Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Game By Game Season Recap: Second Half Season Highlights!

Episode Date: January 14, 2021

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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, thank you for joining me today for part two of our Titans Coaster game-by-game recap. So on yesterday's Way Back Wednesday, I kicked things off by going through the first 10 weeks of the season, the first nine games for the Tennessee Titans, and kind of giving you a general recap of what took place in each week.

The big plays, big milestones, anything that really stood out, momentum changing within the Titans season. So we are going to continue that today and kind of close that chapter, if you will, by going over the back half of the season. So we will call this, of course, a throwback Thursday. We are hopping in the time machine and, as I said, going back through all of the ups and downs of the Titans coaster that was the regular season. So excited to dive into the second half of that with you guys today as we go from week 11 all the way to the wild card game. But before we head into today's podcast, I want to remind you guys, I am going to be

pumping out Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all offseason long. And starting next week, we're really going to dive into the 2021 things that we need to look at. Upcoming free agents, not only on the market, but in-house. Talk about draft. Talk about different options that could be picked up on the Titans roster, including a fifth-year option on Rashawn Evans. So there's a lot to get into. And I didn't even mention the coaching changes that we hope to see.

So it's going to be a jam-packed offseason. Make sure you get your daily Titans information here on the Locked on Titans podcast by subscribing on whatever platform you do stream. But with that in mind, we do need to finish out the ups and downs of the Titans coaster that was the 2020 regular season. We are diving into part two today on a throwback Thursday on the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. Boys and girls, all Titans fans in the classroom, please open up your textbooks to Chapter 2, Week 11.

And where we last left off, the Titans were through half of their season. They had an incredibly strong start against, realistically, some soft competition. And then they found themselves in a bit of a sticky situation after losing three of the four games that we covered last. And then, as Week 11 approached, the Titans, on somewhat of a skid, only winning one game in the last month of the season, went into Baltimore to take on a team who, as we know, doesn't have a lot of love for the Tennessee Titans. And as we saw, there was a lot of fireworks pre-game of course the Titans getting on the Ravens logo Malcolm Butler and John Harbaugh John Harbaugh and Mike Vrabel exchanging words so there was a lot of spice in that game and of course we saw how the Ravens

acted after they got their revenge and as I said on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans I have no problem with their actions it's football you either win or shut up. So the Ravens got their win and they deserve to celebrate. But that's neither here nor there. We need to talk about that Week 11 matchup. And of course, the Titans really needed to get things back on track. And a win over the Baltimore Ravens is exactly what the doctor ordered. The Titans won that game in overtime over the Ravens 30-24. And different from the wild card or different from the playoff game in 2000,

well, it was in 2020, but the playoff game in the previous year, the Titans weren't able to get out to an early lead. They actually were behind. Tannehill struggled mightily early in this game against tight man coverage from the Ravens, and that ultimately was what was the struggle in the playoffs as well but we will not talk about that anymore but the Titans were down at halftime 14 to 10 they come out they're not able to get things going again the Ravens capitalized they scored touchdown it is

21 to 10 with 10 minutes left in the third quarter for the Titans and then quite frankly Ryan Tannehill it's been a constant theme of the team being a tough spot and Ryan Tannehill pulling them out of it, and he did just that. Tannehill went on an absolute run in that game at about the 10-minute mark. In the third quarter, he played fantastic. At the back half of that game, the Titans' offense really kicked on. Like I said, they had 10 points. They ended up winning the game with 30 points,

so they were able to score 20 points in the second half in overtime. And they were able to hold the Ravens to only three points. And that was the big thing here. You're coming off a stretch of a tough month for the Titans where we saw the defense basically get exposed over and over again. And we finally had that feeling in the pit of our stomach that, man, this Titans defense just isn't going to be able to get it done. But then they come out against the Ravens, and in that second half,

the last four possessions for the Ravens go interception, punt, field goal, and punt, the one to begin overtime. So just kind of crazy to see the defense bow up there against the Ravens when they were down. They needed that. Looking back, obviously, we were pretty lucky to see that happen. It wasn't, you know, really telling us what was to come. But one thing I do kind of want to point out in that game, like I said,

Ryan Tannehill was magnificent after an early rough start in that game. But if you recall the big play in this game, A.J. Brown tying up the game late. The Titans are down 24-16, and they're able to get that touchdown to A.J. Brown where he basically runs through four or five Baltimore Ravens defenders, basically the entire defense, on his way to a gang-tying touchdown. And then once they got into overtime, Derrick Henry had that awesome 29-yard zone run. Fantastic play there and a win for the Titans over their big-time rivals. Probably their number one rival out of division at this moment in time, definitely, with the Baltimore Ravens.

But that was a fun game to watch, and it gave us hope that the Titans could be a Super Bowl team again. And then they kept it going. The Titans have their rematch against the Indianapolis Colts in Indy and they just mollywop them I mean the game is close early it's 14 to 14 after the first quarter but then the Titans defense came to play they got a couple turnovers they had seven drives in that game where they got a stop I, that's incredible for the Tennessee Titans defense. So they did have some good moments. The Titans got their revenge and it was essentially a team effort. I talked about the defensive stops earlier, but you know, Derrick Henry went for 178.

AJ went for 98. Tannehill went for 221. So a 45 to 26 win over the Indianapolis Colts to move to 8-3 and take control of the ASC South. That was a big moment for Titans Nation. A big moment for the Titans team. Kind of getting things back on track after a very difficult month of games before that. So that's kind of how the Titans coaster took off in the second half of the season. But things came crashing down rather quickly with the next game. And this next game is, again, what I would call an expectation reset game. The Titans had a few of them during the season that you thought the Titans could be something,

and then they come out and totally lay an egg. You thought the Titans could be something special at 5-0. They come out, lose to the Steelers, get punked in the first half 24-7, and then lose that game. They come out, get punked by the Cincinnati Bengals. Terrible. And then they go to Indianapolis. So our expectations are completely reset after those two games.

They win at Chicago. Then you get the Indianapolis loss, and the Titans are down in the dumps. Then you get those two wins. You're feeling better again. Like, hey, maybe they can put this together on defense as a complete team. But then the Cleveland loss happened, and that, once again, was a big expectation reset for me as the Titans came out once again and got punked. I mean, they got stomped early on.

It was 38-7 at halftime. The Titans were blowing defensive coverages. They were turning over the ball. Derrick Henry had a fumble. They had no consistency on offense. Made some stupid decisions from a coaching standpoint in that game as well. Had a terrible game plan early on. It was just a rough game overall. It might be my least favorite game of the season, quite frankly, if I'm looking through the list as I have. I know the Titans, there's a game later on in the year that was very disappointing as well in the same vein, but this one to me against the Cleveland Browns team that is a very good team, and we're

seeing that now as they won a playoff game, but they certainly shouldn't have been up on the Titans 38-7 at halftime. Now, the Titans were able to climb back into the game and ultimately make it close 41 to 35, but they had a turnover on downs, they had a fumble, then they had a touchdown, then they had two punts, and that's their first five drives of the game. So when you come out as the Tennessee Titans offense and do that while simultaneously just getting absolutely destroyed on the other side of the ball, it's probably the most embarrassing game of the season for me personally, and I'll explain why a little bit later on in the year. But after that, the Titans got some chump teams to whoop up on

and kind of get things right again. But of course, these aren't good teams that the Titans are about to play in the next two weeks, and they didn't really do much to get the Titans ready for playoff teams, quite frankly, if I'm honest, looking back on those games. So we are going to touch those next set of games in our next segment. Before we dive into that, though, I do want to tell you guys about our friends over at

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Titans fans, let's continue our journey here through the regular season game by game. And we just came off of a decent start, but then a big letdown against the Browns. But the next two games on the schedule were quite a lot of fun. We saw a lot of points from the Tennessee Titans, and we saw them win handily by about around 20 points in those games. So, of course, the first matchup is one that tends to go well for the Tennessee Titans, and that is a matchup against the Jacksonville Jags. And at this time, they had Mike Glennon going out there and probably on purpose so they could try to secure the number one overall pick.

And this was just a complete mismatch from the jump. The Jags were a terrible, they were a much less competitive team by this point in the season, week 14, than they were week two during a close game, and they basically just laid down and died to the Tennessee Titans. Henry ran all over them, 215 yards. A.J. Brown, again, stud, came out 112 yards in the game. Tannehill, while playing good, didn't have to do a ton in this game. Had 212 yards. And I do want to mention the real star of this game, though. Jeff Swaim.

Yeah, it's time to play the Swaim, ladies and gentlemen. But, you know, it was one of those games the Titans whooped up on them early. It was never really any doubt in the matchup. I believe it was 24-3 in the fourth quarter. The Jags were able to put in Garner Minshew, and Minshew was able to lead them down the field and score a touchdown. So it was 31-10. But, you know, this game was never really in doubt for the Titans.

And it was a good get-right game, as they call it, coming off the embarrassing loss to the Browns. A crappy team the Titans historically beat up on, and they did just that, so it was nice to see a good game and see the Titans play pretty well. The next game after that was a very enjoyable game as well, but it wasn't quite as enjoyable because that Titans defense had to remind you exactly what it was capable of. And this was a game against the Detroit Lions.

The Titans did end up winning, going to 10-4 on the season with a 46-25 victory. And it was the first time that the Titans had gotten 10 wins since that 2008 season. So it was a big milestone game. Even if the Titans weren't able to secure the division title at this time, still getting over 10 wins after four seasons of 9-7. It felt like a good moment, to me at least. And this was a game where we saw a ton of people play well. Obviously, anytime you put up 46 points,

the people on the offensive side are going to play a good game. Tannehill had 273. Henry had 147. Corey Davis had a fantastic game with 110 points. The Titans' offense was simply too good. Ryan Tannehill was on fire. Now, on the defensive side of the ball, we saw a lot of problems. The Lions were able to score a decent amount of points early on in that game.

And simply put, another speed wide receiver gave the Titans fits and it was Marvin Jones in this game that really made things tough on the Titans and once again we've gone through all these games and we've seen these speed wide receivers to give the Titans trouble we've seen Marquise Brown with the Ravens give the Titans a little trouble we saw DJ Chart give the Titans a little bit of trouble T.Y. Hilton gave the Titans a little bit of trouble earlier in the year. We saw Marvin Jones give the Titans trouble. Deontay Johnson, if I haven't mentioned that already. So we saw some speed receivers, Brandon Cooks and Will Fuller, take advantage of the Titans. I mentioned that as something they need to clean up in the offseason. But in this game, the Titans were up 21-9 in the second quarter.

They were up 24-15 at halftime. Now the Lions came out. The Titans didn't score in the third quarter, and the Lions got a field goal. So it was 24-18, but the Titans once again come out in the fourth quarter and put things away, scoring 22 points, a 46-25 victory. points, a 46-25 victory. Now, we are going to move into the more unfortunate part of the Tennessee Titans season, and it's another one of those expectation reset games where the Titans got back on track. Two victories, one against the Jags, one against the Lions. You're like, okay,

you know, those aren't great teams, but the Titans are still playing better football right now than they were previous to that. But then they go on the road in one of the most highly anticipated matchups of the NFL season into Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers. Both teams looking like the top in their conference. The Packers were the top team in the NFC at the time, which they ended up holding on to. But the Titans come out, and they simply have a terrible plan in this game.

I don't like the plan that they went with game plan wise. They didn't try to get any pressure on Aaron Rodgers. They sat back, let him do what he wanted. They didn't play a lot of cover two to cover up the flats, which the Packers attacked so much. They played cover three. They played a lot of man two to cover up the flats, which the Packers attacked so much. They played cover three. They played a lot of man early on. That was confusing to me.

The Titans struggled on offense. They couldn't get anything going. Derrick Henry only had 98 yards. Ryan Tannehill only had 121. So when the Titans offense doesn't come to play and then you go up against Aaron Rodgers at home, well, we know exactly what that's going to be like the Titans simply weren't ready to play in that game and it was kind of a moment that sticks out to me for Adoree Jackson he just got attacked over and over and over again in that game they tried to make him tackle and the guy wouldn't the guy just simply couldn't do it I mean wouldn't maybe as strong

but he wasn't up to the task and he was was coming back from injury, of course, so maybe that was an issue for him, but he just wasn't ready to play in that game. The Titans weren't ready to play in that game, quite frankly, and see, that's what I mentioned earlier when I talked about the Browns game. Although this Green Bay game was incredibly embarrassing, I can take losing big to the Packers, the number one team in the NFC, in Lambeau Field. Like, I can live with that. The Packers don't lose in Lambeau Field when it's snowing like that. So I can live with that. But to come out on your home field and embarrass yourself like they did against the Browns

down 38-7 at half, that to me is worse than getting blown out by the Packers in Lambeau Field in weather, in the winter. To me it's not really close despite how close the scores actually ended up being at the end. To me the 40-14 loss isn't as bad as the 41-35 considering the context of the situation. So that's how I feel about that game. Now we are going to end off today's show with the final two weeks of the season, a major high and of course the major low, but we are ready to kind of cap things off. And

I got a little bit of Titans news that's been breaking while I'm recording as well about Arthur Smith and about Titans personnel man, Monty Austin for it. So I'm going to give you guys a little bit of that news to end up today's show. Now, before we get into it. So I'm going to give you guys a little bit of that news to end up today's show. Now, before we get into that, though, I do want to tell you guys about the Locked On Bets podcast. It's a new venture from the Locked On Podcast Network, getting you ready every single day for the gambling action that will be taking place. We have the NFL playoffs.

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Well, we are moving towards the final stretch of the Titans coaster that was the 2020 regular season. We have two more games to talk about. The last two games of the Titans season. And obviously, those games are probably fresh in your mind as they are mine. And we don't need to go too in-depth on these as I'm sure you guys remember, but the Titans in Week 17, a glorious moment. Now, it was very nerve-wracking to get there, of course, and it was a sign that this Tennessee Titans team

is probably going to give us the type of performance that they gave us in the playoffs. But the Titans were up early in this game against the Houston Texans in Week 17 with a division title and a playoff spot on the line. I mean, early on in the game, it was 17-9. The Titans come out and score, make it 24-9. There's a couple more touchdowns. The Texans miss an extra point. It's 31-15.

And then Houston, we have a meltdown. The Titans defense just completely craters. All of a sudden, it's just, man, my heart still hurts, but it was just pathetic what happened after that. So the Titans go up 31 to 15. The Texans respond with a one minute 30 play drive, 1 minute 32nd drive 3 plays, score a touchdown the Titans can't get anything going the Texans get the ball back, they score again the Titans can't get anything going, the Texans get the ball back

they score again and it's 35-31 in the 4th quarter I mean, just insane. And Ryan Tannehill, as he does, takes the Titans down on an 8-minute, 32-second drive, 19 plays, 75 yards, and gets the Titans ahead. Awesome, awesome job by Ryan Tannehill. Then, though, the Texans, in a minute and 24 seconds,

go all the way down the field and kick a 51-yard field goal to tie it up. Now, this is where the real magic happens. That bomb to A.J. Brown against cover four, deep, was incredible. It was miraculous. And it really saved the Titans. It really saved them. Because I don't know, if the Titans go to overtime in this game

and the Texans get the ball first, there is no way the Titans are going to be able to stop them from scoring a touchdown. Look at the Texans' drives after halftime. Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Field goal, and only a field goal because they ran out of time. So, the Titans weren't going to be able to stop the Texans' offense if they got the ball in overtime. It was critical that Ryan Tannehill made that bomb throw to A.J. Brown to set up Stone Cold Sam Sloman, baby. One of the most memorable kicks in the

history of the Titans franchise. It's going to live forever, quite frankly. It'll definitely live forever with me. My heart will go on, Sam Sloman. I love you forever. But the Titans win the AFC South with that win over the Texans. First time since they went 13-3 in 2008. So, a pivotal moment, a milestone moment for the Titans. A hat and t-shirt game. It was excellent to celebrate, but my nerves were completely shot after that game. And it was an indication that this team was not a Super Bowl team. And we saw that the very next week. And I really don't want to talk about this game all that much. We talked about it a ton on Monday, but the Titans play the Baltimore Ravens and the offense just lets them down. The defense actually played a really

good game in my opinion. Of course, they gave up some explosive plays, but if you told me going into that game that the Ravens would only score 20 points, I would tell you that the Titans won. I mean, I would. They only scored, they scored 24 the time before that and the Titans won. So it's the offense to me that really let the Titans down Derrick Henry only had 40 rushing yards Tannehill 165 AJ Brown 83 they just couldn't get it done the Ravens played a great game stopped the Titans stopped the running attack loaded the box played great alignments five man four man switch second level defenders just covered everything. And the Titans didn't adjust, they didn't have a good game plan, and I don't

think the Titans have the things in their playbook that they need to have to be able to counter some of these pressure, blitz, man coverage type teams. They just don't have it. We need quick hitting RPOs. We need more gadget plays, jet sweeps,

more screen passes to be successful not only be used but be successful the titans had to completely go away from the screen game because they just couldn't execute them whatsoever and that has to change so the titans need more gadget plays need more jet sweeps they need more bubble screens they need more tunnel screens they need more screens in general they need more rpo They need more quick hitting stuff to take advantage of the defense's alignment. So they got to evolve the offense a little bit more going forward. Whether that's Arthur Smith or not, I don't know. And that is a perfect segue into the big news here.

Well, I wouldn't necessarily call it big news, but it's continuing news that continues to come out by the day. And it's people from the Titans organization that may be getting promotions at other organizations. And on Tuesday, my apologies, on Wednesday, the Falcons had a second interview with Arthur Smith, and then immediately he flew to New York to have dinner with the New York Jets. And then Arthur Smith is going to meet with the Eagles on Thursday and the Lions on Friday.

So I know I had my little theory that all these teams are just picking Arthur Smith's brain, but no. He's going to get hired, and it'll probably happen by the weekend. Maybe it'll happen on Thursday, and we'll be talking about it on Friday's show. Either way, if it breaks, and when it does break, we will discuss it, and we will discuss the potential candidates who could be replacing Arthur Smith, but we will cross that bridge when we get there. Another big piece of information in regards to Titans personnel, and it's nowhere near as impactful as Arthur Smith leaving the Titans, is Monty Ossenfort, the director of player personnel currently for the Titans. Now, I talked

about Ossenfort earlier in the week. He came from New England. He was expected to get a general manager job last year. He didn't get one of those jobs. He was a fringe candidate. And basically this year, he's going to get one of those jobs. So I said this on Twitter, at Tic Tac Titans, but Austin Fort basically used the Tennessee Titans as a way station. He's got a connection with John Robinson. So it gave him a job for the calendar year.

It kept him in the NFL and grinding in the NFL for a year so that he didn't lose any of the momentum that he had towards being a general manager now on one thing that we do got to say here Monty Austin Fort like I mentioned was hired last offseason after he didn't get a general manager job coming out of New England so it's not like he's been in the organization and been a critical part of what they've been able to do to build this team and turn this team into what it is today. So not really that. I mean, there's impact anytime you lose talent in the building, but Austin Ford wasn't like a core member of the Titans organization that helped build this thing up. So he was always expected to go be a general manager, and things are just going according to plan.

So no big worry there. But that's going to do it for the Tennessee Titans news. That is going to do it for our last trip through the Tennessee Titans regular season. Tomorrow, on Friday, kind of up in flux. Could have a couple of different things going on. But I do know on Monday, I do want to have our first mail bag of the offseason so make sure that you send your questions to me through a five-star review in iTunes and I'll make sure to get to those on Monday or you can DM them to me I prefer that you don't do that though honestly my DMs can get super

cloudy I don't really like getting questions in my DMs. I can't bookmark them or anything like that. And it makes it difficult for me to remember to go back through my messages that get piled up with different things to go find individual questions. So I actually usually put out a post on Thursday, which I will do asking for questions. Feel free to put your question there. Or if you just want to bypass all of that, like I said, you can guarantee that your question gets read by putting it as a five-star review in Apple iTunes.

And heck, I'm giving you Monday through Friday Tennessee Titans content for free. Why not throw a review? You know, would help me out. Thanks, guys. But anyways, that's going to do it for me today. Everybody stay safe. I will be back with you guys for a Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Make sure you subscribe on whatever platform

you do stream so you do not miss that. That's going to do it for me today. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you