The OTP | Covering Four Downs from Week 14

felt really good. It felt like seeing an old friend you hadn't seen in a couple of weeks. It was really just an exciting day at Nissan Stadium to see the team look the way that we all have expected it to look now, a lot of good things. So fun to watch the defense have the day that they had and to do it all against Jacksonville, which is just kind of fun given the history between the two teams, but also for the implications that it has for the Titans within the division, within the AFC. A lot of

good things happen on Sunday. You said it best at the end of the broadcast, Mike. It's something that they not only needed, but they had to do to keep things in where they're trying to go to finish this season and to get into the playoffs. And I'm with Amy to see the defense do this in a suffocating fashion. I mean, coach day McGinnis is right. Pitching a shutout in the NFL, it's impressive. I don't care who you're playing.

It doesn't happen very often. Three years ago this week was the last one against the Giants, you know, a seventeen to nothing affair back then, and yeah, it was. It was impressive to see. And you know, outside the protection of the quarterback, there wasn't a whole lot to take away that was bad in this It played a very clean game. And again I'm with Amy. Anytime you can do it against Jacksonville makes it extra fun. All right, let's get right to it. OTP four D means the

OTP four downs. First down. Your play that turned the game. I'm going to say Ryan Tannehill's touched at the end of the third quarter for a couple different reasons. It was such a long drive. It was five plus minutes, so the Titans just had control of the game in

so many different ways in that moment, especially clockwise. It put the Titans up three scores, and it created a hill that was not only mathematically difficult for the Jags to climb at that point in the game, but also mentally really seemed like it took a toll at that time. In the subsequent drive that the Jags had, they had two penalties and then ended up throwing an interception that

was Jayon Brown's interception. So it just felt like the Jags were kind of shook in that moment, and it felt like one of the final nails in the coffin for the Titans. I'm going with Ryan Tannehill, but with a different play. Mine's eleven thirty six left in first quarter. It's third and seven. Ryan Hill scampers for seventeen yards, Andrew Wingard has an unnecessary roughness penalty to add fifteen more. It made it a thirty two yard play. Three plays later,

there's a touchdown. They're up seven to nothing. Right there. I knew from that moment right there, this is the kind of day that the Titans were going to have. And to finish for me, it's Harold Landry's sack which ended Jacksonville's first possession of the game. Jacksonville's down seven to nothing already. Denico Autry has a sack earlier in the possession. The Titans came with just an avalanche, if

you will, of people up the middle. Landry's the one who got there that ended the drive, And it told me, that's the way this is gonna be all day. We're coming, we're gonna get after you. We're gonna make your life miserable. And those sorts of plays early in the game seemed to take their toll on Trevor Lawrence and affect him later in the game. His first interception was a ball

that should have been caught. His second interception he got tricked by Jayon Brown, his third interception he threw it up for grabs because he didn't want to take a sack. And his fourth interception he made a throw down the middle he should have never made because he was not going to stand there and hold the football. No quarterback who has ever lived likes to be hit, and when he got hit early in that ball game, the way that he did it affected him for the rest of

the day, in my opinion. Second down, your stat that tells the story. The suffocating defense is told to me by one thing. Eight total rushes from the Jacksonville Jaguars for eight total rushing yards. And to put that in context, in week five October the tenth and Jacksonville they ran for one hundred and ninety eight as a team, and obviously as the score got separated, they had to go away from some of that. But that's impressive. I look

at it differently. That's mine too, but for a different reason. What are you doing. You've got a rookie quarterback, you run it eight times and they were never that far behind. It wasn't like they were behind fifty two to nothing. I mean it was ten to nothing until late in the third quarter. You ran the ball eight times. I don't think anybody in the history of football could win a game running it eight times. I don't think there's a statistical possibility in this day and age that if

you have eight carries you could win a game. What are you doing? Not a very balanced off? I mean, it gives you no chance at ballots. You're essentially saying we're gonna put it on this kid and a bunch of receivers who are solid, but there's not a game breaker in terms of the long speed that you talk about. You ran it eight times. This is your rookie, first round pick, he's your franchise, and you didn't even run it with Carlos Hide that. We know James Robinson was

dinged up. We know he's dinged up, but they decided to play him anyway. I mean, he's good enough to play. Hand him the ball, right. He gained one hundred and forty nine yards on eighteen carries the first game. You're not gonna try to run it some Nope, that one to me. If you see that staff, if I handed you the piece of paper and it said eight rushes, you knew they lost. Yep, there's no chance you win that game. So sorry, I'm piggybacking. But for a different reason.

It was great though. I mean, that was a fantastic piggyback. Mine is a little less passion evoking. Mine is what are you doing? Mine was takeaways, just because we've been talking about it so much. When the Tennessee Titans are successful nine times out of ten, they are on the positive side of the turnover ratio they were on Sunday, four takeaways is incredible. Four interceptions is just wild, especially

when two of them come from inside linebackers. It's great like that means that everybody's eating and it's just a great overall performance and what we had been missing from this Titans team for the last couple weeks. Teams who win the turnover battle in twenty twenty one in the

NFL win eighty one percent of the time. Yeah, A Moni Hooker dropped a fifth one and caught a six one out of bounds, and Rashaun Evans had a strip that they blew dead because of forward progress that the Titans also recovered, so they were certainly working it the right way. All right. Third down your area that the Titans have to get fixed. Ryan Tannehill cannot cannot, cannot be sacked as many times as he was. For sacks is for too many in my opinion, especially at this

point in the season. A. It means you're not getting anything accomplished in that possession. B. It's not great for Ryan Tannehill, who needs to remain healthy for the remainder of this season. If the Titans are going to do something, it's something that needs to be fixed by the offensive line. They need to protect better. It's something that needs to be fixed by the tight ends and the wide receivers who need to get open and put themselves in position

to make plays. Everybody is responsible for it. It needs to be fixed. For me, it goes hand in hand with that. If he doesn't have enough time to throw, it's hard to do this. I still need more explosive plays out of the offense. They had two yesterday, one that I've already mentioned that was aided by a penalty that technically made it a an explosive play. They need more of that. They've had trouble with that since Derrick

Henry left with injury. I think as they get the aj Browns of the world back, and they've getten, you know, Julio Jones is back, I think that will have a chance to grow. But that's the one thing. They need more explosive plays to push the ball down the field. Got to do a better job in the punting game of flipping the field. Brett Kerrent didn't have a good day overall. The Titans didn't do great in punt returns yesterday. The overall nets were just not good enough for the Titans.

You've got to get more out of that, especially when you're playing the style of football that they are right now, where you don't think they're gonna regularly score forty points at this moment, you hope they score twenty four. You'd like to get back into the thirties. You're not quite as explosive as you were. If you have to line up in punt you'd like to have a forty three forty four. Our neat to be able to flip the field, and the Titans did not do that well enough yesterday.

Didn't hurt them, will hurt them on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers if they don't take care of that. The same thing with protecting Ryan Tannehill. The Steelers have a better pass rush than the Jags do, undoubtedly, and you're going to need to make some big plays. Steeler defense has some issues, but they are still very capable of taking the ball away and sacking the quarterback. Making big things happen. You need to hit some chunks on them. So I think all three of those areas are areas

where the Titans need to improve before Sunday. Before we talk about fourth down, let's remind you the OTP for D is brought to you by Farm Bureau Health Plans, Farm Bureau Health Plans, the experts who can coach you through it when you need great healthcare coverage at a price you can afford. They've been protecting Tennessee and since nineteen forty seven. Fourth down is one thing that you noticed and want to share. You know, it was so much fun watching the It's defense have the day that

they had. It felt like such a breath of fresh air. And it was fun to be on the sidelines because everyone was enjoying that success and enjoying some of the big places that they were able to make. At one point, Jayon Brown came over to me on the sidelines. He put his arm around me and he goes, maybe I'm exhausted, And I said, you're playing a football game. Yeah, like that would be tiring. He goes, Nah, man, from all this celebrating like that is hard work, celebrating every time

over and over again. He was like, I am just pooped, And that is to me so funny that the thing that really wore out Jayon Brown was getting up for his guys and running over to celebrate and all the choreography was really taxing on my Brown. Yeah, it's horrible, a real problems. Very fun for me. It is some of the same sentiment, and it's just being able to put yourself in a place where you have your opponent down twenty ton and you're able to substitute your veterans

out to get them some rest. And to see those veterans route the young guys and the substitute players from the sideline to encourage them to keep going and watch them finish and pitch a shot out. It's good for team chemistry for me. It's a perfect return for Julio Jones. He played in the first half, He caught four passes, He made a couple of nice plays for the offense. The defense was clearly aware of him. Everywhere he went. They were reacting to him, which helps the other receivers.

And then he basically didn't have to play in the second half. I would guess he played less than ten snaps in the second half. Maybe yeah, not many, certainly good. Good. Get him ready for Pittsburgh, get him ready for San Francisco, get him ready for Miami, get him ready for Houston. Continue to ramp him up down the stretch. Watching him in practice last week, watching him in warmups. Watching him in the game yesterday, it looked more were in, more

like Julio Jones that we wanted to see. It's still been more than six months since he's been here and he doesn't have his first Titans touchdown. It needs to change Sunday in Pittsburgh. That's the type of game where you need Julio Jones. But I thought yesterday was absolutely perfect. Yeah, I agree, you're looking at me like I have more to say, But that was fantastic. Well thank you. Oh you're right though, Mike. It was idealic with that because

he's still coming back from this thing. You got him some reps, you got him worked in, and he had the luxury have been able to just enjoy himself. How much confidence has he got to take into this week knowing he's come off a game that he finished what he was supposed to do, so that he can do it again on Sunday. He can do it again this Sunday and do it again during the course of this week.

I think one of the biggest factors for the Titans team is because they got guys back, and because the guys who had been playing got some rest during the bye. They practiced last week and they could stack practice practiced. Yeah, they didn't have to substitute a walkthrough for a practice because you know, they looked like guys out of some sort of you know, war where they had to walk around with canes and whatever because they just couldn't move

or they didn't have enough bodies. That was some of what practices had looked like just turning into walkthroughs. Last week, they actually practiced because they could they had enough healthy bodies, and so I think that's a big factor for this team this week going into Pittsburgh. Well done everyone. That is the OTP four D presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans for Rhet Brian and Amy Wells. I'm Mike Keith, thanking you for listening to the o t P. Wells

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