The OTP | Covering Four Downs from Week 11

I mean, you know, we've had some years where this would be a lot of Mondays like this, and I'm glad that there's not that many. But yeah, it's much different than what we've done in the last six weeks. It's a little easier to shake out of the dark place, though, when you realize that we haven't had to do this a lot. It's easier to shake it off and move on. All right, Let's see how well you shake it off, Amy,

because you're starting first down. Your play that turned the game yesterday in the Titans loss to the Houston Texans twenty two to thirteen. It's got to be the third quarter. You know, the Texans started the second half with the ball. They put together a substantial drive, but the Titans were finally able to get the stop get him off the field. I mean the Texans burned what seven minutes off the clock in that first drive, but they're punting the ball.

Chester Rogers goes to catch it and I couldn't one hundred percent to see what happened because I was on the opposite side of the field, but essentially he muffs it. That's what happened. Well, he was trying to block the guy who was there to down the ball, and while he was trying to do that, he got lost and the ball hit him in the ankle. Yeah, so it hits his foot, which you know counts as him touching the ball. So then it's recovered by Houston on the

Titans five yard line. So the Texans have possession of the ball, they're right by the end zone. They're able to two plays later going and score. They make it nineteen to nothing. So it's a three score game and the Titans just any win that could have been in their sales was just sucked right out of it. That was actually going to be my number one choice as well.

For this reason, if you get the football back at that point twelve nothing, even at your own six seven yard line, then you're in a position at that point where you can still really run the ball. You can run your whole offense. The Titans were running the ball pretty well, you have options. They ran the ball in the first half sixteen times for eighty three yards, and then if you're running the ball, you could do play pass.

Suddenly you're down nineteen to nothing, and now the run game because of how the possessions have gone and how much time they've taken off the clock, and you're down three scores. Suddenly the run game, outside of an occasional handoff, is off the table, and you've got to drop back and throw almost every down, which is not what the Tennessee Titans do, particularly with the group of receivers that

they had available. And it's pouring down rain right, None of those things are conducive to having to throw the ball a bunch. So it was just there were so many bad things that kind of all came out of that one just bad thing that happened, and it made things an uphill climb for the Titans going forward. All right, So while I think of my second choice for my play that turned the game, we go to rhet Bryan, are you having to go to a second choice again? But I want to confirm the timeline of this. I

took rhets and now he's fact checking to make sure. Yeah, mine comes. Was seven fifty three left in the fourth quarter, since you took the first one. But I think we're all right? Is that you know that was the obvious one.

But seven fifty three left in the fourth quarter, the Titans are knocking on the door and Dontrell Hilliard fumbles, it's recovered by Anthony Ferster in the end zone, and all of a sudden, it's a nineteen thirteen game with seven just a little over seven and a half minutes left in the ball game, and you think, okay, you know they've had a million turnovers, maybe they have a chance. So you know, if you're looking at it from a

positive angle, that's what I would pick. But the Chester Rogers with the punt on the left ankle, yeah, that's where it's at. The KMU Gruge hill eighty two yard interception is one that you have to say. I mean, you're you're sitting there on the last play of the first quarter, third down in six at their eighteen, you're in the red zone where you the Titans have been awfully good this year, in complete pass, you're kicking a thirty six yard field goal. It's a tie game at

that point, and then it's kind of game on. If it's three three. I think if at any point the Titans get that thing even, I think it changes the whole flow of the game dead. It not only eventually gave them three points on the eighty two yard interception return, but it was momentum. Every one of these moments was momentum. I could cite the fourth and two penalty on the

first series at their thirty five yard line. The Titans jump offsides and now have to punt instead of going on fourth and two, which statistically shows they would have made it if you follow the stats, and if they had, if they go down and kick a field goal or take the lead with a touchdown, it's a different day. Tennessee. Never, at any point in the game was able to gain any momentum from a moment, everything that was going to go the Texans way did. Yeah, you're right, it's a

Murphy's Law game. It gave them belief, and it gave them interest, and more importantly, it gave the Texans the ability to keep playing the game in the way in which they wanted to play it. Mike Vrabel sang on his Prescount's earlier today, their longest pass was thirteen yards. You weren't going to get a lot of pass rush on Tyride Taylor when he's not holding the ball, you know. I mean, that's just what it came down to. I mean, they weren't exactly throwing it wildly all over the field.

But to the Texans credit, they made the game what they wanted it to be. And by the way, this is no surprise, but the wheels on Ryan Tannehill in pursuit after gruge Hill picks him off, that was that was something else. I mean, he hit a gear right there. Now. I was scared he's going to get hurt, but he closed in nicely. I don't want him making many time, No, no no, no, no, I don't. I was glad Hilliard

ended up making that tackle. Ye all right, So second down your staff that tells the story, so yours won't get taken. Rep. Brian you get to go first. It's fifty two pass attempts by the quarterback and in the rain.

I mean, I heard Mike Vrabel talk to you about it in post game on Titan's radio, and he's right, because that tells you where things went sideways, the separation of the score, the turnovers that created that, and that you had to do that, and you had to go away from a decent day of running the football, especially since this is the decent day that you've had without a Derrick Henry and you've had to do it by committee, and you just you know, in the conditions that they are,

it just didn't work out. He took mine, he did, Yeah, which is fine, right? Passes ever for Tannehill, right, I believe that's right. Yes. And the Titans are not built, especially at this moment, to drop back and throw it every down. No, they're not, especially when you have a j Brown not on the field, when you have Marcus Johnson, you don't have Julio Jones, you don't have so many of your targets who are consistent targets. And it's pouring

down rain. I don't think that we can overseell how terrible the conditions were, especially to be passing the ball like that, so I think that, yeah, that is ultimately the stat that tells the story. But I will also throw in that the Titans having four hundred and twenty total yards says to me that there is a shining light in all of this. It's yeah, shining light, beaking of light in a dark storm. That's what I'm going for it. It's not that they couldn't do anything. They

just couldn't complete the drives. Right, It's not that they weren't moving the ball. It's not that they weren't making plays necessarily or being productive. They just weren't finishing. It's like the Jets game. It's the exact same thing. And I hate to say that because that was just such a they didn't move the ball, Yeah, and they and they ran the ball. Yeah, it's not that they were ineffective. They ran the ball in the first half. You know, they had some some sort of some rhythm for a

change in the run game. But you know, once it was nineteen, nothing that was out the window and there's nothing you can do. Mine zero takeaways. I mean the other team had five takeaways. If you get one one in the pouring down rain, if you knock somebody loose of the ball, or you tip a pass that's intercepted, and they tipped several passes. One takeaway might have turned that game around, because, I mean, let's think about it, the majority of the Tannehill picks and the problems came

later in the ball game. You know, they were already behind nineteen to nothing when they had just turned the ball over two times. So if at any point you get one takeaway, you might not be throwing that much down the stretch. You might not be going through all that. This defense has to get takeaways, and they've been doing it. That's the stat that tells the story to me yesterday is the defense didn't have any takeaways against the team that has had some issues with takeaways. Would they have

four turnovers against Miambi before the boys? All? Right? Third down your area that the Titan have to get fixed. Amy's first, Well, Mike Keith, that's a great transition because mine was the turnovers and both the ones that you're giving up and the ones that you need to create. I mean, Ryan Tannehill has got and the offense overall, it's not just on him, but they have to figure out a way to not have four interceptions in a ball game. I mean, that's just it's too many, it's

too much. Same with fumbles. I mean, only one was recovered by the Texans. But ball security is a really big deal. You've got to maintain possession of the ball. I mean, minus the one that kind of squeaked forward and into the end zone for a touchdown. That was a happy accident. But other than that, you've got to Ben Jones saved you at one point a sack fumble. Yeah, I mean, you've got to maintain possession of the ball. You've got to keep it safe, and that needs to

be a priority for the Titans going forward. But on the other side, the defense needs to be creating those turnovers. That's a way that they can contribute. It's a way that they can help in a way that they can help the Titans kind of dig out of the hole that they've kind of gotten themselves into. On off. Very easily. The Titans could have had eight turnovers in the ball game right, very easily. And that goes back to my point. The Titans weren't ever really close to taking the ball

away from the Texans. That I mean, that just can't happen. Nope, it's something it needs to be fixed. So I'm reiterating second down rhet let's go back to third down, your area that the Titans have to get fixed well. And it piggybacks off of Amy's turnovers because you had those turnovers and they were in critical spots and that led to a score separation, but you still had a lack of explosive plays. You had one shot play to Nick Westbrook Aquina for forty six yards and that was later on.

And but this is this is something that wasn't just a result of or what has happened in this game with the Texans. This number has started to dwindle since you lost Derek Henry. You've got to find a way to get shot plays back into this because you've got to be able to get chunk plays for new sets of downs like the jetskip they didn't get in the Jets game. It is a hard league. I don't care who the opponent is. It is a hard league to drive and drive and drive and drive. It's just hard

to do. You need short fields and you need big plays, and you know, either to a punt return or a takeaway, you need something to happen that gives you easy scoring chances. It is a brutally hard league to do this. It just is because you have so many good players on the other side. I mean, if you're going eight and six and three and stead, eventually somebody's gonna get you, or a penalty's gonna get you, or something is going to happen. I think that's a really good point for me.

The area that the Titans have to get fixed is don't get behind. Don't get behind you, and especially coming up in this game this week, they need to be able to stay right in the ball game to where they can play complementary football cliche. Fine, say what you will, but where this ball club is right to have a chance to win this game on Sunday, barring that the Patriots turn it over eight times or you have three kick returns for touchdowns, I'm saying, just a straight out

normal game. The Titans, we're gonna have a hard time winning this football game if they can't keep it in check to where they can run the ball, to where they can take advantage of special teams, to where they can get off the field on third down, and all the other things we've been talking about. They can't fall behind right now, with the situation they're in. They could when aj and Julio and Derrick Henry were there, you

could come back. This group is going to have a much harder time doing it because you just don't have the firepower to go win this game this week. They need to be even or at least within one score. Obviously ahead would be even better. All right, fourth down. One thing that you noticed and wanted to share, Rett Bryant.

It goes back to the eighty two yard interception returned by Gruge Hill, and then we saw it again and again and again, and every time something like that took place, or Tyrod Taylor runs a touchdown, and you just sense the life breathed into the Texans. I mean, they're already and coming into this. The film didn't lie. They were playing for David Culley. They were playing with a purpose. They just couldn't get out of their own way. In

some places. They saw a shot of energy every time one of those things happened, and it went exactly the way they wanted because of those things. Mine is I think you can tell that I spent the entire game standing in the rain because I have a lot of thoughts about it. I was very impressed by the Titans equipment staff and operations crew during the game, because you didn't get a lot of heads up. We knew it was probably going to rain that day, but it was drip, drip, drip,

and the rains came down. Didn't have a lot of time to prepare and kind of get every one switched around to rain gear and different gloves and different cleats and all the things that people are kind of changing in the pouring down rain, and they were spot on the first couple of drips. Raincoats were coming out, and people were moving and things were being dried. They had

towels that were constantly going in front of heaters. They were in constant motion for the entirety of the game, trying to give this team the best chance that they could to have everything that they need so they could play the game. I was very impressed by just how efficient they were in helping this team do everything that

they could to play on the field. For me, it was Dontrelle hilliards one hundred forty seven total yards, and I wonder, in the disappointment of yesterday, if the Titans didn't find the element they had hoped to get from Darrington Evans and have not gotten the last two years because of injury. Dontrell hilliards an interesting dude. He's from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He went to Scotlandville Magnet School in Baton Rouge and which is obviously a good high school,

and then he went to two lane. It's kind of a record setting guy at two lane. He's run a four four two before, so he has really really good speed, like Darrington Evans, does more speed than some of the other backs who've played in that situation for the Titans at different times. He ran it well, he caught it and did things with it. His kickoff returns he had

one that I thought he might break right there. I wonder if Dontrelle Hilliard, in spite of all the disappointment of yesterday, might have found himself a role with his football team. And I'm going to be interested to see if things developed for him, because they even when Henry was there, they were looking to add a speed element in the backfield, and again that was supposed to be Darrington Evans, and maybe in twenty twenty two it will be.

It's not going to be right now. From Evans, So maybe this is the guy they have found to help him in this way. They've obviously got some decisions that they've got to make about a lot of roster spots going forward with more injuries on the horizon. Unfortunately, getting closer to that eighty four record feels like it's coming. Yeah, I mean, because it feels like they're going to have to call up a wide receiver or I don't know,

God Lee, it's just it's crazy. Yeah, how ironic is it that you're talking about Dontrell Hilliard like this, with one hundred and forty seven yards from scrimmage to the place where they're going to play in Foxborough. That's exactly a Patriots kind of move and finding someone who can do all of these, a multi tool player who can help pitch in well. Most of our ot people will remember the season opener Cleveland in twenty nineteen. There was a back that gave the Titans all kinds of trouble

in the first half before leaving with a concussion. It was Dontrelle Hilliard Yep, yep, and he ran a punt back, he caught a couple of passes, he ran for a touchdown. They got him involved and the Titans didn't quite know what to do with him because he had a lot of speed. And then he was gone and the Titans took over the game and obviously blew him out in the fourth quarter. But it was Dontrell Hilliard who was that guy who made it very interesting in the early going.

And now he played for Cleveland and Houston last year. He's come here. We'll see if he can work his way off the practice squad. We will find out I don't know, it's New England next and there's certainly going to be a lot to talk about with that. We look forward to hearing Mike Vrabel and what he has

to say about that. We also look forward to letting you know that tomorrow night, Tuesday night, seven pm Central Time, over all of the Titans streaming areas, what would you say, social digital wherever platforms platforms is better Tennessee Titans dot Com, we will be streaming the finalist for the twenty twenty one Tennessee Titans Mister Football Award winners. Always exciting. Yeah, so we'll get a great moment for these young men. So the three finalists will be named, will be cut

from five to three tomorrow night. Those three will be invited to Nissan Stadium on December seventh for the Tennessee Titans Mister Football Awards Luncheon, where we will announce the winners at noon Central Time. Again, that's on December seventh, but Tuesday night at seven. We stream it live at Tennessee Titans dot com and on our I guess, Twitter and Facebook and everywhere we stream nailed at Mike, thank you, yep, I'm working on it for Amy Wells and Rhet Brian.

I'm Mike Keith. Thanks for joining us for the OTP four D. Everybotten knows it's our house cleanness. We got Sidon Boo running through a vase