Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Re-Watch Wednesday: Extra Insight & Analysis from Denver, Tuesday's Transactions & Gostkowski Hope

Episode Date: September 16, 2020

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You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans this season get football on your time with NFL Game Pass. See all the action from every game with full game replays. You can also replay an entire game and catch all of the plays in just 45 minutes with condensed games. Go to NFL.com slash Game Pass to start your free trial today.

NFL Game Pass, where football never stops. And NFL Game Pass is an incredibly important tool for me, and I am going to remind you guys of that in just a moment. But to start off today's show, we have some Titans roster transactions to talk about. The Titans waived a player. They cut a player from the practice squad. They added a player to the practice squad. I'm going to keep you guys up to date on all of those roster moves to start our show and also tell you why one roster move that some people are calling for will not take place and should not take place. And of course, that is at the kicker position. So I'll lay that out for you guys to start our show.

And then, speaking of NFL Game Pass, we will dive into a new segment that I will be rolling out every Wednesday throughout the regular season. My re-watch Wednesday. Where I go over all of my additional notes. All of the tidbits and all of the schematic insights. That I picked up from my re-watches of the game on NFL Game Pass. So we'll go over the Monday Night Football victory. Over the Denver Broncos in even more detail on today's show. And then to round out today's show, we will hear directly from Tennessee Titans head coach

Mike Vrabel as he gives us a little bit of a temperature check after week one. And speaking of that, I want to tell you guys a little bit more about the content schedule on the Locked on Titans podcast going forward throughout the season. In a normal week on Monday, we are going to be breaking down Sunday's game, giving you all of my game points, all of the biggest recap notes that I have, along with tighten up and tighten down to go over all of my individual notes and awards to hand out after the game. On Tuesday we are going to continue breaking down the game with our temperature check Tuesday. Give you guys a little bit more insight I've gleaned from the broadcast copy of the game.

Also talk about where players are from an injury standpoint. And what we could be seeing going forward into the next week. As I mentioned re-watch Wednesday is going to be really focused on giving you guys all of my notes from the All-22 game film along with my Tic-Tac Titans film breakdown and a brand new film segment I am debuting called the Tic-Tac Four-Pack where I give you guys the four most impactful plays from the previous game. Then on Thursday, we have our crossover Thursday conversation

with the host of the Locked On podcast for the opposing team for that week. And on Friday, I will be giving you guys my game preview with my keys to the game, my players to watch, keeping it plus 100 for all of your gambling information, and then my beautiful dark twisted fantasy for all of your Titans fantasy relevant news. So very excited for a long Titans season. Very excited for all the content that I will be pumping out. And those film breakdowns will be on Twitter at TicTacTitan, so make sure you follow me there for those as well.

But with all of that housekeeping out of the way, we have a big day ahead of us on the Locked on Titans podcast, roster moves to talk about, my rewatch takeaways, and then hearing from Titans head coach Mike Vrabel. Let's get it! The Titans got the transactions rolling for the week on Monday, actually, before kickoff in Denver. On Saturday, cornerback Adoree Jackson was ruled out for the matchup in Denver with a knee injury, and on Monday before the game, the Titans officially placed Adoree Jackson on the injured reserve list. Because of new rules surrounding the IR due to COVID-19, the Titans are only required to keep Adoree Jackson on the IR for three games, and after

three weeks, he'd be able to join the active roster again. Taking his spot on the active roster is cornerback Ty Smith, who was elevated from the practice squad on Monday, along with Adoree Jackson moving to the IR. But on Tuesday, we saw the Titans follow up those transactions with a few more. First, the Titans waived wide receiver Cody Hollister. Hollister played 11 snaps for the Titans in Denver on Monday night. And in correspondence with that, they also cut linebacker Jamal Davis II from the practice squad.

Filling that spot on the practice squad, however, though, will be linebacker Tazar Skipper. Skipper is in his second year in the NFL after being an undrafted free agent in 2019. He has spent time with the New York Giants and the Pittsburgh Steelers, playing in six career games, all of those coming with the New York Giants. The one roster transaction that is the most interesting though is the roster transaction that did not take place. After his less than stellar performance on Monday night, a big portion of the Titans fan base was calling for the team to cut kicker Steven Gostkowski. Of course, Gostkowski missed his first three field goals and an extra point, but ultimately did sink the game-winning field goal from 25 yards out late in the fourth quarter.

But the first four misses combined did have a lot of folks in the Titans fan base and certainly some within the organization worried about what Gostkowski could do for the rest of the season. But at this time, it does not appear that the Titans will be cutting Gostkowski and setting him free. At this time, the Titans have guaranteed $2.5 million to Gostkowski to get him on the Titans roster originally. That is quite a financial commitment for a special teams player, especially a kicker who was signed off the street who didn't necessarily have the greatest year in 2019. But consider this, along with that financial obligation the Titans made to Gostkowski, the Titans have also had zero luck and zero

success with any of the other kickers they have tried in the past year. The Titans had five different kickers on the roster last year. None of them were very successful and made a very good impression. The Titans at this time may possibly have considered their previous kicker the only kicker that was even decent for the team in 2019 and that is Greg Joseph but on Tuesday in what could be considered a preemptive move the Tampa Bay Buccaneers protected Greg Joseph on their practice squad so that the Titans could not take him and poach him off of that unit. So right now, based on the options that the Titans have available and the financial commitment they made to Gostkowski,

it only makes sense that they ride it out with one of the best kickers in NFL history and see that rather than replacing Gostkowski and getting a new face in the building, see if Gostkowski can right the ship for the Titans and get back into his legendary and historic can right the ship for the Titans and get back into his legendary and historic form for the rest of the year. And one more reminder, make sure that you are subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream, as I will be pumping out this Monday through Friday Titans content throughout the entire year.

Also, make sure that you are following me on Twitter at TicTacTitans so you never miss any of the visual analysis that I provide, including my TicTacTitan film breakdowns and something that I am debuting today, the TicTac4P Pack, where I break down the four most impactful plays from the previous week's game. So make sure that you check out my Twitter account at Tic Tac Titans as I will be dropping that Tic Tac Four Pack today. It'll be up by the time that you hear this show. But speaking of Rewatch Wednesday, my T-titan film breakdowns, all of that is

possible because of NFL Game Pass. You can catch every snap from every game with full game replays. See all of the plays in just 45 minutes with condensed games, which I really like when I'm scouting next week's opponent. You can relive all of the gutsy calls, crazy catches, wild comebacks, missed kicks, and breakout stars from every game every week. It's all action, all the football you can handle, all in one place. And the NFL Game Pass is the only place you can replay every game all season long. You'll also learn from the league's best players with over 40 NFL Game Pass film session episodes.

Go inside the game from a player's perspective as they break down the game's concepts and techniques. Learn from the best like Deshaun Watson, Stephon Gilmore, Devontae Adams, and many more. NFL Game Pass also provides access to the entire NFL Films archive. Go to NFL.com slash Game Pass to start your free trial today. NFL Game Pass where football never sleeps. re-watch Wednesday let's dive into all of my additional notes some extra insights some tidbits here that I got from my re-watches of the Titans game against the Denver Broncos from Monday night but right before I dive into all of those additional notes from my rewatches,

go to Twitter. Follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans and check out my Tic Tac 4-pack where I break down the four most impactful plays from the Titans' victory over the Denver Broncos. You have to check out the visual content that I am putting out as well. But a lot of what I noticed in those four plays are things that I am going to talk about right now

as I kick off my debut appearance of Rewatch Wednesday. So first off, let's start on the defensive side of the ball. And one of the big notes that I took away was just how Jadavion Clowney gives and Jadavion Clowney takes. So first off, really impressed by the way that Mike Vrabel uses him as a movable chess piece. Had him lined up at off-ball linebacker, blitzing through the A-gap. Had him lined up as a five-technique defensive end right on the offensive tackle. Had him as a defensive end on the outside shoulder of the offensive tackle. Had him at outside linebacker and edge rusher on the outside shoulder of the tight end.

He had Jadavion Clowney blitzing from a linebacker position. Had him pass rushing. Had him doing twists and stunts. Basically, Clowney blitzing from a linebacker position, had him pass rushing, had him doing twists and stunts. Basically, Clowney is trying to penetrate. He's trying to jump off the line of scrimmage, beat his man into the backfield, and make splash plays. That's what Jadavion Clowney does best.

Whether you want to hear this or not, Clowney is a much better run defender than he is a pass rusher, and we saw that play out on Monday night. He was much more disruptive in the run game. But one thing about the way that Clowney plays. Very risk sensitive with Clowney. So he likes to shoot gaps. Think he's on the outside shoulder of a tight end. He jumps inside the tight end into his inside shoulder, tries to rip through, get in front

of him, and make a play in the backfield. Well, the problem with that is on some plays on Monday night, Clowney would make that jump, that leap, explode into a gap to try to create a play and be disruptive, but he would be overly aggressive. He would get caught out of position. As a forced defender, as the contained defender on the outside, he would shoot inside, and that would open up runs to the perimeter for the Broncos running backs. I saw a couple of plays, a Melvin Gordon run, long run, late, a Phillip Lindsey run early in the game where Clowney shot inside against his blocker and left a wide open outside lane for the running back

that they took advantage of and got into the Titans secondary. So while I'm incredibly impressed with Clowney's ability to be disruptive and his explosiveness, he needs to be a tad more disciplined or at the minimum, the Titans need to scheme up a little bit more help for him to, I guess, be a fallback plan to be a parachute when Clowney inevitably is overaggressive and gets himself in a bad spot because of the way that he plays, which we need him to play the way that he plays, but there has to be a healthy balance there where he's not giving up big plays as regularly as he's making big plays because of how overly aggressive he is.

Next, though, I want to talk about Jeffrey Simmons. And Jeffrey Simmons dominated the line of scrimmage, specifically in the run game. Again, Simmons needs to improve as a pass rusher, not nearly as effective. Doesn't have any counters right now. Doesn't have a lot of go-to moves to get himself free to get to the quarterback. But just with sheer power and sheer strength, he's able to dominate the line of scrimmage.

He was a little bit disruptive in the pass game. I don't want to completely discredit him there, but the real star of the show is Simmons in the run game. And it's funny, I'm going to bring up one of the Tic Tac four-pack plays is his stop on the goal line on fourth down. Now that was a shovel pass, so technically that's the pass game. But a shovel pass along the line of scrimmage is more an extension of the run game anyways. And Simmons ate that up.

He had Lloyd Cushenberry, the rookie offensive lineman from LSU, who Simmons liked to go against in college when he was at Mississippi State in the SEC as well but Simmons destroyed Cushenberry on the line of scrimmage throws him down to the ground as he works to the left hand side where eventually he just swallows up the tight end who just got the shovel pass and here's the thing Simmons is such a strong man it's one thing to be in position as the tight ends coming downhill catching the shovel pass towards the goal line to be able to just completely stone that tight end

stop his momentum completely and then drive him backwards away from the goal line that's the type of stuff that makes Jeffrey Simmons special and the Titans got to a fourth down because Simmons bottled up some of the run attempts that the Broncos had before that fourth down and that was evident throughout the game film throughout the entire game Simmons was just dominant in the run game on the offensive line on the line of scrimmage and it really prevented the

Broncos from getting anything consistent going in the ground game they had a few big runs here and there but they never were able to find consistency in the run game because Jeffrey Simmons was just wrecking the game. So love to see that from the Titans, two top disruptors on the defensive line. But realistically here, Harold Landry was absolutely fantastic. And we have to go back to a very critical play in the fourth quarter on third and three where the Titans brought a blitz opposite of Harold Landry. But it was Harold Landry who dipped and bent underneath the offensive tackle and was able to get pressure on Drew Locke, causing an incompletion, causing a three and out, letting the Titans get the ball back in the fourth quarter.

That was a critical play from Harold Landry, who had a very good game, even if it doesn't show up necessarily in the box score. So, impressive day from Simmons and Landry, up-and-down day from Clowney, but some really good bright spots. Continuing on the defense, the big runs that I talked about, although some of them were because of Clowney's over-aggressiveness, a lot of those big runs took place when the Titans had their secondary defensive linemen in, Isaiah Mack, Matt Dickerson, so that's something to pay attention to. The Titans were in high altitude from a limited offseason. They were trying to keep everybody fresh, keep fatigue low,

and to do that, they had a little bit of a rotation that I wouldn't agree on necessarily in a normal game, but with all of those factors that affected conditioning, the Titans were just trying to keep people fresh and keep a rotation in there, but it did bite them in certain times where they gave up some big runs. The last point I want to make on defense is about the rookie cornerbacks, Christian Fulton and Chris Jackson. While they had certain, I guess, hiccups early in the game and man coverage, especially against Jerry Judy.

Both of them had struggles there. Later in the game, when the Titans ran a little bit more zone coverage later in the game, both of those guys really impressed me with just being where they needed to be. No, they weren't all pros or all stars, but for rookies, I thought they performed very solidly, and they seem to have a good grasp on what the Titans are trying to do on defense schematically so that's really important especially after halftime adjustments as rookies showing that they could adapt to the new game plan after halftime and the last thing that I want to mention here about the Titans defense is just

hitting on that fact that I just broke up. The Titans played man coverage much more at the beginning of the game, and that's when you saw tight end Noah Fant having some success. When the Titans went with more of a zone approach later in the game, they were able to bottle up Noah Fant, who was the primary target for Drew Locke on the night. So that had a lot to do with the Titans bottling up the Broncos offense in the second half. Moving to the offensive side of the ball, the Broncos came out running a ton of cover three, and that's why you saw Corey Davis having such success on crossers over the middle of the field. Basically in a cover three, the top safety in the back, the two cornerbacks on the

side, they each have one third of the field. So if somebody goes deep in your one thing, the cornerback on the left-hand side, the cornerback has to follow the Titans wide receiver as he goes deep down the field. Corey Davis is going to cross from the right-hand side over to the left-hand side. And if he gets to the sideline, who's going to be there to stop him with a cover three the cornerback is releasing all the way up the field with the Titans receiver that's running deep on the left side that's going to open up that's an easy way to beat cover three the Chiefs are excellent at this you're going to run a deep man on one side of the ball and send crossers from the

other side of the ball to that side of the ball. There's not going to be anybody on the sideline as that defender has been cleared out deep by that side, the play side wide receiver. So the Titans did that early, and that's why you saw Corey Davis have such success at the beginning of the game and throughout the game. Also, just want to point out, Adam Humphreys has such a good feel for zone defenses. Later in the game, he was just finding a hole in the zone. Tannehill

was putting it on his chest. He was doing a possession catch. If you play Madden whatsoever, it's the X catch. Possession catch. Every time, just getting the ball in his hands, going down to the ground, getting the yards that were available, and that was really important for the Titans as they made their fourth quarter push. Continuing with my offensive news and notes, Derrick Henry didn't have his best game. No, he wasn't bad. He went over 100 yards, but I thought some of the issues that the Titans had in the run game were actually because of Derrick Henry. Wasn't incredibly explosive, didn't make a lot of people miss, didn't break a ton of tackles. One particular play, he went

one-on-one against the Broncos tiny cornerback Bryce Callahan and wasn't able to break the tackle I didn't think Derrick Henry had a very good night and in my opinion he deserves just as much of the blame for the struggles in the run game as the offensive line honestly maybe even a little bit more now one person or a few people that were to blame for the struggles in the run game Kari Blossom game at fullback didn't have a very good day. Derrick Henry got absolutely blown up by Josie Jewell on a run play in the second half. I'm sure you guys are picturing that in your head. It was a big hit on Derrick Henry as he tried to cut back to the right side.

Kari Blossom game had an easy seal on Josie Jewell to give Derrick Henry a really nice lane, and he totally whiffed on the block. Jewell cut right by him and blew up Derrick Henry at the line of scrimmage. So not a great day blocking for Kari Blossom game, and Nate Davis really struggled early, especially against Jarrell Casey. Casey kind of took advantage of Nate Davis quite a bit throughout the day. Not a very good game for Davis. He was better late when the Titans started kind of picking things up in the run game

in the third quarter. He was better late, but not a banner day for Derek Henry, Kari Blossom game, or Nate Davis in the run game. A.J. Brown looked hurt in my opinion. His final catch of the day, he went down on his stomach when he got tackled and he was just really slow to get up so glad AJ Brown was able to battle but he looked banged up and the last note that I have here and the final thing I want to say is Ryan Tannehill was sharp Ryan Tannehill was one of the Titans best players and late in the game Ryan Tannehill was Brady-esque and how accurate and precise he was leading them down the field for the game Ryan Tannehill was Brady-esque in how accurate and precise he was leading them down the field for the game winning field goal.

He led them down the field twice, won a missed field goal and then finally the field goal that did win the game and went in. Tannehill has taken a lot of flack from some national sources including some people from this network, the Locked On NFL Show. And no disrespect to anybody for their opinion on the game, but if your takeaway from the game was Ryan Tannehill was carried, you simply didn't watch the game. Ryan Tannehill carried the Titans offense late, and it's just starting to get a little

bit annoying that people keep saying Tannehill was carried when he actually is the one carrying the offense more often than not. when he actually is the one carrying the offense more often than not. So Derrick Henry, not his best game, still produced over 100 yards, but Ryan Tannehill deserves much more respect and much more credit than he gets. So that is going to do it for my rewatch Wednesday. That is all my additional news and notes and insights that I got from the multiple rewatches that I had on NFL Game Pass. Make sure you check out NFL Game Pass yourself as well.

But we are going to go into the highlights from Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel's Zoom conference on Tuesday and get a little bit of a temperature check of where the team is right now after game one. That audio is courtesy of TennesseeTitans.com. With the ever-increasing number of makes and models, it's basically impossible for a chain front store to stock all of the parts that you may need. So why endure the often pointless task of going into the store, the guy at the counter is just going to order parts off his computer that he doesn't have in stock anyway, and there's the

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make sure you write locked on in the how did you hear about us box that's right underneath your shipping information so they know that I sent you amazing selection reliably low prices all of the parts your car will ever need rock auto dot com let's dive right in to our Titans temperature check and hear from head coach Mike Vrabel

directly from Tuesday's zoom conference as he puts a bow on the Broncos, as he would say. Obviously, audio is courtesy of TennesseeTitans.com, but the number one question that Vrabel is going to be asked about and should be asked about is the status of kicker Steven Gostkowski. Well, I mean, I think for a guy that's a career 87%, you know, field goal kicker who's done it as long as he has, you know, I think a lot of those corrections are going to be on him, but it's also going to be about, you know, us in the operation and the ability for us to,

to protect and the ability to make, make everything around them better and have a lot of faith and confidence in Steven and moving forward. Notice that Vrabel mentions his career accuracy rate. He knows that this guy can make field goals. And at the end, he says, you know, we just got to have faith, believe in Steven that at some, you have to settle down. You can't be jumping from partner to partner nonstop all the time. At some point, you got to settle down.

The Titans probably need to settle down at kicker at some point as they just continue going through different options, and it's not getting any better. So since you do have someone who has been a historically accurate kicker, as I mentioned earlier, probably a good idea to settle down a little bit and just see if he can ride this out try to put him in a best position as possible and and maybe against the the Jaguars not uh not need to kick so many field goals but that leads us into Mike Vrabel talking about how his team dealt with all of the missed field goals,

all of the ejection of Rashawn Evans, the penalties early. A lot of things didn't go the Titans' way. How do you deal with that as a team? I think you have to be always resilient in this league. I don't think that you can have a team that's a bunch of frontrunners, in this league, I don't think that you can have a team that that's a bunch of front runners, uh, that they're only, you know, excited or only play hard or, you know, we're only into it when you're winning. Uh, it's tough. It's a long process. And, um, sometimes it's not going to go your way. Sometimes things are going to, um, not look too good. And obviously, um, we've had

moments like that before and it was, you know. It was good to go on the road. It's hard to win in this league. It's hard to win on the road, especially in Denver. And so, you know, I hope that we can embrace those times that are tough and difficult and then hopefully learn from them and play better. A lot of those things that Vrabel was talking about right there can be applied outside of football,

just as much as inside of football, learning from your mistakes, getting better. And someone who probably needs to do those things is Titans offensive tackle, rookie Isaiah Wilson. Obviously he got a DUI last weekend, has been on the COVID list twice, having conditioning issues in training camp.

A very rough start for Isaiah Wilson, but nothing that he can't rebound from, not only as a football player, but as a person. And Mike Vrabel just gives his thoughts, his additional thoughts, on where Isaiah Wilson is right now and the plan going forward. Yeah, I think that the, you know, we were comfortable with the person that we brought in here and, you know, mistakes, you know, again, we've been through this. Me personally, obviously, kids being in college, you college, coaching in college, there's good people that make mistakes and there's bad people.

And I don't think that Isaiah is a bad person. I do think that part of what we do as coaches is to be able to get these guys to help us and help the team win. But it's also about helping them off the field and, and, and how their, their, their growth and the maturity and the, and the men that they become. Certainly we're, we're not we don't condone that type of behavior whatsoever. It's unacceptable, but you know, as long as there's an honest effort to improve, we're going to put forth that effort as a coaching staff and as an organization. Help any player with any issues that they have.

And a player that didn't have many issues, though, on Monday night was wide receiver Corey Davis. Seven catches, 101 yards, made some incredible catches when it mattered the most for the Titans, really helped out his quarterback, helped out his team. And Mike Rabel talks about Corey Davis' performance on Monday night and just how impactful it was. I'm really proud of Corey and his effort, his ability, you know what I mean,

to go and attack the football and, you know, really help us there in some big situations. You know, I thought that was real positive to see. You know, he continued to improve. He's a big target with strong hands uh ran some some good routes and um you know really went up and got the ball down there late when two defenders were were there you know really bailed Ryan out and I think and so it was it was great and hopefully we can get that from Corey and continue to to improve but uh. But it was a big boost last night.

But Corey wasn't the only player that caught the eye of head coach Mike Vrabel. Vrabel talks about some of the other players that stood out, not only on offense and defense, but on special teams as well. We'll probably have a few more guys that we'll recognize. I just think from a special team standpoint we continue to great get uh you know phenomenal uh punting from from brett i thought uh chris milton was uh was factored in that game um all his punt coverage you know defensively um you know jeffrey simmons i, you know, defensively, you know, Jeffrey Simmons, I think, you know, Harold.

And, again, this is just watching the tape. And, you know, I'll get here again with the coaches. And we'll put a bow on Denver. And, obviously, we're all looking on to Jacksonville. Speaking of putting a bow on the Broncos game and looking on to Jacksonville, we are going to be doing just that here on the Locked on Titans podcast. Today was Rewatch Wednesday. We went over the transactions so far this week,

went through my extra notes, extra insights, extra tidbits from my multiple rewatches of Monday night's game. And then tomorrow, we are going to begin looking on to Jacksonville with a crossover Thursday conversation, the second of the season, and it will be with the host of Locked On Jaguars, Tony Wiggins. Tony is one of my favorite guys to talk to in the Locked On Network, and I am excited to talk about this rivalry one more time

with Wigg on tomorrow's show. Make sure you catch that conversation our crossover Thursday and stay locked in to the Locked On Titans podcast by subscribing on Apple Podcast, following on Spotify, or whatever platform you do stream. Make sure you do check out my Twitter account at TicTacTitans,

where I break down all of the X's and O's for the Tennessee Titans, including my TicTacTitan film breakdowns and my debut segment today on my Twitter feed at Tic Tac Titans. It is a Tic Tac four pack breaking down the four most impactful plays from the Titans game against the Broncos. A ton of content coming your way, not only in audio form, but also visually on my Twitter

account. Make sure that you are tuned into everything that I am breaking down throughout the season here on the Locked on Titans podcast. But that is going to do it for me today. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you