Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - TITANic miss - Game Recap, #TitanUpTitanDown & Titans Talk

Episode Date: December 16, 2019

Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitans Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked On Titans Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a disappointing Monday. I know you're feeling it just like I am. That game was too close for comfort and unfortunately the Titans shoot themselves in the foot in the first half and put themselves in a hole and are unable to come back from it this time. They made it a tight game late as they always do, but you know, the first half mistakes were a little too much to come back from. So we will talk about that in our first segment. Talk about the game, what the crucial points of the game were, what kind of swung things. I got some big key things that I think happened out there that defined the game. In our second segment, as always, we will do tighten up tighten up tighten down hand out some individual awards

talk about some individual performances the good the bad and the ugly for the Tennessee Titans out there and then in our third segment I'm going to switch it up this week and I'm going to give you guys Titans talk on Monday rather than Tuesday so we will hear from Mike Rabel's press conference directly after the game on Tuesday after we've had a crucial Sunday night game with the Bills and Steelers and a crucial Monday night game with the Saints and Colts take place we will talk more on Tuesday about how the playoff picture is standing and where the Titans sit where they're going to go from here after we have all the results in the bank so I know it was a tough one but we're going to go over all of it today, so let's get it.

Your Tennessee Titans lead story. The Titans lose a heartbreaker at home to the Houston Texans 24-21. It was definitely a difficult game to watch watch seeing as the biggest mistakes that the Titans made were self-inflicted. They shot themselves in the foot in the first half in a big way, but also in the second half with their mentality and kind of the game plan we saw at least on defense. So let's jump right into our game review here the biggest thing obviously is what I alluded to earlier the Anthony Ferkser touchdown drop he's on the goal line it's a great play call we're trying to limit Derrick Henry snaps people saying why didn't you run the ball there was nothing wrong with the play call they got a good look there was a slant over

the middle to Anthony Ferkser who is very sure-handed in his Titans career, and he simply gets popped and just drops the ball as he's literally about to go over the goal line. If he doesn't get dislodged from the ball there, that's a touchdown. His momentum is carrying him into the end zone. So the ball gets dislodged, popped in the air. I do believe it was Justin Reed who knocked it loose for the Texans right into the waiting arms of Whitney Merciless, who returns it for about 80 yards to the complete

other side of the field. And the Texans capitalize with a quick touchdown. And you know, the momentum completely changes there. That's a 14 point swing. It's not just the seven points that the Titans are losing. That's a 14 pointpoint swing on the board. 14 points change hands there. It's just an unfortunate circumstance, and it seems like that's something that the Titans have been prone to do in the first half of the last few games. They just continue to make those first half mistakes, and letting that become a habit, and just getting used to playing yourself out of it in the second half finally cost them, and they weren't able to come back, and they weren't able to make the changes necessary. That's just a huge play and it's a flute play

you can call it a flute play but somebody on the Texans makes a great hit somebody makes an aware catch somebody makes a good return just one of those plays that as a Titans fan have become all too typical just something really weird something really strange that doesn't go the Titans way the flip side to that is and the next point that I have is Derrick Henry's injury really hurt this ball club today he gave them his best effort you know tried his best 80 rushing yards went out there and gutted it out nothing against Henry personally but Deion Lewis was in for the series after that big momentum flip and that that big turnover.

You're telling me that the Titans coaches willingly wanted to respond after that big momentum play with a Deion Lewis drive? So three Deion Lewis plays and then it's a punt. Jonu Smith getting a toss sweep as a halfback. Clearly, Derrick Henry is just completely compromised right now with that hamstring. He's incredibly banged up. You can see it in the way he's running. He knows it as well. The coaches know it. The other team knows it, and it had to affect the play calling at this point, too. It's only logical to think that the plays that were called and how the game was set up had to be

affected by his injury and how hampered he clearly was out there and you know it's one thing to see Derrick Henry running the way that he is and know that he's injured but when you see the decisions that the coaches made with putting Deion Lewis in for full drives running the ball to Johnnie Smith some of the the screens that we saw it's obvious that he's really banged up right now and it's concerning for the rest of the season. The last thing that I wanted to mention, and it's a very simple thing, you know, it's not super schematic or anything like that, but sometimes sports, football boils down to this. The Texans have stars.

Some of those plays Deshaun Watson made on throws in the fourth quarter, he's just, you know, breaking out of the structure of the play, finding somebody downfield who's finally broke away from man coverage and making a play. And DeAndre Hopkins, who was relatively smothered after the first quarter, ended up with six catches, 119 yards. Deshaun Watson, 243, two touchdowns coming back from the two interceptions that he threw. I mean, 70 to 80 of those yards for Hopkins and at least three or four of those catches came in the fourth quarter as well. So with the game on the line, the Texans superstars

stepped up and made plays when they had to. And sometimes that's what the game boils down to. So with Henry's health, the Titans giving up that crucial mistake in the first quarter and the Texans stars balling out in the fourth quarter, it pretty much made the difference in the game. So the Titans put themselves, like I said, behind the eight ball. They're going to be in a tough position going forward trying to make the playoffs. They still have plenty of opportunities, but they'll need to win out going forward. That will wrap up our game review. We are going to jump into our second segment here with some tighten up,

tighten down, look at some individual performances. A lot of good to point out here. Of course, the bad and the ugly, as we mentioned as well. So we will cover all of that next. And then of course, in our third segment, we are going to hear from head coach Mike Vrabel's press conference from directly after the game and a little bit of Titans talk. So we'll get to that. Guys, remember the days when you were always ready to go? Now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence in bed. Listen up. BlueChew.com.

That's blue like the color. BlueChew brings you the first chewable with the same FDA-approved active ingredients as Viagra and Cialis. You can take them anytime, day or night, even on a full stomach. And since they're chewable, they work up to twice as fast as a pill. So you can go whenever the opportunity arises. You let off with a home run, guys. Make sure you can go deep in your second and bad as well. Blue Chew is prescribed online by licensed physicians.

So you don't have to go to the doctor's office or wait in line at the pharmacy. And it ships right to your door in a discreet package. They're made in the USA. And since Blue Chew prepares and ships direct, they're cheaper than a pharmacy. And best of all, there's no more awkwardness. Right now, we've got a special deal for our listeners. Visit BlueChew.com to get your first shipment for free when you use our special promo code LOCKEDON. Just pay $5 shipping. Again, that's B-L-U-E-C-H-U.com.

Promo code LOCKEDON to try it for free. Tighten up, tighten down. All right, let's talk about some individual performances from the game. I am going to start with the tighten up so we can have some positives to talk about here. First things first, the Titans finally have a stud wide receiver. A.J. Moneybag Brown was fantastic again in this game. Eight catches, 114 yards, a touchdown the texans literally could not guard him they tried a couple of different people and he was able to pretty much roast anybody he should have had a second touchdown he was held in the end zone late in

the game on a fade route where he completely roasted gary on conley terrible missed call by the refs but it didn't really change the game. The Titans were able to get a touchdown there anyway. But just saying, A.J. Brown was fantastic the entire day, and he continues to be. He's gone over 100 yards. I believe it's four games in a row now. He's hitting right at his average. He was averaging 111 yards and a touchdown the last three games. So he met that average.

He's just been incredibly consistent while other people are out there dropping the ball and maybe not getting as open as often. A.J. Brown, as a rookie, is already our most consistent threat, so fantastic by him. Another threat, Jonu Smith. The Titans do not need a tight end in the first round. We can let that go. The tight end group that they have is pretty solid at the moment. They could use some depth, of course, but Johnnie Smith is a starting tight end in the NFL. The 57-yard carry, what a burst. I know that it's unfortunate because it shows how hurt Henry is, but what a burst by Johnnie Smith. That's our tight end. He's so fast and quick and athletic. Fantastic play right there by Johnnie Smith and shows the versatility he brings. Five catches, 60 yards. He was Ryan Tannehill's go-to target late in the game.

So just really impressed by Johnnie Smith. He's really rounded out as a pretty good tight end. On defense, Jayon Brown, 10 tackles, had that interception. Thought he played a pretty fantastic game. Missed a tackle early in the game that I thought was a bad play. But overall, he was pretty fantastic as he tends to be. Jeffrey Simmons made some good plays in the pocket, some good plays against the run, but he tipped that interception, and that was a huge play.

Not a great game for Simmons, but having that tip and changing the play in the moment that it was in, you got to give him some love. And lastly, I want to give some love to Taylor LeJuan. He got banged up pretty early on. I believe it was at the end of the first quarter, last play of the first quarter. Hurt his knee pretty bad. He was able to continue on. Thought he played pretty solid when the Titans were able to run outside. They seemed to get going. The runs up the middle were stuffed quite a bit, but you just got to continue to pound it out and I understand that but shout out to Taylor LeJuan

for playing when he was clearly banged up and hobbling around on that knee quite a bit moving into the Titan downs you know a couple of these I want to go through quickly Harold Landry only had three tackles he had one good pressure that caused a positive play for the Titans, but not enough, not getting to Deshaun Watson enough, in my opinion. Now, he's put himself in a position where he is the only threat that the Titans have. We saw Correa get a sack, Carlos Correa, Kamale Correa out there get a sack, but other than Landry, the Titans don't have anybody on the team over three four sacks I believe Logan Ryan has three and a half four sacks now Correa may have a couple more but the Titans really need another edge rusher to help them in the in the pass game it's just a problem to only have Harold Landry who's getting chipped out there

a lot and he wasn't able to make an impact and when he doesn't make an impact the Titans don't have much in the pass rush and for what they were trying to do out there, which will get us into my next two Titan downs, Logan Ryan got beat consistently, whether it was by Hopkins one-on-one on third downs when they went to a double on DeAndre Hopkins with Sims and Bayard, and then put Logan Ryan on Fuller. He gave up big plays to Will Fuller. Logan Ryan did not have a great game. He got beaten man coverage consistently by the Texans' two top wideouts. And not having the help that he typically has from his cornerback group is obviously a big factor there.

But it just kind of goes to show that while Logan Ryan is a fantastic inside corner and he helps in the run game and is versatile because because he can play coverage, man, all that. He's not a shut-down outside corner who you want matched up against DeAndre Hopkins or Will Fuller throughout the game. He had eight tackles, and he's obviously always staying physical, but just really gave up a lot of big plays in man coverage. As Kevin Byard did too, as an honorable mention, the whole entire pass coverage, the stars for the Titans secondary weren't able to compete with the Texans stars on the outsides, quite frankly.

The second, like I said, it leads me into my next two. Dean Pease, too much man coverage in the second half. It got the Titans beat in the fourth quarter. I know that you have to play man against the Texans to kind of take them out of what they do and get pressure on Deshaun Watson. But at some point, you have to mix in a little bit more zone. The Titans were doing that in the first half. They were showing Jayon Brown. They were putting Jayon Brown out all the way wide over a tight end or over a linebacker.

And typically, that's going to alert the quarterback to man coverage because you're not going to have an inside linebacker out at the boundary playing a cover three or a cover two or anything like that but because Jalen Brown is so skilled in pass coverage they were morphing that and running a safety whether it be a Monty Hooker or Kevin Byard deep right before the snap and turning it into zone needed to see more of that in the second half because some of the same problems showed up though the Texans have great wide receivers and skill position players on the outsides, and they were just beating the Titans over and over again. And Deshaun Watson made a few plays getting out of the pocket, which you know he's going to do when you play against him. And being in man coverage, you take those chances. That's what happened. Deshaun Watson

converted a crucial third down because of man coverage late in the fourth quarter to put themselves in a position to get the field goal so just a lot of different factors that played into it but not a great few weeks from Dean Pease in terms of stopping the pass stopping offenses even though last week in the second half he did great the few you know games before that and then this game here it got the Titans beat their inability to get out of man coverage last couple Titan downs there's a couple more than usual of course because of the game Ryan Suckup one for six on field goals you could say that field goal was blocked but he kicked it low because he needs to keep it low

to make it because he doesn't have a strong leg right now whether he's beat up lost confidence whatever it is he just doesn't have it and to to have to kick a 40 yard field goal that low to give it a chance, they got to get suck up out of here before he costs them any more. I don't think he killed him in this game by any stretch of the imagination. It would have been 14-3 at that time. But just one of those things where he doesn't have it. They need to go get Cody Parkey and bring him back in. The lightning bolts or the red alert should have went off when they had to bring in Santoso to get touchbacks. Santoso did have a big touchback late in the game though, so that was good. Anthony Ferkser, two drops, one catch, seven yards on his three targets, and one of the drops was, I mean in my opinion, it changed the game. It just

completely changed the game and you can't help but look back at that critical error right on the goal line and think that if that play goes a different direction, the Titans win this ball game. So it's never on one player, one person, but for someone who's known as someone who doesn't drop the ball, just critical drops from Ferkser, even though the second one was a little high and could have been on Tannehill. But just unfortunate having a couple of people who the Titans rely on to do certain things and not be able to do those things when it mattered most. Lastly, Derrick Henry's so hurt. It's a Titan down.

I always put a big injury in here if I see one. And he's so hurt right now. It's changing the Titans game plan and the way that they do things. It's unfortunate. He's obviously so important to what this team does. But it's clear and obvious that his injury is, like I said in the first segment, impacting not just who's on the field, but how the Titans call the game and the plays that they decide to run when they decide to run them and who they go to. It's really going to

impact the entire team if he's unable to get a little more healthy than he is right now against a tough Saints team who's even better than the Texans team that we saw today. So the Titans are going to have to rebound quickly and get as healthy as possible. Before we jump into our third segment and Titans talk and hear from Mike Vrabel after the ball game, I do want to remind you guys that the original Casper mattress combines multiple supportive memory foams for a quality sleep surface with the right amounts of bounce and sink. Get $100 towards select mattresses by visiting casper.com slash locked NFL and using locked NFL at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. If you can't visit Casper right now, you can find this and all our other offers from Locked

On sponsors at lockedonpodcast.com slash offers. Titans talk. Let's hear from Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel from his after-game press conference. I'm looking for some answers, as I'm sure you guys are. So since we typically do Song of the AFC South in our playoff picture preview here, but there is a big game tonight between the Steelers and the Bills and then the Colts and Saints game tomorrow night or tonight on Monday Night Football. I want to make sure that I have the entire week's results for you

before I start breaking down the percentages and what has to happen here and there since that's so vital now for the Titans since they don't have tiebreakers and will need some help. So I just want to have all the information collected so I can talk about that with you guys on Tuesday's show. So we will do that on Tuesday and as we typically do on Tuesday with Titans Talk, we'll do that now and hear from Mike Vrabel directly after the game. As always, audio courtesy of titansonline.com. There's a lot of plays in that game, and whether the ball's on the 20. I mean, how fitting that you would ask that question, Paul, that of all those plays in that game, walking in here, we're stretched. I said one idiot is going to ask me that question.

Like, okay, whether it's on the 20-yard line or the 11-yard line. Like, let's go back and talk about the game, Paul. Well, we had one blocked. I don't know. We'll have to go look at the protection. So, again, I thought when we got them past the line of scrimmage, they went in on the extra points. I don't know what happened on the block.

Was it low? Did we get penetration, pushback? I've told you that process is about the snap the hold and the protection john and i work every single day together to try to improve this team whether that's in practice in the roster personnel like we're trying to find everything we can to help the team in every position every position possible that's what we try to do every single day know, there's certain things we talk about that you do good, that you do bad, and the stuff that gets you beat. And I think that finding ways to go down 14-0

would be one of those ways to get you beat. It's just hard to overcome that in this league. I knew we would battle back. I know the type of players that are in that locker room. When you turn the ball over or you give up big plays, miss kicks, those are all things that contribute to getting yourself beat. Now, a missed tackle or a missed block that the ball only gained two yards, those are bad,

but those don't get you beat and you can fix those. And there's a lot of good stuff out there. Should he have caught it? Come on, Joe. Like, you're a professional writer. I don't know. Like, the guy came in and hit him as the ball got there. I mean, you've got to overcome plays like that. I mean, Whitney made a great play.

You know what I mean? The guy drove on the ball, hit him as he got there, looked like Whitney was turning and hustling, and the ball popped into his hand. Like, I don't know. I mean, I know everybody was hustling down there to make the tackle and to line up and allow us to play again, and they didn't score off of it. It wasn't like he returned it for a touchdown and we were all just standing there watching.

So we had a chance to play defense, and we didn't. Usually you would hope that to try to alter some of that momentum is forcing to kick a field goal right there. You know, that could be deflating. And then I'll talk to the defense and we'll try to look at that. When they return something like that, they have a huge momentum change in play that if we're able to force into a field goal right there, you know, you kind of settle down a little bit. There's a lot of stake in every game. I think that that's, I mean, I would imagine that if we find a way to win this week, I mean, we would be, you know, I would imagine have all the opportunities in the world.

But we've got to circle back and get in there tomorrow and work and practice and, you know, meet, lift, be critical, treat, get healthy as possible, you know, and just make sure that we're playing our best football late and improving as the season wears on. I know that there's going to be a lot of good things to point out, and there's things bad that we've got to fix, and then I talked about the things that we have to eliminate. Well, how do we get the ball at the 25 if LaShawn isn't compelled to touch the ball?

Don't you have a touchback coming in? Are you kidding me? I'm going to answer that, that on a punt the ball goes to the 25. Like, are you guys, like, is this serious? Like, if you want to ask a question, then figure out what the rules are. Like, it doesn't go on the 25. It doesn't go. Okay, now, yeah, there would be. Again, we got nine guys up there. It's a desperation. We really are trying to focus on just blocking the punt and making sure that the time doesn't run out. So if the time doesn't run out and we get the ball in the 11,

we're still going to be in a desperation mode. Still don't need to take a sack. Still don't need to do all those other things. I mean, the percentages, I'm sure you analytical people will tell you that we had a 0% chance of probably winning that game where we were, whether it was on the 20. Did you just want to throw away the last-minute plays so they don't matter? No, I didn't say that.

I was just saying it wouldn't have mattered what plays we called on the 11 or the 20. We were still going to be in a desperation mode with no timeouts, forcing to get the ball. They were going to try to do everything they could to keep us in bounds. We were going to have to try to get it down there and try for some desperation play or some ridiculously long field goal. And so at that point in time, the nine yards, because, again, it goes to the 20 on a punt when it goes in the end zone, that the yardage wouldn't be as necessary as the ball or the time.

And so I think we all felt, and at that point in time, LaShawn felt like, you know, I'm trying to get this thing to try to get so it doesn't just sit there on the three or four or five or the 10-yard line and bleed the clock. Because in those punt situations, believe it or not, you could get 12 or 13 seconds, run off the clock when a team bunts it down there and nobody touches it. They let it go and the officials kind of look at each other and then they blow the whistle. I think that's the most important thing that we were trying to let happen was that the time did not run off because we were going to need at least enough to run three plays.

Yes, we did briefly, but then you have to have a lot of guarantees that you're going to guarantee that they're not going to bring three plays. Yes, we did, briefly, but then you have to have a lot of guarantees that you're going to guarantee that they're not going to bring it out, and at that point in time, their coaches would have instructed them to, unless the thing goes into the Cumberland River, to bring it out, because again, at that point in time, Paul, if they took a touchback, it would have then been on the 25, but he would have brought it out. And even if they get it at the five yard line, you're at the two minute warning and then they're kneeling on it. So that's a lot of guarantees that you can kick it 12 yards deep so that they don't bring it out. That's what we would try to instruct our players to do at that

last minute. All those little situations is under any circumstance, you have to get that thing out of there to get it to the two-minute warning. Again, I just was trying to get one second. I mean, I thought that I saw two when the ball was snapped. I guess they didn't. Bill said the replay official would have let him know, but he didn't. And so, again, it didn't come down. I mean, there's a lot of things that we have to do before that to win the football game. And so that's my come down. You know, I mean, there's a lot of things that we have to do before that, you know, to win the football game. And so that's my main focus. And, again, we'll do the best job that we can at those end-of-game situations.

We have to do a much better job in the 59 minutes and, you know, 42 seconds that led up to that. You know, I mean, they've got, you know, two great players. And there were times where, to me, it either looked like it was three or four or five plays and we were getting off the field and it looked like we were playing defense, or we were giving up some chunk plays and the quarterback extending plays and, of course, 10 being there at the other end of those play extensions. And so we knew that that was going to be a factor in the game. And again, it doesn't get any easier, but that was really what it looked like to me. They either

got the ball down there and were able to score, or it looked like we got out, you know, played pretty good defense. It looked like there was no in between. Oh, I mean, we're disappointed. I mean, that's hard to say right now. That really is. I mean, we're disappointed. I mean, that's hard to say right now. That really is. I mean, I'm disappointed because we lost. And so I'm going to try to focus on some of the things that I saw when they came back and they fought back. But that's going to be hard to do right now.

I think that will get easier maybe when I see it on tape. But, again, that's not what this league's about, saying that you played well and won. We would all rather have played not as well and won the football game. So right now I can't say that. I would say that we all have to do a better job preparing and ultimately coaching and playing on Sunday. That was head coach Mike Rabel' after-game press conference.

That is going to do it for Titans Talk. We did our game recap, game review in the first segment, talked about Ferkser's big drop, Carlos Hyde, DeAndre Hopkins, and Deshaun Watson being the stars that they have to be, and Derrick Henry being super banged up. We did tighten up and tighten down to go over all the individual performances. Tomorrow we will come back with you, cover like I said everything that happened across the league and how that impacts the Titans playoff chances. While this is a very disappointing loss, the Titans are not eliminated from the playoffs by any stretch of the

imagination. They still have the ability to get in with some good football and can rebound from this performance. Going to talk about how they're able to do that. And I am going to spend some of Tuesday's show highlighting some positives in our Tic-Tac Tuesday segment. So look forward to that. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.