Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Get Bullied by Green Bay, #TitanUpTitanDown & AFC Recap

Episode Date: December 28, 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, it's a Monday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast, and it is presented by Pepsi. Thanks to a lack of natural athleticism or commitment or overbearing sports parents, fewer than 1% of 1% of 1% of people will ever play professional football.

But instead of entering the NFL, they've joined another league, the League of Football Watchers. This football season will be different and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day no matter how you watch. Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power through any game day, because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game, it's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching. Go to madeforfootballwatching.com to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi. Well, Titans fans, another big time, prime time disappointment from the

Tennessee Titans. I'm hurt. I expected a loss. I predicted a loss, but the way that it went down, just it stings. It hurts. No other way to put it. But with a lot of bad coming out of the game in this weekend, also a lot of good took place for the Titans as well. And luckily the loss, although stinging as bad as it does, as I mentioned, doesn't really hurt the Titans all that much in terms of the playoff outlook. So we are going to get into all of that today. I'm going to talk about the game to start off our show. Of course, give my big picture takeaways here of what really took place and what doomed the Titans. But we're going to finish out our first segment here talking about what the Titans' expectations

should be going forward. It seems like every couple of weeks this season the Titans have gotten what I would call an expectation reset game we've seen it a few times so I'll just talk about how that has taken place throughout the season and and where our emotions are to be left at this moment in time watching this Titans team and watching this Tennessee Titans defense. Lord. So we will get into that. And then, of course, it's a Monday show, so we have Titan Up and Titan Down.

As always, with the Titans losses, there will be probably a lot more Titan Downs, but a few Titan Ups that I do want to make sure that I get to in this game. And then we will wrap things up with what could be considered the most important aspect of this weekend for the Titans. And that's a recap of what took place in the AFC. We'll take a look at the conference. And now with only one week left to go in the regular season, we have a very clear picture on what the Titans need to do, what the Titans need to happen for them to make the playoffs,

win the division, whatever needs to happen there. And we will take a look at how the AFC could shake out next week. So not a great performance from the Titans, but not the worst weekend of all time. We will get into that and more on today's Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. At this point, ladies and gentlemen, we have a trend. The 2020 Titans again come out in a measuring stick game against another playoff caliber opponent and completely dropped the ball from kickoff. The Titans allowed the Packers to completely carve them up and bully them from start to

finish. And the Packers came out hot against the Tennessee Titans. Miserable defense. They were able to get a 19-0 lead as Aaron Rodgers carved up the Titans defense and Devontae Adams had his way with the Titans secondary and while that 19 point lead was being built by the Packers offense the Titans offense was unable to get anything going the Packers defense committed a ton of defenders into the box early on to stop Derrick Henry and they did have success early on. And because of that, Ryan Tannehill was never able to get into a rhythm. It included an early interception for Ryan Tannehill,

which set the Packers up for another first-half score. So everything that could go wrong was going wrong for the Titans early on. There were also some questionable calls from the officials, but nothing, in my opinion opinion that clearly determined the game. The Titans lost this game on their own, and after that 19-0 deficit was created, the Titans did respond with a Jonu Smith touchdown to make the deficit 19-7 at halftime,

but it was more of the same in the second half. The Packers really got things going on the ground. They completely dominated the Tennessee Titans on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, but specifically with their offensive line against the Titans defensive line. Rookie running back A.J. Dillon had 124 rushing yards. Aaron Jones had 94 rushing yards. Aaron Rodgers himself had 19 rushing yards. Devontae Adams through the air completely

undressed Malcolm Butler all day long he had 11 catches 142 yards and three touchdowns on the day so whether it be by land or whether it be by air the Packers took it to the Titans and on the flip side the Titans offense really never got anything going Derek Henry did have 98 rushing yards but a lot of that came in the second half and really didn't make an impact on the game the inefficiency for the Titans in the run game and the inability to really truly get Derek Henry going completely affected Ryan Tannehill there wasn't a lot of play action opportunities because the Titans weren't having a lot of success in the run game. Ryan Tannehill ended up 11 for 24, 121 yards, one touchdown, but two interceptions on the day. And a lot of it was on Ryan Tannehill, but a lot of it was on the Titans offensive line who

performed very poorly in this game as well. There was a lot of pressure on Ryan Tannehill throughout the game and it put him in a lot of tough situations. The wide receivers were not running very good routes against a talented group of defensive backs for the Green Bay Packers. So everything that could go wrong for the Tennessee Titans did go wrong in this game. It was a complete blueprint of how to take the Tennessee Titans completely out of what they want to do as a football team. So a great game plan from Matt LaFleur and from Mike Pettin on the coaching staff for the Green Bay Packers.

Got to give them a lot of credit for completely outsmarting Mike Vrabel and Arthur Smith in this game. Those are things that we will get into more later in the week on Tuesday and Wednesday's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. But the big takeaway here is the Titans season and what our expectations should be at this point going forward. You look at the week seven matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers where the Titans are 6-0 undefeated and trying to establish themselves as the second best

team in the AFC and they completely come out and lay an egg at the beginning of that game and spend the second half trying to come back in a failed attempt at the end. You look at the matchup against the Browns. The Titans are 8-3 again trying to establish themselves as one of the top tier teams in the conference. They come out completely lay an, get bullied and get blown out, and then spend the second half trying to come back, another failed attempt. Then tonight, as the Titans go into the playoffs, a hat and t-shirt game, a chance to win the division after the Colts drop the ball, and the Titans completely drop the ball again, get bullied, don't show up, go ghost, and get demolished by the Packers in prime time so

at this point in time I know the Titans had that playoff run last year but they seem to really choke in big moments especially this year's team and it's something that you have to worry about going forward as the Titans approach the playoffs and I think the real thing here is, like I mentioned, our expectations. Watching this defense, it's just the realization, and I don't mean to be too pessimistic. It wasn't a terrible weekend for the Titans, as I hinted at with the Colts' information. But with the Titans' defense the way that it is,

and knowing that the coaching isn't going to elevate those guys to get them to competency, I just don't see how we can believe that the Titans can win a Super Bowl. I mean, maybe it's my fault for believing that going into this weekend, but I still had belief that the Titans could do it. And we can talk about the snow and everything, but it's going to be winter football. That's what I thought the Titans wanted. So at this point, we just kind of have to, the Titans have to look themselves in the mirror

and realize that with the defense playing the way that it is right now, there's just no way that the offense is going to be able to bail them out enough to beat good football teams multiple times in a row on the way to the Super Bowl. So I don't know what can change it or what they can do now, but we just kind of have to reset our expectations here of what this team might be able to accomplish. That might be the biggest takeaway going forward. But we are going to move into tighten up and tighten down

and talk about some of the individual performances, good and bad. And yeah, there are a few good ones in there, just a couple. Before we do that, though, I do want to tell you guys about betonline.ag. Are you ready for some football? College football heads, bowl season is here, and there are some big matchups ahead. The NFL regular season is finishing up, and the playoff picture is becoming clear. There's only one place that has you covered and one place that we trust. That's betonline.ag. Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use the promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get a 50% welcome bonus. They got NFL games of the week, the top college football games,

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both good and bad. And make sure that you let me know if I missed any tighten ups or tighten downs, if you disagree with any of my choices by following me on Twitter at TicTacTitans. Also, I talked about betOnline.ag earlier. The best place to get some gambling advice on all of the different opportunities and games you have to bet on is with the new podcast from the Locked On Podcast Network, Locked On Bets, with your boy Q from Locked On Raiders.

Make sure that you guys check that out. But let's dive into Tighten Up and Tighten Down. And I'm going to start with the positives, okay? I'm going to start with the positives here. A.J. Brown. A.J.'s clearly banged up out there. And I thought he played a pretty decent game. Four catches, 43 yards.

Did the best he could, I thought, with the circumstances at hand and Tannehill being a little bit off. Same thing with Jonu. Jonu has his quiet games. He's not the most important guy to this Titans offense. Of course, we have learned this year. But three catches, 30 yards, had that touchdown early on. I mean, I'm fishing for positives here, guys.

They didn't have fantastic games, but they just weren't miserable. So, you know, you get a lot of credit from me in that sense. games, but they just weren't miserable. So, you know, you get a lot of credit from me in that sense. David Long, hard to give any Titan up to anybody on the Titans defense, but it's just obvious that David Long is the Titans best linebacker. Rashawn Evans, I mean, I'll save it. I'll just save it. But David Long's the Titans best linebacker. So got to give him some credit there. Nine tackles, one tackle for loss. Thought he just, he plays downhill with a great physicality. He's got more speed than Evans, but the same physical nature. He's about a little bit bigger than Jayon Brown. So he gives you a little bit of everything that the Titans had in those two guys. So I would focus on developing him going forward with Jayon Brown

likely to be gone in free agency. And I wouldn't expect the Titans to be picking up Rashawn Evans' fifth-year option anytime soon. So just a tighten up there for David Long. An actual tighten up, one that I feel good about. Darrington Evans in the return game, kickoff return. I don't know if it was just because of the circumstances and the snow, but had a long of 31 on a return, averaged 24 yards per return on six returns, got a lot of opportunity.

I thought he looked pretty good. Once again, I don't know if it was just because the snow made it easier to do kickoff returns, but I thought he looked pretty solid. The Titans definitely need some help in that department, so for the next few years, hopefully Evans can help them in that area. That's all that I really got in terms of Titans players. A few things. Snow is beautiful.

Watching all the snow come down. That was nice. Right? Everyone liked that? Right? Okay. I know. Lastly, the Steelers. Thank you God, Pittsburgh. 28-24 over the Colers. Thank you, God, Pittsburgh.

28-24 over the Colts. We'll talk more about that in the next segment to cap off today's show where I recap the AFC. But thank you, God, a major tighten up for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thank you, God, Steelers. Anyways, time to talk tighten downs, which obviously there's a lot more going on with Titan Downs. Going to go through them pretty quickly, though, because quite frankly, this game sucked, man. This sucked.

Titan Down for just this trend where the Titans just don't show up. I know they played really well in the playoffs last year, but they were underdogs, and they were underdogs in this game. I get it, but they weren't underdogs like they well in the playoffs last year but they were underdogs and they were underdogs in this game I get it but they weren't underdogs like they were in the playoffs like nobody thought they could win people were picking the Titans a lot of people said game of the week this should be a close one this should be competitive and it just wasn't same thing with the Steelers in the Browns game it's like when the Titans aren't underdogs like major underdogs when they're just a good team playing a good good team, and let's see who wins, they always just look like scrubs, like they're overmatched.

So just a general tighten down for just the Titans in this trend that they're on this year. I just don't understand it. But getting into the individual players, Adoree Jackson was terrible, miserable. I would have rather had Ty Smith out there. I would have rather had Christian Fulton out there. He looks scared to tackle.

He's always looked like that in his career, but he's been so good in coverage. Well, not even so good. We romanticize Adoree Jackson because of what he could be. He's never truly been that, ever. He's never truly been the guy that that we hope that he is ever he's shown flashes of that and some ability but he's never truly been that number one corner on this team when the Titans coverage has been good Malcolm Butler's been out there as the true number one so that's disappointing

he's still coming back from injury I'm not going to crush the guy forever, but he was terrible in this game. And so wasn't Malcolm Butler after saying his name. God, they were miserable. Both of them took turns getting annihilated by Devontae Adams. Now it's Devontae Adams, but they're going to face Tyreek Hill. I mean, they're going to face Stephon Diggs, maybe. The Titans have to find a way to cover these people. And they just got absolutely shredded.

I mentioned it earlier. Devontae Adams, 11 catches on 12 targets, 142 yards, three touchdowns, literally did whatever he want from the slot against Adoree, outside against Malcolm. Now, at least Malcolm Butler would tackle somebody. Adoree looks just terrified to do anything in terms of tackling. Now, that's always been a concern Now that's always been a concern. It's always been a concern.

He didn't tackle in college. So, major Titan down there, concerning. Rashawn Evans, the stupid penalties are just so annoying. It's just too much. It's just too often. It's always him. He always commits a stupid penalty and you could say that there was holding on that play whatever then if if there was holding on the play and it didn't get

called and then Rashawn Evans didn't commit a penalty then the Titans get off the field on third down but no Rashawn Evans got called because he did commit a penalty so don't god it's always Rashawn making a stupid play and quite frankly he doesn't give you enough on the field this year. Now, I'm going to blame a lot of that on Jim Haslett. The linebackers fell off a cliff this year. Jim Haslett, what are you doing? So, that's a big problem. But, still, Rashawn Evans has been an abomination for a lot of the year.

In coverage, in run defense, he's not living up to his billing. So, like I said, Titans aren't going to pick up his fifth year option I'm going to predict that right now five tackles on the day he's just not worth the trouble at this point he's great on the goal line but that's like saying Corey Davis's best attribute is his blocking you can't pay a guy or pick up a fifth year option for a first rounder just because they're good on the goal line I mean come on uh the offensive line was terrible but before I get into that one more on the defense Harold Landry man he's being misused I can admit that I've talked about that they're putting him in coverage way too much but I haven't seen a pass rush move from him in a long time either

so again the coaching on the defensive side of the ball the Titans are not getting anything out way too much, but I haven't seen a pass rush move from him in a long time either. So again, the coaching on the defensive side of the ball, the Titans are not getting anything out of their edge rushers. They haven't since Mike Vrabel's been the coach. They haven't since John Robinson's been the general manager. I mean, they had the leftover guys of Arakpo and Morgan. Those aren't John Robinson guys. So got to give a Titan down to John Robinson.

Got to give a Titan down to the defensive coaching staff, Shane Bowen, Mike Rabel, and the pass rush, the guys themselves. Harold Landry specifically hasn't gotten better enough. He's gotten better in other areas. He's better in pass coverage this year. He's better in run defense a lot of the time, but he hasn't developed any pass rush moves. I haven't, but he hasn't developed any pass rush moves. I haven't seen anybody on the Titans develop any pass rush moves. So just a tighten down overall for the pass rush, for Landry, for coaching, for John Robinson with his personnel decisions in the pass rush. Going into the O-line, they were just terrible today. Ryan Tannehill made a lot of mistakes through two interceptions,

but quite frankly, I thought he was under so much pressure, he just had to make decisions and get rid of the ball. He had no choice, but there was just pressure all over him all day. Couldn't really get anything significant going in the run game. I thought Clark, Kenny Clark, just manhandled Ben Jones all day. So cool that you take your shoes off in the snow, man. But, you know, you got whooped all day long. The tackles, Queston Berry just continued.

I just worry about the Titans offense in the playoffs against great defenses. With Queston Berry out there, significant impact to lose your starting left tackle and your backup tackle. So again, expectation reset is my theme here today. Resetting expectations of what's possible when you see what the Titans do against good football teams. Corey Davis, where was Corey Davis? Targeted twice, zero for zero, couldn't win in man coverage, completely locked down.

Targeted twice, zero for zero. Couldn't win in man coverage. Completely locked down. I mean, that's the times when you worry about Corey, the reason people say that he would probably be leaving. It's times like this where you're like, oh, yeah, we can see this. Sticky man coverage. He can't win.

He just can't win. Gostkowski, that kickoff to start the game, terrible. Gave the Packers the ball at the 40-yard line to start things off. The defense is terrible on its own, right? So just a terrible way to start things off. Brett Kern was not good either. Thought he had a decent chance to pin the Packers deep and kicked it right into the end zone. It's snowing and stuff, so I'll give him a little bit of a pass.

Kern's the man, but not his best game. The refs, everybody wants to blame the refs. Aaron Jones was out of bounds, yes. Kalou probably wasn't off sides, but the Titans didn't play well enough to win this game. You don't get blown out 40-14 because of the refs. As I said on Twitter, you're never going to see me get on here and blame the refs. I'm just never going to be that guy,

no matter what you guys want to say, or what anybody wants to be mad about. Yeah, they weren't great, but the Titans would have won the game if they played good enough to win the game. And that's all it comes down to. And then finally, I put this last, because I don't want to kill the guy.

Like I mentioned earlier, I thought a lot of it had to do with the offensive line, the performance overall, but Tannehill wasn't sharp either. And these are the things, when you get Ryan Tannehill in third and long situations, you get him in obvious passing situations. He's just not, he's not, he's not a Mahomes. He's elite in our system, but he's not elite to transcend the scheme.

He's still a top 10 quarterback. Ryan Tannehill's still awesome. He's been incredible. But he's not one of the elite Wilson, Rodgers, Mahomes. He's not one of those guys, and days like today are the reminder. So a long Titan up there. I'm sorry not to be so depressy, but it's just the realities that we're dealing with here.

So let's go into a quick AFC recap. I'll let you know where the Titans stand, and that is the optimistic note that we need to end today's show on. Before we do that, though, I want to tell you guys about Built Bar, the best-tasting protein bar of all time. Use that promo code LOCKEDON at BuiltBar.com. You will get 20% off your next order. That's promo code LOCKEDON at BuiltBar.com. You will get 20% off your next order. That's promo code LOCKEDON at BuiltBar.com.

Check out any of their brand new six amazing flavors, the Caramel Brownie, Cookies and Cream, Cherry Barsia, Lemon Almond Cheesecake, Carrot Cake, Apple Almond Crisp. They're low-calorie, low-sugar, high-protein, and high-fiber. Once again, that is promo code LOCKEDON for 20% off at BiltBar.com. Although it was an embarrassing loss for the Tennessee Titans, it wasn't the worst possible weekend for the team. So let's talk about what happened in the AFC over the weekend, where the Titans sit

now, and what their playoff scenarios are going forward into week 17. Before we do that, I want to remind you guys, I'm going to be breaking everything down throughout the week as we get close to that week 17 deciding matchup remember we have a Tic Tac Tuesday tomorrow with our Tic Tac 4 pack breaking down the four most impactful plays from the game against the Packers from an X's and O's perspective

also rewatch Wednesday going to give you my schematic notes from the game Thursday crossover Thursday we will be talking with Cody and John from the Locked On Texans podcast to begin our preview of that game. And then Friday is a game preview football Friday where I give you my keys to victory players to watch and break down all the different scenarios again for you and what to be watching for.

So let's talk about what took place in the AFC. The biggest matchup of all that the Titans had to watch, of course, was the Indianapolis Colts as they took on the Pittsburgh Steelers. And lucky for the Titans, the Steelers, who were down 24-7 in that game, were able to make a major comeback attempt and defeat the Indianapolis Colts 28-24. What a monstrous moment. The pressure would be on the Titans big time right now, if not for that comeback. So the Titans owe the Steelers big time. They have allowed them to control their fate. Once again, control your own destiny doesn't make any sense. Destiny by nature, by definition, is predetermined.

So you're an idiot if you say control your own destiny, because destiny cannot be controlled. You control your own fate. Well, some people, I guess, can make that same argument about fate too, right? Right? So am I the idiot? Okay. All right. Control your own path. The Titans control their own path at the end of the day.

That's what's most important here. So let's continue going forward. Some other interesting games the Titans had to pay attention to. The Ravens were able to win over the Giants 27-13. The Dolphins on Saturday, if they lost, the Titans clinched the playoffs. Unfortunately, Ryan Fitzpatrick with one of the craziest and most incredible throws I've ever seen and the Raiders with two consecutive choke jobs. It was absolutely nuts. The Miami Dolphins won that game 26-25 over the Raiders, continuing to put pressure on the Titans.

However, the Jets were able to win for back-to-back weeks and beat the Browns, who were COVID-impacted, of course, but still, the Browns should have been able to win that game 23-16. The Jets defeat the Browns, so that was pretty crazy as well. As for the division, the Jag for the division the Jaguars the Jaguars they were able to secure the number one overall pick today so welcome Trevor Lawrence to the AFC South by losing to the Bears 41 to 17 and the Bengals beat the Texans 37 to 31 now Deshaun Watson looked like he got injured late in that game but he said that he's gonna play

we'll see what the organization decides to do look like an upper body shoulder elbow injury looked pretty nasty but if he says he's playing he's playing and that's dangerous for the Titans who have put themselves in a predicament here although it wasn't a terrible weekend and the Colts lost the Titans are not out of the woods ladies and gentlemen they could still miss the playoffs so let's talk about the scenarios the Titans have here going forward. If the Titans win, if they beat the Texans in Houston, simple enough, they win the AFC South. Boom. Done.

Home playoff game, good to go. If the Colts lose, now they're playing Jacksonville. Now Jacksonville has the number one pick sewn up, even if they win the game. So maybe that'll push them to try hard. And the Jags can beat the Colts. We've seen it before. But if the Colts lose,

the Titans also secure the AFC South, even if they lose to the Texans. The Colts would be out of the playoffs as well, if they lose. Now, let's talk about how the Titans could miss the playoffs. So we talked about how they could win the division. How could they miss the playoffs entirely? If the Ravens win, and the Dolphins win and the Titans lose, the Titans are out.

Out. The Colts would get their spot. The Ravens, the Dolphins, and the Browns would be the wildcard teams. Now, any other combination of things, any other combination, the Titans lose

and the Dolphins lose the Titans lose and the Ravens lose they're good to go so if the Ravens or Dolphins lose the Titans clinch a playoff spot if the Titans win they clinch the AFC South if the Titans lose

the Ravens win and the Dolphins win Titans are out so that's what it is they control their own fate If the Titans lose, the Ravens win, and the Dolphins win, Titans are out. So that's what it is. They control their own fate, but if they don't win, they could still get some help to get in. But the Titans most certainly, most certainly cannot lose to a Texans team who just lost to the Bengals with Brandon Allen at quarterback

to lose their shot at the playoffs and lose the division. They just simply cannot happen. They cannot allow that to happen, whether they play Deshaun Watson or not. So they just can't let that take place. They simply can't. That would be a colossal meltdown of epic proportions. I can't allow myself to believe that that'll take place

after what I just witnessed on Sunday night. But that's going to do it for me today. I know it wasn't the easiest show to wake up on a Monday morning and listen to, but I hope you guys enjoyed your holiday weekend. Very tough, very difficult game to watch, but it's not all bad. The Titans still can beat the lowly Texans and win the division next Sunday, but I will be back with you tomorrow. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.