Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Re-Watch Wednesday: Passing Game Failure, Defensive Weakness & Roster Moves

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

The Tennessee Titans not only got outplayed by the Jets, they got outcoached. Tyler discusses in this REWATCH WEDNESDAY episode. First, Tyler discusses Tuesday's roster moves and the addition of John Simon. Also, hits on the Urban Meyer controversy. Then, step into the film room as Tyler tells you why the Titans offense failed and a key adjustment by the Jets defense in the second half. Finally, Tyler talks defense and exposes a fatal flaw in the way the Titans generate pass rush.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. 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, it is a re-watch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. My favorite day of the week. I have re-watched the Titans game on the TV copy. I've re-watched the coaches' angles, the all-22, and I'm ready to tell you guys exactly what I saw from the Titans, schematically speaking, on the offensive side of the ball and on the defensive side of the ball. Saw exactly how the Jets decided to attack and some key adjustments that they made late in the game that helped them come back and get that victory in the second half and into

overtime. So I'm excited to step into the film room and share my film notes with you guys on this Wednesday episode. Before we get into my rewatch notes though, do have to talk about the Titans roster moves that were made on Tuesday. We saw a familiar face who I've been looking for throughout the last few weeks finally added back to the Titans squad on Tuesday. I'll tell you who those players were that were added. And also, we have a big news story out of the Titans division with not only a division rival, but the team that the Titans will be playing in week five. So it is a rewatch Wednesday.

Excited to go over all of my film notes with you guys today on a Wednesday episode. 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. every day. Titans fans, I gotta be honest with you. At first, I thought it was due to the despicable performance from the Titans against the Jets, but I'm actually dealing with a little bit of a bout of food poisoning.

So my apologies if you see anything off with the energy or anything like that, but I feel like I'm good enough to go and we can power through, make sure we get to these rewatch notes. But before we get into anything, do got to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Also, if you're new, make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. Remember, you can find the Locked on Titans podcast everywhere and always free. I did do a big film dump on Tuesday on my Twitter account,

at Tic Tac Titans, so make sure that you check me out there as well. But let's dive into these roster moves that the Titans made, and on Tuesday, the Titans signed two names to their practice squad, one of them being a name that will be familiar, and it's outside linebacker John Simon. After we saw the injuries to Derek Roberson, after we saw the injury to Rashad Weaver, the Titans only had three active edges on their team. Bud Dupree, Harold Landry, and Ola Dainey.

And Bud Dupree isn't available right now for the Titans. So they added Sheree Finch last week, another familiar face. I wondered if they would bring back Simon as a guy who was with the Titans during training camp and started all 16 games for the Patriots last year. They didn't do it last week, but they have done it now. Simon's played 97 games in his career, has 21 sacks. A lot of those games he played with Mike Vrabel in Houston when Vrabel was a defensive coach for the Texans.

So that makes sense. I would imagine that Simon would get the call-up to the active roster, not officially placed on the 53, but get that practice squad call-up for this week's game. Also, the Titans did add Karan Reid, who's a 6'2", 292-pound defensive lineman, has played 54 games in his career, added to the practice squad to just give them some additional depth

along the defensive line, where I have a feeling that the Titans are not entirely happy with a guy like Amani Bledsoe, Woodrow Hamilton, and they could look to maybe shuffle up that interior defensive line rotation. So those are the roster moves that the Titans made on Tuesday. We do have to talk about a big news story, probably the biggest news story of the day on Tuesday in the NFL. And it does concern the Titans because it's a division rival. Not only that, but it is the team that the Titans will play this weekend. And it's the story surrounding

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer. So since Urban Meyer was hired, I have been skeptical. You can go back to my off season podcast. I said, I have a feeling this is not going to work out. And a lot of you guys know I'm from Ohio. I was grown and raised a Buckeyes fan. I've at times had allegiance to Urban Meyer, but even during his time with the Buckeyes and the success that he had, it was obvious that there were some character concerns and that has led to these issues in Jacksonville. So he hires Chris Doyle as coach who had an incident at Iowa that made him a very controversial figure, and two days later, he's fired. He got fined $100,000 for impermissible contact during OTAs. That's already a red flag. Outside of that, the Tim Tebow fiasco, signing a guy who clearly didn't belong on the roster. Then you get into the training camp time.

He's saying Gardner Minshew and Trevor Lawrence are both battling for first-team snaps, and he's given half of the first-team snaps to a guy that he traded just a few weeks later to the Eagles and Gardner Minshew. We get into the season. The Jags are 0-4. They're not playing very well.

They're coming off a loss. Urban Meyer doesn't fly home with his own team. And then over the weekend, is caught partying with some young girls in Columbus. Pictures taken of him getting pretty handsy with these young ladies. And just to remind you, Urban Meyer is a married man who always talks about how important faith is in his life. Well, you look at the issues with some of the players that he had at Florida.

You look with some of the issues that he had at Ohio State. You look at the issues that he's having now with Jacksonville. All of that has led to a lot of conversation about him losing his job. And on Tuesday, the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Shad Khan, had to make this statement about Urban Meyer. He said, I have addressed this matter with Urban. Specifics of our conversation will be held in confidence. What I will say is his conduct last weekend was inexcusable.

I appreciate Urban's remorse, which I believe is sincere. Now he must regain our trust and respect. That will require a personal commitment from Urban to everyone who supports, represents, or plays for our team. I am confident he will deliver. If the owner is coming out four weeks into your first season, after all of the other things that I mentioned, and saying that he has to regain trust and respect because trust is lost,

well, boy, that's a pretty terrible start. So I say all that to say this. The Titans better not go out there and lose to Jacksonville, or my optimism and my tone on this podcast is going to shift very much. So the Titans better take care of business with all the turmoil going on in Jacksonville right now. But with that being said, it is time to get into my rewatch Wednesday notes. We are going to step into the film room,

take a look at what the Titans did from an X's and O's perspective on offense and defense. Before we get into that though, do got to remind all of you Titans fans about an incredible app that anybody who buys gas needs to know about. It's called GetUpside. My listeners are making up to 25 cents for every gallon of gas every time they fill up. Just download the free GetUpside app in the App Store or Google Play right now. Use the promo code touchdown and you'll get a bonus 25 cents per gallon

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based on what we saw from the Titans in week four in an overtime loss to the Jets. Before we get into that, once again, I want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. So starting on the offensive side of the ball, what I will say is the Titans were able to run the ball and we saw that. Great success for Derrick Henry in the run game. And my observation is the Jets just weren't really worried about that. That's why they stayed in four-man

fronts the entire time like we talked about on the preview episode. It was more about can we stop this Titans passing attack. Yeah, they're going to be able to run the ball. But when things are on? Yeah, they're going to be able to run the ball, but when things are on the line, they're going to have to throw it. Can the Titans beat us in the passing game? And without Julio Jones and without A.J. Brown, the answer was no. And there's really no other way to slice it. It's that simple. It's that simple.

The Titans were going to be able to run the ball, but the Jets knew when the time came for the Titans to throw it, they couldn't. And why couldn't they? Well, the Jets, who play mostly zone under Robert Sala with that cover three scheme, they threw that out the window. They said, nah, we're playing man against. I'm sure what they were thinking is some bums at wide receiver and quite frankly, the wide receiver core that the Titans rolled out there on Sunday is the worst wide receiver core in the NFL period for week four. That is the worst group of wide receivers that played in the NFL this weekend.

So the Jets just said, screw it. We're playing man coverage. They're not going to be able to beat us. So in the first half, the Jets brought everybody up to the line of scrimmage and passing downs. Yeah, they kept their four-man fronts on early downs against the run, but in passing situations, they loaded the line of scrimmage, and I got to tell you guys, this is what beats the Titans every time.

This is how the Titans get beat. Baltimore, Green Bay, the Cardinals. I mean, this is the formula. You get the Titans in third and medium, third and longs, and then you crowd the line of scrimmage, blitz the hell out of them, and play man. And the Titans can't win. That's why they went out and got Julio Jones,

somebody who, with A.J. Brown, can beat man coverage every single time. But they didn't have those guys this week, so they didn't even have a chance to beat man coverage. The Jets played a ton of heavy man press coverage right in the Titans' face. They didn't care what the down and distance was. These guys are not going to beat us.

And it was a combination of things. One, they didn't ever beat the Jets. I mean, I can count five times or less out of the 60-some plays that the Titans ran on offense where they actually beat the coverage. It just didn't happen. And then you combine that with the struggles on the offensive line. The Jets were doing a really good job of confusing the Titans.

They'd have six or seven people near the line of scrimmage. They'd back out these guys, rush these guys, bring a slot blitz, even though it looked like the linebacker was coming. And you can blame the Titans coaching staff you can blame Ryan Tannehill calling protections you can blame Ben Jones who's calling protections either way the Titans were either calling the wrong protections on those blitzes and sliding the wrong way

sliding the opposite way of what they should or Todd Downing did not have the correct blitz pickup possibilities for the Titans to be able to pick up what they were seeing. Either way, it should have been adjusted at halftime, and it wasn't. You want to talk about a key adjustment that the Titans didn't make at halftime, but the Jets made at halftime. So I told you, in the first half, the Jets were crowding the line of scrimmage. They were playing tight man coverage.

Well, how do you adjust to that as an offense? How do you deal with that? Well, it's something that the Titans have been doing throughout the season because this is a typical approach that defenses take because it's proven success. The Titans will get in trips, three wide receivers to one side of the field. They'll go in a bunch where you see the wide receivers

all close to each other in a triangle. And what that does is that makes it difficult for the Jets defense to pick up at the line of scrimmage in that press man coverage. You can't press a guy who's two yards off the line of scrimmage.

You can't do that. So it gives the Titans a chance to maybe get some breathing room and release off the line of scrimmage, release into their route and have a chance to get open. But here's what the Jets were doing. The Titans were having two wide receivers on one side, a third wide receiver on the other side. They would motion the wide receiver over into that trips bunch on the same side. And right when the Titans did that, the Jets would audible their defense. They would back guys off the line of scrimmage and they would go into zone.

And now the Titans are running a man-beating formation with man-beating routes against zone coverage. And it didn't work. And it didn't work. And Robert Sala just gave Todd Downing the business. There's no way around it. Robert Sala was such a good defensive coach that he got a head coaching job.

So he's clearly overall, speaking, a better coach than Todd Downing. That's just the facts. And we saw it. The Jets had a great plan to adjust and audible once the Titans tried to audible and adjust to what the Jets were doing. It was just a chess game

and the Jets beat them time after time where the Titans would motion into a trips bunch, run man beating concepts in the passing game and the Jets beat them time after time where the Titans would motion into a trips bunch, run man-beating concepts in the passing game, and the Jets would audible and turn it into zone. And I don't know what else to say, but the Titans don't have the wide receivers to beat man coverage. They didn't have the protection necessary to give Ryan Tannehill time to find holes in the zone.

Yeah, Tannehill could have got rid of the ball a little bit quicker on certain plays. I pointed those out in all my film breakdowns on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans on Tuesday. But Ryan Tannehill had his quickest time to throw of the entire season at 2.45 seconds. So he was getting the ball out as fast as he could. At some point, the offensive line and the wide receivers

got to do their job too. And we didn't see that enough in the passing game from the Titans. What I will say is just back to the run game for one quick second to let you know, the Titans were able to run the ball pretty well, but the issue that they were having is the Titans offensive linemen were having trouble getting bodies on the Jets second level defenders. Quincy Williams, CJ Mosley had great days for the Jets because the Titans offensive line would double team at the line of scrimmage and then the guards or the tackles would climb to the second level and they just weren't fast enough. And CJ Mosley and Williams were darting underneath, in between, away from the Titans offensive linemen and they weren't able to get bodies on them.

They were able to get hits on Derrick Henry, and I have to give the Jets credit. They did a great job tackling Derrick Henry on the day. They're second-level guys. They're safeties. They just did a great job bringing Derrick Henry down and not letting him break a bunch of tackles on his way to big gains. So there's that.

The last thing that I want to point out here is one criticism and then one player note. Ty Sambrello. We talked about how terrible Jeff Swaim has been throughout this entire season so far. The Titans started bringing in Ty Sambrello as an extra offensive lineman, a sixth offensive lineman to be a heavy tight end instead of Swaim.

So they would have Ferkser or Pruitt or Hudson as the tight end off the line of scrimmage. And they would have Ty Sambrillo as that tight end. I hope to see a little bit more of that. Sambrillo is athletic enough to give you a little bit in the passing game if you need to run a trick play. But he's also just going to be a tremendously better blocker than Jeff Swaim is right now. And then finally, the Titans surely did not run enough play action on first down. Only 21% of the dropbacks out of play action. The Titans ran the ball down the Jets throat

for the game. When they went ahead 17 to 10, they ran the ball down the Jets throat. It was like six or seven running plays right in a row. Well, the Titans followed that up with two, three and outs. up with two three and outs why not go first down play action on the drive immediately after you just ran six running plays in a row and drove it down their throats why wouldn't the very first play on first down be play action when the Jets are worried about it when they're thinking about it when it's really in their head no the Titans run two straight plays, don't get anything going, and then they try to play action on first down the next drive, but the Jets aren't really that worried about it at the time. So just confusing the way that the play calls are coming together and the timing of when Downing wants to use play action on first down, not enough. And also, not enough screens in this

game. The Titans threw seven screen passes. One of them was caught by Roger Saffold, but other than that, they completed the other six. Not all of them were great plays, but the Titans had a ton of success on screen passes. They only ran one screen pass to a wide receiver. It was incomplete, and that was early in the game. They never went back to another one. They only ran one screen pass to a tight end.

It was Michael Pruitt, and he had a pretty good game. Why didn't the Titans run 10, 12 screens in this game instead of just 7? I don't understand. They were having good success. I just don't understand why you go away from something that's working so well that based on what we saw from the Jets defense and film study coming in, made a lot of

sense. Can't really tell you, but that is my offensive notes, my rewatch Wednesday notes for the offensive side of the ball. We are going to get into the defensive side of the ball next. Before we do, just want to tell you guys about the best tasting protein bar in the galaxy from our friends over at

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Before we get into my defensive schematic notes, I do just want to tell you guys, I know you're making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day, but make sure you make the Peacock and Williamson show your second listen. You have Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson show, your second listen. You have Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson giving you a national perspective on all the latest NFL news. Make sure you check out the Peacock and Williamson podcast on whatever platform you do stream. But let's dive into my defensive notes quickly.

In fairness, I'm telling you, I am running out of steam a little bit. Getting a little sweaty here. Getting a little uncomfortable. I'm even going to hit some water. This is a great opportunity for me to tell you guys, please hydrate. Water is the key. I'm a big water guy.

Anyways, let's dive into these re-watch notes. The Titans were really good in run defense. I mean, there's no way around it. The Jets weren't able to run for more than 70 yards in the game. Jeffrey Simmons did a really good job. Danico Autry did a really good job. Also, thank Harold Landry did a pretty good job. David Long did a pretty

good job as well. Tyre Tart struggled a little bit, but either way, overall, I thought the Titans did pretty good in run defense. They kept with their run fits. And one thing that was different, the Titans have been mostly working out of four-man fronts, out of 4-3 alignment throughout the last few weeks. They went to 3-4 alignment mostly against the Jets, and it paid dividends.

Now, of course, the Titans keep things multiple, so there's going to be four-man fronts on tape. But I thought the Titans put a focus on using five-man fronts to make sure that they could put that backside pressure that I talked about works on the Titans offense. It worked on the Jets offense as well, so the Titans focused on that backside pressure, and it's easier to do that when you have a five-man front, so that was big. The number one thing that stuck out to me, though, flashbacks to 2020. Cornerback alignment issues, communication issues. So late in the game,

the Jets started going to bunch formations as well to beat the Titans man coverage. I already explained the philosophy of why a team would do that when I talked about the Titans offense. So the Jets started doing that and one thing that kept popping up is Jackrabbit Jenkins,

not saying it's his fault explicitly, Breon Borders is also guilty of this, but if you're watching on YouTube, you're going to see these hand gestures. Basically, you'll see the Titans defensive backs do this when they're real close together, when teams go in bunch or trips. They'll shoot finger guns at each other, or they'll

pound the rock. Make your hand into two fists, pound them on top of each other. They'll make hand signals to each other, and what they're doing is they're communicating who is going to take who on the routes because the whole key is, think, if the Titans, I don't know exactly what their hand signals mean for each coverage because I'm not in the locker room.

Well, let's say the finger guns means I'm taking inside, you're taking outside. Well, that means the Titans' most inside cornerback is going to take man coverage on whichever wide receiver releases to the inside most, and the other guy is going to take the outside most wide receiver. The point man, the middle guy, is just going to take the middle guy most of the time.

So the Titans are communicating those responsibilities. Well, like we saw last year, there's confusion as to who's doing what. And the Titans got lucky one time specifically, I can remember, where Breon Borders was supposed to take Corey Davis. Corey Davis ran a streak down the middle of the field, and if not for the Titans getting pressure on Zach Wilson, it would have been a touchdown. Because Jack Rabbit Jenkins and Breon Borders both played man coverage on the same guy in trips. And then the big completion to Keelan Cole in overtime on the sideline. Jackrabbit was supposed to guard him. Jackrabbit followed him in

motion over until he got into the trips on the other side. And then Jackrabbit gave some hand signals to the other cornerbacks and there was a breakdown because Jackrabbit was late on it. Didn't realize that was his man until too late and it created an explosive play down the field that put the Jets

in a great position to get a field goal. So, alignment issues with the cornerbacks, 15, 10 yards off-widers. I mean, the Jets just over and over again went to these outs, deep outs to Corey Davis on the sideline. And quite frankly, they should have hit a bunch more of those, but Zach Wilson wasn't accurate. If Zach Wilson was accurate in this game, the Titans would have got smoked. And that's what I saw on film.

Lots of open receivers that Wilson was late on or inaccurate on. And it's because the Titans are backed so far off. And Mike Vrabel can say that that's not what they coach. And they got to talk to Jack Rabbit about being 15 yards off the wide receiver. But this has happened three years in a row now that we've seen these alignment issues with the cornerbacks. It's something the Titans are obviously coaching them to do.

These players aren't just going rogue, going willy-nilly and doing whatever they want. I mean, that's not the answer. That all these guys are just going AWOL on the Titans. That's not it. That's not it. That's not it.

So that's an issue with the coverage. The problem with the pass rush for me, it's this simple. So the Titans have been having really big problems with letting quarterbacks roll out. So Carson Wentz was on two bum ankles. I'm throwing that out. Obviously, he can't move around. But Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson, Zach Wilson, these dudes

have been getting out of the pocket, rolling out to their dominant side of their right arm, and chucking it. And getting a ton of, I mean, how many times have we seen Kyler Murray roll out of the pocket and make plays? How many times have we seen Zach Wilson roll out of the pocket to the right and bomb the ball downfield? It happened three or four times. The Titans like to run games and stunts and twists and loops up front. Well, what happens when you take your defensive end

or your outside linebacker and you loop him to the inside? Well, that gives a free lane to the quarterback to run outside. There's nobody coming with edge pressure if you run that kind of stunt. And the Titans love running stunts in games. So what they're doing is they're running stunts in games because that's the only way they can get pressure

because the Titans can't get pressure just rushing four guys against four guys without running stunts and twists. They literally cannot do it. So when you run stunts and loops and things like that and you give the quarterback a free opportunity to get out of the pocket to their dominant hand, well, you're just making it so, so difficult

on your defensive backs. I mean, on the one pass down the field, the touchdown to Corey Davis, I mean, how long do you want these cornerbacks to cover NFL wide receivers? We cannot want these cornerbacks to cover NFL wide receivers? We cannot ask the cornerbacks to cover for five, six seconds down the field and plaster. We can't. That's not going to work. It's going to be very difficult for anybody to cover

that long in that scenario. And the Titans are basically inviting that to happen. Now they're in a tough spot because you have to run the stunts, you have to run the loops, you have to run the twists to be able to get pressure because the Titans guys can't win one-on-one. But when you do that, you give the quarterback more lanes

to get out of the pocket and make plays. Tough spot. We'll see how the Titans counter. Trevor Lawrence is able to get out of the pocket and make plays. Tough spot. We'll see how the Titans counter. Trevor Lawrence is able to get out of the pocket and make plays as well. Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes are able to get out of the pocket and make plays as well.

I mean, you got to be worried about that. It's something that's concerning to me going forward that I'm seeing on tape. But that's going to do it for this edition of Rewatch Wednesday. I appreciate you guys hanging with me while I may not be feeling my best, but I tried to deliver, give you all the energy and information that

you have come to expect. But I will be back with you guys tomorrow for a crossover Thursday. Very excited to talk to one of my favorite colleagues, Tony Wiggins from Locked on Jags. I know he's a guy who's pretty frustrated with what's going on right now, so it'll be a very entertaining conversation.

You won't want to miss that. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you