The OTP | Covering Four Downs from Week 5

lived to tell about it. The airline problems of the weekend making a trip to Jacksonville, which is normally I would argue the easiest trip of the year into planes, trains, and automobiles. Yeah, because logistically shorter. There is no other trip under than just going to Indianapolis. I mean, yeah, that's one of the ones you just kind of check off the list. Yeah, it's easy. You know exactly where you're going. I mean we've been there a good jillion times.

You know the stadium, you know everything. Well, it's not a big town. It's not a big town. It's easy to get up, it's easy to get back. It's an hour long flight. You see Jacksonville and it's like going down the road. That's an easy one. Not this time, boys and girls, not this time. We're almost Florida residents, all of us, all of us. Yeah, but we're home, ye, and we're back. And the Titans are three and two and two and oh in the AFC South, in the AFC South, which is huge, and time for the OTP

four D, which means four downs. Amy Wells, you're going first. Your play that turned the game in the Titans eighteen point when in Jaytown. You know it's got to be that gold line stand. I mean, not only did it keep the Jags from bringing the score even closer, making it thirty one to twenty six, that wouldn't have been great, but go lead the momentum ship in that moment, seeing so many different guys on the defense get involved in that whole stand, all four downs. You saw different guys

making an impact in tier. Tart even said after the game that was a huge moment for us. You could feel that energy come back to the sidelines, and that's really what they wanted to do. They wanted to help the whole team build that momentum. I mean, you just saw, you saw so much consistency, You saw what you want to see out of a defense, and that was It was a magical moment. I love a good goal line stand anyway. Who doesn't love a good goal line stand?

For me? Eleven h seven left in the third quarter, Ryan Tannehill has hit. As he is throwing the ball, ruled in complete pass, waiting, waiting, waiting, urban Meyer throws a challenge flag. To your point, you said, the only thing coach Mackie can really challenge is whether it's an empty hand or not. So he throws the challenge flag again. It's confirmed incomplete pass. Right there. He's down to two timeouts and only one challenge with eleven h seven left

in the third quarter. So the bulk of the second half, you're running light right there. I think that is one of the places where it turned on a dime. The Kevin Byard fumble return for a touchdown sixty seconds into the game is to me, the most important play because it gave the Titans a lead early. Something good happened for the Titans early, which they needed after a long week. And the other part two is for the defense. A

takeaway and a score was a big lift. So that goes without say I'm going to go in a different direction just because i want to bring it up. And that is urban Meyer's decision with two twenty seven left in the first half, trailing twenty one to thirteen, to try a fifty three yard field goal with Matthew Wright. He doesn't really know this kicker Josh Lambo. His regular guy is having problems, so he was inactive. This is a young guy. You try the three yard or you

hit the middle of the crossbar short. No good. Titans get the ball at the forty three yard line. They're able to consume the rest of the half and they go down and get three points of their own. I think if urban Meyer punts the Titans deep, and he's got a great punter in Logan Cook, then the Titans probably run three plays. You got a chance to get the ball back at midfield with a minute to go, potentially and get another crack at it. Instead, you lose

three points to the Titans. So you're down eleven at the half. You lose momentum going into the locker room. The Titans have momentum. They come out to score at the start of the third quarter, if it's still twenty one to thirteen, or if you've gotten the ball back and it's twenty one sixteen, then you feel really good about yourself and the start of the second half is different. I thought it was a mistake on urban Meyer's part

to not punt the football or go for it. If you go for it and you don't make it, then the Titans are at the thirty five instead of the forty three. That's eight yards difference. I think punning, if you're in that situation is probably the best option, because with the NFL, it's about keep playing the game, don't ever get ahead of your skis and make a move

that you don't necessarily have to make. When you're in a game like that with a team the team urban Meyer has right now, a year from now, two years from now, maybe it's different. But I thought the grown up football team was able to take the advantage right there because the young football team opened the door for the Titans, And in the end, I thought the level of execution at those points the Titans age and experience showed more than the Jaguars, and I don't think Meyer

helped him with that decision. At that moment thoughts, No, I would agree with all three of our places of opinion about where you know, the Titans turned the corner in this thing. But that was a huge one there, absolutely there was. Look, urban Meyer showed he has not coached at this level in two or three opportunities yesterday, and we've outlined two of them. All right, let's take

a look at second down. Your stat that tells the story, Rhett Bryan, Derek Henry eighteen carries for ninety nine yards and two touchdowns in the second half, eleven for thirty one on a score in the first and they fed him, especially on that drive. It was a seven carries for how many yards forty two forty two yards, but eighteen for ninety nine to two scores in the second half

twenty two. Train just gets rolling and you could just see it, I mean, just dragging dudes and busting through holes and next thing and oh he's got one hundred and thirty on the ground and three scores. That's the one for me. I think it's turnovers and it's because it illustrates a bigger picture. They were able to get the fumble recovery and an interception thanks Kevin Byard, and I think this illustrates what the Titans were able to do all day, which was make big plays without surrendering

big plays. Was everything perfect, absolutely not. Are there some plays that the Titans would like to have back shore, but they were able to turn that corner of making big plays and doing things to generate some positive momentum without surrendering some big plays to give the other team life, which is a big thing. It was a point of emphasis last week, and the Titans really showed up on Sunday. Jacksonville finished with four hundred and fifty four yards of

total offense. Sixty nine of that was garbage in the final one fifty four. So take out the sixty nine yards at the end, and I don't think you're worried about the past defense. The Titans run defense was not fabulous. They gave up one hundred ninety eight yards rushing on thirty one care that's way too much. That's six four

a carry. So with that being the case, the stat that tells the story for me was Jacksonville was three of ten on third downs and one of three on fourth downs, so in essence, they were four of thirteen on conversions If the Titans don't have that number three of ten on third downs, one of three on fourth downs, meaning four of thirteen on conversion plays, they lose this

ball game because of the rushing numbers. On the other side, that's a much better job by the Titans defense getting off the field on third down, something they have done well for the majority of this season. If that continues to be a trend, that will help them win games defensively, because for all of Jacksonville's numbers, they scored only nineteen points and the reason they did is they couldn't convert in those situations. All right, third down? What area must

the Titans get fixed? Amy Wells, my key? That's run defense. I mean you said it earlier. They were allowed one hundred and ninety eight total rushing yards. James Robinson alone had one hundred and forty nine, including a fifty eight yard just sprint down the field. He's averaged eight point three yards per carry. That's too many yards per carry

for me, and I think for anybody. I think that's going to be something that's so important for this Titans team going forward facing other teams with really strong running game. That's a good point take out the fifty eight yard run, thirty carries for one forty that's still four seven a pop so much. What that tells you is that wasn't just one run. They ran effectively all day. Amy. That's a great point, right for me. I'm kind of playing off of Amy's vibe there with the run game, but

it's giving up explosive plays. We talked about it last week, We talked about it Sunday, going in through all this stuff, and they still had four explosive two of them fifty eight yarders like the one you mentioned James Robinson, a fifty eight yard run, a fifty eight yard pass to

Leviska Chenault. Well, it should have been a ten yard game, fifteen yard game, right, But you live to tell about it because none of those immediately had scores attached to them, although they one of them resulted in a score in this thing. But to your point, Amy, you're going against Buffalo Bill's offense, Kansas City Chiefs offense six days apart.

Explosive plays with the names that I have in my head of Dawson Knox and Stefan Diggs and Tyreek Hill and all those guys throughout that thing really have to tighten that down some more in this thing. They got better at it, I thought on Sunday, but they have got to clamp down on it more. With two high powered AFC teams back to back, coming on, tighten up if you will tighten up? Indeed, Amy Wells, Okay, so you've taken both of mine. Thanks a lot. Wow. I

have nothing. So I'm gonna go I have nothing. I've got nothing. I'm gonna go to another area that I actually did have circle to be totally serious, and that's the punting game. Johnny Townsend has not done the things in the punting game the Titans need done on a regular basis. You need timely punting, but you need great situational punting too. Don't need to be kicking the ball into the end zone. You got them down one time at the eighteen yard line on a fair catch. That

needs to really be inside the ten. If you're doing what you're doing well. If the Titans defense is doing its thing and that's not allowing the explosive place, what they've shown is it's hard to drive the ball on this defense. If they're not giving up the big place, driving the ball against this defense is hard. An extra ten fifteen yards in terms of a good punt puts you in a position that you make it even harder. It's a little thing. It's not as big as yours.

It's not as impressive as yours. You both took mine. So I'm going with the punning game. And I don't want to seem bitter at all, but I probably do. Well, it's the whole travel thing. I'm a little Jacksonville took a lot out of mine, as it did the rest of it took a lot out of But in all seriousness, Titans got a punt it better, something we have grown accustomed to and quite frankly take for granted. Where the Titans have got to be better. Now, I'll say one

thing to follow up what you're talking about. I thought the Titans kick coverage units did a nice job against Jacksonville because we warned everyone about Jamal Agnew and the wheels that that guy's got, and it's evidenced by the kick coverage. Because I think the furthest down the field their best starting position out of all their positions, with I think their own thirty three yard line, Joe Jones

three tackles on special teams. You think there's a chance that he's available for action on Monday Night football again. I would almost bet my life on it. Yep, I wouldn't go that far, but yes, extreme again, Jacksonville took something out of me that's exactly right, all right, fourth down one thing that you noticed and wanted to share with the group. Rhett Brian, you get to go first. I think it's that Jacksonville. I've always taking the scenes

in the setting in this thing. Jacksonville's fans wan't so bad to win, and not just beat the Titans, but just to be prominent again. You know, three years ago, whatever it was, they made it almost the AFC Championship game, and that whole roster's turned over, basically. But to hear people as you pass by, as you're coming into or leaving the stadium, even the people who worked there, it's like maybe one day I had the telecom guy who

takes care of telecommunications there. He rode the elevator down with me at one point during the after the game goes. I've been around since two thousand and four, and he said, you know, maybe one of these days they know that they have a valuable franchise. Once every twenty years down the pike kind of quarterback, and they want to make sure that he's upright healthy, and they continue to put weapons around them. They know they've got something there. They're

just they're anxious. They want to It's like where the Titans have come from from twenty fourteen and twenty fifteen to multiple appearances in the playoffs, five straight winning seasons. I mean, we know what it's like to be on that side of things, and it's like, gosh, the grass shore is greener, it is, man, the Jags want to be us so bad. Sorry, sorry, guys, Sorry, but not sorry. I won't give it up. Mine is Kevin Byard. I made the fatal flaw of correcting Jim Wyatt, or attempting

to correct Jim Watt. You never do that. Don't never do don't do that. You don't correct Mike Keith. You don't correct Jim Wyatt. They know right exactly. So I was sitting with Jim reading his articles while I was next to him, which I'm sure he appreciates, and I looked at him at one point and I said, Kevin Byared got his first NFL touchdown against Jacksonville. I said, that can't be right. Even Byers had a touchdown before,

and he was like, no, no, he hasn't. I was so impressed by Kevin Byrd the way he played, and I'm so happy that he was finally able to have success and get those big, those big moments, those big plays, because Kevin Byard has been grinding these last couple seasons and he's kind of been getting a bad rap for it, and he's not getting those big explosive plays that we, I guess have expected to see out of him. I was floored that he hadn't had a touchdown before. I

thought for sure he had. It was so great to see Kevin Byard doing Kevin Byrd things and getting the success that we all expect from him. He has a touchdown pass, that's right, yeah, but that's not he had never been in the end zone with the ball. My mind was blown. I made Jim Wyatt correct his work and I should not have done it. It was an outstanding return on his part, not an easy run. It's really what the Titans needed Christian Fulton to do last week.

When you when you get a ball on the other side of the fifty, on the other team's half of the field, you got a score. Ye, I mean, you've got to score, and those dbs are athletic enough they can do that. The Titans ended up with three after the Christian Fulton pick at New York. He's got a score there, and that's what the coaching staff, That's what Vrabel said when we were watching it on the Mike Vrabels Show last week. Bayer did what you needed to do.

He finished it, and your chances of winning a game with a defensive touchdown go up astronomically. But your point is well made, Amy because when Kevin Byard starts to run into football's, good things happen. Even the pick at the end of the game, had a pick in the Arizona game. There are certain dudes, you know, there's certain guys Trayvon Diggs right now for Dallas Isla. Yeah, you started to run into footballs. That's a good thing. And

so hopefully Amani Hooker is close to being back. I think if we see Bayard and Hooker together for the rest of the season, I think there can be a lot of plays made by that duo and that could be a big thing. What stood out to me is I think Jacksonville has the potential to have a good team. That stood out to me because I think Trevor Lawrence is the real thing. I'm a big fan of James Robinson.

They're running back. Can't believe they didn't try to get the ball to Laviska Chenault more because he's a dangerous player. Their offensive line isn't bad. They have several good tight ends on defense. They have a couple of good young pass rushers. You started to seek Levan Jason emerging this too, which is a problem. He started to come on and Josh Allen's a good pass rusher. They've got some guys in the secondary who I think are gonna be good players.

They're gonna be a pain. The question becomes how quickly do they become a pain and what goes on with this situation in Jacksonville to either speed up the process or slow down the process. And I think that's something we're going to keep an eye on from a Titans perspective, is what's going to go on in Jacksonville, because when we see them on December twelfth, there's a chance they're a lot better. Here's the thing, in December, we will guaranteed see a different Jags team than what we saw

this past weekend. The question is are they one hundred percent better or one hundred percent worse. They're in a situation where they're going to hit a crossroads. I think you're right. I think they're at the crossroads because of the on the field with them being a new team and a new staff and having lost twenty in a row, and then the other stuff that's going on that I think we can see from the outside. He's not gonna die down immediately, which has to be distracting Trevor Lawrence.

Is the tipping point with whatever happens down the road if it starts to be a regression of him because he is not protected well or what it's a quarterback league. That's the tipping point with whatever happens with him down the road. All right, That does it for this edition of the OTP four D presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans for Amy Wells and Rhett Brian. I might Keith thanking you for joining us for the O t Pecome to the Big Show where the legends go. Everybody knows

it's our house, Tennessee. Making three greatness is meant to be. We got side and butter running through a v