Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - TITANS SQUAD SHOW: Robert Saleh era starts with DISASTER after lopsided loss to Jets

Episode Date: September 13, 2026

A rough start to the Robert Saleh era. The Titans fall to the NY Jets 23-10. In our latest episode, we break down the offense’s lackluster performance and look at what went wrong with a defense that was supposed to be our strongest unit.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Butcher Box If you're looking for an easier way to get great meals on the table, give ButcherBox a try. Go to https://ButcherBox.com/LOCKEDONNFL to get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ribeye, new york strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year — with free shipping always. Fabletics  Shop now at https://Fabletics.com/LOCKEDONNFL to get 70-80% off everything when you sign up as a new VIP. Take a quick style quiz and be sure to select LOCKEDONNFL when prompted to unlock this offer. This is a limited-time offer, so don’t wait.   Bask & Lather  Explore viral bestsellers and products of healthier hair of ALL types from Bask and Lather. Go to https://baskandlatherco.com and use code LOCKEDON for 20% off. Aura Aura helps protect your personal information by actively removing your data from data broker sites and keeping it off.Start your free trial today at http://aura.com/aware. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast. PrizePicks Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL and use code LOCKEDONNFL and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup! KALSHI Today's episode is brought to you by Kalshi. For a limited time, Download Kalshi and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. Kalshi. Trade what’s next.  Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuel Get three hundred fifty dollars in Bonus Bets — GUARANTEED — when you bet five dollars every day for seven days.https://FANDUEL.COM  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, week one didn't go like some Titans fans had hoped. What went wrong in the loss against the Jets? We break it down. And what was on Cam Ward in this game and what was on the offensive line? We'll get it all taken care of right here. And also, Notre Dame Sala. He predicted exactly what would happen in this game, and it sure did. Titan up.

It's the Titans squad. Tennessee Titans every week. Covering all the big hits and game-changing plays from the heart of Music City the way only the Lockdown Podcast Network can. Squad up. The Titan Squad Show starts now. Welcome to the Titan Squad Show. Julian Minnesot and Kayla Anderson, Brad Hopkins here with you. Today's episode is brought to you by Kalshi for a limited time, download Kalshi and use code locked on to get $25 when you trade $25. she trade what's next. Our first regular season post-game edition show of the years of

Titans Fall in week one to the New York Jets, 23 to 10. And I'm going to leave the floor for you guys here. It's the first time we've gotten a real regular season game sample size from the Robert Sala era Titans. What are your thoughts? Kayla. Yeah. So I made it clear in the podcast that we did on Tuesday that what I wanted to

see what I thought I needed to see at least with the Robert Salas stamp was some sort of a identification of what this defense was. And I don't truly believe that I really saw that. I felt that the defensive line was dominated by the Jets offensive line today. I mean, Gino Smith, I get it. He's on the latter part of his career, but I think Gino came into this season with a bit of a chip on his shoulder knowing that he was playing behind an invincible offensive line in

Las Vegas and oh, you know, breaking news, you need to have a legit offensive line or a good enough offensive line to be able to actually do stuff as a quarterback. And I thought Gina was able to do that today. Their offensive line was terrific. Yeah. And I just was really disappointed in not being able to see any resemblance of a pass rush from Robert Sala in this so-called supposed to be physical. defense.

Yeah. Well, first of, Kayla, you didn't have to see a pass rush today because they very rarely threw the football because they didn't have to. Yeah. And in our very beginning when we just came out and I said Robert Salo was Nostradamus, these were his

predictions on how to win the ball game. Winning the line scrimmage, taking care of the football, making the right decisions when you're tired. Now, would he have liked his team to check all those boxes? Absolutely. But Frank Reich and company didn't invent the football. They basically did what the formula for winning takes.

It's winning up front. Now, fortunately for the Jets, the most dominant part of their entire team is their front five. That's where they flat out get it done. Tackling for the Titans was an issue because when you've got guys that are being dominated up front and Brees Hall is running through this offense like me drinking milk because I'm lactose intolerant. it's just a it's a bad thing it's a bad formula and that's why you saw even in one instance the jets run nine straight plays most of those right at the heart of the defense now what that does is it doesn't allow complementary football okay so what i'm going to do today is i'm going to talk

as if i'm a coach my playing experience and having been in these moments on both sides it makes me do that. In other words, I'm not going to editorialize. It's not my place. I'm going to do just like Robert Sala just said in this post-game interview, I'm going to take a hard look at what happened, and that's the reality. Look yourself in the mirror and be able to say what happened. Did the Titans do enough on either side of the football to win?

Absolutely not. And that is not complimentary football. They allowed the Jets to score way too many points, which then dictated the situation to the tightens. Titans had on offense. Did the Titans stay on the field long enough to compliment an exhausted defense that was just run down through over and over and over again? Absolutely not. Gino Smith did not beat the Titans because Gino Smith didn't have to beat the Titans. Gino Smith did not need to be Lamar Jackson to give the Jets a chance to win. What they did today was took control of the football

game up front. They did not take that pistol out of its holster and shoot themselves in the foot. the very beginning of the ball game, when Joey Sly kicked the ball out of bounds, gave the Jets the ball at the 40-yard line, to it started. Because in that first possession, the Jets then put up points of which the Titans had to respond, and they didn't. And that happened over and over and over again all day. These are just facts. And unfortunately, I just thought this game got off to a crap start. I think the tone was set from the start. Special teams, there was some blunders there.

And then you even saw some of New York's secondary guys go down. I mean, they had some bodies that had gone down. I mean, if expatrix went down, obviously Jarvis Brownlee, former Titan went down. And they were still doing what they wanted to do. But the Titans, you know, they came out running the ball in that first drive. But after that, because their offense couldn't stay on the field and their defense was on the field for such a long time because the Jets just kept running the ball, it's like there was no flow at all. to this game for the Titans.

No, not at all. I mean, and you said it Bhop. It's not like offensive coordinator, Frank Reich and the Jets did, like, invented rocket science here. Right. I mean, they dominated up front. Breece Hall, they kept feeding him the football. It allowed them to get in the rhythm. And for the times that Gino had to throw the football, he was a lot comier in the pocket.

Not to mention, like you said, Kayla, the defense, just stayed on the field too long for the Titans. I think according to the TV broadcast, it was almost half an hour of actual time on the field. Yep. I think it was like 27 minutes or something like that. And when you have the offense on the other side with the Titans not being able to sustain drives

and move the football, it just ends up being a vicious cycle. And not to mention, running the ball short in the game too. And so by the time you look, second quarter is over and the Titans are down, you know, and it feels like though it was 10 to 3 at half time, It felt like a larger margin than it was just because of how much the jets were set in the tone, really. I mean, think about it, guys. I think the Titans had the ball in the second quarter for two minutes.

Yeah. Something ridiculous like. It was like three offensive first half possessions. So my job nowadays, these are all the plays that the Titans ran. And my thoughts after every single one. So I've got to be able to kind of assess it and look at the things and why things didn't work and why didn't they work. Why did they work and why didn't they work? That's my job as an analyst and that's my job as actually someone that's played the game.

I've got to look at some of the things that worked and didn't work. So it'll be a short list of things that worked versus a long list of things that didn't work. And that's what you have to work on during the week. Did this Titans team suck today? Yes, they did. Is the sucking permanent? That's what you have to ask yourself next. And then why did they suck?

Okay, it's easy to just say, ah, the Titan's suck and just go on and take another soup of your beard. But no, it's deep within that. Because assessing why they suck then gives you some sort of direction as to how to fix it. Now, the fortunate part, you know, when you look at guys like Steph Curry, if they took just one jump shot and they missed it and walked away from shooting jump shots, does that determine who they are as a jump shooter? No. Now, if I take 17 shots, I developed the pattern, haven't. Now, it's not going to take 17 shots for you to determine exactly what type of player I actually am, okay? But I'm saying it takes an accumulative number of attempts to then establish exactly what we are.

So I'm not going to look at game one, of which they did not perform well at all and say, this is who they are. Because like the NFL has taught everybody, you've got to play the game week in and week out. And fortunately, as a player, you have to have short-term memory. You know what I'm saying? I don't get paid to keep talking about the Jets all week like most people are going to. My now focuses on who? The Eagles. Now, do I have to look at the history of what just happened to me and learn from it?

That's why you can't erase history, guys. You can't erase history because you don't learn from your mistakes to be better in the future. If you don't look at what happened before you and take what went right and went wrong and then kind of grow up from there. So the Titans are going to look at the tape. they're going to assess themselves crucially, harshly, and then they're going to put together a game plan after putting all of that behind them

to see if they can get a win against a really good team in the Philadelphia Eagles. That's the way this thing works, okay? And that's the way it's going to work week in and week out. And you would hope that regardless of the outcome, the Titans continue to get incrementally better because that's what you would hope.

You would hope that this is the worst version of the Tennessee Titans, Win or lose? If they won this game, do you want this to be the best version of themselves? No, because everybody's going to get better during the week, okay? And during the season, during the month, during the entire season. So you'd want the same thing to happen for your tightness. I understand your frustration for fans.

I understand why you're pissed off and rightfully so. But you've also got to put things in perspective to say, hey, look, is this as good as it's going to get? And if you think that this is as good as it's going to get, Yeah, no, and I think that's where a lot of the PTSD comes from, Bhop, because there's a lot, as I'm sure you know. PTSD, I like that. In Nashville, the sense that they are clumping the last two, three, and four seasons together as one long continuous marathon of this. Yeah. And this is a new coaching staff, new system.

You know, I want to know what you guys make of, because I'm sure you guys saw Robert Salas post-game press conference, Cam Ward's post-game press conference. Cam Ward's post-game press conference. A lot of the comments that I saw from the initial live frame was that why is he more angry? Why is he a little bit more? Why is he calm? You know? And Robert Sali even joked about that saying, well, I could throw this podium up and down here and yell if I want to make you guys feel better about it. But he's taking the real approach, like you mentioned, Bhop, looking himself in the mirror and understanding the situation.

So what do you say to the fans that maybe want? a little bit more emotion out of the head coach in that situation. Bryson, my oldest son, I bought him a charger. And about three weeks later, he totaled it. He was looking for the ox cord, slid right into the back of one of his friends, who ironically was in front of him because he wasn't paying attention, and he totaled his car.

He called me right after it happened. And rather than go ape shit on it, about wrecking the car. The first thing I had to ask was, was everybody okay? Now, I did in the very beginning go, what the hell happened? And that's how I found out what happened.

And as I started to go into my diatribe of you shoulda, you shoulda, you shoulda, he said, Dad, just tell me what to do. And as a father, I looked at that moment, I said, you know what, son? You're right. What more do I have to teach you about running into the back of somebody

and then destroying your car? that taught you right there exactly a big lesson on how to be more careful behind the wheel so then as a dad i directed him on how to get out of that situation did there need to be an ambulance called was there a tow truck called you know all the other things that go into an accident so mine wasn't to be emotional and play into this whole thing about me needing to go off and and basically make the situation worse could have done that But I didn't. And that's the approach that Robert has to as the leader of this franchise has to do. He has to get his team better the next week. Does that mean tearing them down to the point where they just are losing confidence within themselves?

Does that make them better players? No, it doesn't. So while we're feeling all of these things, these angst, this anxiety, and we're pissed off about the way the game went, that's not how the leader of a team that has 16 more of these things, to do is going to approach how he directs his team. So while everybody wants him to be more pissed off, guaranteed, do you think that any fan that's pissed off right now feels worse than those guys that just lost that game? No, probably not.

Not at all. No, no, no, no. There's no probably because you, Julian, didn't go out and get your ass kicked. Kayla, you didn't go out there and put on an embarrassing performance that now reflects on you as a player. I didn't go out there and take a snap that all of a sudden people are looking at and judging me. So who do you think feels worse about this whole situation?

They do. Do you want to compound it? Does that make it better? We're really good. He's just not one of them to do that. The Titans have a lot of soul searching to do here over the next week before to try to get things better, improve before the Eagles come into town. We are going to continue to talk about this game, what went wrong for the Titans, specifically Cam Ward's performance. How we evaluate that and the offensive line as well.

Get Kayla and Brad's thoughts on the guys up front. That's next tier on the Titan Squad show. Don't go on. Feeling better can mean something different to everyone. Maybe it means handling everyday stress in healthier ways, being more present with people who matter, or simply getting better at something that's been weighing on you. Better help focuses on global emotional well-being,

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comes down to the final seconds that feeling is what makes football so fun make this the most rewarding season ever with fan duel visit fanduel.com to get stuck all right guys cam ward 19 for 32 240 yards, one touchdown that he had at the end of garbage time there to Elic I.O. Manor, he was also sacked three times today. What did you make of his performance, Kayla? I mean, it wasn't great, right? I'm not going to come out here and say that Cam Ward did an extraordinary job. He didn't. And he's obviously getting heat for it. But the problem I have is he is not the only one that should be getting heat on the offense. And that is the only thing I'm seeing, whether it be the comments in the post game presser when he spoke, whether it be comments online, whether it be comments coming at me because I have obviously stood up for Cam Ward since he has drafted and I'm going to continue to stand up for Cam Ward.

You all act like this is a flip of a switch, like this offense has been fixed overnight, that this offense isn't new again for Cam Ward, that this offensive line is up to par. It's not. And watching the small amount of drives that they were even able to put together early on, again, you're not able to get a rhythm going. You're sitting on the sideline for that extended period of time and then you come back out. And I feel like with this newness to everything that's going on, it's just hard sometimes to get into a rhythm. But when it comes to that offensive line, I saw so many times. And the broadcast said this too. I mean, I don't feel like I'm the only one thinking this,

but I do feel like there was a lot of pressure coming at Cam Ward at all angles today. And I believe at sometimes some points he used his legs to make some plays, which was a good thing. But yes, he does at some points when he has a little bit of time, the little bit of time that he has, he needs to make more accurate throws. And I understand that. But Tadje Spears had a drop on a fourth down situation that he could have converted

for a first down. That did not happen. There was also a situation. I'm trying to think what I was just going to say here. I lost my train of thought. But I think altogether, if you're going to blame this offense on being putrid again, it needs to go further than just Cam Ward. I mean, it's the offense as a whole, guys.

Okay. So did Cam need to be more accurate? Absolutely. Are there going to be some situations that he knows he wishes he could have taken back, got back? Gunnar Helm and he in. end zone on the post route. He completely skipped it. It was a touchdown potentially. Like you mentioned, there's enough blame to go around. Tazi Spears dropped an obvious first down

conversion on third and short. Okay. But what I wanted to see was, what I wanted to see was a more methodical Cam Ward. Methodical, meaning we saw his best drive was in two minutes. Okay. Why was that so effective? Because Cam had one decision to make when that ball was snapped. And the ball was out of his hands in two seconds. Okay. When Kim got into trouble when he was off platform, when he was off script, when he was trying to make something happen, sure, pressure came to him eventually, but that's because he was trying to find the right receiver.

And that time was not a luxury for him. When you're in a two-minute situation, you're working against the clock. So when the ball snapped, you've got to read to go through. And if that's the flat, boom, it's out of my hands. If that's a dive, boom, it's out of my hands. If that's a curl, boom, it's out of my hands. If it's a dig, boom, it's out of my hands. I'm not sitting back there patting the ball

trying to figure out what is my best option. He needed to be more methodical, okay? I did the color analyst for the Holy Cross Miami-Oth Ohio game this weekend. You know what the quarterback went? His name is David McComb. First year starter, transfer of Kansas. He was 13 to 13.

You know why he was 13 to 13? Because every single throw out of his hands was within two seconds, and it was to a decisive receiver that he knew was going to be open. Okay? And that was route design, too. If I've got a soft cushion, I know now what to do with that route. I need to break it off, become available, run a spot route. Boom.

The quarterback knows that that's by looking at coverage. That's exactly where I'm going with the football. See, what I'm doing here, guys, is I'm giving you reasons why there was ineptitude, why it didn't work, why it seemed clunky. because at the end of the day, the duration of the plays was way too long. That's when problems happen. Now, first and foremost, taking a page out of the Jets book and running the damn football, that opens up everything else.

Because eventually, when you started running the football effectively like the Jets were doing, that then opens up the explosive stuff down the field because you've got now guys stacked in the line of scrimmage to be able to slow down the most effective part of your offense, which was running the football. and we weren't able to do that. I would like to see less Cam Ward in the shotgun and more Cam Ward under center because then that way, when you take the ball from under center and you drop back five yards, seven yards to plant that plant foot

and you go with the football, routes are being ran and you don't know predictively what he's actually doing with it. You know what I'm saying? And there were a couple of occasions that I saw where Cam Ward got yards with his feet, but that was unintended. You know what I'm saying? Intentionally used Cam Ward. Ham Ward's feet because what does that do?

It slows down the pass rush. It makes them now be more cautious of the rush lanes because you don't know if we're so aggressive that we weren't right by this guy. Next to you know, he's running up the field for 10 to 12 yard gains and converting Thursday. Even if he doesn't get a first down, he's now at least gotten you to the first down yard marker. So then that way you can stay on the field longer, giving your defense a chance. Okay.

And they're allowing them to be more fresh and not give up so many points like they did and struggle tackling like they did. But the form of the winning the football game was laid out there in the very beginning from Robert Solid when he said you got to win a line of scrimmage. The line of scrimmage is super important to win. And how do you do that? You don't win it passing the run.

You win it by imposing your will of dominantly putting hands on dudes, pushing them back, allowing you're running back to go screaming by you for positive yards, and you rinse and you repeat. You rinse and you repeat. And the next thing you know, you bump your head on the goal line.

And you've scored touchdowns, and now you put the onus, on the other offense to do the same thing. If they throw incompletions, if they don't make accurate balls, if they don't do all these things, have drops, then guess what? You've basically given it back to the offense that's been very effective, and your defense is now on the pivot. Oh, I was also going to mention, this is a thing that I forgot,

that I lost my train of thought. You know, they were put in some bad situations to back into their own goal line several times where I just thought those were wasted drives because you're backed up into your own five or whatever it was a couple times. And it's like it's so hard to get out of those situations when you're already struggling as an offense throughout the day. Yeah, there was the one play Kayla where Cam was sacked and he avoided a safety somehow. I don't know how. I thought it was a safety. But to your point, Bhop, Titans rush for only 68 yards on the ground today.

And then it seemed like every pass play I was looking up at the TV and Cam Ward was kind of running for his life. And the times that he did have that potentially to throw the ball downfield or find. a receiver missed a couple of them. And so you end up with 19 to 32, 140 yards. So I ask you guys here, what did you make of the offensive lines performance today? Obviously, there were a lot of questions going into this offseason about the offensive line. How were they going to get a group of five together with having maybe only a couple of returning starters from the year before, two spots that they needed to fill, which they felt pretty good about throughout camp. And this was our first sample size of seeing them in a regular season game action.

well i'll go first kailan i'll give it to you i'll be brief they attacked 66 they knew what they were going to do they they put more of the onus on him there were a couple of times when you know obviously and where he needed to hold up it was an issue but it wasn't like they didn't get beat on the edges it wasn't like you know they were there put it this way there are more times than not where cam was forced to run outside of the pocket and try and make something happen. Unfortunately, Cam is not super accurate when he's running like that. And as much as we'd love to see big plays being made that way, it's not a consistent way to live. It's just nothing. So, did he have time in the pocket to set his feet, deliver an accurate ball or attempt to? No.

But also, I think the indecision of not basically going through the progression efficiently also caused some of the issues. Because I remember I had a coach. coach tell me, actually wouldn't even the coach. It was one of our strength and conditioning coaches. He said, you know what, you can be a world-class sprinter for the first two steps at 300 pounds, which is true. Like, I can put my feet down in two steps just as fast as Usain Bolt can do. Now, what happens in the next 100 meters? You know, that obviously is a situation. But I can be in two seconds the best pass blocker ever because the past. rush can't get there if I've got the ball out of my hands. You see what I'm saying? So being efficient

in protection is really also decisions by the quarterback and also receivers that can get themselves open immediately to give options and then over everybody looks good. The longer the play takes to develop, the more opportunity for bad things to happen. Yeah. Were you surprised by today's performance given how, for the O line, at least, given how much better we felt about it going into the regular season? No. Okay. No.

And I only say that because I've been saying this for three, four years that I thought that this was going to be improved offensive line. And I'm not saying it can't be. I'm not saying that at all. But I'm saying this was actual game action. Like actual game action, like another team on the other side of you who wants it just as more or just as much. By the way, we spoke on Tuesday about this.

Like, y'all acted like the Jets weren't thinking that this was a win for them. And I'm talking about the fans. Yeah. Like they were thinking that just as much as Titans fans were thinking on the opposite side. And their lines dominated. Their offensive line dominated and their defensive line. And I don't feel like the offensive line was a complete letdown. Like it was a complete disaster because, yes, he was stacked three times.

You could have been stacked six times, right? But it was just that when you're trying to get an offense to operate together on the same page and it is still new, it's going to take some real live action, some real game action to get in the flow of that. And Brad's absolutely right. Does Cam need to get out? Does he need to get the ball out quicker? Does he need to find guys sooner? Yes, that's a part of the progression of this offense.

But it's going to look a little wonky up in the first three games or four games. I'm sorry, but that's just the truth. I know that's not what people want to hear. But that is really what's going to happen because they're finding their rhythm, they're finding their timing. The offensive line is a part of that as well. So I'm not going to just sit there and bring the line either, but I'm not going to just sit there and blame Cam Ward. It's a whole problem, and everyone needs to figure it out together.

Think about the efficiency of a past game in third and two versus a past game in third and 12. Yes. You would say that for the last couple years. Think about that. No, no. Third and 12, I need to get 12 yards to convert first down. So I've got to throw the ball at least that far to get first down, right? Third and two, that ball can come out so quick into anybody, basically.

And that's the difference, okay? When you live in that space of third and two, third and under five, you're good. Even a past game is better, if more efficient. But when you're in those third and long situations because of pre-snap penalties, because of incompletions in the first two downs that create that third and 10, third, and whatever because you didn't get much in the first two downs, Now you're in a predictable pin your ears back type situation for the defense, and that's when bad things happen. Because what?

10-yard plays, 12-yard plays, 15-yard plays, they take longer to develop. And what did I just say? The duration of a play usually doesn't play well for an offense. It doesn't. Because if it takes longer for the quarterback to find a receiver, that means that coverage was doing a terrific job. That meant that pressure scared that quarterback out of the comfortable pocket that he normally is in, and now bad things happen. Because very rarely does a guy do a Patrick Mahones and be a magician outside the pocket and be just as effective. It just doesn't work that way on average.

No, and to that point, B.Hop, Titans 412 also on third down today. And there it goes back to the point where we circle around the start of this offensive conversation, right? The inability to run the ball first and second down, you can't get the yardage you need to put Cam in more advantageous situations. And then obviously, playing from behind doesn't help either, where you feel like you're trying to get it all back. in one play. And so it's a vicious cycle of it is of it all. We're going to talk about the defense on the other side of the break. What went wrong on that side of the ball and why Breece Hall is able to run wild against

the Titans. That's next here in the Titans squad. What's going on, everybody? My name is Ross Jackson, host of the Lockdown at Saints podcast. And today's Lockdown episode is brought to you by our friends at Basque and Lather. I've been using Bask and Lathers, all natural, 100% organic hair. products for my beard for a couple of years now. And it's been a lifesaver because I used to have some bad beard care habits. I'm talking over-the-counter shampoo and the beard type stuff that created

this brittle, scratchy and uncomfortable beard that I just had to wear around all the time. But now the game done change. Thanks to Baskin Lather, I got their beard care starter kit, which gave me shampoo, conditioner, oil balm, and their hair growth stimulator formula as well. And now my beard is full. It's soft but strong. And the confidence is on 10, and it's all thanks to Basque and Lather. Explore viral bestsellers and products of healthier hair of all types from Basque and Lather. Go to baskinlathercoe.com and use the promo code locked on for 20% off. That's 20% off at baskinlather co.com code locked on. So the Titans fall 23 to 10 to the New York Jets. And obviously one of the big glaring things on

the defensive side of the ball was the running game for the Jets. pretty much got whatever they wanted. Breeze Hall, in particular, leading the way with 102 yards. He had a touchdown as well. From that aspect of things, guys, were you surprised how little resistance there was from the Titans guys up front defensively? I was. I was thinking that was going to be the thing.

I said firsthand, I didn't expect the offense to be anything today. I said, I don't think it's going to be that great. Go back and rewind. But I did feel like the defense should have put up something different in terms of a fight. And I did not expect for the Jets to literally take off and run the hell all over the Titans. First of all, I thought Anthony Hill, Jr., for the most part, did a really great job today, putting him in the green dot position, you know, I know. Might have been one of the only positives.

Yeah, I know it wasn't complete short notice. I think he was probably, they were probably planning for that. but he went out there and executed the best he could for that individual performance at least. But when it came to, yeah, stop in the run, man. And, I mean, again, it starts up front. Breece Hall even said it after the game. Give my O-line all the glory because they're the ones that made it easy today for us. It just, it starts up front and the Titans defense just didn't have anything going.

I mean, you barely heard any Jeffrey Simmons name. You barely heard his name. I was really let down by the performance up front. Yeah, you've got to give credit to Olu Fashtonu, Dylan Parham, Josh Myers, Joe Tipman, Armand Membo. Yep. They've invested up front. It's paying off. Now, Brice Hall was a back now.

I don't think the Bruce Hall, honestly, is any really much better than Tony Pollard. Because I saw two back-to-back runs from Tony Pollard. we had seven yards in the first game. Now, this is in the third quarter. But the point being, when they committed to it, that's when you started to see some consistency. They committed to it. I told the broadcast in the booth when I was in the booth this afternoon,

I'd like to see Cam Ward under center and just go three straight runs and see what happens. If you punt it, oh well. If you punt it, oh well. But let's see what happens. Run three straight runs and see what happens. Then do it again. Then do it again.

And then when they stop you on a run, now you just may think about the option of passing because you've sucked everybody up into the line of scrimmage to make them think about stopping the run because that obviously is what they need to do because you're consistently running the ball down their throat. You know how I know this works? It just did it. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that tackling obviously was an issue because how many times did we see Breece Hall after contact get more yards spinning, doing all the things. How many negative yards do we see? How many times did we see the Titans,

defenders in the back field? There wasn't. There wasn't. So at the end of the day, those big bodies up front did exactly what they needed to do. They double teamed when it was a single situation. We didn't do a good job enough of two gaping. In other words,

have the offensive linemen cover one gap while you cover another gap and then let the linebacker scrape off of those into the obvious hole that the running back has to run through and meet him at that line of scrimmage and tackle them, just didn't see a lot of that. You know what I mean? So did the Titans defense do enough to get off on third down? Absolutely not. Now that's what happens, though, when you're dealing with third and short situations because I only need to get the ball two yards. Think about that. From first down, if I ran the ball two yards, that's what, second and eight, right? Yeah. If I did the exact same thing

on third and two, what's that? First down. You see what I'm saying? So first down, second down, completely set up third down. And if I stay in that space more than I do, just trying to get the home run ball or trying to get the explosives. I think the Titans had maybe, they didn't have any 20 yards explosive plays a day. I think Carnell Tate had one 14-yard catch. That was the longest play of the day.

Yeah. Longest play of the day. So at the end of the day, we weren't living in that space. But you can't get the explosives until I set the dynamite. Yeah. And it just, unfortunately, Brad, again, it just the way that this went today, the game,

the flow where there were some special teams things that set up for things or the defense uh or sorry yeah the defense was on the field they're too long yeah too long like this there was just no way to start like a real run game and get it going but this can't happen like it did last year because remember last year tony pauler was on a milk carton for the first half this season there was no run game like there was just none of it and if they're going to want to multiply what they did last year it's going to be disaster. So yeah, you're right. You got to get that run game going. I'm with you, Kayla, because I think we would all agree that when they overhauled the roster this offseason, we all collectively said the defensive line, those guys up front is going to be the heart

and soul of the team. Like if you told the fans, hey, during those open practices, it's to the defensive line because you're going to get a treat watching those guys and the speed of which they play. And those guys were neutralized today. Like I barely heard, like you mentioned, Kaylee, Chris Simmons name wasn't said a ton on the broadcast at all, John Franklin Myers, either. And with the offense not sustaining drives and Bree's Hall doing what he did or Braylin Allen or whoever, it allowed that defense to get gassed. And when they had to hold up, they couldn't. And so there is a huge, huge reason why the Jets kind of took control of that game.

And also Pates of Play, time of possession, shortening the game, all of that. It ultimately led to the result that we got today, the 2310 victory for New York. I wanted to get your guys' opinion on something because Robert Sala was asked about it in the post-game press conference. A lot was made early in training camp about the four-play rule for Robert Sala. Like if you're playing – Oh, yeah, I heard that. You're not doing it right. Yep.

Are you still on board with that? philosophy? So I heard the question that was asked because it was specifically asked about Jeffrey Simmons. Yeah. He left the field. What was it? What was the statistic?

Um, I don't know if it was a specific statistic, but yeah, well, talking about Jeffrey Simmons being off the field during some of those, yeah, running situations where it allowed New York to sustain some drives as well. Yeah. And so my instant reaction to that was like, okay, I mean, it's a good point. Do we have to bring him out? Does he have to go out if he's not gassed? Like if he feels like he can be in there.

And honestly, Julian, I feel like if this is the result we got today, and I know it's one game, and I'm sure Robert Sulla will stick with this for at least a couple games to see if that. But if it's not different and there is an effect once Jeffrey Simmons leaves the field, I almost feel like you've got to bring him back in there and not have him at a specific snap count.

because he is the best player on the field. And right now, your defense doesn't look like it should look. Yeah. Bhop. You know, I think you've got to ask yourself into where you are right now on assessing the Titans. Do you want to see this team get better? Simple question. If you want to see this team get better, you have to ask yourself the next question.

How? spend more time in that space than the obvious. Hey, there's some spilt milk right there. Okay. I'm either going to continue to tell you that there's spilled milk right there. I'm going to hand your paper towel and ask you to go over there and clean it up.

Okay? That's how you clean up messes. Okay? You grab something to clean up the mess rather than sit there and express the obvious. Hey, there's spilled milk over there. Hey, Kayla, do I tell you that there's spilled milk over there? Hey, by the way, Julian, there's some spilled milk over there. My OCD won't let me do that. I can keep telling you that there's spilled milk over there,

or I can hand your ass in paper towels, and one of us is going to go over there and clean it up. So that's what you've got to ask yourself. How can the Titans get better from this mess that they've created? Now, that's what they're doing this week in practice. Some of the guys that are a consummate professionals are going to go back and look at the tape tonight, and they're going to look at the performance,

and they're going to check off the things that they did do well, and they're going to try and look at some of the things that they didn't do well and put themselves in a better position next week. Because it's one thing to make a mistake once. It's something else to make a mistake twice. It's really something else to make a mistake three times. You see what I'm saying? Because in the National Football League, you don't have that luxury.

Okay? You don't have the luxury of continually making mistakes, continually being out of position, continually miss assignments, continuing to mistaddle, all these other things, you cannot do that. Because there's going to be somebody that eventually has a better law of averages, and they will replace you. And that's how this thing works. We talked a little bit about Anthony Hill,

but was he really, like, the only positive from today? Total 16 tackles, two past deflections, had the play that looked like should have been a fumble, solid challenge. The call was upheld. It was incomplete. who else stood out yeah who else stood out i mean who else's name did we hear called whether you heard there was a bit of the secondary at points the couple you know couple

secondary plays here and there but not you know not too much i think even alante taylor we were looking at him on the coverage of that out route by garrett wilson and guess what not only did he get his hand in there but he also held called the past experience you're talking about the first one of the first places yeah exactly i mean i saw Cordell Flot getting beat a couple of times, you know, when they did decide to put the ball in the air, you know, converting first down, getting those explosive plays that they can do when they're actually running the football effectively, right? Yeah. So there really weren't many other, other players that stood out to say, oh, great tackle, you know, way to be disruptive,

you know, way to make a difference. Now, I will say, Big Jeff, we did see him create pressure when Gino was in a situation when he was like sitting back there holding the football. But they didn't do that too often. They didn't stay in that. They didn't double team him on that, I don't think. No, no, they did double team. They did double team? He broke the double team and got his butt in the back.

Because that was the down. That's what the situation was. Yeah. Gino was holding on to the football, the longer play, right? We just talked about that. The duration of a play determines how successful a play is, The longer it takes, the less success an offense will have. And Gino was carrying that play out way too long.

And Big Jeff almost a couple of steps, almost got him. Almost got him. But how often did we see that situation? They didn't have to. No. Because they didn't have to. Yeah. On the other side of the break, we're going to take your questions and comments

from those of you in the live chat with us on YouTube. We'll round out the show here. Next on the Titans squad show is the Jets defeat the Titans in week one of the regular season. That's next. A new football season brings some big questions. Who makes the playoffs? Who wins their division? Who takes home the title?

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So I know we're going to take some live questions here in a second. But Bhoff, we've talked about not letting one game roll into the next one, roll into the next one. You want some constant improvement. And if it happens again and again, then it'll start to be worried time. Is there a cutoff for you as far as when we should start seeing this team take a step in the right direction? know, every week you have to take a step in the right direction. As an offensive lineman, if you take a step back when you're trying to move forward,

we call that stepping in a bucket. You didn't really move anywhere. It's an ineffective step, okay? It didn't do you anything. What I want to do and what I teach my offensive linemen is to gain ground on that first step because now you're moving across the line of scrimmage and you're already in a better position, okay? Sometimes you get hit in the face and you didn't even get to take step, and that's a bad thing.

But we want to take steps every single time. So if I don't see them get better this week, that's a problem. See what I'm saying? So it's not going to wait until the end of September or wait until October to say, okay, this team needs to start getting better. No, no. You need to start showing improvement Wednesday. You need to start showing improvement Thursday.

And you need to get better because if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. That's how this thing works. Okay. So there is no timetable in when I need them to improve. I need them to improve. Win, lose, or draw. Even if they won. You still can't sit there and bank on the laurels of a win and say, well, I guess so I need to get any better.

Just doesn't know how it works. That's a good point, Brad. I'm actually for the first time, like, I'm not obviously in Nashville this year, like on Sundays, but I'm watching the games and I'm doing all the sort of analysis that I do for any type of game. But what I will say is I'm looking at it from a different perspective this year. And I'm looking at it in the perspective of I'm not even going to base it on wins and losses, really. I'm going to base it on, like Brad said, how do they get better in these different categories? Because there's going to be way better opponents they're going to play on their schedule this year.

And I'm not going to say, oh, they lost that game. So that's not going in the right direction. I think I need to see improvement faster than I did last year. And last year was just a conundrum with all that happened with Brian Callahan and interim situation. and then you saw it getting better towards the end of the year. They have a good coaching staff in place, or so we think. And so I need to see this progression start sooner, not meaning that I need to see wins,

but I need to see improvement on the outcome. Yeah, from Tam Ward. This defense, like, especially since that's solid calling card, I need to see that, you know, improve in the next three to four games. But I'm not going to really base it on if you didn't win that game, you're a trash team. Hey, you know what, guys, when we went into this whole season, we knew, and like you said earlier, Kayla, that the defensive line was going to be a strength, right? I'm not going to throw that out the window and say that John Franklin Myers, Jeffrey Simmons, you know, Jordan Elliott, any of these guys are trash. I'm not going to say that, okay?

Jermaine Johnson, I'm not going to say that. What I am going to say is what we already established is that the Jets front five is pretty good at our front five, okay? we might just be looking at a better Jets team than we thought. Yeah. You see what I'm saying? In other words, the success, what they did today, would you do that against the Ravens? Would you do that against the Broncos? Would you do that against the Texans?

I would do that. I would do exactly what we did today, what they did today, and to see if that works, because that is the essence of football. If they can consistently do that, you don't have to have Gino Smith in his second return trip to New York be the savior and winning ball games. Okay, look it like this. Steve McNair was a great

quarterback for this franchise, was he not? Yes. He didn't have to do it by himself, did he? Exactly. No, he did not. He had a help from a guy in the backfield, number two, seven, that helped create a balanced offense. Okay. Could Steve beat you with his arm?

Of course he could. He was Air McNair for a re-year for a re-old. reason. But he didn't have to beat you that way every time because he had the balance of guys that could block for him and a balance of guys that can run the football effectively, consistently. And that's what happens. Cam doesn't need to be Patrick Mahomes. No. It doesn't. And nor should we want him to be because he's not. You know, we don't need Cam Ward and Carnell Tate to be the reason why this offense is effective. As a matter of fact, the most consistent part of this offense, where's the number 20? He's rushed for a thousand yards, three seasons, and nobody's

talking about that. That needs to be more of a feature. No one is talking about it. You're right. The goal shouldn't be to have Cornell Tate be a thousand yard receiver because that's not going to win you ball games. What's going to win you ball games is if Tony Pollard rushes for his four 1,000 yard season, everything else will be a compliment after that. Well, and I know it's a different. Yeah, no, Brad, I know it's a different coaching staff, different system, all of that stuff. But look at just the back stretch of last season, right, where they were more competitive. Maybe they didn't win all of those games, but they were playing better opponents,

tougher and closer. And one of the reasons they were much better offensively down the stretch last year is because they were able to run the ball effectively, and it made Cam Ward's job easier. The turnovers were down. His efficiency was up. And they looked like a much more competitive football team. And then you go back to today, can't run the ball. Again, we're reemphasizing that, 68 yards on the ground, and everything just kind of spirals down from there. So I agree. I think it does start with number 20 in the backfield, also with the offensive. line up front opening up some lanes for him too.

So then Cam is an disadvantageous downs in situations like that. So certainly a recipe that I'm sure Brian Dable will be all over heading into next week. There was another question this time from the defensive side of the ball, more of a comment coming in from one of our viewers here. Pull it up for you guys. I lost my train of thought there on the chat. While you do that, there's another comment that said that, I'll give credit to what credit is to you.

Yeah. About, oh, it was kid 3969. What up kid? He said that Pollard was too small. Tony Pollard is 511, 6 foot 210. Yeah. Christian McCaffrey is 511 215.15. Bejohn Robinson is 6 foot 215.

Now, Sequant Barkley is 511 2.30, but you get the point I'm trying to make. Christian McCaffrey, one of the best backs in the league. Vizjean Robinson when the back specs in the league and they're all the same size. I understand durability is one aspect. He's looking at like how many shots can a guy take or whatever else, but you don't rush for a thousand yards in the season when the Titans pick twice in the top five. You see what I'm saying? He was still able to accomplish that.

I think it's hard to be able to avoid live bullets. I think people are still like tearful from the loss of Derek Henry because it's just such a difference. Who had three touchdowns today, by the way. I know. I have a lot of fantasy. But yeah, it's like people are still reeling from the loss of the alien who is Derek Henry, who no backs are built like him.

I'm 6.5-245. Yeah. Derek Henry's 6-4-245. Yeah, that's nuts. You know what I'm saying? It's not normal. He's the same size as me. Yeah.

He's the same size as me. Most backs are the other way. Yeah. If I need you in the forehead is Derek Henry, you're going to get concussed. Yeah, he's a novel. That's a different animal right there. You know what I mean? He's 260.

Yeah. I think he's 250, 250, 55, something like that. Dear Henry is. Bigger than you. That's how much, how big it is, bigger than you. Yeah. Keith Spencer says the defense is not physical enough. From the linebackers in the back, you can quickly see the jets were more prepared in

every aspect. It's a good way to put it. honestly, Keith, I would not argue with you. I feel like, again, the Jets came in feeling slighted. It's Aaron Glenn's second season. He was on the hot seat last year at the end of the year. He went out. He got a new offensive coordinator in Frank Wright, right?

I think they did everything right today. And it was just one of those things that one team, I think, was going to be more prepared than the other. Unfortunately, the Titans were on the other side of it. I just think the Jets kind of felt like they looked more complete. giving Jim Hawk 3268 his flowers. Bring him up. Yeah, yep.

I was just going to bring that one up next. Jim Hogg. I like old school, no tricks, needed style. One ball, good defense, pass when they bring it in the box, simple. That is football. Football is about imposing your will. Football is a physical sport that makes most of us not want to play it. And at the end of the day, that's the difference.

And I'll go back to the Robert. a quote, and start the sink, winning the line of scrimmage, taking care of the football, making right decisions when you're tired. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. I heard that from John McEvick, my coach in college, a long time ago, and it's true. When you're just exhausted, when you've got nothing else seemingly left in the tank, you just let bad things happen because you're exhausted, okay? And it also affects your decision making and your will to want to continue the fight.

Okay. Today was 103 degrees on the field. Oh, yeah. 95 by temperature. 98 feel like. And that's for the guys that were sipping beers in the stands. But for the guys that actually on that hot ass turf, it was over 100 degrees. And that does make cowards of us all.

So were they more physical? Absolutely. Just like that game in Melbourne. Yep. The Rams thought they could go down to Australia with two days, just like they were going to New York or something, and they got punched in the face compared to a team that went down a week earlier, got rest, was able to have some shrimp on the Barbie,

and was able to tour and hang out. And they came out more refreshed and just knocked the piss out of the Rams. Hey, Behop, I know you know this very well. I know it was like 100 degrees out there on the field. But for the Jets, when you're playing the way that they were today, It probably's like, you know what? It's a little bit of a breeze today. You know, it feels a little bit cooler than it does

from the Titan's side of the field over there. No, no, no. It wasn't a breeze today. It was a breeze. It was a breeze. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

See what I did there? There we go. There we go. You're very good, Bihab. Very good. Last thing I have for you guys, what's one big thing you want to see going from now week one to week two with this team? Well, it's for me, Kail and I'll go first.

It's just. Yeah. Be competitive. Now, we're not going to know what that looks like until the ball snapped on Sunday next week. Be competitive. Okay, this week, far too often, we saw them not competitive

just by looking at the time of possession. You know what I'm saying? It was so lopsided that you can't say that the Titans were competitive. About 38 minutes to about 22. Yep. And the score also indicated that. So, and the thing is,

you got nothing to lose. Right. You know why you got nothing to lose? You know, by taking the Titans over the Eagles, especially after this week against the Jets. Yep. So the expectation is for the Titans to lose. So with that, you're not fighting against anything.

You know what I mean? If anything, the onus is on them. Because think about this. What if in the third quarter it ends and the Titans are ahead by four? Who gets the pucker? I ain't the Titans. It's the Eagles.

Right. So if you're competitive, which is what I want to see answering your question, that puts more pressure on them and less pressure on us. Kayla, what do you want to see? You know, because you guys know that I need to see more defensively. I need to see a little bit more of the physicality, what this fast and furious defense is supposed to be. And I know it doesn't happen overnight, just like I don't think the offense happens overnight. So I want to see more from that defensive front of setting the. the tone, especially early on in the game.

And I know you're going up against a great Philadelphia Eagles O line. That O lines historically one of the better O lines in the NFL, right? So it's not going to be another simple task by any means. But like you said, Brad, you go back to the film room. You look, you realize, okay, these things can and can't happen. So I want to see progression there. But I need to see more from this offense. And that's just in terms of sustaining drives.

And it happens on first and second down. Ward said it himself, right? Cam Ward said, we've got to be better on first and second downs. That will help us attain a drive because third and longs, we cannot continue to have that. It's going to be impossible for them to ever get anything going if they put themselves in those situations. So I just want this offense to continue to work together. It's literally like a group project to me, not just me doing the group project for everybody else, which I did do. It's everybody contributing to the group project. Real quick.

How many positive comments are in the in the comment section? Oh, not a lot at all. There's no positive. Yeah, there's no. Negativity. Now, if the Titans were to have won today 23 to 7, would there have been 100% positive comments in the comment section? No.

Oh, there's always someone behind. There's always someone that's. No, no, not someone, some people. There's still going to be someone that's going to be negative in poo-poole because that's the nature of people. That's the nature of people. I wish I had more of that in my life. It's so much easier to say the Titans suck and we're making excuses and all that shit because nobody's coming up with any solutions. It's just easier to point the finger and say, you know, say all the bad stuff.

That's so easy to do that. Then again, you know, you can't sit there and say how much greener you. your grass is and how perfect it is. I've got the best yard in the neighborhood. If they don't water it. Someone's going to set that stuff on fire or something because they don't want to see you winning. Winning has a ceiling.

Believe me. Yep. I would say you guys know that obviously the acronym, kiss, keep it simple, stupid. Oh, not kiss my ass. I'd like to say that to some people. Damn. This is just a good.

can turn it at the end. This is how you know we're at the end of the show. But, you know, next week, we talked about the jets not inventing, you know, the wheel, reinventing the wheel here today. You know, they won up front, solid run game, stout defensively. And that was pretty much all it took. Yeah. And so I'd like to see the Titans going back to one of the comments we had earlier in the show went up front run the ball get cam and more advantageous downs and distances so when he has to throw it he's not the defense isn't pinning their ears back it's kind of the formula we've been talking about dating back the last year and so simplifying the game and going from there I'm not asking for a dub like one of the the commenters is saying a dub against the eagles I'm not asking

for any of that stuff. Just do that. And I think it would lead to what Brad is saying and being more competitive weekend and week out. I'm going to leave you with, I'm going to, I'm going to leave you with a quote from the great Cal Norton. These colors don't run. Ricky Bobby, these colors don't run. Love that. Love that. A little Talladega Knights reference for the first Sunday. That will do it for today's Titan Squad show. What an ending. As the Titans follow the Jets 23 to 10, we will see you guys later this week.

For Julian Minnesota, that's Kayla Anderson, and of course, Brad Hopkins. Enjoy the rest of your football center.