NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Titans vs Jaguars Thursday Night Recap

Episode Date: September 20, 2019

Dan Hanzus and Marc Sessler recap the Thursday Night Football game between the Tennessee Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars from Dan's house!Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet,

we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL fantasy football. football podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and

NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's one for the end zone.

Chark. He's got it. Touchdown. What a throw. Just got it away. Again in a sack. And guess who? Calais Campbell.

Saxonville's back, baby. Saxonville's back. Lamu. You're out of here. And there it is. Saxonville is back. At least for one night, a 20 to 7 win for the Jaguars over the Tennessee Titans.

Who barely show up in this game, a dreadful effort on the offensive side of the ball, especially the Jaguar. is get another solid game by Mark's boy, Gardner Minchew the second, and they get that big win. And I am in the garage here at Hansus Manor as we continue to mix it up on Thursday night. This is our first standalone minipod. And joining me here is the great Mark Sessler. How are you, buddy?

I'm doing good. I'm already impressed by your effort. Here, as you mentioned, we're in this garage. There is a rogue cricket over in the corner trying to make a racket. interrupt our show, and you picked up a football from your sitting position here across the room, pelted it, nailed the corner of the garage where the cricket seems to be, and he quieted down. That aggressive nature was something Marcus Mariotta was missing tonight, but Gardner Minshu was not. Well put. And listeners of this show that also listen to the throwback pod, we're sitting in the, Mark is in the bob chair right now,

and the cricket has been an ongoing subplot for over two summers now. So it came back in a big spot, for the around the NFL podcast. And yes, and we'll get to the Jags who deserve credit for really showing up and bawling out in this game, especially on defense. But yeah, let's start with the the Titans here. And I just want to, there is one play or one series that is really so emblematic of this game and this team and this quarterback. And it's 20 to 7, three and a half minutes to play.

The Titans take over deep in their. own end after a bizarre Doug Marone decision to go for it on fourth down instead of kicking the icing field goal. The reason Doug Maron did is because he was showing the Titans no respect that they could actually march down the field. And what do they do, Mark, at 20 to 7 with three and a half minutes to play? And yes, I understand it is very close to a foregone conclusion. This game is over. They run the football for five yards and then slowly get back to the line and Mariotto looks around the line, does his checks, and as Chris Wessling says, the sands are falling through the hourglass. And it's just like it was such a perfect encapsulation of

everything that's wrong with the Titans. There's no urgency with this offense, and this has been going on forever. Yeah, I mean, it was earlier in the game because this is not just a one-moment event in this affair, where they were down 17-0 and appeared to be milking the clock. You're trailing by 17 points. And you're right, though, there was zero urgency. And whether or not at the end of the game, the drive you're mentioning, which I was listening to on the radio driving over, and the color guy, and I drove here without an accident, credit to me. Wow. And I'm a good driver, I just realized. By the way, after we're done today and you drive home, I am following you into my driveway, and I want to see you get in that car, get behind the wheel, and drive away,

because I've literally never seen that. It's been a while since I've been behind the wheel. and I feel a new sort of a new purpose and I kind of love driving in LA but point being on the way over the color man on the broadcast was beside himself and he should be

because if any team in the league has talent but has an optics problem when it comes to being dynamic and changing the way that we feel about them it's the Titans and that romp over the Browns a couple weekends ago feels as far from the east and the west at this point. Yeah and

I remember us talking Before week two, you were very impressed by what you saw in that week one game, and not to play it, I told you so. But I feel like this is not surprising what's happened here, because we've seen this forever with the Titans. They suck people in with a big performance, and then they go back to sleep. And who knows, the way their history is, is that they might have a big win next week. Or they lose next week, and then they win three in a row or four out of five. And here we are again. They're eight and six in December.

but don't get sucked in because you know where this is ending. It's ending at 9 and 7 because it always ends at 9 and 7. It is. I'm willing to at this point, I'm not, you know, I'm not totally conceding, but it's only because it's a matter of time. I think maybe I'm also willing to hand you a loss in progress on Gardner Minchu being an exciting quarterback because, and I get the hesitation, or in your case I think you were kind of bucking the trend of everyone

jumping all over Gardner Minchu on Twitter. and I understand that too. But give me this, he looked clean tonight. And what I liked about him, even in that first game, because you see some of these backups come in, and they'll go 15 for 18, and you want to find out what that means. Does it mean it's dump-offs,

or you're putting a quarterback into an extremely safe situation where, you know, a high school quarterback could essentially connect on most of those passes. In that first game, Minchu was throwing aggressively down the field. And I kind of love what John D. Filippo, the offensive coordinator for the Jaguars did tonight. he was comfortable right away in Philadelphia with Nick Foles and did not turn the volume down

when Foles went on that magical run with the Eagles and he, John D. Filippo, I thought, approached Minchu in the same way and in Aikman mentioned earlier in the game that they talked to the coaching staff and they wanted to open it up and be aggressive on offense. They got up 14-0 with some big strikes down the field, some great one-on-one catches. And then the weather happened

and the refs happened with an insane flood of cars. that I thought slowed this game to a sort of a rain-delayed tennis match, if you will, to enter Greg's World if we choose to do so. I choose not to. Okay, well, I tried to pull you there, too. First of all, I want to make it very clear that my reluctance to get on the Gardner Minshu, the second bandwagon, was always just about the social media buzz and like, I hear you.

Let's get behind the wacky guy with the facial hair and the low-cut shirts and all that stuff. But I have no issue with Minchu, the quarterback. I've been kind of following him and was, you know, impressed in this game as well. He should have three touchdowns. D.D. Westbrook can't catch a ball. I mean, D.D. Westbrook, come back to us. Yeah. But back to your point.

So, yes, as I've made clear on this podcast, I am not on the Minchu train. I'm watching it. You guys seem to be having fun. And I'm just sitting this one out. And I'm happy for you guys. I mean, if this were to continue, we'd allow you on, like, I mean, it's not... I don't think that would be right.

I just don't think it would be right. Okay. It would be weird, and I would never be truly accepted on the train. I mean, to be fair, I find the growing social media. I mean, sort of just the way the whole broadcast dealt with them. It's like part of me feels like I jumped on the train with like roughly 30 or 40 other people. It wasn't just me. But now it's, you're adding zeros and zeros to that.

It doesn't feel so special, you know? I do like that he stretches fully nude in the locker room and a jock strap. That was the first nugget where I was like, oh, man, I do. I wish I was kind of on that train right now. Not to see him stretching. That would be gross. Anyway, to your point, the officiating, this is how bad the officiating was. Tom Brady, who is, despite his issues with the league and the fact that he's been suspended,

and if you're a member of the Patriots, you believe over the years you've been targeted by the league and various things, which, you know, whatever, he comes on Twitter and pointedly says, I can't watch this. I'm turning this off. And he was referring to the officiating. And what we had here was 15 penalties in the first half called by referee Sean Hockley's crew, eight of which were for holding. And things got a little bit better in the second half. But this is, and by the way, entering Thursday night, the highest total of holding penalties in a game was 11.

So we're heading towards an absolute atrocity. And I'm a little confused about this, Mark. And maybe you could shed some light here in the first ever. around the NFL podcast minipod. We kept hearing that there was going to be added emphasis on holding this year. And sure enough, I think it's up like 60%. If the main goal of professional football as a piece of entertainment to be consumed and enjoyed and people to pump their resources into it and the whole machine is fed and the beast is happy

is for the product to be fun to watch, why was there this, who likes holding penalties? Is this like a Jeff Fisher type vibe? What happened here? And like whoever signed off on this, they got what they want, but this is what happens. It's not a fun product to watch. And I know, Mark, you just like me and everybody else on the pod, we watch Game Pass to catch up and cycle through these games. You can't even get through a condensed game anymore in 40 minutes because all it is is stop downs and they call the penalty every time over and over. So this is going on across the league and the fact that Tom Brady points it.

And then Troy Akeman, a Hall of Famer, says the league better be paying attention to this because Tom Brady just spoke up. This is bad news. Well, it's almost like the league IT people presuppose this because the condensed version of Game Pass games are now called Game in 40. I mean, they're not even, they're basically telling you don't even try to get out of here under 40. It doesn't, not even a good ring to it. Well, it already, in my world, takes some energy out of it because you get a little jolt when you find a game that's 31, 31 minutes. I will say this. I mean, a lot of times with these early season trends,

we all think we feel something, but then some sort of hot-headed nerd produces a number showing that nothing's really up more than 2 or 3%. There were 109 holding calls last year coming into week three. There were 179 this year. Who wins? Why is this a thing? No one wins. You know who I bet this is?

It's Belichick. I bet he's behind this. It's part of Belichick's crew, because it was in response to coaches complaining about specifically holding calls more than anything else. Now, I find it funny that you come out of halftime where obviously, you know, social media and the football world at large is on fire about what we saw in the first half. And, of course, Tom Brady tweets, and you don't see a penalty in the third quarter until like a minute to go. It goes deep.

It's like you do wonder if the refs at this point are just shifting in the wind and sort of toying and catering to public response. I'm sure they would say that's ridiculous. but the game had so many stoppages tonight that it's the one thing that you could say, and I know you're a big baseball guy, that baseball's complaint or issue is it's too slow, how do you speed it up? Why are we taking football, which there's so much more ability to control the pace and the tempo and turning it into what we saw tonight. Cannot continue that way. I'm with you. All right, three more points on, two on the Jags and one on the Titans. one Leonard Fournett, who busted off a 69 yard or late in this game,

you'll never see this stat line ever again. 15 carries 66 yards with a long of 69. An average, to have a 69 yard run in a game and only average 4.4 yards per tote is pretty amazing. Shout out to Cleas Campbell, who was a monster in this game, finished with three sacks, seven tackles, four tackles for loss, was a total nightmare on a banged up foot too on a banged up foot and he uh this very much looked like the 2017 uh jaggs and then my last point mark is uh our own colline wolf our sweet tiny box

pointed out during the halftime show she threw out the point that hey the titans don't wake up and they were getting shut out at this point is ryan tannihill somebody that should maybe come into this game and steve smith kind of dismissed her out of hand and whatever Steve Smith can do that. But Connie was on to something there, and the Titans, they can continue to back Marcus Mariotta and continue to have games like this from now until eternity. Or they could wake up and say, we actually have an option behind this guy to see if we could spark a team. Otherwise, you're just going to stay this team forever.

Yeah, and I think that, you know, someone like Joe Thomas probably agreed with Colleen Wolf, even if he didn't speak on that point, because he's been in Cleveland and he sees what happens when you've got something behind a failing starting quarterback. And if they, if the Titans had an exciting preseason rookie that was even a third or fourth rounder behind Marriota, I think it would hasten the process here. I mean, the problem is that if you're to have anyone as boring as Mariotta, it might be Ryan Tannahill. That's the only thing. I could see a flip-flop scenario back and forth. One thing I will say while on Calais Campbell, what is the, look at the contrast between what he's done through a lot of ups and downs in Jacksonville.

Tonight goes out and does what he does. And you may have Jalen Ramsey playing his last game in a Jaguars uniform amidst him saying, you know, he's not where the trade talks coming from. Obviously, he wants to be moved. And he could be gone as soon as tomorrow morning. Well, I mean, you know, he's coming out and saying he's all about the team and this or that. And look, I mean, I'm not, Jalen Ramsey has been an awesome Jaguar. And I just think it's a shame that that's a narrative that you want to bail on this club.

and we don't know everything that's going on here. But the Jaguars have a little life to him after this. And Thursday night can kind of mess you up because you can get married to what you saw in these weird Thursday night games and it doesn't play out the rest of the year. But if you get this kind of a game from Minchu, you know, most of the time

and the defense has been pretty good, continues to play this way. Losing Ramsey's a huge loss and could be a complete game changer and a very winnable AFC South. And that's why I think the Jags people were saying, oh, why would you play Ramsey and risk him getting

hurt when you might be looking to trade them for multiple number one picks. Well, first of all, we're taping this while they're in the locker room and doing their media availability. I wonder how Jalen Ramsey feels now, and which is part of the reason why, and we were talking about in the pot earlier this week, it didn't sit well with me that all of a sudden this trade demand comes out because they're 0 and 2 and things don't seem to be going well. Well, now you're Saxonville again. I wonder if Jalen Ramsey is like, ah, maybe we can work this out, which whatever.

We'll see how that all plays out. But, you know, for one game, everything looks okay for the Jags. And in the AFC South, I think it's a wide open division. Yeah, and if you go, if anyone didn't watch the Titans Cleveland game, I'm not suggesting you go watch it, but that was an amazing performance by the Titans that made me think differently about them. And here we are mere weeks later, and I have no clue who this team is. Isn't that what they are, though?

I guess that's exactly what they are. I thought a change had occurred. The whole division feels that way. and, you know, I kind of like divisions like this. In other ones that are kind of bought and sold from the start, this one's totally different and spicy. All right, do we have anything else we want to touch in the first ever? I mean, it's meant to be a mini pod,

and I don't know how, what minute we're, what is mini when it comes to podcasts? Is it a micropod? If we don't wrap it up soon, it's not going to be a mini. Well, I suggest we get out of here then. All right, good. Next time you hear from us, it will be Sunday night, the flagship program. and remember, you also have the full week two preview podcast that just went up earlier today.

So you got that, you got this, you got Sunday night, and then we're back on Tuesday. I mean, the content, Mark. It's legitimate. It's a watershed of content. If you can't keep up, that is on you. All right. There you go. All right.

Now, that's it. Dan Hansa signing off for the Quiet Storm here in Hansus Manor. Later. Thank you. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters.

We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet,

we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. This is an IHeart podcast.