Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - TITANS SQUAD SHOW: Titans go DOWN IN DENVER, Cam Ward debut SPOILED, penalty PROBLEMS

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

The Tennessee Titans fall in their season opener to the Denver Broncos. We discuss Cam Ward's regular season debut and penalty problems. Plus, where we stand on head coach Brian Callahan after today's performance.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYTee up that trip! Enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament* in the USA. Visit https://5HEWIN.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary. Excludes the Master’s tournament. Ends October 31, 2025.DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year. UpsideDon’t let this offer drive on by, download the free Upside app now using my limited time promo code TOUCHDOWN for a limited time 25 cent per gallon bonus! Offers vary by user and location, Go to upside.com for terms and conditions.Click Here to download the app: https://getupside.onelink.me/zlLr?af_xp=custom&pid=barrington&c=barrington_lockedon25&deep_link_value=promo&deep_link_sub1=lockedon25&af_dp=upsideapp%3A%2F%2F Yahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Draft now at https://yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnfl.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Well, the Tennessee Titans downed in Denver. We'll talk about it here as the week one of the regular season closes out. Frustrating loss for the Titans, why? Because they had chances to win. We'll talk about it. Titan up. It's the Titans squad. Everything Tennessee Titans every week.

Covering all the big hits and game-changing plays from the heart of Music City, the way only the locked-on podcast network can. squad up. The Titan Squad Show starts now. Well, welcome to this post-game edition of the Titan Squad Show. I'm your host, Julian Minnison, alongside two-time pro bowler Brad Hopkins. Behop, regular season here is underway. Tennessee Titans fall 20 to 12 of the Denver Broncos to open up the regular season. What are your initial thoughts on what you saw out there today? Well, I saw a team that was undisciplined, especially as the game progressed, discipline, Julian, is probably one of the biggest differentiators

between teams that win and teams that lose in national football league. And you can't make mistakes, particularly on the road. Now, this was a tough test for the Titans. Why? Because you're playing against a pretty good defense and you're playing in a stadium that obviously doesn't like you. The road can be a rough place and it showed itself for a lot of the time. But, you know, I'm one of those guys that likes to find silver linings because I think you learn more a loss thing you do from a win. And I saw the Titans be competitive. I saw the Titans giving the same kind of pressure that they were receiving.

Just as much as we saw Cam Ward running for his life, especially as the game came to a conclusion, were the same things that Bo Nix was experiencing early in the ballgame. We saw a lot of pressure from the interior, from the outside, from blitzes. We saw turnovers. As a matter of fact, we'll talk about that a lot, the penalties. But, you know, the Titans did take advantage of the four turnovers that basically the Broncos handed them. So there's a number of things to be frustrated about, but I guess it's only frustrating, Julian, because the Titans had a chance to win. You know, had the Titans been

blown out of this ballgame, had they not even showed up and more competitive, had they not kept it to a 9-10 ballgame at halftime, then we would just say, you know, what, this team just out and out of this things. But I know the raw emotion of it all is because of the way that you lose a game when you have a chance to win. And I think that that's probably one things that probably is most frustrating for Titans fans as they watch the Titans go 0 and 1 to start the season. Certainly frustrating indeed. We wanted to remind you that today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. And you talked about it there,

them not being disciplined, Bhop. When you go through an off season and one of the biggest goals for this team, Brian Callahan talked about it at length, multiple times throughout the off season, eliminating the sins, the self-inflicted negatives. And you go 13 penalties for 131 yards. How frustrating is that? I was just listening to Coach Callahan's press conference. And he was obviously disappointed. That's not obviously what you want to see first game out the gate. Yeah, you're right about that. I know there's a lot of people right now that are saying the seat is hot. This is game one for Brian Callahan. You know, there's a lot of that can happen during the course of a season.

You've got 17 more weeks to decide whether or not, you know, this coach, you lose his job. And, you know, I'm of the opinion that when you put players in position to walk to make plays and you make them, and guess what the story is a completely different narrative. But there are way too many times that we saw the sins of last year rearing its ugly head. We saw holding calls. We saw pass interferences. We saw jumping off sides. We saw unnecessary roughness.

We saw so many different. things are just not characteristic of teams that play for championships because you can't shoot yourself in a foot. I think the difference between teams that win and lose in the national football league are the teams that make mistakes and those that don't because it's hard enough to win a ballgame as it is anyway, right? Calling up the right play, executing the right play and then having it, you know, kind of result in some sort of success, whether it's momentum game on the field or yardage or whatever. Converting third downs is all those things that come into it. And when you don't do those things and the other team starts to do those things,

then obviously the gap starts to widen itself. You can start pointing things at all kinds of things. To me, coaches don't block. Coaches don't catch. Coaches don't tackle. Coaches don't create penalties that create negative yards, downs, and distances. You can only call the plays that are called because every single play that was called on offense was designed to do what? Score.

or every single one every single one you can look at it in any kind of different way you want to but every play that was dialed up if you execute it right if the plays are or ran the way that they were designed if the pocket is as pure as it needs to be giving a quarterback with good capabilities of throwing the ball and receivers that catch the ball and do things with it after they catch it and guess what you're probably going to win a ball game but what happens is a breakdown in execution when you don't get the job done when you don't hold up in the pocket when you don't make those catches that sure may have been fingertip catches in instances maybe the ball was too hot sometimes i'm sure cam and and calvin and offensive line they'll take plenty of

blame for the loss they had today but it's a combination of all those things that lose ball games it's never just one thing when you're when you're thinking about the o line because i know that's your obviously bread and butter you know going in there was a lot of hype um this off season. They obviously prioritize that with picking Cam, you know, bringing in Zeitler and Cushingberry's healthy and bringing in Dan Moore for the contract that they did. What do you make of what they

look like at least some game one? You know what? Go to the very first play of the game. The very first play of the game was a run designed to go to the right side. And yet here we see Nick Batino make a play from the back side.

Benito, yep. That can't happen. You know what I'm saying? He's the most dangerous defender you have on the football field. And to let him flatten out a line scrimmage and tackle a guy in the backfield from behind to create negative yards. Or even if he did get to the line of scrimmage, that right there is irritating. You know what I mean? Because the guys up front on the front side of that play were blocking their butts off.

There might have been a hole. Maybe had the back been able to have the vision and the speed to hit it quick enough. But guess what? You got a defender hanging on your back, which is the same thing we haven't happened last year. And then obviously in passing situations, you've got Cam, which we'd never seen to this. point running for his life in instances you know he barely caught the checkdown in the flat to get you know to tony pollard right to give their one of their most if not their most explosive play that they had especially in that first half to give them some yards give them at least a new fresh set of downs right

but he shouldn't be like that for his life even when you look at all the adjustments that they made up front right from free agency to you know to all the stuff so they obviously just did not show the type of improvement that makes you feel any different about this team than last year. Some of the same things that we complained about will have us experiencing are going to be the exact same things that Cam Ward is going to experience. Cam Ward goes 12 to 2812 yards and take six sacks. The big thing there, Bhoff, is, you know, I think Cam Ward could be a good quarterback in this league.

I mean, he's made of the right stuff. We've seen him throughout an entire offseason, talk to talk, didn't have any catastrophic plays in the preseason, but he just didn't have time. There was just no time to really get a good gauge on the kind of performance that he could have given, especially given all the mistakes today, they were still one score game at the end of it. Yeah, let's talk about that. Let's talk about time to let plays develop.

If I called a play and there's no time to run it, whose fault is that? Is it the play call or is the play design or execution? What is it that actually makes that play not work? Was it me calling a pass play? Or was it the fact that there was not time in the pocket to let receivers get downfield, that routes develop, let a quarterback get his compete set, and be able to throw an accurate ball? Not one that's, you know, that he's running for his life for.

And Cam, you can't run backwards to escape the passwords, bro. It just... There was the back-to-back sacks that he... you know went backwards when right but also if you're going to break the pocket i mean you got to have somewhere to go with it right but those bookends were coming up so far up the field that there was really nowhere for it to escape now what i thought about even in preseason was that we needed to see more of cam's legs be featured in this offense why because it slows down the pass rush because defenders that know you are a quarterback that can escape the pocket the pass rush is

just a little bit different because you never know if you're going to go screaming up field this guy's going to run underneath yet. It's almost like a draw play, right? Sometimes even when you roll the pocket, like what Sean Payton did in adjusting to the Titans pressure was doing what? Getting Bo Nix on the move, right? Because he's a very capable quarterback

while he's running. But he also avoids the pass rush doesn't give a setup point for the defense to kind of tee off on him, right? So if we were to use Cam Warden in a similar fashion where you get him moving to the edge and let those routes kind of mirror what he's actually doing in in that pocket then the password isn't as near effective as it was

today because it's obvious that this offensive line could not hold up when it needed to hold up in those crucial situations they lost j c latham in the latter part of the second half and the first thing that happened is what two sacks by udo odo however you pronounce it yeah allie udo being there just wasn't enough consistency there wasn't enough time and callahan addressed that in this press conference there wasn't a lot of time to let anything that he called in the auto be effective. So when you think about the avalanche of problems that was today, you know, the penalties, then Cam Ward having no time. And then when he does have time, some receivers not making the catch. Obviously, there is that one of the, that Calvin would like to have back, maybe another one earlier in the game as well.

I wanted to focus on that relationship because Ward and Ridley put in a lot of work this off-season. to be on the same page when Ward called them you know a top five receiver in the league and and they were each other's shadow this entire offseason um even in that first preseason game we saw some good things between them and then today just it didn't happen do we chalk it up to one of those things where hey you know bad day or or is this going to be a problem moving forward I'm always going to say that things start up front, always, because if you don't have an offensive line in front of you, the game's called 7 on 7. It's called flag football. This isn't what we're playing. Now, what happens is receivers in the offensive line were on the same page.

And what I mean by that is the receivers need to know the duress that their quarterback is under. If I need to turn my head back around a few seconds sooner than I normally would under route, because my quarterback has got two seconds to throw rather than the four that's traditional standard, right then you make myself available because cam was looking to get that ball out of his hands quick like he had in the preseason right but the routes they were running were trying to be you know you're trying to stretch the ball down field you're running posts you're running sluggos you're running all these things that create explosive plays but it doesn't matter what you call to make a play explosive if the quarterback doesn't have time in the pocket to make it happen the ball's coming out of his hands so quick and so hot yeah it was he needs to get the ball of his hands that sometimes receivers just weren't ready for it you know i mean i think the when you look at if cam had the ability to put the ball on calvin riddley how likely would he have been to drop those balls that we saw i'd say less likely i'm going to say there's a guarantee he's going to catch it but i'm saying if he didn't have to throw a screaming scalding hot rocket out of his hands because it was imperative that he get the ball out of his hands then you might be seen a

different result we did see calm and patience in the pocket as long as there could be But ultimately, man, when there's guys coming from all over the place, I mean, look at the classic example. They had that last blitz that the Broncos ran. They had a guy standing in the A&B gap, right, giving the appearance of a blitz. And then he bailed out of there, and they brought pressure from the outside. You know, especially in the tight end was in the block. That's another thing.

If pressure is a problem, you have to keep more guys in the box to block than you can routes that are options for Cam to throw to. It's just simple math. You know, if I have to have the running back, chip on the way out. If I have to have my tight end stay in as a sixth blocker because my five up front just can't get it done by themselves, that's a problem. It affects everything I'm doing. And then guess what it starts to affect? It starts to affect the place that I call. There's no sense of me calling anything that's going 20, 30 yards down the field. Why? Because my quarterback doesn't have time to do it. He doesn't have time to sit and let those routes develop. So at the end of the day,

it's a combination of things. It's blocking schemes, its receivers getting themselves open, it's making catches, it's delivering an accurate enough ball when you can, not under duress, that makes this thing work. Now, there's enough blame on the other side of the football as well. I saw them early on getting turnover. I saw them getting to Bo Nix, frustrating him. Hell, they tried to pass the ball more than they did running the football. And that's with a high draft pick at the running back position and the guy in J.K. Dobbins,

that can actually run the damn thing, right? Because the defense was doing their job. We saw Jeffrey Simmons making plays. We saw him get a turnover. bow knicks on a sack we also saw jeffrey simmons get just a boneheaded lack of discipline play just by being emotional you're talking about the unnecessary roughness one yeah exactly think about where that was and think about how that basically could have stalled out a drive and gave the ball back to the titans with more time on the clock to actually put eight points on board and get back

in this ball game now that wasn't just the determining factor whether they want to lost because there's plenty of plays to go around that actually just did not go the titans way but that right there was a microcosm of what we're talking about the lack of discipline and i've said this disciplined teams are disciplined period not just for three and a half quarters and those penalties those 12 plus penalties that they had which almost culminated in more yards lost in penalties than they had offensive productivity those things are to shoot you the foot you can't win that way can't win that Yeah. And you mentioned that simple math, 133 total yards, 131 yards of penalties today for the Titans. Yeah, that's not going to get it done. On the other side of the break, never.

We're going to have a bunch of comments already here from viewers and listeners here. A lot of them talking about Brian Callahan. We'll talk about him. We'll talk about the defense as well for the Titans, maybe one of the bright spots for this team as they opened up the season with a 20 to 12 loss to the Denver Broncos on the other side of the Keep it here. All right, this episode is brought to you by prize picks, the Daily Fantasy Out where making the right call can actually pay off. You and I make decisions every day, but on prize picks, being right means cashing in. Now, with football back, price picks is the simplest and fastest way to get in on the action. Just pick more or less on two to six player projections, and you can turn your takes into real prizes all in less than 60 seconds.

It's quick, easy, and honestly, one of the favorite ways this football season, two, follow along with the game and making your picks. Now, download the price pick app today and use code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code locked on NFL for $50 in lineups after you, your first $5 play. Price picks, it's good to be right. All right, Bhop, so we've already had a ton of comments coming in and questions and things of that nature because the block is hot on game day.

I'll tell you that. Many of the comments are, of course, about the big topic that we've seen on Twitter. The big topic as the game was going on is Brian Callahan, some of the questionable play calling, starting with the sequence at the end of the first half there, where you kneel the ball, you run the ball, you're going into halftime with a 6-3 lead, but instead it ends up you giving the ball back to the Broncos and a touchdown, and you're going into halftime trailing. Now, you mentioned players go out and play.

The coaches aren't out there playing this game. Players still have to execute. But how much is Mike Borganzi after today kind of assessing his head coaching staff and some of the questionable calls that were made? Man, you know, the thing is, one instance we're talking about passing, you know, being inept, right? Because it was. We're talking about running the football and the lack of productivity running the football. probably because of the number of attempts.

You know, I think that at halftime they had tried to run the ball five times. There's no balance in that offense. You know what I mean? So I'm sure they're trying to find explosive plays. They're trying to find whatever they can to dink and dunk. And you got to think about this goes, guys. A lot of times a pass play is a run play on those plays where Cam was standing in the end zone. He was passing the ball out of the end zone where?

To the flat. That's where the ball was going to the hands of a running back. You're basically getting the running back on the edge without actually having to hand it to him in the pocket or behind the line of scrimmage. So it might appear to be a pass play, but in essence, it was a run play, quick hitting, designed to get the ball out of the quarterback's hands so that way he can do something with it after he catches it. Sometimes he didn't have time. Sometimes he had to throw the ball at the receiver's feet because it was going to be a loss of yardage or loss of down because it wasn't going to be a completion that was going to yield much as far as. productivity so for me um i would love to just run the football anytime because when you can run the football effectively that opens up everything else in your playbook okay if you're when if you're writing

the football effectively that means that you're winning the line of scrimmage that means that you're also not giving up sacks that means that you're not creating incompletions that stop the clock there's all kinds of things happen when you can run the football effectively you're also imposing your will on that defense and you're starting to wear them down. That's why running the football is so imperative. I know it sounds boring to those people that love this new brand of football called flag football. You're standing back there in the pocket with no pass rushing, just throwing out ball down field and letting athletic receivers catch and do all the cool stuff, right?

That ain't how football is won because dudes get hit in the mouth in this game. I think that's one of the biggest differences. And when you get hit in the mouth more than you're getting, then you're hitting people in the mouth, then that's definitely a determining factor on who's going to win and lose. And at the end of the game, we saw the Denver Broncos just sticking with jabs, sticking with jabs, coming with right hooks, coming with uppercuts, coming with every single single thing in the kitchen saying. And we didn't see the Titans respond to that.

They had a couple of instances where they got the ball back because the defense got turnovers and did absolutely nothing with it. You know what I mean? And sure, I know sometimes you're talking about, well, shoot, passing the ball created incompletions, passing the ball, so we got the offense off the field on a three and out. But at the end of the day, when Tony Pollard isn't involved, in that game plan. This is the guy that rushed for a thousand yards for three straight seasons. And when he's not a part of the game plan, when he's not a part of the whole

situation, you've got a problem because then you're left to what? You're left to having this porous offensive line trying to do a job like protecting a young quarterback. And it wasn't working more so than it was. Yeah, outside of that 29-yard pass from Camden to Pollard at the opening drive of the game for the Titans. There was that sequence that I probably was Tony's best sequence of the game where the Titans ended up in a field goal on Tony, I think had three straight runs that ended up getting them in field goal range and they had to settle for three and went up six to three. But when you think about the turnovers that the defense force in this game, the offense

not being able to take advantage of that, how much are you coach Callahan and the staff and looking at that and say, man, what could have been? Yeah, well. It's funny. I remember standing in the huddle for as many games as I stood in the huddle, and very rarely did I say, damn, I wish that the offensive coordinator will call something different. Because at the end of the day, it was up to us to go out there and execute the play that was called. Because if we all block the play, if we all run the right route, if we all had the right read, if we all did our job, and it was probably more than likely that that play would be successful. It just takes one thing to break down in the play. It just takes one thing. And that's why I will always say as a player, okay, that's why I will always say that it's up to us to get the job done.

And those guys that were standing on the field at any given time, any 11, whether it's offensive defense, they know what happened. And then I'm going to sit there and blame the coaches for them losing. That's just something that players don't do. So at the end of the day, we can say anything that we want to, especially as we type vigorously on our keyboards and slide rule on our phone. our phones and whatever else. No, man, you stop. Because that's what this comes down to. These are grown-ass men. This ain't college. This ain't high school. I know some players in college are making millions of dollars, but not on average like they are at this level. So at the end of the job, at the end of the day, these are grown men, someone with kids have

these people's age that are typing and stuff. That's what it comes down to. It comes down to players getting the job done. And I'll always say that. from a former players perspective what do you think the mood is in that locker room right now they didn't play well enough to win and they know that and probably at some point to a man they can look at something that they did not do well enough in that game that didn't allow them a chance to win and i always look up front because that's where i always watch the game from i always watch the game because as i watched film for the number of years that i did preparing for games that were coming up i always had to watch different offensive lines had to watch different groups dealing with a pass rush because at the end of the day what's the biggest difference between an offense it's how effective you can run those plays that are actually called and it starts with a quarterback having the time to see what's going on and if you don't have time then the play's going to break down itself if you're constantly having to adjust for the pressure you start to watch the pass rush you're not watching the routes that are being ran you're not seeing a full

progression from one, two, three, or how many ever it takes to find the right receiver. So at the end of the day, it's just finding that chemistry, it's finding that balance, it's finding that that cohesion that allows you to understand exactly what in that moment is required to succeed. And that's what it comes down to. Guys, we want to make sure to keep your comments coming in. Behop and I'll try to answer as many questions as we can. Here is one question that we got earlier. Week one is sloppy. Week one sloppy is expected, but growing from this is going to take a lot. So, Bihop, I post to you, how do you grow from something like this?

Because it seems like there's a lot of room of it. It's inevitable. First off, if you do think this Titans team is the sharpness is going to look all season after week one in Denver, then you just don't know football. By the time that they continue to play more games, get more reps playing with each other, hell, we didn't even see two of the five offensive linemen playing in the game up until this point. It's the first time they stepped on the field together, you know, to look at Kevin Zitlis jumping offside. Do you think that that might have had anything to do with him, not necessarily being completely familiar with Cam Ward's snap count,

with his cadence? Maybe, you know, and as someone that's jumped off sides before, I understand sometimes the difficulty comes to just, you know, understanding body language, understanding the inflection of the quarterback's voice, especially when he's making adjustments at the line of scrimmish, trying to tell the offensive line what they need to see as far as they danger zones. How many times do we see Cam adjust to protection when he's standing at the

line scrimmage? Because he can see from a deeper vantage point that this is something they're doing. They're rolling coverage over the top so they can bring the guy down here and they can blitz to that side. You can't see him, but I can. So I'm going to have my running back. Make sure that you know that that guy's out there. Tight in. Make sure that you know where there's more coverage. You got to break that route off, bro. And you have to get ready for a catch. You know what saying it just it's just they'll be better as they have chances to to have more reps in working together so yes this is the sloppy is that they'll that they probably will look now if it got worse if it gets worse if they look sloppier than week one in other words if they keep getting worse and

worse every single week then you got to ask yourself what hell is going on why are they getting worse as opposed to the first time they step on the field for the first game of the regular season looking kind of out of sorts. That's what it looked like to me. So I'm saying by week four, they should look better. By week eight, they should look even better. By week 12, I mean, this thing should be hitting on all cylinders. You should be a well-oiled machine,

understanding exactly what you are as an offensive, extending exactly what you are as a defense and playing more like a team on all three phases of the game. Special teams is included in that as well. One other thing that stuck out outside of what we're getting from the comments of the 131 penalty. yards and 133 total yards was two of 14 on third down efficiency as well so um you talk about the execution b hop and especially when their backs were against the wall and the plays really

really mattered it was it was tough sledding for that yeah i mean well there's a lot that went wrong in that ball game you know what i'm saying um but i think at the end of the day there was not enough consistency uh there wasn't enough time on the field let's just say that the titans put together a six, seven, eight play drive. You know what I mean? Like they did in the very beginning, they culminated in some sort of points. There weren't touchdown scored in that ball game. But field goals, which I'm sure that they would rather

trade that any day. But at the end of the time, at the end of the day, when your offense spends more time on the field, that means that they're having some success. And you can see, I mean, even in the first half, we led the Broncos in possession, time of possession. You know, that's probably one of the reasons why they only had one touchdown in a field goal. And it ended up

almost even by the end of it. It was 31 to 28. Right, versus our three field goals and not getting into the end zone. Yes. So at the end of the day, we did see them having the ability to stay in manageable down in distances that would allow them to wear the defense down and possibly put points on the board. You know, but at the end, when you start to have penalties that then take away momentum, when you start now dealing in first and 15, first and 20, that's a hard situation because

I don't have many plays called up to convert third and 15. I just know, you know what I mean? I mean, hopefully you're lucky enough to, you know, let somebody break down in coverage or, you know, if we were to say, my God, the quarterback had, he had all day in that pocket. Not one time do we say that today for Cam Ward, did we? Cam Ward had all day.

He never had a all day. He never had a minute. So at the end of the day, to me, that's what that comes down to. And you mentioned having to settle for field goals. At least one of the bright spots is Joey Sly went four for four and hit one from 50. So at least you have a guy who can kick when you need to get some points there on the board. I'm trying to find a silver lighting in here, Bhop, and there are not many.

You know, it's easy to be all handy-panny. Oh, my God, that piece of this guy just fell and hit me in the four-in. You know what I mean? It's just not the way this thing works. Hell, I remember when my rookie year, we went 13 and 3. Okay, we lost the very first game of the year. Or no, we won the first game of the year, and we lost the next three games. Actually, the next four games.

We were one in four. Terrible. People were just shoveling dirt all over our bodies, right? And then we went off, rattled off 11 games straight to get to the divisional round of the playoffs. I mean, that's just how this thing can happen. You know what I mean? So to me, Hope will always. always rain eternal because I know that at the end of the day, if me and my cohorts did our job,

we had a better chance to win. So that's what it comes down to. And the more reps that we got to play together, the more opportunities that we got to be able to feel in doing our job, honing our craft, then we became less sloppy. We became more accurate. We became more disciplined. We became more consistent. And those are the formulas for success. And we'll talk about some of those formulas for success and what the Titans need to do to bounce back from this coming up on the other side of the break with the Titan Squad show continues. Keep it here. All right, NFL season is back and honestly, there's nothing better than being in the stadium surrounded by fans, cheering on your team. But let's be

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game time today. All right. So once again, 20 to 12, Titans lose. Their season opener to the Denver Broncos on the road, a lot of frustrating things happening in the game. But one bright spot, Bhop, is the defense kept the Titans in this game. You know, they forced four turnovers, gave the Titans some opportunities. Obviously, couldn't capitalize in the end zone.

But what did you make of the defensive performance today? Put it this way. For them to hold the Broncos, which had a lot of weapons, had a promising young quarterback that was supposed to challenge for this division. I thought they did very well, especially for most of the game. I thought you started to see them maybe get tired at the end. We started seeing some more explosive plays between the tackles that the Broncos were able to run off. You know, you got a quarterback that can then get to the edge and make the pass rush chasing a little. bit. We did see situations like there where he was able to make completions. But did they play well enough to give this team a chance to win. They most certainly did. Two picks by Roger McCrary, forced fumbles. There was a lot of good in that ball game that said, hey, look, we're giving the ball back to our offense, which is how this whole thing is designed. But what did the Titans do with the opportunities that were given to them by the defense? Phil. Yeah, squandered it. Yeah. I mean, it's good enough, but it's not, it wasn't going to win you a ball game.

You needed to, especially on the road, be able to put the ball, put the ball game away and quiet the crowd by putting touchdowns on the board and necessarily just field goals. Now, keeping it close for as long as they did, because it didn't become an eight point game until, you know, later on in maybe the fourth quarter. You know what I mean? But for the most part, either team could have won, which is probably what frustrated this whole situation. You know what I mean? So I wanted to talk about Jeff Simmons because as much of a game record as he as he is and forcing that that one fumble and causing the pressure on that other interception, the one play he's probably going to be thinking about the most is that a necessary roughness call that came in that crucial time. What did you make of that play? Is that on Jeff?

Is that on the refs for needing to know maybe the situation? No, no, no. that means no i'm not i love jep to damn i'm not going to make any excuses for what he did he knew what he did i mean the play was dead they'd stop the quarterback or hurt the guy's forward momentum i think even the whistle was blowing at that time and for him to give that extra shove he knew exactly what he was doing which is what sometimes defenses do we used to be able to get away with stuff like that not nowadays you can't and i think everybody when they saw that play happened And that last little shove, which was completely unnecessary, we knew it was going to do what, culminating the first down, which is what it did.

So it took away that great play of a defense having a wonderful stop at a pivotal point in the ball game. Right. To at least give Cam Ward and company an opportunity to get back on the field and do something with it, it took all that away. As a matter of fact, it moved them closer and closer into our territory to where they're actually able to put. I think that final touchdown on the board that kind of put the game out of reach. Right, right. Encouraging to see the team force four turnovers. Absolutely.

Because that's what this is about, man. You want a defense that first get off the field on third down, and you want to have to see a defense that can make those plays that do, like I just said, give their offense a chance to score. And I think when you look at picks in the secondary, when you look at Bow Nix, being befuddled if you look at you know how they were actually able to pressure him early in that ball game and making him make mistakes making him throw into coverage that kind of stuff then they did their job and they did it for 75 80% of the game you know so you know did they play well enough

against a really good offense on the road I think they did you know what I'm saying so it's just you know could they do better in all phases of course were there times that they did have breakdowns when you wish, man, we wish we'd have held up on this one right here, so they're giving them a first down or, you know, I wish I'd have wrapped up and got the guy down before he actually crossed the first yard line, the first down line, you know, those kind of things. You know, there are probably things that they wish they could have taken back. But for the most part, I think, you know, all in all, they played well enough to win this ball game for sure. Jarvis Brownlee quoted after the game. This is per ESPN Saran

Davenport. That team wasn't better than us. We shot ourselves. in the foot. Well, they certainly didn't look like the team that's going to challenge for the AFC West. I'll say that. Sure. Broncos didn't look that well against the Chargers either. You know, I mean, they had their own issues. I can see that this team that we played against does have the ability to make plays.

You know, they've got a really good defense. I think Nick Benito is one of the best edge rushes in the game. And that was, you know, unfortunate that we drew them to start. You know what I mean? Because in one-on-one situations where you'd like to have as many options downfield, especially in passing down in distances, they had to keep people in. They had to, I mean, even think about where they were going with the football because of the lack of time that they had to let plays develop. So, you know, all of that kind of played into what happened to that. Yeah, totally. Gary Rodriguez puts it pretty perfectly here. It completely kills the defense's momentum or heart when they get four turnovers in the offense, only gets six points. you know, not capitalizing, settling for the field goals. Like you mentioned, okay, you got points, but not the points who really wanted. Right. You're exactly right.

I mean, would they have traded, of course, they would have traded any of those field goals for touchdowns because they would have been four more points every time that situation happened. But it just didn't. It didn't happen for this team consistently. And you would like to think that, you know, a team that has the ability to take the ball away from another offense. as much as the Titans did today,

that there would be a compliment to that by having those points swing in the direction of the offense, and then they actually return the favor and widen the distance between the two teams. But unfortunately, it didn't happen. Fortunately, it did not happen. Well, on the other side of the break, we're going to talk about what the Titans need to do from here

before going into week two with their home opener against the L.A. Rams also, Last thoughts on today's game with Bhop and myself. That's coming up on the Titan Squad Show. Keep it here. All right. Hey, Titans Squad Show fans. Are you still paying full price for gas?

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for Amazon and other brands. Don't let this offer drive on by. Download the free upside app now using the limited time promo code touchdown for a limited time 25 cent per gallon bonus that's promo code touchdown offer varies by user and location go to upside.com for terms and conditions all right Bhop so I'm going to go back to a question that one of our listeners had earlier today where do the titans grow from here where do they what's the things you're obviously you're looking at what you're addressing the penalties some of that all the disciplines discipline stuff the sins but what's the first thing when you're getting back on that practice field in the film room that that you're looking at at this very moment right now the coaches are

breaking down that film they're breaking down that film to see what went wrong and then it's their job then to kind of go over with the players and show them exactly where they can get better so now have some sort of an indication of where they are and where they need to improve. Because I think there's enough good things in this tape where we saw Tony Pollock running

like a monster when he had a chance to sometimes. Especially between the guards. We saw them pushing at the line of scrimmage and really kind of getting some positive momentum, especially early in the ball game before you needed to make some plays down field to get you in the ball game.

So there's plenty of them, like I said, very beginning of our show to learn from in a loss than there is in a win. You know what I mean? Because usually if you're doing things right, if you're doing things that, you know, gave you an opportunity to win, you kind of want to keep doing those things until proven otherwise that it doesn't work, right? But when you have a game that's as frustrating and there were so many things that they needed to improve or do better, this is an opportunity for them to look at themselves reflectively and say, hey, look, this is what happened in this play. I can't let that happen again. This is what happened in that play. I could have done that better. I did a good job

in this play. This play right here, I could have done better. And that's the way they'll look at this whole situation and go over the tape and see exactly how they can prepare themselves the best that they can as they get ready for next Sunday. Because at the end of the day, you've got to have short-term memory, whether it's a win or a loss. You learn from what you can from the tape. You put that in perspective. You put together a game plan for the next week. and barring any sort of injuries or mistakes, the same guys are going to be out there in the football field, and you hope to be able to trust that they can do the job.

And that's what the week of preparation is going to be like. That's what they can do from this is to learn how they can be better. And Cam Ward is going to learn from this experience, too, just focusing on him real quick. You know, he's going to learn that he can't take back-to-back sacks like that in that situation and putting them out of a field guard. Yeah, that's another learning tool. And there's no reason to think that given everything that he's said this offseason

and his demeanor and his composure and all that stuff, that he is going to not learn from a situation like that. Well, let's just say this. In college, that might have worked where you can go backwards and then kind of get the A. Play backyard football a little bit. Yeah, because you're super fast, whatever else. But guess what? Everybody in the league is fast.

You know what I mean? even big de lineman can flatten down the line scrimmage and make sure they get to you before you get to the sideline, which creates a sack, you know? So I think that he's going to have to rely on other things. Now, I think when you start looking at it, showing his ability to run wouldn't be a bad thing. In other words, if the pass rush is most problematic on the outside

where you've got guys that are streaming up the edge and all of a sudden, the sky's kind of open and things parked, then there's nothing wrong with you going ahead and getting down the field and getting a first down with your legs. It's nothing wrong with that. Now, sometimes that might even be by play design, but you can still look down the field as you step up in the pocket

and find those creases that we see Patrick Mahomes find, that we see Josh Allen find, that we see some of the better quarterbacks in the league take advantage of past rushes that they know are coming their direction. Because at the end of the day, if you affect the quarterback, then you have a chance to just basically affect the complete offense,

the entire offense. So with you being the focal point, point you have to be smart about where you are in the pocket where you where you can escape to where your safety valves are and like cam was doing earlier in this season getting the ball out of your hand with some precision and quickness that doesn't allow the pass rush to be problematic and one example is maybe like on that first sequence where he kind of escapes and then dumps it off to Pollard for that explosive 29 yard play which was you know one of the better plays on the offense as they had today he almost got to

a sack though put it this way yeah he he was almost getting drug down but at least he wasn't getting drug down by his shoulders to where he couldn't throw the ball and out of the corner of his eye he saw tony paula right there in the flat where we're just where Tony was the entire time anyway right you know so if you're going to look to the flat for your escape bow because your first progression was taken away from you then hit him earlier so that way he can do something with the ball in his hands because we know that he's pretty nifty uh after the catch right but if that's not the situation, then keep running with it. You know what I mean? If you have the opportunity to do that, because I think for when I saw

in his college tape, this cat can run the football. He can bring more dual threat capabilities than we've seen even in the preseason. So hopefully they'll start putting more of that into the game plan. So that way, defense's respect his ability to run the football. Put this way, do you rush Lamar Jackson, just pin your ears back and get up field? Hell, no, you don't do that. You better have somebody spying. You better have somebody spying. You better have somebody that's at least, you know, making sure that they can double back when he takes off because he's just waiting for that pass rush to get to a level to where all of a sudden the rest of the field becomes open. If he finds a receiver, he's accurate enough to throw it. But guess what? He's more dangerous as a runner. And we can tap into some of that capability that Kim War has. I thought a couple of times they maybe could have used a like a quarterback draw or something like that to kind of get him moving or moving around. It's almost as if him running that wing tea in high school, which kind of stalled them out as far as being a guy that we really were seeking in college. It's like, I don't want to be the guy that just runs the ball. I can already do all that. Well, you know what? Sometimes you need to cater to your

strengths. You know what I'm saying? We know that you can run the football very effectively, you know? I mean, as much as we like to call Steve Air McNair because of his ability to throw the football, this dude can run you over too. So people were definitely respectful of both phases of Steve's game, just like at some point in time, they'll realize that they need to be respectful of Kansas ability to run the football as well. Now, the Titans will be back next week, their home opener, Cam Ward's regular season home debut against the L.A. Rams. Now, you know, B.O. I know we're going to talk about it maybe during the week on the show

because the Rams have a whole other challenge, but just to kind of give a glimpse and a sample to kind of look ahead. Sean McVeigh and those guys are going to be ready. They beat the Texans earlier today, so that's good for the AFC South of the Titans fans. but they are going to be that's a team that's well coached and ready to go they always seem to be that way yeah 100% because guess what good good coaches do they look at that tape and they see where you're vulnerable and they're going to continue to exploit what it is that you can't fix so that's why it will behooed the tightness to look at this tape with a realistic lens to say hey this is where we are and this is what we can do and try and not let these things fester

So in other words, you always say, you know, it's okay, you know, if you make a mistake once in the international football league. You make it twice, you probably have a short shelf life, you know what I mean? Because at the end of the day, he was going to continue to make that situation that you cannot solve even more problematic for you as the week's progress. And all I'm saying is Aaron, if Aaron Donald was still around, if he wasn't retired, he'd probably be licking his lips at the the tape that he's from the Titans game today. I'll tell you that right now. Next, my last question for you, Bhop, is this. I know this seems like the sky is falling for the Titans fans in our chat, Titans fans on Twitter and things like that, but it is a long season.

This is game one. Game one of 17. There's still a long way to go. So the AFC South, I don't know, maybe I'm judging this off week one. But what we've seen over these last few years is you can be barely over 500 and be making a run at the playoffs in this division. So it's not like the gap between the top of the division and the bottom of the division is so drastic. I guess there is a long way to go and maybe remind our listeners and viewers of that. Yeah. I mean, it's week one, you know.

Just remember where you were in week one. Had some guy in the chat correcting my math. I never professed to be a mathematician. At the end of the day, I hope you get the point I was trying to make about starting a difficult season and turning it around because that was the point of it all. But if you want to get some manners, that's fine. Because guess

what? You know what opinions are like, right? Opinions are like that part of your body that everybody has. At the end of the day, it is one. Yeah. Right. So facts are a stubborn thing. If we look back at this season and we say, man, from week one, they never got any better.

From week one, this situation just continue to go downhill and spiral out of control. I think guess what? The powers that be will make things happen as they should. I'm never one after week one. When there's 17 weeks of football left to play to say, man, this is it and this is who we are. because I've seen way too many changes. I've seen way too much football to sit there and buy into that. So it's just my mind don't even work that way.

Yeah, yeah. And I know people are calling for Brian Callahan's head and all of that already. Now, granted, like you mentioned, you only get the number one pick probably as a head coach one time. So if they're just as bad as last year. So how many times is one coach? coach get the pick first in the draft if they didn't trade up and give away the entire draft to get that pick yeah so if you deserve the first pick of the draft and you get the pick first if

if that happens then you know he he's gone and i know leading into the season you know there was there was um consideration to to already get rid of them and you know once of course how many coaches that we had jeffson uh how many coaches that we had since jeffisher went to to the Super Bowl. So there's no guarantee that even through all of that change, that anything's going to get any different, right? Yeah. Because we're still chasing ghosts.

So I think the change is only something that people, like, kind of look to because it's just something different than the reality that exists now, right? Yeah. It's an impatient league, too. But that doesn't guarantee you anything, you know what I mean? So, sure, you fire Brian Callahan. Are we going to then start throwing a parade is we're going to the Super Bowl? because you don't know what's going to happen with the next guy that comes in.

Right. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's words of wisdom for B-HOP there to end this podcast, this post-game podcast on. We wanted to thank you guys for coming in. We have a lot of great comments. Some of them weren't friendly for air, so we couldn't use those. But if you ever have questions from us, for us, make sure to put them in the chat, and we'll do our best to answer them each and every show.

Remember, you can get the Titan Squad show wherever you get your podcast. podcast, YouTube live twice a week, once of those on game days. And, of course, on Spotify, Apple Music, wherever you get your podcast on audio as well. But I'm Julian Minnensohn. You know, that's Brad Hopkins right there. We'll see you guys later this weekend. Turning the page is what we'll call it, going over to week two after a frustrating week one as the Titans fall to the Denver Broncos. Thank you guys for joining us.

We'll see you guys next time. Thank you.