Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Touchdown Tuesday - Redzone Improvement, #TicTacTitans & Titans Talk

Episode Date: October 29, 2019

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it's a touchdown Tuesday. We are going to focus on how the Titans are able to score touchdowns and their red zone efficiency in the last two weeks. In our first segment, we are going to talk about those numbers, talk about what the Titans have been able to do in the red zone to convert those opportunities into touchdowns. In our second segment, in this week's Tic Tac Tuesday, we're going to jump into the film room, break down some X's and O's, and talk about how the Titans were able to execute in the red zone against the Buccaneers.

So our plays this Tuesday are going to be our three touchdown passes from Ryan Tannehill and go over how the Titans were able to pull that off. So our third segment will be Titans Talk. Every Tuesday, I like to make sure you guys are all caught up on what the coaches and the players had to say. So I'm going to give you some snippets from some interviews and keep you up to date with that information as well. Really excited to get into all of it with you guys.

Like I said, it's a touchdown Tuesday. Let's focus on the scoring. Let's get it. Your Tennessee Titans lead story is the drastic improvement in the red zone offense. Just to set the stage for you guys, through the first six weeks of the NFL season, the Titans had converted their 15 red zone opportunities into only eight touchdowns. Quick math, that's a little above 50%. Not quite good enough for an NFL offense that doesn't get a lot of opportunities in the red zone as it is.

Well, the last two weeks of the season, the Titans are six for six in the red zone. As a matter of fact, in their last three games, even with the first game of those three being against Denver where the Titans didn't score at all, the Titans are still tied for first in the NFL through the last three weeks with a 75% touchdown rate in their red zone opportunities. So right now, the Titans have climbed back and they sit at 14 touchdowns and 21 red zone opportunities. That is tied for third best in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers and the Indianapolis Colts, and they are just behind the Seattle Seahawks and the Buffalo Bills. Now,

what's more impressive than just the Titans' ability to score those touchdowns with the red zone opportunities that they're given is the distribution and the way that they're going about it. At the Chargers game, we saw a touchdown to Corey Davis over the middle in a tight window on a route combination that sent Corey Davis on a comeback route right in the middle of the end zone, and Ryan Tannehill was able to fire it with good arm strength into a small, tight window to Corey Davis for a touchdown. We saw a catch to Tajay Sharp, a slant over the middle that had good accuracy, good anticipation, and shows that Ryan Tannehill is reading the defense correctly. And then we had a toss sweep to Derrick Henry in the Chargers game

that shows that the Titans do have the ability to go off that left side with some outside runs, get Derrick Henry going downfield, and get him into the end zone. Flash forward to the game against the Buccaneers. Similar thing, and it's a touchdown to Jonu Smith, where A.J. Brown runs a really good route, and we're going to cover this more in our second segment as one of our plays that we will take a look at, but Ryan Tannehill sees what the defense is doing makes the smart easy throw and allows Johnnie Smith to make one move and make a play and get into the end zone so it's things like that that are really going to help out this offense just making the easy simple play reading the

defense getting the ball out letting the playmakers do what they're supposed to do so we're seeing a couple different things that are allowing the Titans to have success in the red zone another Another one to Tajay. It's very clear, and I made him a Titan up in yesterday's show. It's very clear that Tajay Sharp has Ryan Tannehill's trust in the red zone. He doesn't catch a lot of balls and isn't getting a lot of targets from game to game, but that's two back-to-back games where the Titans have targeted Tajay Sharp in the red zone, close to the end zone, with the game on the line. So Tajay Sharp clearly has a chemistry with Ryan Tannehill that's going

to be important going down the rest of the season as the Titans try to continue this red zone success. And finally, a touchdown pass to A.J. Brown. It was just a really well-located ball with good accuracy. So we're seeing a run to the left side. We're seeing power throws from Tannehill. We're seeing accurate throws from Tannehill. We're seeing accurate throws from Tannehill. Some of this is against man. Some is against zone. Some is against different kinds of zones. So the Titans offense is finding a way to be successful in the red zone, doing different

things, running different kinds of route combinations. Now, the Titans aren't always super successful. They're not scoring on first down, but two of the red zone touchdowns against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were on third and goal. So that's something to look forward to. Also, obviously, the red zone opportunities in the Buccaneers game were afforded to the Titans due to some turnovers, but that's not important. What's important is what the Titans are able to do when they are in the red zone.

The Titans are going to have to make drives to give themselves red zone opportunities. We know that. So whether by hook or by crook, they're doing it themselves or they are being given the ball or taking the ball away from the opposing offense with good field position. Either way, the Titans are getting into the red zone and it matters what they do there. And red zone offense is going to be different than your 20 to 20 offense. It's a whole different ballgame once you're down there packed in. So very important to see the Titans be this successful. 6-6 in their last two games.

Very, very promising from the offense. Hoping to see more of that. That's going to do it though for our conversation about the red zone offense. Before we jump into our Tic Tac Tuesday segment and talk about the X's and O's behind the Titans three touchdowns against the Buccaneers, I do want to remind you guys that Peloton is offering a limited time offer. Get $100 off accessories when you purchase the Peloton bike and get a great cardio workout at home. Go to onepeloton.com and use promo code LOCKED to get started. Do you ever find yourself wishing you could make some extra cash with your NFL knowledge?

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our first segment, the Titans red zone offense has made some really incredible leaps here in the past two weeks under the direction of Ryan Tannehill. What I want to do in this week's segment this Tuesday is talk about those red zone plays and how the Titans were able to have success in the red zone against the Buccaneers offense. Now, as I mentioned in our first segment, despite the fact that the Titans were given some really good opportunities to score a touchdown, they still had to go out and produce with those opportunities. So I just want to talk about how they were able to do that and build off of last week. So our first play is after the first Jameis Winston turnover, a fumble, which it was a

missed time snap from the center that hit Winston in the face mask and dropped to the ground. The Titans got a fortuitous bounce, but they were able to capitalize pretty quickly on first and goal. The Titans have a trips formation with Jonu Smith all the way to the outside here. They're going to have A.J. Brown on the inside slot. What the Titans are trying to do here is get a matchup. They're hoping they can get a linebacker on Jonu Smith on the outside.

They have Corey Davis on the inside slot. So what we're going to see here is the Titans are anticipating man coverage from the Buccaneers, which they like to blitz and play man coverage behind. So they have Corey Davis closest to the formation, A.J. Brown in the slot in between John U and Corey, and then John U on the outside. On the snap, right here, A.J. Brown is trying to set a natural pick for John U Smith, and the Buccaneers, for some reason, just fall right into the hands of A.J. Brown and what he's trying to do, and they actually help him out.

So it's clear at the beginning of the play that the Buccaneers have some confusion on whose role is which. The cornerback is trying to get someone to come out to guard Janu. At some point in time the middle linebacker just kind of looks at him and says take your man and decides to take Corey Davis. That's just really not a good start for any defense but what happens is is A.J. Brown takes an outside release from his slot position, goes basically directly at the guy who's supposed to guard John U. Smith, and for some reason, number 28, who's supposed to be playing man coverage on John U. Smith, cuts A.J. Brown at the knees, like he's blocking him or trying to tackle him for some reason. Very confusing what he was able to do.

But either way, Tannehill diagnoses the coverage quickly, sees that it's man, sees that A.J. Brown's guy is not going to be, or A.J. Brown is going to be preventing Johnnie Smith's mark from getting over to him, quick strike right to Johnnie Smith, a good back shoulder throw that helps Johnnie Smith turn and get his forward momentum going, and leads him right into the end zone, that's a touchdown for the Titans, his forward momentum going, and leads him right into the end zone. That's a touchdown for the Titans. One out of one opportunities with a turnover like that given to you in that position starting on your own 10-yard line.

You have to find a way to convert that to a touchdown early, especially being down 3-0 and the offense kind of sputtering to start the game. Really important for the Titans offense to come out there and convert that opportunity, and they do so. Play number two is kind of a similar situation here because the Titans are getting the ball off of a Jameis Winston turnover. He was intercepted by Malcolm Butler on a fantastic play where there was clearly some miscommunication

between the wide receiver and Winston and what they saw from the coverage. I believe we're going to talk about those turnovers on Thursday, but one thing that we want to see here in play two, Winston, like I said, gives an interception to the Titans. They end up on their six-yard line after a Malcolm Butler return. Now, the Titans do run into a little bit of a struggle here. So, we saw in the first red zone opportunity that the Buccaneers ran man, and they brought about five people. Well, the Titans see a similar look here. They're seeing a man coverage look. They have Adam Humphreys in the slot on the right-hand side,

and they run a similar play that we saw for a first down against the Browns where Adam Humphreys goes up the field and then tries to cut out at the last second right by the pylon. I really like the play call there, and it's not a bad throw, but you would like to see Adam Humphreys find a way to get his feet in bounds there, but it was pretty good defense by 28 on the Buccaneers to push him out. On the second and six, the Titans are expecting man again.

I don't like this play call where I do like the last one. They try to run a fade to Adam Humphreys on the back left corner of the end zone at a shotgun. I just don't like that play. Adam Humphreys isn't a physically dominant receiver. He's going to be undersized pretty much any matchup that he has. He got a decent release. The pass wasn't there, but I just really don't like the opportunity there. So it's very important on this third down and six where the Titans haven't been able to get even a yard

off of that turnover from Winston. It's important that they find a way to score this touchdown. Now, once again, I'm going to be honest with you. I do not like this play call. I don't like end zone fades. They are very low percentage success rate as a play on a fade. The throw has to be essentially perfect. The wide receiver has to make a perfect play, and you honestly need some help from the defensive back to not play the play very well to make it successful. So, I don't like the play call here. I don't like that it goes to Tajay Sharp. If we're going to run this, I'd like to see it run to Corey Davis, who's the more physically dominant wide receiver and would have had a better matchup as Carlton Davis is the Buccaneers best cornerback. We saw him intercept Tannehill twice during the game, back-to-back plays, but they were taken back

on penalties. So not really a fan of this play call, but it does work. And the reason it does work is because of the execution and the beautiful touch throw from Ryan Tannehill. So on this third and six, you have Tajay Sharp all the way to the left. He's basically going to dance with his man on the snap and then break to the outside on a fade route into the end zone. Not much else to say other than just a beautiful throw by Tannehill. He takes one step, sees his man, throws it. The DB makes an attempt to hit the ball. It's too good of a pass, and Tajay Sharp runs a nice route

and makes an easy catch for a touchdown. Just really good execution there from Ryan Tannehill and Tajay Sharp. Again, I don't like the call. I don't think it's a very good call. I don't like the setup there from Arthur Smith. I didn't like the call. I don't think it's a very good call. I don't like the setup there from Arthur Smith. I didn't like the second down play call either. I did like the first down play call with Adam Humphries on an out route there, but either way, a great play by the players will make up for any kind of bad call. And unfortunately we see that happen a lot for the

Titans. Let's jump to our third and final play of this touchdown Tuesday. The Titans' third and final red zone opportunity. As I mentioned, they were able to convert on all three of these, and this was the biggest one of the bunch. Right here, the Titans are down 23-20 in the fourth quarter with seven minutes remaining. They have only been two of eight on their third down conversions to this point, but like I said, they were two for two in the red zone at that time, and they were two for two on third downs during that drive. So this was the quintessential drive for the Titans, the game winning drive for the Titans that allowed them to take the lead and score the most points that they have since the Cleveland Browns game. The Titans are in shotgun, of course. The Titans are in a four wide receiver set here.

They have three people to the right side and a trips with Jonu Smith as the inside slot, Adam Humphries as the outside slot, and Corey Davis all the way to the boundary on the left-hand side. They have A.J. Brown by himself. And the reason for that is, like I had mentioned throughout the segment, the Buccaneers have been playing man in the red zone. That had to be something that the coaches saw on tape and expected to see. Well, the Titans thought that they could isolate A.J. Brown one-on-one with a cornerback in man coverage and get the look that they want and find a touchdown.

They didn't get that look. The Buccaneers actually faked man coverage. They dropped their edge guys and turned it into a cover three zone. Now, unfortunately, when you run a cover three zone on defense, your outside corners are basically in man on man. This is something that the Seahawks made incredibly popular, their cover three defense, where Richard Sherman, basically, he could play the outsides and he had to cover deep in his third of the field but he's basically playing man coverage on the boundary with his guy that's what the Buccaneers are doing here they're in a cover three and Carlton Davis again who like I said had a pretty

decent day but just happened to have the Titans two last touchdowns scored directly on him Carlton Davis is trying to play A.J. Brown here and he he just gives him too much room. A.J. Brown, with a very savvy move he on his route, just barely extends his right arm as he breaks outside towards the pylon. A.J. Brown runs straight up the field, gets into the end zone, and right when he gets into the end zone, breaks out left towards the pylon. Tannehill, even though he's expecting man, still gets the kind of look that he's looking for out of the cover three. Hits A.J. Brown as he taps his toes going out of the end zone for the Titans' last touchdown. It's just beautiful stuff. Like I mentioned in our first segment, we're seeing such distribution here. Tajay Sharp twice on a slant and then a fade. Corey Davis on a nice short comeback route over the middle. A.J. Brown on a nice out route in the end zone.

Jonu Smith on a nice combination route to get the ball right before the goal line and then run it. We're just seeing so many different things. Power throws, accuracy throws, touch throws from Ryan Tannehill. A bunch of different diversity when it comes to how these touchdowns are being scored in the red zone. So that's our three plays for the day. The Titans are able to score that last touchdown 27 to 23 and the defense as always is able to hold and secure the victory for the Titans against the Buccaneers. Red zone offense, the Titans offense isn't a juggernaut. They're not going to get tons of red zone opportunities. So it is incredibly important that when they do get those opportunities, whether they're creating them themselves through offensive drives or creating them via turnovers from the other team, it is essential that the Titans

be very successful in the red zone and capitalize on the opportunities that they have since they'll probably have less than most teams due to the consistency struggles that the offense sees. So I wanted to go over those plays for you, give you guys a good idea of what the Titans were able to do to be successful in the red zone. You can follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. I'm going to be posting the breakdown of these plays, the visuals of these plays on Tuesday afternoon as well. So you guys can kind of marry up this conversation we're having with the tape and get a good idea of what what's going on out there and what I'm seeing that I just broke down to you with your own eyes.

So you can check me out, as I said, at Tic Tac Titans. Follow me on Twitter. It's always a good time on game days as well. So that's going to do it for our Tic Tac Titans touchdown Tuesday segment. In our third segment, we are going to do a little bit of Titans talk. I'm going to let you hear from Titans coach Mike Vrabel about how he felt about the game in the day after press conference. That's vital information. I want you guys to hear it from the people who are in the locker room experiencing it day to day. So I'm going to get you guys a little bit of that press

before we head out for the day. Let's do a little bit of Titans talk. So right now we are going to hear head coach Mike Vrabel's day after press conference. Let's hear what he has to say. And I don't think just the offense. I think, Teresa, this is a critical time for us as a football team. We are four and four. We've won two games in a row.

There's no bye this week. We are, just like every other team in the National Football League, I would say operating at less than 100%. It's a vicious game. And so there's a fine line between trying to improve on the practice field, which is what you have to do and work on the practice field, and make sure that our guys are ready to play, that we are trying to take care of the guys that need to be taken care of, but also improving. Offensively, there are definitely signs, and it was inconsistent,

and it was tough. We knew sometimes that the run game was going to be tough sledding, but we also knew that if we committed to it, that we could potentially break a couple, which we did. We were on the post safety three times. We had a 42-yarder that got called back. And then we weren't able to secure the football. We made some good throws. We made some really great catches.

And there were some good pockets. And then there were other times where there weren't. And so trying to just be more consistent with some of those plays and not have the negative runs that put us behind the chains, the penalties. But we overcame a first and 20 on a huge drive at the end of the game with some good checks, by some good throws, and then ultimately touchdown there with AJ. So we've been able to score. We took advantage of the game, really came down to the red zone. I was proud of defensively what we were able to do.

Could have been better, but making them kick field goals early, and then what our offense did, to be able to throw it into the end zone. And John, who's making a fantastic catch, and A.J. and everybody else, Tajay, so it was good to see. of the passing camps, the non-contact OTAs that you're trying to establish a base foundation and then work some plays off of it. Maybe each week that you feel like are a scheme play. But I do think that the players are comfortable in what's being called and what they're being asked to do. Tajay, we continue to practice.

You know, I mean, Tajay's had good weeks of practice. You know, did a great job on the fade ball. You know, a route that we worked with A.J. over and over to try to have a lot of confidence in it. And then in Janu's case, a player that ran a decisive route, it was a little behind him. He made a great catch. And I think there was just good timing on that route.

Well, and I think that certainly appreciate that concept. You know, you see that a lot if teams run speed option on third and one, and they dish it back, balls at seven yards, then you have to gain eight. It really came down to where we were on the field, having the look that we had practiced for that that wanted to run it against um so that decision did not turn out uh we didn't execute it and so we have to continue to move on give our guys all the credit in the world um in all three phases um we had a really nice kickoff return. We have to fix the punt return. But I felt like we kicked the ball well. The defense being able to create turnovers, take advantage of those things.

When Jameis gave us a chance to give our offense great field position. If that play is executed correctly, does it work in your mind? Yeah. I mean, Jim, I think that if that play is executed correctly, does it work in your mind? Well, yeah. I mean, Jim, I think that if any play is executed correctly, you know, that it's going to work. And again, I go back that there's a lot of decisions that occur during the course of the game, guys. And, you know, we make them and they don't work. We're trying to win the game. That's what we're trying to do in each and every opportunity that we have to make a decision. . Someone was supposed to block Devin White on that play?

No, Devin White made an absolutely fantastic play. So we need to execute it better in order to get it. It didn't work. It was a play we can sit down and we can, you know, there's 168 snaps in the game and there were plays that we made and that, you know, they're going to coach and there was plays that we didn't make that we need to coach.

Every single minute of the day. I mean, I think that it starts with me. It starts with how I lead this team, how the message that I have, the keys that I think are critical to win. I was just typing. It starts with me and how I can get this team to operate and function and understand how we have to be great in critical situations

because the games are going to be close. I think that's where the majority of the games in this league are. The decisions that we make on the calls that we make, the calls and decisions that I make, I mean, obviously, I mean, it's probably not much fun, God bless her heart, but, I mean, you go home and it's like that's all we do. You know, it's all I do is think about it, analyze it, try to get better and then come back the next week. You know, I was proud of the players, the way they played, the effort.

You know, Jarrell and how he attacked that last play on fourth and one. Nate hanging in there, Jamal Davis hanging in there against, you know, two werewol werewolves, two massive inside players that are talented and good, and he's battling. I mean, that's what I'm most proud of. And then we do that all the time. I do that all the time. We do that with the coaches all the time. I mean, that's not just something like we're just like, okay. We would say, how will we do this differently?

Do we like this call at the end of the game with the defense that we were playing? How much time that they have they threw it in bounds you know we had to keep them in bounds and when we did that you know they ran 18 seconds off the clock and gained 12 yards and so those are things that we're trying to tell our players that hey that's great we're executing the situation well I think the biggest thing that Ryan did probably yesterday is he got us into two great checks. He got us into two blitz zero checks that allowed us to protect it just long enough. Understand when they're in blitz zero, however many you guys have blocking, they're going to have one extra, right? And so you just have to kind of keep adding guys to the protection

to force the free guy to be as far away from the quarterback as possible. And he did that twice through a great pass to Humphreys on third down, through a great pass to Taje on third down. So you're going to have to pick up some critical third downs along a 10 or 12 play drive, that it comes down to dropping back and finding the guy open pretty quick. Again, all the credit to the players for finishing the game. For finishing the game, defensive stand.

Evans was having a day, talented receiver. Caught some amazing passes. He caught the back half of the ball over there I thought Kenny was in pretty good position and you just got to see his length and his hands and it's what what the National Football League is about and you know we our guys made some some good adjustments and you know we were able to take him out of there. But he was having a day. All right, guys, that is head coach Mike Vrabel in this week's Titans Talk. In our second segment, we jumped into the film room for a Touchdown Tuesday version of Tic-Tac Titans

and covered all the Titans' red zone opportunities in the game against the Buccaneers. And in our first segment, we went over all the numbers with the red zone offense and all the improvements that they've made in the hot streak that they've been on the last two weeks. That's going to do it for our show tonight. Tomorrow, of course, is going to be crossover Wednesday. We will have the hosts of the Locked On Panthers on our show to ask them some questions. He's going to ask me some questions and we will kind of see where things sit from Panthers fan's perspective about the game on Sunday. Thank you for joining me as always.

I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.