Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - #TicTacTuesday - Titans Statistical Trends, #TicTacFourPack Film Breakdown

Episode Date: September 22, 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 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.

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We are going to start off today's show with something I like to call Trendy Tuesday. Let's take a look at some of the trends we have now coming out of the first two weeks of the season that the Titans either need to continue or try to stop before things get worse. We are going to look back at some historical data from the Mike Vrabel tenure as well to compare how the team has done from year to year in certain categories. And then we are going to jump into our Tic Tac 4-Pack, my schematic breakdown of the four most impactful plays from the Titans' victory over the Jags on Sunday. And then we will wrap up with a little bit of a temperature check on this Tuesday and

hear directly from Titans head coach Mike Rabel on some of the more interesting things I heard from his Zoom conference on Monday. So a lot to break down today, but it's not just today. We have a lot coming on the Locked on Titans podcast this week. Wednesday is our re-watch Wednesday. I'll be bringing you all of my extra tidbits and insights and notes from re-watching the game multiple times, some insight for you guys halfway through the week. Also on Thursday, we have our Crossover Thursday conversation.

It'll be with Luke from Locked On Vikings this week, and they have a lot going on in Minnesota that we need to break down with Luke. So that's an excellent conversation on Crossover Thursday you won't want to miss. And Friday, of course, is our Football Friday. I'll be previewing the game against the Vikings on Sunday, giving you my keys to the game, players to watch, a schematic deep dive, fantasy, gambling, and

much, much more. So make sure that you are subscribed to the Locked On Titans podcast for the Monday through Friday content I will be bringing you throughout the entire season. And follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans as well, where I will be posting my visual breakdown of our Tic Tac 4-pack along with other film related content and

additional analysis as well. But we have a lot to break down on today's show including some trends to look at, my Tic Tac 4-pack breakdown, and checking in with Titans head coach Mike Grable. Let's get it! While we are only two weeks into a young season, it is important to take a look at some statistical trends for the Titans that are either positive or negative on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball. Starting with the Titans offense. First, the Titans have zero turnovers as a team through two weeks. That is excellent, especially considering they played a solid Denver defense in week one on the road and then played against

a Jags defense in week two. They got two interceptions on Phillip Rivers and the Colts in week one. In 2019, the Titans had the seventh least turnover, so this is a trend that seems to be carrying over from last season. As for the team as a whole in terms of penalties, while it seemed like there was a cluster of penalties for the Titans early in the game on Sunday, they currently have only been penalized as a team nine times, and that is the ninth least in the NFL at this time. This continues a trend during Mike Vrabel's tenure as Titans head coach, where in 2018, the Titans were the least penalized team in the league

with only 82 penalties. And then last year, in 2019, the Titans were only penalized 99 times, which was 8th least in the NFL. Also, something that seems to be a trend away from 2019, the Titans have only given up 2 sacks so far in two weeks. That is the fourth least in the NFL. They're tied for fourth least. Of course, the Titans struggled mightily in pass protection in 2019, giving up 56 sacks, which was third most in the NFL last year. Hopefully, that is a trend that the Titans are able to improve upon in 2020.

As for a trend that continues to be impressive two years in a row, the Titans' red zone offense. Currently, the Titans have scored a touchdown six out of seven opportunities in the red zone. That is 85.7%. They are tied for second best in the NFL at this time. Of course, the Titans were number one in this category in 2019, converting 75% of their red zone opportunities into touchdowns. As for third down, the Titans right now are seventh best in the NFL, converting 51.9%

of their third downs. The Titans had been average on offense in their previous two seasons under Mike Rabel, finishing no better than 15th in the NFL and no better than 40% of their third downs were converted. Obviously, the majority of those games were played without Ryan Tannehill at quarterback though. So hopefully this new found success on third down is more apt for the Titans current set of players on offense one statistical trend though that is concerning

that has carried over from the first two seasons of Mike Vrabel is how often the Titans score per drive obviously a lot of this stat is affected by the missed field goals in week one for the Titans in Denver, but the Titans are only scoring on 30% of their drives right now on offense. That's 25th worst in the NFL. They had only converted 31% of their drives last season. That was only 24th best in the NFL. And in 2018, 34% of their drives were converted into touchdowns. That was only 22nd best in the NFL. So hopefully the Titans are able to be more efficient in terms of how often they score based on how many drives they had.

On the defensive side of the ball, the two main statistics to take a look at here are the Titans' red zone defense and third down defense and neither are very positive at this time the Titans red zone defense is ninth worst in the NFL at this time giving up 75 percent of their red zone opportunities as touchdowns for their opposition in 2019 they were second worst in the league with 68% of their opponents' red zone opportunities converted into touchdowns. That's something that will have to be addressed immediately.

Likewise, third down defense, the Titans are currently worst in the NFL, allowing teams to convert third downs at 56.5% of the time. In 2019, they were 8th best at 36%. In 2018, they were 10th best at 36% as well. So hopefully that's something they'll be able to improve. But of course, the most important trend of all

is that the Titans have won two games in a row, are 2-0, and sit at the top of the AFC South. And I'm going to tell you the four most impactful plays in their victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in our Tic Tac 4-pack coming up next on this Tic Tac Tuesday. Also, make sure that you follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans so that you can check out the visual breakdown that I will be putting up on Twitter on Tuesday to go along with my audio breakdown that you will get next. And if you want to check out the Titans' victory over the Jags yourself,

make sure that you get football on your time with NFL Game Pass this season. You can catch every snap from every game with full game replays and see all of the plays in just 45 minutes with condensed games. That's a great way to get a head start on scouting the Minnesota Vikings for this matchup in week three. You can relive all the gutsy calls, crazy catches, wild comebacks, and breakout stars from every game every week. It's all the action, all the football you can handle all in one place. And NFL Game Pass is the only place you can replay every game all season long. You'll want to learn from the league's best players with over 40 NFL Game Pass film session episodes.

Go inside the game from a player's perspective as they break down the concepts and techniques behind the game from a player's perspective as they break down the concepts and techniques behind the game. Learn from the best like Deshaun Watson, Stephon Gilmore, Devontae Adams, and many more. NFL Game Pass also provides access to the entire NFL Films archive, so go to nfl.com slash game pass to start your free trial today. NFL Game Pass, where football never stops. It is Tick-Tack Tuesday, Titans fans, and that means it is time for our Tic Tac Four Pack, where I break down

from a schematic standpoint the X's and O's behind the four most impactful plays from the Titans game the previous week. Of course, it is a week two victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars at home, so let's break down these plays. Play number one, and it was tough to pick just four plays from this game with all the scoring and all the up and down drives from either team. It was hard to pick exactly the four plays that I wanted, but I felt like these four plays really demonstrated how the Titans were able to beat the Jags from a schematic standpoint. They permeate not only throughout this play, but throughout the other successful plays throughout the day. So play number one is the Corey Davis touchdown. And I

picked this play because this drive came directly after the Christian Fulton interception. I think it's important that the Titans make teams pay for their mistakes. So other than just driving down the field on their own, like the first drive to the touchdown to Jonu, his first touchdown on the day, I think that this really shows something that the Titans have to be able to do, and that's turn turnovers and good field position into points. So let's dive into the play. The Titans are on the 10-yard line. It's second and seven with about six minutes left in the first quarter. Titans are up seven to nothing, and not only is this play important because of what I just said, but it's

important because the Titans established an early lead in this game where clearly the defense struggled, and the Titans needed every single point that they could get. So how valuable was this play looking back on it now? Incredible. So let's get into the play. The Titans are in 11 personnel here. One tight end, Jonu Smith. One running back, Derrick Henry. They have Jonu Smith and Corey Davis to the right side. They have Adam Humphreys and Cam Batson to the left side.

What happens before the play even starts though here with Ryan Tannehill under center is Corey Davis comes in motion from out towards the sideline on the right hand side closer into the formation and this is critical because it gives Corey Davis enough room to execute the route that he's about to run so let's go ahead and get into post snap so Ryan Tannehill takes the snap. Super interesting here. We talk about the Titans being a zone run team. And they most certainly are a zone run team. What that means is you're not going to have offensive linemen pulling.

That's something we don't see from the Titans a lot is where their guards or their tackles get out onto the perimeter and pull. It's just not within the scheme that they try to run. But here the Titans give a power run look, and they block down from the right side. Center Ben Jones, guard Nate Davis, tackle Dennis Kelly. They take a step to their left and block down. And then Roger Saffold actually pulls from his left guard position

to the right side out on the outside of Kelly. So that's something we don't see from the Titans offense. I'm sure it caused confusion to the Jaguars linebackers, and that's important to this play as well. So many components in this play, which is why it's a beautiful example of how Art Smith was able to attack the Jags defense. So we see Roger Saffold pulling as Tannehill executes a play-action fake, which, no no surprise is the

staple of the Titans passing game. So you're getting an exotic look from the Titans offensive line that defenses don't usually see with the pull. You're getting a play-action fake to suck the Jags linebackers up here, and you got Corey Davis's motion motioning in from the sideline to give him more room on the outside. That's how everything is set up right now. On the Jags side of the ball, they're playing cover one man defense with a robber. This is a very common defense in the NFL.

You have a safety deep covering anything deep. You're in man coverage against the running back, the tight end, and the three wide receivers. And then your extra defender, which is usually a linebacker or the other safety down in the box, he's kind of got the short middle where the other safety has the deep middle and anything getting past the cornerbacks. So that's what the Jags were going to in the red zone over and over again. It's a tendency that they have that Arthur Smith noticed. So he schemed up a play that could attack man coverage.

And now this is where Ryan Tannehill takes over. He executes the play action fake. He comes up, looks. There is a safety deep. It is Jaguar safety number 42, Wingard. So he's in the middle of the field. Ryan Tannehill looks to his left side towards Adam Humphreys and Cam Batson to hold Wingard in the

middle of the field. Then, as the play continues to progress, we move to Corey Davis, who, remember, he motioned in from the sideline. He goes up the field about seven to eight yards, pretends to break out towards that sideline, and the reason that this is important is because the only way that the cornerback, which is rookie C.J. Henderson, is going to bite on the outside fake is if Corey Davis has enough room on the outside to logically make him think that that's a threat. So that motion in to give Corey Davis room on the outside gives the cornerback enough space to think about

where Corey Davis fakes to the right side towards the sideline and then cuts back inside on the post. And because Ryan Tannehill held the safety with his eyes in the middle of the field and then Corey Davis had enough room on the outside to fake the defender, Ryan Tannehill hits Corey Davis right in between the cornerback in the safety in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. Titans up 14 to nothing. Let's move to play two. This was an incredibly important play for the Titans offense as this was the last touchdown that they scored on the day and a necessary touchdown for them being able to win this game. It's late in the third quarter. The

Titans are in the high red zone on the 18-yard line. And before we get into the play, let's talk about the Jags' defensive concept. The Titans are in the red zone. Say it with me, guys. What defense are they playing? Man defense. And of course, just like last time, cover one with a deep safety and then a robber underneath man across the board everywhere else and not only are they in this defensive concept but they start out in a too high safety look which cover one you usually have one single high safety covering everything deep but the jacks try to confuse ryanannehill, and they come out in a too high safety look, but they slowly rotate over and make it man coverage.

And one of the ways that Ryan Tannehill can identify that this is man coverage before he even snaps the ball is, again, the use of pre-snap motion. Thank you, Arthur Smith. So the Titans start out with Kalief Raymond on the left side and Adam Humphreys and Corey Davis on the right side with Ferkser as the tight end on the left side. They motion Ferkser over to the right side, creating trips with Ferkser, Humphreys, and Davis.

And what happens is Miles Jack, the linebacker for the Jags, he goes with Ferkser from the left-hand side of the offense to the right-hand side of the offense. Ding, ding, ding. Pre-snap motion identifies for Ryan Tannehill that Miles Jack is in man coverage. So now he knows what the coverage is going to be. Now you have to take a look at the route concept. So we want to focus primarily on Adam Humphreys in the slot here. He's being manned up, and what he does is he takes a skinny post

through the middle of the field from the right side to the left side. Now Ryan Tannehill is going to be able to find him for a touchdown in what is an excellent throw and an excellent catch. But how the play is really made is during the process of the snap. Ryan Tannehill gets the snap in his hands, and the entire time he keeps his eyes directly on the deep safety because Ryan Tannehill is not going to be able to get the ball to Adam Humphreys if he stares him down.

That will alert the safety that Ryan Tannehill is going to throw it to Adam Humphreys if he stares him down. That will alert the safety that Ryan Tannehill is going to throw it to Adam Humphreys as he breaks over the middle, and now not only does Humphreys have to beat his man-in-man coverage, he's going to have a safety barreling down on him as well. He ends up having the safety barreling down on him, but Ryan Tannehill gives him just enough of a split second to secure the catch by manipulating the safety with his eyes and holding him in the middle of the field by staring directly at the safety, not tipping him off to where he wants to go with the ball early. And once again, it's number 42, Wingard. Ryan Tannehill toyed with Wingard,

not only with mismatches. The Johnnie touchdown to start the game, that was one-on-one man coverage against Wingard. And Johnnie Smith took advantage. Ryan Tannehill took advantage. But Ryan Tannehill manipulated him with his eyes along with taking advantage of Wingard in matchups. So I guess the Jags shouldn't have traded safety Ronnie Harrison. But anyways, getting to it. On the offensive line, this was important as well. The Jags had three defensive linemen on the right-hand side, which is the left side of

the offensive line, all passed the center, and only one defensive lineman on the Titans' right side of the offensive line. So the Titans slid the offensive line to the left, which meant Nate Davis was helping Ben Jones with the defensive tackle on Ben Jones' opposite shoulder, which left Dennis Kelly one-on-one with Jags stud defensive end Josh Allen. Allen was able to get an inside rip on Kelly and put pressure right in Ryan Tannehill's face. And folks, this was the and-one throw. Tannehill took a blow right in the middle of his chest from Josh Allen,

but stood in there and delivered to Adam Humphreys for a touchdown. The Titans' last touchdown on the day, and one of the most impressive throws of Tannehill's tenure with the Tennessee Titans. A great catch by Humphreys as well. But I am going to continue with the next two plays in this Tic Tac four-pack, both of them as impact plays on the defensive side of the ball. And I know the Titans defense struggled on Sunday, but when it mattered most, they made plays. And no surprise, it was the stud defensive linemen

who were doing most of the work. We'll break down the next two plays after this. With the ever-increasing makes and models out there, it's basically impossible to stock all of the parts you need at a chain store. So why would you endure the pointless questioning from the guy behind the counter and then find out that they don't even have the part that you need in stock when you can go on your computer or phone right now to rockauto.com check out all the different specifications all the different parts for

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LOCKED ON in the HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT US box right underneath where you put your shipping information so they know that I sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. RockAuto.com. The last two plays of this week's Tic Tac 4-Pack come on defense for the Titans, where they were able to step up when it mattered most, despite having what we could categorize as a rough day, to say the least. But let's talk about what happened on this play, as it's indicative of what the Titans were doing on defense throughout the day

to try at all to slow down this Jaguars offense. So first off, as I mentioned in the game preview, I thought the Titans would have to play press man coverage to disrupt the timing of the Jags quick rhythm West Coast passing offense. I also said that the two coverage concepts I want to see them do that with is cover one man where they blitz five, play cover one and just have a safety deep covering anything deep and then also cover two with either cover two Tampa two zone or cover two man where you have two safeties deep guarding each back half of the field either way I thought the Titans needed to play press man to disrupt the timing and on the two biggest plays of the game for the Titans

defense that's exactly what they did now one other thing to consider about the Titans defense is I said I wanted to see them blitz five and blitz off the edges with cornerbacks whether that be Christian Fulton or Chris Jackson or whether it be Kenny Vaccaro or Kevin Byard from the slot position blitzing off the edge blitz off the edge make Minshew step up in the pocket rather than be able to get outside and and make you know plays outside the pocket in sandlot situations so in these two plays we'll start with the first one there is three minutes and 38 seconds left in this game the Titans are tied with the Jags so the defense has to get a stop. The Titans' offense has kind of lost its way a little bit

with some bad performance in the fourth quarter. And this is, you would look at the play and think, oh, the Jags just fudged up. You know, the Jags messed up and the Titans got away with an easy one. But consider this. The Titans have a four-down line. They have Jadavion Clowney on the left with Jeffrey Simmons over the left guard, Rashawn Evans over the center, and Harold Landry all the way on the right side on the right tackle.

They have Christian Fulton in the slot right next to Clowney and Kenny Vaccaro in the other slot on the right side right next to Harold Landry because the Jags are in five wide. So the Titans have press man coverage across the line. You have Jayon Brown outside with the running back on the left side, Ty Smith. And then, of course, as I mentioned, Christian Fulton. On the other side, you have Malcolm Butler against Chark. And then you have Kenny Vaccaro in the slot. Well, the Titans had been blitzing from Kenny Vaccaro's position throughout the day.

So my theory is Gardner Minshew or Brandon Linder, the center for the Jags, slid the protection to the left-hand side. That means that the five offensive linemen are going to take a step to their left and try to focus on the pressure coming from the left side, which would leave Jawan Taylor one-on-one with Clowney, and then the Jags' right guard, A.J. Kan, one-on-one with Clowney, and then the Jags' right guard, McCann, or Can, A.J. Can, one-on-one with Simmons. Well, they slide it, and for some reason, Jawan Taylor, the right tackle, because the Titans have been blitzing off the edges from the opposite side all day,

he thinks he's going to have to slide over and take Jeffrey Simmons. Well, this leaves Jadavion Clowney with a free run to Gardner Minshew. It's not just his free run. The Titans had a free run at Minshew a lot during the day, but he was still getting the ball out of his hands so fast that it didn't matter that the Titans were getting pressure. That was part of the problem with playing against Minshew in a West Coast quick rhythm passing offense. The point of a quick rhythm West Coast passing offense is to negate the pass rush. You get the ball out so quick that the pass rush doesn't matter, and the Jags did a great job of doing that for the most part throughout the day, but the Titans, what they tried to do to

counter that is that press man disrupt the timing. They were able to take away any immediate option for Gardner Minshew. The pressure that they had been bringing off the edges throughout the day confused the Jags offensive line, and Clowney, who isn't putting up a lot statistically, but made a major impact in these first two weeks, is able to get pressure on Minshew, force an incompletion on third and eight, and get the Jags offense off the field, get the ball back to the Titans offense, and while the Titans were not able to score a touchdown on their next drive, they were able to get the ball after this third down conversion for the Titans' defense, take the ball down, and get the game-winning field goal. So a huge stop for the Titans, a huge win for their defense when it mattered most,

a big play from Jadavion Clowney and the press man of the Titans' secondary, got the Titans the ball back. Got them a chance to get that game-winning field goal. The final play of our Tic-Tac-Four-Pack that we need to go over is, of course, the game-sealing interception. And here, once again, the Titans are in press on the slot. They have four down linemen, and they are going to be playing cover one robber. So man coverage across the board in a second and one.

This is second and one for the Titans defense, and the Jags have the ball basically at midfield threatening to go down and not only kick a field goal to tie but to score. So the Titans really have to make a play and make a play soon with 50 seconds left. The Titans are in four down linemen. They have Jeffrey Simmons and Jack Crawford at the interior defensive linemen. Clowney and Landry on the outsides. They have Kenny Vaccaro manned up against the tight end.

They have Fulton. They have Jackson. They have Malcolm Butler out there. My apologies, they have Fulton, they have Jackson, they have Malcolm Butler out there. My apologies, they have Fulton, they have Ty Smith, and they have Malcolm Butler out there with Imani Hooker and Kevin Byard. So the Titans are manned up, and they bring pressure here with the front four, but it's obvious about a second into the play that the front four aren't going to be able to get there, and Minshew's going to have an opportunity to make a throw. Well, here's what happens next. Jeffrey Simmons is going to get all

of the credit for the tip, but Gardner Minshew wants to go to a wide receiver, wide open, breaking on an in route against Malcolm Butler on the left-hand side, but he can't because Jack Crawford jumps up and gets in his vision and would knock it down Minshew brings the ball back down and then tries to go over the middle knowing that he's running out of time and doesn't have any running lanes and then he tries to make the pass which is eventually hit by Jeffrey Simmons knocked up into the air intercepted by Harold Landry which seals the victory for the Titans. So although, statistically speaking, we have an interception there, but we don't have a

sack. We didn't have a sack on the play before that either, but the pressure put on Minshew and the Titans' man coverage was able to disrupt his timing and get wins for the Titans' defense. Again, like I've said a hundred times, when it mattered most. So the Titans defense didn't have a great day, but when it mattered most, they were able to step up, make plays, and the Titans scheme was able to get them victories on the defensive side of the ball as well. We have run out of time on today's episode of the Locked on Titans podcast to get to

some of those highlights from Mike Vrabel's press conference. I can sum them up for you guys. Basically, he talked about the struggles in the run game, said that they have to set the edge, they have to be firm on the line of scrimmage, and then they have to wrap up and tackle and swarm to the ball. So those are the key principles for the Titans in the run game that they have to do better on defense. He also said that the success in the red zone for Ryan Tannehill is not only just Corey and Jonu making plays in one-on-one coverage.

It's also the offensive line giving Ryan Tannehill time to go through his progressions, time to look off safeties like we talked about and also credit to ryan tannahill for doing all those things and then making the throws so that was his summation of the red zone success that the titans have had which goes back to the trends and the numbers we covered at the beginning of the show he said the false start penalties it's the offensive linemen reacting to shifts on the defensive line and thinking that those defensive linemen are coming into the neutral zone when really they're just shifting their position and the Titans just have to get better at not jumping on those and then talked about their blitz philosophy just marrying coverage with the blitzing trying to

have a balance trying to mix up coverages and confuse the Titans defense. So the Titans aren't really blitzing at any point in time over and over. They're just trying to mix things up and confuse the opposing offense. So that was the highlights from Mike Vrabel, basically what he had to say. Didn't have time to play the audio from those, but wanted to make sure I gave you guys those tidbits from his press conference. Tomorrow is rewatch Wednesday. you guys those tidbits from his press conference. Tomorrow is rewatch Wednesday. The all 22 game film just dropped at midnight Eastern time on Monday night going into Tuesday. I'm up looking at it already finishing off the show right now. So I'll be excited to bring you guys all of my

additional news and notes from my rewatches of the all22 tape. Make sure that you're following me on Twitter, at TicTacTitans, where I post my visual breakdown of our Tic-Tac 4-pack. You won't want to miss that on Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday evening. And then, of course, we have our crossover Thursday episode scheduled this week with Luke from Locked on Vikings before a game preview Friday

with my keys to the game, players to watch, schematic deep dive, fantasy gambling, and more. I'm so excited to break everything down with you guys on the Locked on Titans podcast Monday through Friday, so make sure that you are subscribed on Apple Podcast, following on Spotify, or whatever platform you do stream. Also, if you feel like it, throw me a little five-star review there on Apple iTunes. I don't ask for a lot, but hey, that would help out the boy, help out the show, and help get this Locked on Titans podcast out to as many Titans fans as possible.

But that is going to do it for me today. I will be back with you guys for a re-watch Wednesday. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.