week, another 50-plus completion. He's piling those up this year, so we'll move to play two, which will be quarter two. There's a minute 30 left, and I just want to focus on his route running in this scenario. The Titans are in their two-minute drill here, and they have a trips bunch, which is something we talked about last week when we talked about the Raiders offense in our Tic Tac Tuesday segment.

So I hope you guys know what I'm talking about there. The Titans have a trips bunch to the right-hand side, and they're in the two-minute drill with Ryan Tannehill quarterback and things. And they have A.J. Brown on the left-hand side, and he's manned up against Bradley Roby. And the Titans just know that they have a matchup advantage here because A.J. Brown on the left hand side and he's manned up against Bradley Robey and the Titans just know that they have a matchup advantage here because A.J. Brown has developed as a route runner so he's running a comeback route where he'll go about 12 to 13 yards up the field and then instantly break out and back towards the line of scrimmage towards the sideline so typical comeback route here and he runs it to perfection, creates great separation on the cornerback, and Bradley Roby just doesn't really have a chance

there. A.J. Brown's so physical, so strong, so fast, and so agile that he doesn't have a chance. The Titans know that it's such a good advantage after gaining 11 yards on this play that they go right back to it again. Same exact play, same exact route, same exact coverage for the same exact gain, another 11 yard gain. And on this one, it's pretty embarrassing for Roby as not only does he not stand a chance, he's not standing at all. He falls down on the route on AJ's.J. celebrates pretty profusely after that one, clapping his hands, because he knows he's dominating this guy and his route running. At the beginning of the year, he was getting the ball on short routes,

and he was using his yards after catch ability, his speed, his strength, his agility, his ball-carrying ability to make plays. Now he's starting to use his route running to make plays and get open, and that is just a dangerous thing for the NFL. So we are going to step into our third play now and go to quarter number three with 11.46 remaining. It's a big 3-3 for the Titans. They have to score on their opening drive of the second half

to keep pace with the Texans who are up 14-0. Here the Titans have a trips, not in a bunch this time, but a trips to the right-hand side with A.J. Brown as the outermost receiver. It tells you a lot that the coaches target A.J. Brown in two-minute situations in the red zone and on these big crucial third downs. So essentially what they do with the two inside receivers is they clear them out. They run them up the field on vertical routes, and they have A.J. Brown run a slant underneath. Well, this play, if you guys remember, Corey Davis made a catch like this earlier in the season when Mariota was playing quarterback, but Tannehill essentially throws

this ball way behind A.J. Brown as he's running his slant, but because of his body control. So, in the first play, we talked about his speed. In the second two plays that I gave you as a combination there, we talked about his route running. Well, here, look at his body control in his hands. A.J. Brown dives backwards towards his back shoulder, opposite of the momentum that his route is carrying him, and makes a huge catch and falls forward for another about 5-6 yards for another 11-yard

gain on a big 3rd and 3 on a drive that the Titans absolutely have to score. So in the biggest moments of the game when the Titans offense needs him the most, A.J. Brown is showcasing every aspect that you could ask from a wide receiver. So with that in mind, we are going to step into the score. Play 4. Fourth quarter, 13-46 left. The Titans are on the five-yard line. It is second and goal.

They are in shotgun. A.J. Brown outside to the left with Corey Davis in the slot to the left. And what happens is Ryan Tannehill is looking to the right here. He wants to throw it to the right, then looks over the middle, wants to throw it to the right then looks over the middle wants to throw it over the middle and there's nobody there so what he does is he buys time in the pocket because the the regular route concept that the titans planned on you know being successful with did not work he's got plenty of time though because the texans only rush three and they drop eight so he's just back in the pocket looking looking looking and then eventually he finds A.J. Brown right at the goal line and if

you remember the touchdown score for A.J. Brown here he basically has a sideline catch it's like you're catching it on the sideline but coming forwards from the back of the end zone towards the front of the end zone so imagine that the goal line is basically the sideline and the end zone is inbounds. It's very strange, but that's basically what his body positioning has to account for at this moment in time. So it's pretty impressive because we've talked about everything here. In the first play, it was his strength to get the cornerback's hand off of his shoulder and then his speed to beat him down the sideline. In the second play, or the combination of two plays, we talked about his route running

and how he's getting massive separation and breaking ankles out there with his route running now late into the season. We talked about his hands as he dives to the opposite of his momentum in the third play with incredible strength and body control and hands to make a great catch. And now we're just talking about awareness, just the mental aspect of the game. This is backyard football right now, guys. This is a scramble drill. He's got Bradley Roby on him, one-on-one, back of the end zone,

shaking, baking, coming around, comes into a loop. And then to have the awareness to do what I was saying at the beginning. And basically you have a sideline catch on the goal line from the end zone, coming back into the field of play to have the mental awareness and the body control to keep your body where it needs to be to make sure that's a touchdown and not be on the one yard line. And the mental awareness to know exactly where to be like to put all of that together what an incredible receiver and what an incredible surprise he has been Josh Jacobs is obviously a threat Kyler Murray is a threat DK Metcalf Hollywood Brown all the guys that we

covered last week but there's no reason that AJ Brown shouldn't be one of the top candidates for offensive rookie of the year and even though the Titans lost this game, if he continues to produce like this the final two weeks of the season against, you know, a Texans defense that he killed already and a Saints pass defense that has shown that they can be vulnerable, I don't see any reason why A.J. Brown can't win rookie of the year, as I said last week. So this is just impressive stuff from the rookie from a 51st pick. Just really incredible that John Robinson was able to get this guy as late as he did. And we're seeing him put it all together. Could only be more excited, couldn't be more excited for A.J. Brown's future as a dominant wide receiver. And look now, we might have actually got one. Maybe, possibly, after 20 years, we might have actually got one real stud wide receiver.

Who knows? We will see. Let's hope for good things to come. Glad we were able to have some positive conversation here about the team after a tough loss. With that in mind, we are going to jump into a quick AFC South, Song of the AFC South playoff picture preview. And I'm also going to do a quick Roland's rant about a few little topics that I have in mind that I don't want to dedicate a whole segment to but I want to make sure I get my thoughts out there to you guys early

in the week before we move on to the Saints. So going to jump into that next. Before we do, I wanted to let you guys know that if you're looking for a last minute fun sports gift for the holidays, go to breakingtea.com slash locked on. Breaking Tea makes sports t-shirts around your team's favorite moments. Great for all fans. Go to breakingtea.com slash locked on and then feel free to search the site for great shirts and fun sports gifts for your whole family. Song of the AFC South and playoff picture preview. The most important points from the outcomes from Sunday's games or this weekend's games, we discussed in our first segment when we talked about the Titans playoff avenues and what they have to do to make that push obviously the Saints the Colts

the Steelers the Texans the Buccaneers we all talked about their relevancy so that kind of covers that for the playoffs but I wanted to make sure that I followed up with you guys kept you abreast to what was going on outside of the Titans playoff sphere and talk about the outcomes that we discussed on Friday's show before we took off for the weekend so of course Oakland lost to Jacksonville in the last game to Oakland gave Jacksonville a win they go to five and nine I hate seeing Jacksonville win but I guess it hurts their draft pick either way not great New Orleans was able to destroy Indianapolis which ends up being great for the Titans we need Indianapolis to win and lose another game out of the two they remain just

to feel comfortable just in case I you know obviously discussed that in the first segment why that's the case but another aspect of New Orleans destroying Indianapolis is they were at home on Monday night football they had the 2009 Super Bowl team in town all week Drew Brees broke Peyton Manning's record for most touchdown Passing touchdowns all time. The Saints. Just got a big. Prime time. Emotional home win. Now.

They have to go on the road. Against a scrappy team. Who's. Excuse my language. Pissed off. At how they just lost that game. To the Texans. So, I'm just saying if the Titans were ever going to have a chance of taking down the Saints,

this weekend is the week to do it. So, that covers the Titans division opponents. We know what happened with the Texans and the Titans. So, to round up our conversation, the Jets lost to the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens keep chugging along there and are 12-2 at this moment in time with the first seed in the AFC. And they're most likely going to keep it as they do own the tiebreakers over just about everybody else that they need to. Kansas City beat Denver, so they move to 10-4, looking like they are going to have a good chance of securing the third spot, potentially the second spot, depending on what the Patriots do,

which leads me into the Patriots were able to go to 11-3 after they defeat Cincinnati in Cincinnati. Cincinnati is one loss away against the Dolphins from securing the number one pick and their franchise quarterback from Ohio so that's a pretty good storyline to pay attention to and then of course Buffalo was able to beat Pittsburgh which set up our conversation about Pittsburgh and all the tiebreakers and playoff implications in our first segment so that kind of wraps up song of the AFC South and our playoff picture preview. The Ravens are the one seed. The Patriots are the two. The Bills are the first wild card. The Steelers right now are the second wild card with the Chiefs and the Texans being the three and the

four respectively. Moving into a little bit of a Rollins rant for you guys. I didn't have time to put this in the first segment, but it's something that I wanted to speak to because I've seen some people online saying essentially that the Saints game doesn't matter for the Titans if the Texans beat the Buccaneers. So the Texans and the Buccaneers, like I said in segment one, they play on Saturday this week. So if the Texans were to beat the Buccaneers, that means that there's no way that the Titans can win the AFC South. And if the Titans can't win the AFC South, then no matter what, they need the Steelers to lose a game. No matter what. It doesn't matter. The Titans need the Steelers to lose a game. So the Titans at that point can lose to the Saints. They'll have to beat the Texans in week 17 because it's an AFC game. So if the Titans

see that the Texans lose, they can afford to lose to the Saints realistically because the Titans still are going to have to need the Steelers to lose a game and they're going to have to beat the Texans in week 17 because the Steelers have two AFC games and the Titans have one AFC game. So the reality is that if the Titans can't win the AFC South, then they need the Steelers to lose one of their AFC games and the Titans have to win their only AFC game. And that's all that really matters. So some people are spinning that into if the Texans win on Saturday, then the Titans should basically sit Derrick Henry, sit any players that are on the fence with injuries, and try to get them ready to go for the Texans. I'll let you guys give me your opinion on that online on Twitter at TicTacTitans, where

I'm also putting the breakdown of the plays that we discuss in segment two. I probably need to talk about that more so that people who aren't following me already, I know a lot of you guys are, can follow me there and enjoy the visual aspect of the plays that I'm breaking down every week for you guys so on there you can tell me how you feel about things but for me in my opinion they absolutely should not sit people if the guy would have played then he should play and the reason for that is this late in the season you don't want to lose any momentum you can't just lay down a game and not care about a game and then expect to get geared back up to go on the road and beat the Texans somehow. I just don't think that that's the right way to do it. The Titans should try their best

to win the game, play the players that are healthy enough to play if they're there, and try to win the ball game because that keeps positive momentum going back forward. You don't want to have two losses in a row and then go into Houston and have to beat Houston with the season on the line. I just don't think that that's a good idea. And I know that maybe that's more of like the coach speak type of thing than the analytics or the science behind it. But that's just my opinion on it. You don't want to have two losses in a row going into your biggest game of the year in the last week of the season. I do believe in positive momentum and things of that nature. So just something to consider. Obviously, it's just my opinion. And then the last thing that I wanted to talk about in this Rollins rant is Ryan Suckup. They

got to get him out of here. One for six on the year. Cody Parkey is just sitting on the sidelines doing nothing right now. I know that he's had his own struggles in the past, but he was three for three for the Titans. And if we're going to roster two kickers, at least have one kicker on the freaking team who can make a field goal, who doesn't have to kick it low on a 40 yarder just to make it. The Titans have already sacrificed too much on that note, and they can't afford to keep doing it. The Titans need to bring Cody Parkey back in here and keep giving him opportunities as he was 3-for-3 when they gave him his. So blind loyalty to Ryan Suckup has cost the Titans enough here in the return that he's made.

So obviously they'll need to move forward and probably move past Ryan Suckup in the offseason, but for right now, in these last two games that matter so much, they cannot afford to put the season on Ryan Suckup in the offseason, but for right now, in these last two games that matter so much, they cannot afford to put the season on Ryan Suckup's foot. It costs Indianapolis being too loyal to Adam Vinatieri as he tanked their season until it was too late, and the Titans are going to have the same thing happen to them if they don't get themselves in a better position. If they get Cody Parkey back in here, and he misses field goals and double doinks again and all of that, well then I'll have the egg on my face and I'll admit there's nothing they could

have done, but at least they tried something. And they can't continue to let Ryan Suckup go out there when he's one for six on the year. And Mike Vrabel can go in his press conferences and blame the protection, the snap, the hold, everything else in the world, but the reality is Suckup isn't getting it done. And you can see how not having confidence in the kicker infects teams like we saw it infect Indianapolis. That swung the game. Don't tell me that the Colts players weren't worried about holding an extra second or blocking an extra second or that extra, you know,

rusher coming through because they were worried about Vinatieri. It's a mental game, folks. I believe that. So that's my final two points are both the mental aspect of the game. We need to play guys if they're available, and we need to get a new kicker in here ASAP. So that's going to do it for our show today. I hope you guys enjoyed in our first segment.

We went over all the avenues the Titans can take to make the playoffs, and then we jumped into the film room, broke down some X's and O's for Tic Tac Tuesday, and talked about the emergence of A.J. Brown as a dominant wide receiver in the NFL, and then we just discussed Song of the AFC South, playoff picture preview, and a couple of Roland's rants points I had to get off my chest before we move forward. Hope you guys come back and join us on Wednesday for our Crossover Wednesday event. We will talk to the host of Locked on Saints. I hope you guys enjoy that every week as you

always do. If you aren't, please subscribe to the show. Follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans and I will be back with you guys tomorrow for more. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland and this was Locked on Titans.