Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Victory Monday!! Rowland's Review, Titan Up/Titan Down & Song of the AFC South

Episode Date: September 30, 2019

Follow Tyler on Twitter @ TicTacTitans Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a victory Monday. I could not be more excited to break down this season-changing win over the Atlanta Falcons for the Titans to go on the road after the last two performances that they have had and come out with that kind of first half offensively

and then to shut them down on defense that is just a complete team win. The Titans totally changed the feel and the tenor of their season on Sunday, and I personally am shocked at the type of success the Titans defense was able to have again. They just continue to prove that they are a solid stud unit, and the Titans can rely on them week in, week out, regardless of the opponent. The offense was able to step up. I'm going to get into all of that with you guys in the first segment. In our second segment, I'm going to do tighten up and tighten down

and go over some individual performances. And then in our third and final segment, I'm going to do a little song of the AFC South and go over our division rivals' results for Sunday as well. So excited to get into all of it with you guys. Let's get it. Rollins Review. All right, I want to jump into some of my key takeaways, some of the bigger points that I think the team made on Sunday.

First, I'm going to start with the offense. The passing offense, like I said, was alive in the first half. Cannot believe the type of throws that Marcus was making. He hadn't made those kind of throws all season. So to see him throw with confidence, and he's throwing the ball before his wide receivers are open. And that's something that he wasn't doing. In the last two games. He was holding the ball too long. Staring down his receivers.

And hoping that they would be open for him to throw it. In the NFL that's not going to work. With the timing and the tight windows that are out there. Because of the cover just played. You're going to have to throw with anticipation. And Marcus did that all day long. It was incredibly impressive. Three touchdowns in the first half.

Tossing it all over the place to our outside receivers, not dinking and dunking, throwing the ball down the field. Arthur Smith, most of the game, was calling plays that allowed Marcus to push the ball downfield, and that's something that the Titans are going to need. They're going to need to be a modern offense. You can't just ground and pound, run, run, pass, run, run, pass, and use Derrick Henry to batter everybody over the head all game long long you're going to have to get chunk plays down the field you're going to have to have a normal

NFL passing offense and the Titans displayed that today it was pretty impressive Marcus ended up with 227 yards three touchdowns he's up to seven touchdowns with no interceptions this year he hasn't played his best football throughout the first four weeks, but this was his best game of the season. He displayed everything that the Titans need him to show going forward to have a successful season. If he can play like this and have this kind of confidence, it totally changes the feel of this season, which is essentially what this game was.

To the ground game, Derrick Henry was limited in the first half, 29 yards, but the Titans, when they needed to, really kicked it in gear. Nate Davis came in and started road grading people and really excited to see him. The Titans offensive line did a fantastic job in the run game in the second half. Derrick Henry was able to put together 71 rushing yards in the second half and really put his stamp on the game. And that's how the Titans have to hope to win. Get up and have Derrick Henry shut it down late. Speaking of the offensive line, zero sacks allowed. Just what a turnaround after the Jacksonville game.

Really, really incredible from the offensive line standpoint. And now they're going to get Taylor LeJuan back. Nate Davis is only going to get more comfortable as the season goes along. Everything coming out of the Titans Titans offense on Sunday was positive. It's all things that we can take going forward, except a few things which I will hit on in our second segment. On to the defense. Five sacks.

Like I talked about last week, the Falcons had only allowed five sacks total for the season. The Titans were putting them behind the chains. sacks total for the season. The Titans were putting them behind the chains. I talked about how the Falcons had the least amount of third down attempts of any team in the NFL, 28 coming into the game, and 31% of their first downs were converted on first or second down. They weren't even getting to third down. The Titans defense forced the Falcons into 14 third downs. Like I said, they'd only had 28 all season, so the Titans more than doubled that. Same thing with the sacks. The Falcons had given up five sacks. The Titans got five sacks. The Titans' defense made Atlanta play twice as many third downs in one game as they

had all season and sacked them twice as many times as they had been sacked all season. Just an incredible performance by a fantastic defense. Harold Landry with two sacks, Jayon Brown with a sack, Jarrell Casey with a sack and a strip. Just really incredible from a defensive line that hadn't done fantastic throughout the beginning of the season. I wouldn't say that they had been bad either, but this is the type of performance you need to see, especially with Atlanta's offensive line being as banged up as it was. They lost a few guys and had a few injuries during the game as well, so really saw what you needed to see, and the coverage was fantastic. Julio Jones limited to four catches for 52 yards. They limited the Falcons to only 58 rushing yards, and 18 where

Matt Ryan scrambles. I don't know what else to say. Then this defense continues to do its job every week, and like I said on Twitter, at Tic Tac Titans, the defense cannot be slandered. I refuse to allow it to happen no matter what. Giving up 10 points on the road to a good offensive team, the defense is stout. And if the offense can play this way and the defense can play the way that it's been playing all year, and Brett Kern can continue to flip the field and be an incredible weapon in special teams. Just what a punter he is. Combine all of those things together, and the Titans are just a really complete football

team. This totally changed the feel of the season, and really, really excited to see what comes next. That's Roland's review. Next, we're going to do a little bit of tighten up, tighten down. Before we do, I just want to remind you guys that with Blinkist, you get unlimited access to read or listen to a massive library of condensed nonfiction books. Go to blinkist.com slash locked on to try it free for seven days and save 25% off your

new subscription. Let's talk about DoorDash. Are you stuck in the office? Maybe you're cramming for a test or heck, maybe you're just locked in the house with sweats on trying to rank up online and there's nothing in the fridge. Either way, DoorDash can get your next meal delivered to your door. Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Wendy's, pizza. There's this barbecue joint close to me that I DoorDash more than I care to admit.

Not only that, but ordering is easy. Open the DoorDash app and choose what you want to eat and your food will be delivered to you wherever you are. It's really easy. So don't worry about dinner. Let dinner come to you with DoorDash. Right now, our listeners can get $5 off their first order of $15 or more when you download the DoorDash app and enter promo code LOCKEDON. That's $5 off your first order when you download the DoorDash app from the app store and enter promo code locked on that's five dollars off your first order when you download the door dash app from the app store and enter promo code locked on don't forget that promo code locked on for five dollars off your first order with door dash fellas let's talk about the bedroom

ever wish you could increase your performance or maybe just need a little confidence boost in bed well listen up bluechChew.com. That's blue, just like the color. BlueChew brings you the first chewable with the same FDA-approved active ingredient as Viagra and Cialis, so you know they work. You can take them anytime, day or night, even on a full stomach. And since they're chewable, they work twice as fast as a pill. So you're ready anytime you need to be. But hear me out.

It's not just for guys who can't perform. It's for any guy looking for a little extra to enhance their performance. You hit a lead-off home run, guys. Blue Chew helps you go deep again in the second at-bat. Blue Chew is prescribed online, shipped straight to your door in a discreet package. No in-person visits, waiting at the pharmacy, and best of all, no more awkwardness. They're made in the USA, and since Blue Chew prepares and ships direct, they're cheaper than a pharmacy. Right now, we've got a special deal for our listeners. Visit bluechew.com and get your first shipment free when you use our special code LOCKEDON. Just pay $5 for shipping. Again, that's B-L-U-E-CHU.com.

Promo code LOCKEDON to try it for free. BlueChew is the better, cheaper, faster choice, and we thank them for sponsoring our podcast. Tighten up, tighten down okay so i want to start by getting into the tighten ups it's just what a wonderful game for marcus mariota 18 for 27 227 three touchdowns mostly just effective in that first half obviously the titans were trying to salt the game away in the second half and kind of limit mistakes and just take as much time as they could. That conservativeness could bite them eventually, but in this situation, the defense was able to hold.

Marcus did everything he needed to, and it's not just about the stats. It's the way he played. He looked confident. Like I said in the first segment, he threw with anticipation. In the NFL, you're not always going to be able to have a wide open guy to throw to. You got to throw some guys open. You got to see it before it happens. And Marcus had the confidence to take those chances. He was stepping up in the pocket.

Clearly, he had a lot more time. Zero sacks given up gives him a lot more confidence in the pocket. But he was maneuvering in the pocket better, throwing away the ball in some good circumstances. Late in the game, there were a few throwaways and a few decisions and that fumble and the scramble that really had my heart pumping a lot faster than I think is medically a good thing. But either way, they were able to get it done and Marcus was very, very sharp in the first half. And that's the type of performance and type of play that this Titans ball club is going to need consistently throughout the season. Weeks like week two and week three cannot happen. He had a lot more help this week, of course. That will always be the argument, but whoever's fault it happens to be, performances like the second week and the third week of the

season just cannot happen. A couple of these throws he was missing in those games, completed them today. Even some of the ones, there was a completion of John New Smith in the flat for about five yards, and it's the exact same look as a throw that Marcus missed earlier in the year. Those type of completions just help the offense keep the momentum going, don't give you zero plays, negative plays, and it's just everything that you could ask for from the Titans offense. You got it in the first half other than the running game. The Titans struggled to get the running game going early. I think the Falcons were obviously keying on the Titans running game, which is what you want to do, and that's why they were so susceptible to the pass,

but once the Falcons defense had to kind of level it out and adjust for the pass, the Titans rush offense was able to get going. Derrick Henry was able to put up 71 yards in the second half alone. He was basically the offense in the second half and really helped the Titans salt away the clock and make sure that they got the victory and kept the Falcons' offense off the field and limited their chances. So you've got to give Derrick Henry some credit there with a tighten up.

Corey Davis and A.J. Brown together combined for eight catches, 185 yards, three touchdowns, absolute studs on the outside. What a welcome sight as a Titans fan for over 20 years to see two wide receivers really balling out there on the field. Another tighten up, Harold Landry, two sacks in this game, was constantly putting pressure on Matt Ryan. The Falcons offensive line had no answer for him. This is the type of breakout performance that you needed to see from Harold Landry, and he's putting together a pretty good start to the season. Nate Davis came in, like I said, 71 rushing yards in the second half. A lot of that had to do with Nate Davis, who's clearly much more skilled in the run game

and working on his pass protection. Just really impressed by what he was able to do with such limited reps in the preseason, training camp, and early in the season due to injury. And my last Titan up is Brett Kern. The man is an animal. The guy is clearly the best punter in the league. And late in the game, it's almost like he was just having fun. He was toying with the Falcons where he was putting them on the field, consistently pinning them inside the 10, inside the 20. The guy is a weapon.

Punting is not cool or fashionable or fun or whatever you want to say, but Brett Kern is a weapon. There's no other way to say it. We're going to go to our Titan downs. Not every Titan down is a poor performance. There weren't a ton of poor performances out there for the Titans, but I do have a couple of concerns. Sheree Finch was inactive. The Titans decided to go with Reggie Gilbert as that outside linebacker. Now Cam Wake took a little bit of an injury and we'll get to that, but a Titan down for Sheree Finch, who I thought had been a pretty solid player coming into this game. He did well for the Titans early in the season. You can't expect too much from an undrafted free agent from last year. But for where the Titans were able to get him, what they pay him, his production, I

thought, was pretty solid. So I was surprised to see that and to see that Reggie Gilbert got the nod after just a couple of weeks of being healthy from everything that Sheree Finch has showed but I have to give him a tighten down if he's inactive clearly the coaching staff would prefer to have Gilbert out there so that's something that we need to monitor between those two going forward on that note Cameron Wake I'm going to give him a tighten down in this game not because of performance but he did suffer a hamstring injury we're going to need to monitor that going forward. If for some reason he's going to miss any time, obviously I think he'll miss some practice

time. Vrabel has been very conservative with his veteran players and practice time so far, so I would not be shocked to see him miss some practice this week. Not that that means he won't play, but if for some reason Wake can't play, clearly Sheree Finch is going to get that bump back up to the active squad on Sunday, and it's going to be important for him to produce to keep his spot. Another one, Jameel Douglas, I just don't understand why he was getting rotated in. I didn't understand all the information coming out at the beginning of the game that they're going to rotate Davis in. If Davis is ready to play, then play him. If Davis is not ready to play, then don't play him.

Rotating Davis in to see if he's ready to play or not, I just didn't like that philosophy, and I think Davis showed by the end of the game that no rotation is needed. It's his job. It's time for the third-round rookie to take the spot. He played well enough in this game, and it's something that I'm going to look at most likely in our Tic-Tac Tuesday is showcase Nate Davis and what he was able to do out there.

My last Titan down, overall a decently called game. The Titans were doing things on offense that a normal NFL offense should do. Dropping back, anticipatory throws, outs, hitting in the intermediate range, not so much just the short and underneath stuff, really attacking the middle of the field and deep over the field like a regular NFL offense has to do. The tighten down comes with some of these screens and some of the times that they get called and some of the times that Arthur Smith will sub in Deion Lewis for Derrick Henry and how they show their hand sometimes on certain runs and certain packages

by which running back they have out there. The Titans just have to do a better job of eliminating some of these just useless plays and a lot of them seem to be coming on Deion Lewis screens. The screen game is something that the Titans want to do because Marcus isn't necessarily someone who's going to throw the ball down the field non-stop. So you have to have some easy completions for Marcus to get so he can stay in a rhythm. So I understand why the screens are mixed in there, but in this game, they just were not working. They haven't worked a few times throughout the year,

and some of these screens just have to be limited. I'm not a big fan of how many that are getting called and how ineffective they've been. If they were more effective, then I would be all for it. But the screen game has mostly been ineffective throughout the season, if we're talking about the majority of the time. So those are my tighten ups and tighten downs. A lot of people played good.

You could have picked numerous amounts of tightens to get tighten ups, but those were the ones that I went with. And like I said, my tighten downs, a lot of them weren't bad play, but just circumstantial things that I felt were necessary necessary to point out so that's going to do it for tighten up tighten down in our last and final segment I'm just going to go around the AFC South real quick give you guys a recap of what happened to all of our division rivals on Sunday and talk about where the division is at at this moment in time. Song of the AFC South. So let's go around the division and get an idea of where the Titans currently stand at this moment in time. Everyone in the AFC South is 2-2 so the Titans although they have had a

decently rough start to the season are still right in the thick of it still have a great chance to win the division make a wild card whatever they need to do to make the playoffs they're right there now unfortunately the Titans are 0-2 in the division whereas the Houston Texans are 1-0, the Colts are 1-0, and the Jags are 1-1. So because of a division tiebreaker there, the Titans technically are still last. But you have to feel good about the Titans' prospects after losing those two games against the Colts and then the Jaguars. Things seemed pretty dark. So for it to be as competitive as it is right now in the AFC South with the Titans losing two division games, that's a good sign for the Titans.

They definitely have a chance to come back. The reason that is is because the Texans took a loss to the Panthers with their backup, Kyle Allen, 16-10. That's the second time this year that the Texans just haven't been able to muster much offense because their offensive line is so bad. They gave up another six sacks. And Deshaun Watson, for being the talent that he is, he just gets destroyed every week. And the Texans may have made a trade for Laramie Tunsell, but their offensive line is still one of the absolute worst in the league.

Moving forward, the Raiders were able to defeat the Colts by a score of 31-24. Moving forward, the Raiders were able to defeat the Colts by a score of 31-24. The Colts are going to go as well as their run game goes. The Raiders were able to hold them to 81 rushing yards. And as you saw when the Titans played the Colts, if you can hold their running game back, you have a great chance to beat them. The Titans only gave up 19 points to the Colts. And 7 of those points were due to that long Jordan Wilkins run at the end of the game. If the Titans were able to bottle him up and keep the rushing yards to a minimum, you know, right around 80 to 100, rather than 150, 180, things like that, then the Titans probably would have had an even better chance to go ahead and seal that victory with the Colts.

So the Raiders basically just shut down the run, made Jacoby Brissett beat him, and while he was able to throw three touchdowns, it just wasn't dynamic enough to win the game. So thank you, Raiders, for pulling off that victory against the Colts. That was an upset. So have to be happy about that. Same with the Panthers beating the Texans. Those are upsets, and as Titans fans, we have to be very, very excited about that. Unfortunately, the Jaguars played a really good game. Garner Minshew was clutch at the end. The Jaguars defense was able to step up without Jalen Ramsey,

who's injured with whatever he feels like that day. So the Jaguars were able to go down, get a late field goal to win the game Josh Lambeau hit it as time expired he's on a Ryan suck up like streak of hitting field goals under 40 yards I thought at the end of the game the Broncos were able to get a touchdown very very late to put them up by one but unfortunately Vic Fangio is the head coach of the Broncos he's a defensive ace typically his defense was not able to hold, and unfortunately, the Jaguars were able to win that game. The Jaguars are the team I'm worried about the least, though, when it comes to the division race, so them getting a win and going to 2-2 doesn't really worry me that much. I'm much more excited about the Colts and the Texans

being upset than I am mad about the Jaguars going to 2-2 over a Broncos team that's now 0-4 and seems like it could be absolutely one of the worst in the league. It might be better off for them with their quarterback situation to go ahead and tank anyways. And the Titans do play the Broncos later in the season, so it lines up pretty good for the Titans if they want to try to take advantage of a team that we thought might be competitive at the beginning of the year that seems like maybe they're a lot worse than we expected so overall looking at the way things played out last week looking at the way things played out this week moving forward with the Titans getting Taylor LeJuan back into the lineup how could you not be anything other

than optimistic as a Titans fan I I mean, just a wonderful weekend. Everything came up two-tone blue. Could not be more excited about the Titans' chances to make a playoff push here. I got to admit I was worried. I was definitely worried as all of you probably were as well. But to sum it all up, the Titans are 2-2, tied for the lead in the AFC South with every other AFC South division rival with a really good schedule and a really good chance to turn things up even more now that

the offense will be back at full strength. The game was so much fun. I just can't even explain how happy I was seeing the offensive weapons be utilized the way they were and take advantage of their matchups. The Falcons did not have a good defense. I'm glad that the Titans were able to have success. Hope you guys enjoyed the game. Hope you're as fired up and as hype as I am on this Victory Monday. I'm ready to get into Tic Tac Tuesday. I want to take a look at a few things. We actually have some positive game footage to go over. It's so much more

fun to watch a win than watch a loss. I'm sure you guys know that, but I can't drive that point home enough. I'm going to bring some content to you guys tomorrow, and it's going to watch a win than watch a loss. I'm sure you guys know that, but I can't drive that point home enough. I'm going to bring some content to you guys tomorrow, and it's going to be a good time. Really appreciate you guys hanging with me. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.