Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - TITANS SQUAD SHOW: Titans SILENCED by Seahawks, Cam Ward CONTINUES TO IMPROVE, JSN TORCHES secondary

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

The Tennessee Titans fall to 1-10 following the loss to the Seattle Seahawks. We discuss why it was a step in the right direction for Tennessee despite the result. We also dive into Cam Ward's performance and how he continues to improve.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!PelotonLet yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ today at https://www.onepeloton.com.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, the Titans might have lost today, but a lot of positives that should have fans feeling good about the rest of the season. And for a team that has only lost three times all season and is revered as one of the best in the NFC, they really weren't the story of the game. 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. And welcome to the Titan Squad Show. As you heard off the top right there, we are excited to join you today. I'm Julian Minnisso and alongside the legend Brad Hopkins is the Titans.

Follow the Seattle Seahawks today, 30 to 24, but a lot of positives coming out of this game. And we're going to discuss them all here on the Titans Squad show. I wanted to remind you that today's episode is sponsored by prize picks. Download the prize picks. app today and use code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. And so Bhop, you look at the final score, Seahawks, one of the better teams in the NFC, Titans went toe to toe with them and fought hard until the end. What was your initial reaction to today's performance? The game definitely had its ebbs and flows. I thought at one

point in time, this is going to be a dirt road looping. It didn't seem like the Titans were going to dig dig themselves out of the hole that they have continued to dig themselves in all season. But they found a way. They found a way through a poised quarterback that actually showed a lot of resilience today, who also showed a lot of diversity today. One of the things I thought was very telling when you hear Moose Johnson, and I can't remember the play-by-play guy's name, talking about how the coaching staff were encouraging Cam to use his legs more today.

I wouldn't say, encourage, I told him run the football more effectively. You know, I mean, not just as a choice of yours. You know, we need to have that diversity. We need to have that kind of air of unpredictability, if you will, that will keep defenses at bay because I thought the only times that Cam was really in trouble were in obvious passing downs when the offense had to hold up to allow plays downfield to develop or at least even find open receivers for the past game to get going. But in that first drive, Julian, we saw Cam take off and have the largest, the longest run of the game

itself. I think it was like 21 yards. He did carry the ball six times for 37 yards and led the team in rushing. But for the most part, they kept the down and distances manageable, right? I think that's one of the reasons why you saw them go for fourth down so often and actually succeed in getting fourth down and converting the first. So I thought it was very encouraging. I think that there is something that you can take every single week that says this team is improving. I don't know. Maybe we'll discuss it as the show progresses about Mike McCoy in 2026. Who knows? Anything might be on the table there. Now, we'll talk about Cam Warden dive deeper into his performance here in the next segment.

But you mentioned it looked like it was going to be a butt-wop in from the start, right? But then Chim Dike gets the punt return touchdown. Second of the year, could have had three, the one against the Rams wasn't called back. And that seemed to have energized the squad. As a player on that sideline, sometimes it just takes a play line. like that, right, to turn things around and to get your mojo back a little bit. Well, first off, you want to put points on the board. And at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter if it comes from a receiver,

a defensive back, you know, someone in special teams, it doesn't matter because it draws you closer to at least, you know, putting some points on the board that get you back in the ballgame. And that's what Chim's play did. And we've seen Chim do that all season long, which is the reason why he leads the National Football League in multi-purpose yards, right? because the guy has been special in special teams. He's done enough in the receiving game for defenses to notice him.

And I think that he's had a terrific rookie campaign to this point, which to me says the future is only brighter, right? And I think for Cam being able to, you know, kind of work his way through the offense, use Gunner Helm as almost the reincarnate of Frank Weichick. It looked like nine and, I can't hold on. Let me see what Frank's number is again. I can't believe I can't remember.

I got it in here somewhere. But just looking at those two, Gunner Helm and Cam Ward, it just reminded me when I was in Nissan Stadium. Then we used to call it Adelvia Coliseum. These cats were making plays, man. Gunner's hurtling people, you know what I mean? Catching the ball by the leather and just really making some plays. And Cam is showing over and over again that he has the ability to escape

and still scan down field. Connecting with his buddy, Xavier Restrepo, first reception of his NFL career, was exciting to watch, right? People have been clamoring for, let's go, hey, let's get Strepo in there, you know? And I guess there were some things that seemed kind of, like, comfortable for them, you know?

Cam says he always knows where Xavier is on the football field, and probably because he's thrown to him more than anybody else as a football player on that team, you know? So there was a lot to be excited about, But then again, obviously we'll get into the do's and don'ts or likes or dislikes. But there was something I thought that was, except put this way. I told you and I tell you every time I get on this show, that my mom is a huge Titans fan. And she will always be, right?

I heard her squealing with giddiness today in some instances, you know, especially when they're putting points on the board. And you saw this team scratching and clawing itself back into sort of contention as the game wayned on. And that's the thing, Bhop. I mean, they've lost one score games this season. but this one felt different because offensively, they actually did something, right? They had two offensive touchdowns today, which I know the bar is low, but that's more than they've had the last couple weeks in each of those games.

And it was just a more, I guess just a more fun brand of football to watch. They were enjoyable to watch today. Yeah, but you know what? They were enjoyable to watch against a team that's eight and three. Yeah. Against a team that some people are saying is going to fight the Eagles and the Rams for their spot and maybe the playoffs you know to see them play against a guy and sam darnal that has had an extraordinary second season as a seahaw a defense that really showed up today to shut

down the run and and they really did do that except for cam kind of exposing them a little bit in their thoughts about getting keeping him in the pocket right because he did escape a lot today and you know gained fourth downs uh even converted first down through the first three those kind of things, you know, kind of surprised them a little bit. But that is a really good ball team. Mike McDonnell has really kind of, you know, giving them a new lease in life, so to speak. You know, this isn't Pete Carroll's team that's, you know, struggling and Russell Wilson isn't back there throwing picks and whatever. Even though we did see that last weekend against the Rams, that was something that Sam Donald and company had to overcome. But, you know, to look at these two

teams in totality, there was no pressure on the Titans. Why? Because we've been struggling all season we've only won one game as opposed to a team that's one eighth to this point and it's playing really well so all the pressure was on them the titans responded even though they got down in the ball game which we'll talk about because um listening to cam ward or just that at the podium at the game talking about you know we have to keep digging ourselves out of holes how about you not getting a hole to begin with that's when you have the makings of a good team a good team basically doesn't continue to shoot itself in the foot and have to worry about you know overcoming their own issues because this team just doesn't have a talent. I'm not saying it's not talented. I'm saying

it doesn't have a talent to make those kind of mistakes and win a ball game. There are some teams that have that kind of ability because they've got jimmies, jimmies and joes that just flat out get after it and nobody plays perfect. But they overcome those issues. This is not a team that can actually do that. So they almost have to play a mistake-free football to win a game. And that's yet to happen for them. Let's dive into the first half of the game to the second half of the game. What did you see in that first half where they, you know, fell behind, gotten a hole, couldn't really get going, and then all of a sudden the switch flipped there in the second half? Well, let's look at the first drive. The first drive where the Titans held

the ball for a number of plays, got well into the red zone. And, you know, for a couple of mistakes here and there just ended up having a kick a field goal, right? So it's three to nothing. At least they put points on the board in the first drive and put pressure on the Seahawks to respond. Then it seems like after Jihad Ward's personal foul, let me go back. Kenneth Walker runs nine yards for just a yard short of another first down, tack on the 15-yard penalty for, you know, the personal foul. And now here we go again. The Seahawks are well within almost their side of the field and getting to scoring position.

But what did the Titans defense do? They responded. They bent but didn't break. They didn't allow them to cross the goal line. They only allowed the football to cross the goal line, creating a field goal so i like that the way they started the game three to three very competitive back and forth then you just saw it as mistakes here and there amani hooker obviously giving up the six yard strike sam from sam donald to jackson smith and jigba they did make jackson smith and jigba and

i'm not going to keep saying that i'm going to do like everybody else and call him jsn jesn like the best receiver in football in a couple of instances today right but for the most part i mean they hung in there let's just say that i thought that The rush defense for the Titans, they could have done better because I think in the first half, Walker had like 70-something yards already. You know what I mean? And they had well over 100 yards rushing to boot. And this is supposed to be a team that is built to stop the run, especially with our best players on defense in the interior of the defensive line. Just kind of didn't happen today with consistency.

But I think that's what happens when you have one of the best receivers running through the secondary. You've got to be very cognizant of where that guy is on the football. field and try and get to Sam Donald as best you can. So I thought there was some back and forth, back and forth to it, but like you said early in the beginning of the show, Chim's punt return for 90 yards, it really did energize the sideline. It made them think, hey, look, it's not over for us. This isn't, woe as me, because we're down 30 to 13.

I think that might have been the score at one point in time, right? They scratched, they clawed, they fought their way back into at least having a chance. Now, unfortunately, it came down to an on-side kick. They didn't go 10 yards, but for the most part, this team gave itself the ability to win a ballgame. And you know what? All the pressure was on Seattle to stop us. And when they needed to the most, especially in the red zone, Seattle failed. You know, how many times did they shoot themselves in the foot inside the 20 yard line to push them back where there's a penalty or something else going on?

And then, of course, the Titans able to apply pressure in a short field because, you know, the end zone is the only other thing to go to. They got off the field on third down. They made them kick field goal. So I thought there was a good balance of a good mix of things to be excited about. Then obviously, when you've only one ball game, there are a lot of things that you need to fix. Yeah, you mentioned the penalties. The Titans had 10 of them for 63 yards today, and that comes after having a ton last week. Also, their inability to run the ball.

I know Cam Ward, we liked him using his feet, right, and getting out of sticky situations as well. But outside of that, the Titans were really one-dimensional offensive. because they just, they just couldn't run the ball. Yeah, 100%. I mean, I think Cam had more yards himself than the other three backs, Taji Spears, Tony Pollard, and Julius Chestnut combined. You know, so that just kind of goes to show you that they were really getting geared up to stop the right. Because we talked about that all year about them having more rush attempts.

I mean, Cam threw the ball like, what, 42 times. Let me see, I got it in here. He did win the battle between. he and Sam Ward or Sam Darnold because Yeah, 28 and 42. Yeah. Yeah. 28 and 42.

That means you pass the ball 42 times. You know, I think that when you're talking about balancing an offense and and limiting the opportunities that defenses have to tee off on your quarterback, 42 is a lot of attempts. I mean, Sam Darnan only threw the ball 26 times. Okay. And he still threw for 244 yards and a couple of touchdowns. Now, where there was a difference was Sam only ran the ball one time and that was for negative one yards as opposed to the three yards, the six times that Cam ran it for 37 yards and his

touchdown. So he had touchdown passing and he had a touchdown rushing, which shows his diversity, right? And those are the things that keep defensive coordinators guessing. And I think as the season progresses, they need to stop begging Cam to run the football, but telling Cam, this play is designed for you to have an option. And I didn't say an RPO quarterback. I said just the option of looking at the pass rush and then getting gone. Here's a microcosm. Remember when the when the sees parted. Cam was running and he threw the ball to Taj. Oh yeah. Almost laterally, right? Yes. By the time he stopped jogging, he had more yards to gain right there than Tazze did trying to avoid some defenders. So those are the kind of instances where we need Cam to just turn himself

mentally into a ball carrier and get those tough yards that either they're going to convert the first down while he's got the ball in his hands or at least creates the next down and distance that you can do whatever you want with the play. Yeah, I think he's gotten a lot. better. You know, I saw it a lot of Miami where he'd be scrambling out of the pocket or play breaks down and he's looking downfield like you mentioned. I mean, we saw it on the Ellick Isleman or his first career touchdown earlier this year. In his earlier college years, because I covered him at WSU, he would just, the first option's not there, he takes off and runs. So we got to have to find kind of like the balance there is kind of what

you're saying. The thing is, I'm glad you brought that up. he sees himself as a more evolved quarterback than one that just simply runs the football. Sure. It's not a knock for you to run the football, bro. You see what I'm saying? We're not saying that you're less of a quarterback because you're running the football. Some of the best offenses in the National Football League have both the ability to hit a quarterback or hit a receiver with a bomb or, you know, in a crossing round or whatever. But also making the defense play honest.

in knowing that you can run the football. But Camas had so few rushing attempts up until this game that it's not even something the defense has even think about because it's like he's trying to prove himself to be a passing quarterback. It's okay to run the football. You know what I mean? Look at C.J. Stroud, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, you know, all of these guys have the threat of running the damn football.

And you should have that same capability because we're not asking you to have the speed of Lamar and run away from a defender, but you can be a Baker Mayfield and be shifty enough with him and we saw that. We saw him skip his way out of would-be tackles. You know, we saw him slide before he got hurt. Now, I will hit, but I will say this,

he's tough because he took a couple of shots in that game. He got hit a couple times, man. And the thing is, a lesser quarterback might have been like, ah, I remember Peter Griffin from him. Ah, yeah. He didn't do any of that. man he's ready to go you know what I mean

there's no flexing of the fingers oh I'm hurt no yeah he just he reminded me of Mac 9 you know what I mean whenever people take a shot be like damn dude if you don't get out of bounds or get down yeah that's what we saw today we saw glimpses of nine in number one you know being able to stretch the field I mean that play where he was running to the sideline

looked like it was just about to take a sack because he wasn't to the line of scrimmage and he throws across his body all the way across the field and find strep in the middle of the field because they obviously were playing just some backyard football at that point. That improv right there just kind of shows you what he's capable of doing, right? But he should also use some of that when he got gone for that 21-yard game, use your legs to your advantage because it stops them from being able to tee off on you and pin their ears back

and create those less manageable down in distances, the ones that put more pressure on an offensive line that can be suspect in protection, right? You know, putting more on their plate. He talked about that. I think the Titans blocked well enough today to win, or they wouldn't even have a chance. against a pretty good unit, you know what I mean? But for the most part, they did what they needed to do to at least keep this game respectable, to say that. Yeah, certainly seemed like a step in the right direction.

We're going to dive more into Cam Ward's performance. We'll talk about the O line because I know you're itching to talk about how they played today. What we liked and what we didn't like from the Titans performance today as they follow the Seahawks 3224. Stay with us on the Titan Squad Show. All right, this episode is brought to you by Price Picks. you and I make decisions every day, but on price picks being right can actually get you paid. Don't miss any of the excitement of this sports season, whether you're following the NFL, NBA, or both.

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Steph Curry in the NBA to see how your predictions play out. Download the Price Fix 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 your first $5 lineup. Price picks, it's good to be right. All right, Bhop, as we mentioned a little bit earlier, Cam Ward, 28 to 42, 56 yards had the passing touchdown to Chim D.K. He also had a rushing touchdown in this one. And actually, one of our regular viewers on the show, Chicken Wang, 0.087 says,

going against the top five defense, who made us one-dimensional, no-run game with practice squad-wide receivers proud of camp. So you consider everything how Titans couldn't really run the ball. You're thin at receiver already. Remember, no Calvin Ridley, no Elykeyo manner in this one. You had Restrepo out there. You had Mason Kinsey out there for a few snaps. But Cam was still able to put up one of his better performances of the season. We talk about, you know, Cam needing to elevate the rest of his team around him. I think this was the best example so far this season of that.

Well, first off, how many of you say is name right? His name is Chicken Wang. Chicken Wang, zero, zero eight. Yeah. Chicken wings? You got to have the flavor on it. You got to have the flavor on it. Yeah.

But I like what he put on there because what he's labeled out there was, you know, no run game, practice quad receivers because everybody's hurt, right? Yeah, yeah. Cam put on one of the better performances that we've seen from him all season. And if you think about it, the emotion of even the people that are on that are tuning into this podcast right now, war didn't fumble, whoopee. You know, Cam had a good game. Tighten up.

Tighten up tremendously. Yep. Exactly. Tremendous improvement. This doesn't sound like a team at loss, does it? But yet they did. It's the way that they competed. Eventually, the wins will come when you keep playing like this consistently, right? You're going to catch some teams, especially good teams like the Seahawks.

And that's really going to put some confidence, some wind in the sails of these Titans. They'll feel better about themselves, having competed, and maybe won against top five defenses, et cetera, et cetera. But it didn't feel like this team was just blown out of the water. You know what I'm saying? It didn't feel like this team was just so far out matched that they shouldn't have been on the same football field together. That wasn't the sentiment. And I think the comments and the response that we're hearing from the fans, it reflects that. It reflects that this team is getting better. Let's say that. I know it sucks to just kind of make excuses for a loss and that, oh, it feels better to have lost this way than any other way, wins are a lot better when it comes to that feeling. But what we're seeing here is we're seeing. a rookie and rookies take over this team and start to grow. You see what I'm saying? Tim, a rookie. Gunner Helm, a rookie. Cam Ward, a rookie. You know, there's some young components on front, which we're still, you know, looking at the improvements of 77, Peter's doing better. I know that JC has moved positions from left to right and somebody in the comment saying he's a

guard. But, you know, it's adjusting. And he's still going into his second season, you know, comparatively speaking to my 13th season. I sucked in my second year. You know what I mean? So at the end of the day, we're experiencing growing pains. But through those growing pains, we're seeing growth. And that's the important thing. This team is getting better.

They are playing more unified. And the best things, Julian, of it all, they haven't quit on each other. Yeah. They haven't quit on each other. Chicken Wang said the same thing. There's no quit in this team. There's no quitting his team. They're not pointing fingers, you know, here.

Nah, we'll say there was some finger point last week. Big Jeff said, hey, y'all, y'all need to stop jumping off sides on that offense. You need to stop doing some of that craziness that shoot your folks up on the foot. And that's true because the first thing that Cam addressed when he got to the podium was what? Eliminating penalties. Because like I mentioned in the first segment, this team is not good enough to beat the Seahawks and themselves. You see what I'm saying? They can't overcome those things.

And it sucks to have, you know, some penalty, whether it's a false star or a, you know, 12 guys in the huddle, you know, that kind of stuff that makes the down and distances less manageable, that makes them longer. And there are less plays in the playbook to convert those downing distances, right? So you want to try and be as effective through the first three. So that way you don't have to convert five fourth downs, but it's not to say that they did it. Because, you know, put it this way, Mike McCoy and company and Ben or whoever's calling the plays, they felt comfortable enough to say, you know what, first off, we've got to. good field position. If we gave it over to their offense, at least our defense has done a good

enough job to manage if we're in their territory to kind of slow things down ultimately and get off the field. So I just think that, you know, there's a lot to be, there's a lot to be excited about. And, you know, going back to how thin they were at receiver, we, we were hoping that this was the week. You get the tight ends more involved, right? And they, and they were. You know, they combined nine catches, 91 yards. They had 11 total targets. And that, that's, that's, could be a safety blanket too for Cam Ward in some of those plays where if it breaks down or you find yourself needing to win on first or second down to be in third and manageable. You let Chig make a play.

You find Gunner, who is great catch radius. We've talked about that on this show. So I'd like to see even more tight-end usage moving forward. I will never say that you don't need receivers, okay? Because you obviously do get receivers, right? But when you look at all the great teams, there are two positions that they're really great at. Actually, three positions that, now let me say four positions that they're really good at. They're really good at blindside protectors.

They're really good at the quarterback position. They're really good at running back. And they're really, really good at tight end. Those are the constants when it comes to an offense. I mean, you've got to have big playmakers that can stretch the field that make defenses play. play you know keep you honest and whatnot but at the end of the day julian you've got to have those those those threats underneath that when they get the ball in their hands first off they're bigger than most defensive backs that are trying to tackle them anyway and they're usually

faster than linebackers they're trying to catch them you know right past the line of scrimmage so you've got to have a tight end like a travis chelsea or somebody like that you know that is really threatening and that's turning out to be gunner helm that duke he can catch anything right and he's athletic enough with as a big dude you know to be a hard tackle and of course you've got to have the consistency of running the football the guy in the back hands really got to be somebody that strikes fear in the heart of a defense because what they're doing is they know if sayquan barkley's back there in the backfield they're not going to pin their ears back and try and pass rush every single time why because if if sayquan

barclay gets the ball at their level or beyond that then guess what that's cancel christmas it's over you know i mean so we've got to have that respectability on all levels of this offense a quarterback that's capable of finding those receivers when they're open getting the ball to them accurately, but also having the diversity within an offense to have a running back and an offensive line that can provide holes that can just really get those chunk plays and keep down the distance is manageable. Tighten is part of that equation because those guys not only are blockers and the extension of the offensive line, but they are an extension of the receiving core, especially when they're big body like Gunner, where's Gunner, like,

65, 240? Yeah, big guy. Nobody wants 84 coming down field on them because look, remember when he hurtle that guy? Why did he hurdle the guy? Because the guy trying to tackle him had his eyes close you know you don't want to be coming at you exactly so that's what we're trying to say and it just seems like you know in certain spots we're starting to see improvement that really makes this offense at least from one week to the next feel better i wanted to stick on the topic of the young players because you think about mike borgonzi's draft class right his first draft class is GM of the titans he got cam ward who seems to be improving steadily right gunner helm who you just who you just praised. Chim Dike, obviously, the results speak for itself. Iow Manor has shown flashes.

And we're going to see more of the other. I mean, Kevin Winston made a big play today, had a huge tag. I mean, not every draft pick is going to hit on a draft class, right? But I've been pretty pleased from what I've seen from Mike Borgonzi's first draft class. If I am, if I am him, I am telling the video team after this, after this game, cut up this tape and send it to every available head coach and offensive coordinator and say, hey, this is, this is what you could have. This is what we have to offer and maybe take the next step with some of these talented young players. Marcus Harris is starting to make some plays. You know, you mentioned Chim and Cam and Gunner. I mean, it does seem like that we really hit, you know, on those

draft picks that will become tomorrow's faces of the franchise. Because one, if you're a rookie and you're getting playing experience, that's the best thing. The best form of for improvement from one year to the next is having game time experience. And these young cats are getting a lot of it, whether it's through attrition or just them out and out winning the position, right? They're getting to see the field and action on the field that they can grow from. So I'm excited to see these young players in their first year, sometimes feeling their way through the dark, you know, it's just part of it. But at the end of the day, some of them are making plays that give this team a chance. Now, I know that's crazy to sound, say, when you only have one one game. But over the last three,

four weeks, man. This team's playing better. They're playing better up front on both sides of the football. They're playing better at the quarterback position. And I think that Cam is continuing to show himself to be a student of the game that is looking at, what did he say? He like, he said he watches the pocket in film just to see what he needs to do, how they're rushing him, how he needs to navigate and climb the progression to finding an open receiver. And now he's implementing the ability to get gone. Yeah. I mean, to look that past rush. lock. You drop back and you're bouncing back.

And that's it even from the gun, and next thing you know, you see that they've really keyed in on you and where you are set up in that pocket. And now guess what? That whole field is opened up for you. And you can take advantage of that. Because now guess what happens that next time?

They're not going to rush this hard of field because they're going to be like, damn it, man, this guy got underneath me last time. So let me take something off. And you know who likes that the most? The offensive line. They don't want them rushing that. hard because if they know that that put it this way tackles no and can't mention this making life

harder on his tackles tackles know when you got a clay pigeon back that it ain't moving anywhere defenses just say oh yeah I'm going to get out here a little bit wider make you move your feet that much more and I know exactly what the quarterback is because you've got your back to them but then if that guy takes off now I've got to take less steps I've got to watch you as opposed to throwing some move on alignment that gets me by you and that makes the pat the protection a lot of better. Absolutely, absolutely. And we're going to talk about the O line here on the other side of the break. I know B. Hop is itching to do that. As well as answer some of your guys's questions. Keep them coming in the chat. We'll do our best to answer them throughout the show here on the Titans Squad

show. Keeping cool. 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 honest, getting tickets can be a hassle between cues, login screens, and prices jumping at checkout. It's certainly frustrating. That's why I use game time, the app that gives the advantage back to fans. Game time is fast, easy, and backed by the game time guarantee. You'll always get 100% authentic tickets delivered on time and at the best price. Plus, all fees are included.

So the price you see is the price you pay. Maybe you want to check out Cam Ward before the regular season is over here at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Game time is certainly the app. to use. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, that's promo code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-N-FL-N-FL-N-FL-L-N-Fel for $20 off. Swipe, Tap, Ticket, Go. Download Game Time today. All right, B-Hoppa, so I was in the locker room after the game and I was talking to Peter Skoranski asking him about, you know, this is a step in the right direction, right?

And he said, yeah, but, you know, we'd like to win. You know, we're not a big fan of moral victories. As far as the offensive line, obviously was an issue last week with a lot of the pre-snap stuff going on. What did you make of their performance today? Peter's right. As a player, there is no substitute for winning. And there's no consolation in there. Oh, we play pretty good.

No, no. At the end of the day, we're not judged by playing pretty good. We're judged by wins and losses. Now, I will say the consolation is that they were in the ballgame and they played well enough to win. But those mistakes, those penalties that they have not put an end to have made it harder for them to win. And it's not all concentration. You know what I mean? I think, you know, J.C. trying to time up the snap count, like we talked about earlier, that's just part of trying to gain the competitive advantage.

Sometimes, phrases as it sounds, holding is necessary. because that big play that you saw getting negated by a holding penalty, it would not have even occurred or developed had the guy not held somebody. And sometimes the defense makes a play. And just at the end of the day, you know what? I would much rather grab a guy and take a holding call than watch him taking a few more steps and knock the crap out of my quarterback or my running back for that manner because I didn't want to hold him.

You know what I mean? At the end of the day, you preserved your ball carrier's body, whether it be the quarterback, running back receiver by just doing that. And sometimes you get away with it. You know, there's just no way in the world that you can stop a grown man from going from point A to point B, sometimes without grabbing a little cloth. D.Bs do it all the time. You know what I'm saying? There's no way a D.B can mirror some of these best wide receivers out there on the edge without doing a little tug here now and then to get themselves caught up or at least even maybe slow down the receiver that's put on an excellent move.

It's no different than defenders, offensive line and defensive line. So they played, I think, more consistent, but there were still those sentences like on the fourth down. when Kevin Zitler just whiffed on the double team at the point of attack, that's not what you want to happen. Got to keep your head up, got to see what you hit, all those things that we preach and practice and technique and whatnot. But every now and then, guess what? Defense makes the play.

It just is very untimely that happened at that point. You know, there's a couple times when Dan Moore got just ran around like it wasn't even standing there, you know what I mean? But we talked about that at the beginning of the show, how this team just isn't good enough to overcome those type of issues. There was more, and there's more blame to go around. You know, sometimes Cam digger with antsy, you know, started moving around and then creating those situations where he added more pressure

because he wasn't looking down the field. He was trying to avoid. He was looking at the rush. You know, and that ultimately will catch up to you, especially if you don't have a place to escape. So there was enough blame to go around, but like Cam said, the offensive line blocked well enough to give them an opportunity to be in the ballgame, And that's the only reason why they lost by six and not 16.

Something that interesting that happened in practice this week, or I guess it would be in the film room, was after they had all those pre-snap issues last week, Peter Skoronsky was the guy in the film room that said, hey, guys, he's the one who stood up and said, this can't happen, right? And we've been looking for a vocal leader on this offensive line. And, you know, everyone kind of thought it would be J.C. Lathom.

but his play hasn't really resulted in that. How much do you feel that this offensive line is away from taking that step and finding that leadership target or role or person, however we want to call it? You know what they need to do, which I don't know what they are or not doing, is watch the film as an offense in individual units. Because the film, first of, doesn't lie. that's you up there whether you did something good or bad that's you up there and you have to hold yourself accountable for everybody on that side of football is seeing if they see you block a guy to the turf and just have a really good block they're gonna applaud you they're gonna be like that's what we need more of they're gonna use you as an example that's how you get it done fellas if you go out there and whiff or give up a sack or drop a ball or something like that in front of the entire unit that's what they see and excuses are like what the one thing that everybody has right yeah and that's not going to fly so at the end of the day

if you really want to get down to nuts and bolts and hold each other accountable watch the film together we used to do that when it got bad we didn't say hey we're going to break out offense o-line d-line or o-line receivers whatever receiver we're running backs but we're going to watch the film collectively then we're going to go out in the field and we're going to fix the things no no no what we're going to do today fellas is we're going to all watch this together we're going to go through the corrections of this game together and usually that's done on a Monday when it's fresh so if you don't want to be the guy that gets called out on film stop screwing up exactly one thing that pier did say they need to do a better job of and it's obviously the proofs hit in the pudding with

only 64 rushing yards is run blocking but however chicken wang zero zero eight seven who deserves more blame for the lack of a run game our o line or our running backs as we talked about going into this game Bhop earlier in the week, how much establishing a run game would help Cam Ward because it opens up play action, keeps the defense honest. So from what you saw today, I know you haven't looked back at the tape, but from what you saw today, what's the main issue there? Time. I say time because the only way that you master anything is through repetition. And the longer you play together, the more plays that you have together, the less times you make those mistakes. When I just brought the play between Kevin and JC when they're supposed to double team up to the next level and at the point of attack, Kevin lost miserably.

They got split and ended up having a loss of loss on that fourth down play. That doesn't happen if you've done that 20 times in a game. It doesn't happen if you've done it 40 times or 50 times, 60 times over a season or over years when you've done that. So those changes up front, you're starting to see affect the scheme and technique of the guys because you've got to be able to play. together as a unit, five fingers making a fist. That's how offensive line plays together. And they've got to get used to, I mean, Bruce and I played together for 10 years.

10 years we played together. We stopped talking after a couple of years because we didn't need to. We've done the same blocks over and over and over again, but I had the luxury of every single season, starting the guy that I finished the season with last year. So when new guys come in, whether it's a veteran or whether it's a rookie, it takes time for them to gel and blend together to create that

cohesion that has to take place up front because zone blocking is the best game. You know, why? Because you're blocking an area, not a dude. And if I can take care of this area and allow those creases that running backs can take advantage that's what it's like. So if I've got four hands on this down lineman, but we're also looking to see at linebacker level where we're getting off to next, it might be me, it might be you, but we're both seeing the same things.

and physically we're shoulder to shoulder taking care of the most obvious threat, which is the first guy in front of us, one of the four down linemen, right? And then we're working our way because there's two guys on one dude, getting tremendous push at the line of scrimmage up to the linebacker level or even the DB level, whichever our next threat is, and we can then peel off of that double team and get the next guy. And guess what? The running back appreciates that because now he sees that there are bodies on bodies

and it's hard as hell for a defendant to tackle you when somebody's not him to the ground. You mentioned the Zeitler play. Is he done? Because is it time to get Jackson Slater some time there? Because we haven't seen him yet. Zytler's only going to be here for this year. You know, I hate to put you on the spot. You can't replace what 14 years of experience give you. Okay. You know what I mean? He knows so much more than Jackson Slayer does, right? And at this point, I'll be honest, if Jackson Slater were better than he is right now, this isn't a favorite game. He'd be in the lineup.

They'd be looking at Jackson Slater, knocking dudes on their butts in practice. He's got an opportunity every single week to show that he's worthy of being a star. He does. Because guess who speaks about him glowingly if, in fact, he is playing better? Devondry Sweat, Jeffrey Simmons, Art and Key. they're looking at at the defense line coach and they're saying, bro, Jackson is out here bawling, man. Look at this film. You know, he's really getting to the next level.

He's really doing his job. And then someone's going to say, hey, is he probably better than Kevin? You see what I'm saying? Does he deserve a shot? Because if you're a liability up front, they're always looking at ways to improve themselves. And if there's a dude on practice squad or that's a backup that is ringing, knocking people into dirt, In practice, Wednesday through Saturday, he's going to afford himself an opportunity to do it. I'm just guessing that that hasn't happened yet, which is the reason why you haven't seen him in the lineup.

Indeed, indeed. Another guy that fans were excited to see today, Xavier Restrepo, two catches, 26 hours, almost had a touchdown in the end zone there. We also saw James Prochet make some plays as well, but I know a lot of fans in the comments wanted to talk about Restrepo. What did you make of his performance, his first regular season debut? with the Titans? You know, he reminds me a Cooper Cup. You know what I mean? Just a reliable, he's watching the quarterback. He's mirroring his movements, right? And something that he's done even in college. So he does have a more understanding of what Cam likes to do when the play breaks down. Sure, can he run his routes, the ones that are designed to run? That's one thing. But can he

then improv and find himself a crease in that zone or get himself away from a defender to make himself available for sure he can and he showed himself especially in that on that uh that play that that he caught just before the goal line that he's trusted enough in traffic and clutch enough to catch it to cure it and not do something stupid you know to fumble it away or whatever you know what I mean so I like what we saw and guess whose confidence grows the more he's on the field streps yeah you know and especially when he starts making big plays like that put this way they lost the game but I guarantee you streps people are like dude oh yeah yeah We're going to see in Instagram.

That post of him catching the ball is coming. Right. It's only the beginning as the caption. When he walked out to his family today after the game, he probably wasn't even on the ground. He was this far above the ground. Even though it was a loss and it sucks. I'm not going to discount that.

For a guy that just got in the lineup for the first time ever, you know what I mean? In the game that he played today in a couple of instances, making big plays, he had a little smile on his face like, we didn't win but you're going to see me next week i know that much yeah certainly titans fans are waiting for i mean i don't think the stadium was uh maybe for the touchdowns but outside of those it wasn't louder than when he made his first grab today so that's good to see because he works hard and him and cam certainly obviously have a rapport from their their miami days all right guys

so keep the comments coming on the final segment of our titans squad show today we're going to have our titans talk segment where we're going to answer your questions respond to your comments. I know you guys have a lot of them already in the chat. We're going to get to as many as possible here in our final segment of the show. Don't go anyway. All righty. Final segment of the show is Titans Talk. We want you guys to put your comments in the chat if you're live with us on YouTube. We do have a question for Bhop and it is offensive line related.

This is from Rice School as Bhop. What if? He means what if Slater is more soon? He means, oh, offensive tackle, I would assume, than guards. So what are your thoughts on him from what you've seen throughout camp up into this point now? Well, I've got to be honest. I haven't seen much of him since camp. Okay.

So I don't know, you know, how much he's improved, how much he's not improved. I'll just define you how the positions are usually built and the movements that are required to be successful at each. 6-3-3-11, it sounds like a guard. You know what I mean? But does he move like a guard, or does he move like a tackle? Tackles have to be athletic enough because they work in space. You see what I'm saying?

They have to be fast enough to get themselves away from the offensive line, the line of scrimmage, and also be athletic enough. I'm not saying being super athletic. I'm just saying be athletic enough to mirror guys that are super athletic that are past rushers. pass rushers come in all sizes they come in some speedy skinny linebacker type dudes you know like micha parsons or they come in some uh uh uh trent richerson type i'm about to knock your beep in the dirt you know what i mean that kind of dude i said richson like the quarterback but you see i'm

saying big dudes max crosbie those kind of guys you know uh the bosa brothers you know i mean t j watt j j watt those kind of dudes you know they come in different sizes guards are protected on both sides they don't have to have near as much movement and particularly their opponent is right on their shoulder inside or out you know what I'm saying they're right there so at the end of the day you've got to be strong to play guard because first off defensive tackles are bigger than defensive ends are usually bigger and stronger so that's where that push comes from but you've got to be stout enough to be able to manage that but you're also protected by a center on one side and a tackle on the other side so you don't have to work as well in space so depending

on how Jackson Slater is in space versus being someone that's right next to the ball of sorts. That's how I would define whether or not he's better suited offensive guard or offensive tackle. And I just haven't seen the reps. You know what I mean? To say that, yeah, even especially in the game, never seen him play in a regular season game. Right. I can't say that, yeah, this guy works very well in space and looks like a tackle. Or he's not that athletic. He seems kind stiff but he's strong as hell that makes him a guard now if you're talking about center a center is not only the ability of a guard but you got to be smart you got to be super smart because you're usually calling out where the biggest threat comes from normally in a four four down lineman in front

we're responsible for the four down lineman in the mike mike linebacker you see what i'm saying the will who is obviously the weak side linebacker that's um from the side that's that that doesn't have the tight end on it, the quarterback is usually responsible for him if he's coming or a running back, right? The tight end side where the strong side linebacker is, he's blocking that strong side linebacker. But the Mike linebacker, the guy in the middle, he can be anywhere. And that's where the center has to define who that guy is and make sure that we're all moving in the same place. And he's the one that has the ball in his hands before the quarterback does. So there's a lot of things that come into being the center, a lot more responsibilities. And I don't know if they're willing

to or if they've even given him an opportunity to be that guy. guy. Absolutely. That's fair. That's certainly fair. Now, Chicken Wang has something because you mentioned it at the start of the show in our kind of teaser leading in about the coaching. Chicken Wang says, how do you guys feel about the coaching as of late? This is the thing. I threw that out there in the beginning about Mike McCoy. Did he work his way into being the guy for 2026? I kind of threw that out their tongue and cheek. But they are playing better. They are. But wouldn't they have played better anyway? Because the seasons progressing they've getting more game experience you'd hope yeah that's what i'm saying put it this way if this team just didn't get any better from training camp to now you got to be like

we got the wrong guys well because like during the brian callahan stretch before he was fired it seemed like they were getting worse i i can't say that you're wrong but you would think that after what is this week nine what is this week 10 nine i think 12 Because it's week 12. They're one in 10 now. So, yeah, week 12. Holy crap. Anyway, so you would think, right, it is flying.

You would think that this team would get incrementally better from week to week, which they are, especially over the last four or five weeks. Right, right. But what would that have happened even if Brian was the coach? You know what I mean? So that's why I have to ask myself. I have to ask myself. Now, I will say I do like Mike McCoy at the podium talking about it, you know what I'm saying?

And also being responsible for communicating on both sides of the football, which I didn't necessarily see that all that happening with Brian. But even Mike McCoy admitted to himself to us at the press conference, he's like, hey, look, I got to go back and look at the tape because I'm not looking at the iPad all the time for just offensive defense. I'm spreading myself throughout all the responsibilities of a head coach. I mean, that's not responsible for one side, but I'm responsible for both sides and special teams.

So he's got a lot going on there. But I just think that, you know, either this team just got better naturally you know, as it was supposed to because the players are getting more reps and more opportunities to play with each other. Or maybe the culture that he's establishing or just the lack of pressure to get back and have a respectable season.

You've won one game in the last 12 seasons. This shit is, excuse me, this stuff is over. You know what I mean? A little Pat McAvey there. But this is over, you know what I mean? I mean, when it comes to like trying to get to the playoffs and whatever, so where's the pressure? Where's the stress?

There ain't any. So maybe with that, just being at the end of that, put this way, you fired your head coach for goodness sake. You know what I mean? So how much confidence did you have that we're not going to pick in the first top five picks? I will say McCoy has been criticized for his kind of conservative play calling and the conservative, I guess, philosophy. But they were five of seven on fourth down today. They went for it. Because Cam said at the end of last game, I want the ball in my hands on a fourth down situation.

Like I want to live and die with the ball in my hand. So, I mean, it was good to see them going forward in certain situations because you also want to put your young quarterback and young players in different types of situations, maybe some that they haven't been in before, even if it is low pressure in their one in nine or one in ten or whatever. At one point, Cam was 79% in completions in the first half. 79%. Yeah, I mean, which shows you that he was, you know, the passes that he chose to make were of higher quality. guys were catching the ball you see what I'm saying you know there were a couple of instances where I thought you know whether than passes especially on third and two don't pass a dang football you know what I mean bludgeon somebody hit him in the mouth you know what I mean get the ball in the hands of somebody that can make a play with it and fight for that versus the the only way that this play is going to be converted is by me throwing it accurately left and you're catching it accurately you're talking about the first one where they decided to pass to gunner yeah on the side of line and then and then they ran the ball on fourth and one where it and got it

yeah yeah but my mom said the same thing she's like hell you could have done that on third and two yeah yeah it was always going to be there yeah so third and two third and one something like that as a defense i'm thinking man these guys are going to run it down football because the probability of conversion in those in that limited space it's better than it is if i'm dropping back taking longer to make a completion helping to play develops and then hoping that your guy holds up, you know what I'm saying? Unless you're running play action, play action is a completely different animal because at least I might be under center.

I'm showing you that run action. Oh, but guess what? The fullback or the tight end that slipped out into the flat, now it's a first down, and now he's running out of the sideline and it could be a touchdown. All that stuff can happen versus you being in the gun and then taking even further steps back, hoping that the receiver gets separation and then catches the damn thing once you throw it to them. All of those things have to come true for this play to work versus here's the handoff.

knock somebody over. Last thing for you, now that this is probably the most positive that fans have felt other than maybe the win over the Cardinals, right, all season long, what do you want to see that, the fluky one, right? What would you like to see now as we go from this week to the next week as we're hoping for positive and steady improvement week after week with this team and then these young players?

I want to see Cam throw the ball less, and I want to see him run it more. Okay. I saw 42 attempts, okay, great, whatever. I saw six rushing attempts. Those six rushing attempts and his one rushing touchdown showed you that he has the ability to do it. But I'm telling you, it's not just about being conservative and running the football. It's about keeping defense's honest. It's about not putting your quarterback in danger from an offensive line that has had problems holding up for long periods of time.

stop putting pressure on those guys to keep the pocket clean. At least, you know, throw an element of surprise out there by creating, you know, shorter plays because you don't need to convert third and ten plus. You know what I'm saying? Third and five in the passing game is a blessing. Because at the end of the day, now you're asking that defense to cover a lot of different angles.

You know what I'm saying? And at the end of the day, the probability of converting, you know, is a lot easier for backs coming out of the back field, for the slot receiver, an in-rout or an out-rout. Maybe they're playing so far up on the line streamage because you are in third short and distances

that that guy on the outside can win that go-rout. You know what I'm saying? And you're holding up just long enough to throw a deep ball, like what Jackson did on Amani. You know what I'm saying? So you can do a lot, man, if you just limit the passing attempts in that capacity and then show more diversity

by having your quarterback show both of his skills with ball. Absolutely. Get those puppies moving. Bhop says. All right, we wanted to thank you guys for joining us today on the Titans squad show. Obviously, a loss for the Titans 30 to 24 as they fall to 1 and 10. However, a lot of positives and good things coming out of the game today, particularly with Cam Ward and a lot of the younger players. Thank you guys for joining us if you were live with us. Make sure to like, comment, subscribe, wherever you get your podcast. And we'll see you guys during the week.

Thank you.