Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Get Embarrassed By Cardinals, Lose 38-13: Big Takeaways, #TitanUpTitanDown & Optimism Remains

Episode Date: September 12, 2021

The Tennessee Titans got whooped by the Arizona Cardinals, no way around it. Tyler recaps the 38-13 loss by starting with the big picture takeaways including how worried we should be about the offensive line. Next, zoom in on the individual performances, both good and bad, in #TitanUpTitanDown. Finally, Tyler gives you some optimism for the rest of the season as he looks at the AFC South results from Sunday.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3332GMOh4y5PX3q9NFybwSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.ManscapedFellas, don’t gamble on shaving your balls with the wrong tools! Choose MANSCAPED™, Your Balls Will Thank You™! Get 20% off + free shipping with the code LOCKEDON at manscaped.com.RunYourPoolCheck ‘em out TODAY and get $10 off at RunYourPool.com and use promo code LockedOn at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, this Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast is presented by the Locked on NFL Sunday Show. Looking for a Sunday pregame show that talks about every game and every team in depth? Check out the Locked on NFL Sunday Show live every Sunday morning starting at 11 a.m. Eastern time. No sketches, no celebrity cameos, no fluff, just football.

Every Sunday morning with host Cody Roark and Ross Jackson. Follow and subscribe to the Locked On live on Twitter, on Facebook, on Twitch, and on YouTube. And don't forget to turn on notifications so you know when the show goes live every Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Well, unfortunately, about that time in the day was the last time that us Titans fans had some hope in the Titans winning this game.

The Titans get drubbed, get embarrassed by the Arizona Cardinals by a score of 38-13. And there were numerous concerns all over the field. And of course, I'm going to break down everything you need to know from the game that was the loss to the Cardinals. I'm going to look at it from a big team perspective to start. Look at the offense, look at the defense. What essentially went wrong for the Titans outside of everything, of course. But then I'm going to zoom in, take a look at the defense, what essentially went wrong for the Titans outside of everything, of course.

But then I'm going to zoom in, take a look at the individual performances in this week's Tighten Up and Tighten Down. And then finally, I am going to end the show on a positive note. I want to talk all of you guys off the ledge just a little bit. We're going to go around the AFC South, take a look at what happened within the division, and use that as a springboard to talk about what could come next. Don't worry too much too early.

It's only week one. So we're going to look at this game from every aspect, but of course end the day with a little bit of hope on this Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Before we get into everything you need to know from the Titans 38-13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals,

I do want to remind you guys, I'm going to be putting out daily Monday through Friday Tennessee Titans content here on the Locked on Titans podcast. You can find the show wherever you stream podcasts and make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast, you can find the show wherever you stream podcasts and make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Smash that notification bell so you know when any of my content goes live. Check me out on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. Going to be putting up a Tic Tac Titans film thread tomorrow and make sure that you follow the show on Facebook at Locked on Titans Pods. But no way around it. I said it at the beginning of the show. This was an embarrassing defeat.

And I think the overarching takeaway, more than anything about the offense, the defense, coaching, anything like that, is the fan base was so excited for the kickoff to this season. Nissan Stadium was rocking. It was packed. All of the changes to the stadium, all of the changes to the team, everyone was just at a fever pitch. And to come out and lay an absolute egg in week one, that is the root of the biggest disappointment of all.

But moving into some more football-centric conversation outside the general feel of the team and of the fan base right now. You do have to start with the offensive side of the ball, and the Titans came out terribly on offense. And really, to talk about the offensive performance, you have to start with the offensive line. Just absolutely terrible on the day. Very concerning performance from the offensive line.

Gave up six sacks to the Arizona Cardinals and weren't able to really get anything going in the ground game either. Derrick Henry had less than 3.5 yards per carry on the day, only 58 yards total. And a lot of that came in the second half when it was obvious that the Cardinals were kind of playing prevent defense to a point. So just a really bad day for the offensive line. No push, no protection. And

that's where the root of all the problems start for the Titans in this game on the football field. Ryan Tannehill was getting smashed over and over again. Even the plays that weren't sacks, he was still getting hit. It's surprised that he was able to hang in there. Incredible toughness from Tannehill based on the beating that he was taking. And the majority of that beating came from one Chandler Jones, the edge rusher for the Arizona Cardinals, who, if you play Madden, you know, he went into superstar X-factor mode, and he was on fire all day long. He had a historic performance. I mean, one of the best performances on defense we've seen in quite some time.

Five sacks. Two of those sacks resulted in a strip sack fumble that the Titans did not recover. So two turnovers forced. Five sacks. He had four tackles for loss. Chandler Jones just completely ate up the edges of the Titans blocking with the tight ends and the offensive tackles. And in the past game, A.J. Brown was able to make some plays,

but Julio Jones had some drops, something Mike Vrabel even talked about after the game, said Julio played okay, but there were some drops in there, and that's a fact, and we'll talk more about that when we dive into the individual performances, but ultimately just a terrible, terrible day for the offensive line, for the Titans, mostly in pass protection, but also in the run game. And when you play so bad up front against a great defensive front from the Cardinals, who did have a top five unit when it comes to sacks last year, we're going to get exactly what we got.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Titans didn't play great. They were four of five in the red zone giving up touchdowns. So out of five opportunities, four touchdowns given up. They gave up eight third down conversions out of 14 opportunities. So that's, you know, deja vu all over again for what happened last year. But they started with a lot of poor field position because of the turnovers and the ineptitude of the offense. They also forced a turnover, got an interception in a big spot to give the Titans offense back by Kevin Byard.

But ultimately, they couldn't slow down the playmaking of Kyler Murray, who had 289 yards passing, four passing touchdowns, had 20 yards on the ground, and a touchdown on the ground as well. So five combined scores for Kyler Murray, and he was all over the field making Titans defenders miss in the backfield. It was pretty impressive. The one third down completion that he had where he just ran around the entire Titans pass rush and fell on his back foot and made a beautiful throw to the sideline. I mean, at some point, guys are just making plays,

and the Titans players aren't stepping up and making those plays. Also, the Titans could not stop DeAndre Hopkins. Early six catches, 83 yards, two touchdowns. and making those plays. Also, the Titans could not stop DeAndre Hopkins early. Six catches, 83 yards, two touchdowns. He absolutely gave the business to Jackrabbit Jenkins. But that is ultimately what lost the Titans the game. The offensive line was terrible. The defense couldn't keep up and isn't good enough

to keep up for the situations they were put in. And my big takeaway here is the Titans look like a team that was playing a preseason game on offense early. And you can talk about the theory of how much preseason matters and all that. But at the end of the day, the Titans offense was not ready to go. And they did not take any preseason reps together as a team. And at some point in time, you have to question that decision. But we are going to get into the individual performances in this game and tighten up and tighten down. Before we get into that, I do want

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All right, Titans fans, let's continue diving into this embarrassing loss to the Arizona Cardinals. We looked at some of the big picture team things earlier. Now I want to talk about some of the individual performances in tighten up and tighten down. And I'm going to start with the positives just to, you know, wash that nasty taste out of our mouths from talking about the game in the first segment. Number one, I thought Ryan Tannehill played well in this game. He was getting just pressure nonstop,

six sacks, getting absolutely beat up in the pocket. Of course, one of Ryan Tannehill's weaknesses as a player is his pocket presence. He could do a little bit better in that aspect, but overall, I'm not going to blame him for all the pressure that he was under when the offensive line was just getting absolutely mollywhopped over and over. He was 21-35, 212 yards, had one touchdown, did have the interception when he was kind of trying to force things and make things happen across the middle of the field. But I'm not really going to fault him at that moment in time.

Early on, he did have the fumble when Chandler Jones was literally right in his face as he turned around. So that was just wrong time, wrong situation, wrong play. I'm not really going to fault Ryan Tannehill too much for that. For the circumstances, I thought he held in there and did as best as he could. A.J. Brown, four catches, 49 yards, and a touchdown. I thought when the Titans tried to get him the ball, he made plays as best as he could. Obviously, it was a less than ideal situation for the offense, but A.J. Brown made a play for the Titans when they needed it most in double coverage. So I thought A.J. Brown was pretty good on the day

in an overall bad performance for the offense. But that's all I have for the offense. The rest of the takeaways are on defense where I thought I saw some better performances. I thought Christian Fulton was pretty good on the day. He had three tackles, two pass breakups, and they didn't really attack A.J. Green against Christian Fulton very often.

And Christian Fulton had a good pass breakup in the end zone as well. That's a big play. So I Green against Christian Fulton very often. And Christian Fulton had a good pass breakup in the end zone as well. That's a big play. So I thought overall Christian Fulton had a very good day. Jeffrey Simmons as well. I thought he played pretty well. Five tackles on the day. He did have one tackle for loss. Did have the sack on Kyler Murray.

So I thought Jeffrey Simmons was like himself. He was playing pretty solid. But one man can't totally change the outcome of the game. Kevin Byard as well. I'm going to have him on both lists. Realistically, he made a big play when the Titans needed it, when the game was still within reach and got the interception. He had three tackles, but he also had some plays where he just got whooped one-on-one. That seems to be the case with Kevin Byard. He makes some plays here and there, but he's just not consistently winning those one-on-one matchups against guys who you would expect him to beat,

but we'll talk more about that in just a second. And then the last tight end up that I have is Harold Landry. Harold Landry got hurt later on in the game, but he was chasing Kyler Murray around. He looked like the most athletic pass rusher for the Titans. Thought he was having a very good day. Ended up with three tackles. They credited him for a sack, but I'm going to have to go back and watch and make sure on that

one tackle for loss. I thought Harold Landry was one of the bright spots on the Titans defense. But now we're going to move to the Titan downs, which was a little bit more of a lively section. And number one, the biggest Titan down of all is the Titans offensive line. Hideous in the run game.

Even worse in pass protection. And that effort was led by Taylor LeJuan. Taylor LeJuan just got destroyed by Chandler Jones. And at one point in time, he came off the field, and it was reported that he was having cramps, and he was riding the bike and kind of just standing on the sidelines. He went back in later in the game. I know that he's coming back from the ACL. I thought it may be something worse.

But to say he got cramps and be out and then Kendall Lamb comes in and Chandler Jones gets one of his last, his second strip sack on Kendall Lamb. It's just, man, you're getting beat. You're getting embarrassed and you're getting embarrassed, and you're sitting out of the game. I did not like that from LeJuan's perspective. I did not like that. He needs to be out there as much as possible.

Unless it's something serious, there's a real injury popping up, he needs to be out there to get his rhythm because clearly it's not there for him right now. And he didn't get a lot of time to work in the preseason either, so that might have something to do with it. Also, Questonberry, not a great day either. And if you have concerns about the Titans right tackle position, I really can't blame you at this moment in time. Kendall Lamb, I already talked about, but he's not going to be able to block Chandler Jones one-on-one if the Titans pro bowl left tackle can't either. So I guess that should have been too expected. Another guy who I'm lumping in that group is Jeff Swaim.

Jeff Swaim got worked on the edge in the run game specifically by J.J. Watt one time specifically as well. He also got beat by Marcus Golden a few times. Just a terrible effort by Jeff Swaim. Julio Jones, he did have the three catches, 29 yards, but were a couple of drops in there. Now the drop in the end zone, I know that it hit his hands, but Ryan Tannehill has to loft that ball out and let Julio Jones run underneath it.

You don't try to bury that ball and force it in with a bullet inside. I thought that was a bad throw by Tannehill and a bad decision, but it did it. Julio's hands and he's a Hall of Famer. Maybe he should catch those balls. I can't really complain about anybody who takes that stance. Then the pass defense, specifically Jackrabbit Jenkins and Kevin Byard. They just can't.

Well, Jackrabbit's going up against DeAndre Hopkins, so maybe he gets a little bit more of a pass, but he did get whooped by Hopkins all day long. But maybe that's to be expected. But Kevin Byard just getting worked on by Christian Kirk, a tight end. I mean, he just cannot win in one-on-one man situations consistently. Yeah, he got the interception on a bad throw by Kyler Murray that was behind his target.

But he gave up a couple touchdowns and a couple third-down completions because he just can't cover one-on-one against wide receivers. He just can't do it. And it's sad, but it's just what we've seen all last year. Now we're seeing it in game one here. Elijah Molden also had an easy tackle in the backfield, missed the tackle, and it gave up a nice run to James Conner, then got beat for the touchdown,

and one-on-one coverage just got smoked off the line of scrimmage when he was trying to play press. Man, just not a great outing for the rookie, but I have high hopes on what he can do going forward. So many tightens down, tightens that tighten downs is hurting my soul. Uh, Dane Crookshank on special teams. Awful.

Didn't see him make an impact whatsoever. He got pushed out of his contain on one of the punt returns. I thought he was just miserable out there and I don't, I don't see him making a big impact for the Titans anytime soon. Moving forward on special teams, Michael Badgley. Titans get their first touchdown, miss extra point. So that's one out of two on extra points, 0-1 on his field goals. The Titans have to call Steven Gostkowski. And I said throughout the preseason and all season,

Steven Gostkowski will be the day one kicker for the Titans. And I was wrong, and it was supposed to be Sam Ficken. But now that Ficken's hurting on IR, you've got to go get the guy who kicked well for you at the end of last year. He lives in Nashville. He's right down the road. Give him a call, please. Also, the injuries.

We saw Imani Hooker leave the game with a foot injury. You hate hearing foot. Chester Rogers limped off late in the fourth quarter. Tyre Tartt looked like he rolled his ankle. Harold Landry, that looked like just cramps for Landry, but still something to monitor. They cannot lose Harold Landry. And then the last Titan down is a coaching one.

I just thought Todd Downing was terrible on first downs. I'm going to have to go back and track it when I do my rewatches, but I don't recall the Titans getting a positive play on first down for like their first four drives. Terrible first down play calling. He was just running the ball every first down. It felt like you want to see a play action fake on first down when they're expecting run. So I thought there were some bad play calls from Todd Downing as well, but I learned my lesson with Arthur Smith. I'm not going to go out here and criticize Todd Downing too early. It is only week one.

And speaking of the fact that it's only week one, some optimism to end the show. I'm going to leave you guys with a little bit of hope as it is just week one. But before we get into that optimistic conversation to end today's show, do want to tell you guys about DirecTV Stream. Does this sound familiar? You have one device where you catch the game live. You have another that lets you stream your favorite shows.

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Titans fans, let's wrap up today's show with a little bit of optimism. I know it was very painful to watch that game. We talked about all the big team overall takeaways. We talked about all the individual performances in Tighten Up and Tighten Down. If you think I missed any performances or you want to disagree with me or agree with me on any of my Tighten Up and Tighten Down selections, just tag me on Twitter at TicTac Titans, hashtag tighten up, tighten down, and let me know how you feel. But I am going to end this

Monday edition with some optimism here before we go. I just want to tell you guys why it is not time to panic. So number one, very difficult for the Titans. Not playing a lot of preseason snaps with Taylor LeJuan coming back from the ACL with Questenberry getting his first real start at right tackle. The offense not playing together pretty much at all in the preseason. Going up against this front seven in this pass rush, very, very difficult task. Also, I thought the Titans defense had some really bright moments and Kyler Murray just

did some crazy stuff. You're not going to play against a bunch of Kyler Murray's. Now you see a guy kind of like Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson next week, but either way, there were just some special playmaking things that happened for the Cardinals. Not trying to eliminate the feeling that we should have from the loss. There's a tough schedule ahead. The Seahawks on the road. The Colts.

I mean, that's a tough schedule ahead, no doubt. But a lot of things just did not go the Titans' way personnel-wise and matchup-wise in this game. So I'm not going to freak out. Also, this is where the real optimism comes in when we recap the AFC South. The Texans beat the Jags 37 to 21. So the Texans are 1 and 0. And then the Colts lost to the Seahawks 28 to 16. So what that means is three 0 and 1 teams in the AFC South. The Texans are 1-0.

Are the Texans going to win this division? Are the Texans going to win the AFC South? No. The Texans aren't going to make the playoffs. Like the Jags won in week one last year. That was the only win they got. So the Texans got this win over the Jags against a rookie quarterback in his first start on the road. Makes sense, but I'm not worried about the Texans got this win over the Jags against a rookie quarterback in his first start on the road. Makes sense, but I'm not worried about the Texans winning the division. I am worried about the Colts, and the Jags could be okay, probably not after seeing this showing.

But the Colts lost to the Seahawks, and the Colts have an incredibly tough schedule. And I know you don't want to win the division by default, but the reality is the reality. And I would rather have the Titans win even if it's by default than not at all. So the Colts went 0-1. That's the Titans' biggest competition for the division in reality. Have some hope. Have some optimism. It's only week one. The Titans went 2-4 to start the season in 2019 and went on a big run. And this is different because they have more players than they had then and the players that they needed but either way

it's only week one so relax it sucks but the season goes on tons of time to turn this thing around but that is going to do it for me today I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow going to be a heavy tape episode

going to go over a bunch of different things that I see on my rewatches that I do on Monday. So make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. Subscribe to the Locked on Titans YouTube channel as well. That's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland,

and this was Locked on Tigers.