Welcome to the OTP, presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Farm Bureau Health Plans has been in business for nearly eighty years, helping Tennesseeans with the best healthcare anywhere. Visit FBHP dot com to learn more. We call this the OTP pregame with Amy Wells. I'm Mike Keith and our special guest in the Snickers hot Seat Coach Dave McGinnis.
Love of Snickers hot Seat and love being the guest more.
Glad you're here.
Thank you.
Ramon Foster did a fine job.
Last week, as he always does, and.
Now Coach Dave McGinnis takes over the spot. A couple things about the OTP and what's going on for the ot people. So you've asked, Hey, wait a minute, we've got a Monday Night OTP that comes out at eighth Central with Brian Callahan. Is that going to be every week? And the answer is yes, yes, except the week of the Monday Night game.
Because he's coaching a game and can't do it.
Because he's coaching. Because he's coaching game. Warn you about that week. You'll want to make sure you're subscribed to the OTP because the week of the bye. Because of the Monday night game and just how everything falls, it's going to be an audio only OTP. It is just making just getting that on the record.
Now, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast. So you should have done anyway, so.
You should be a subscriber to the OTP, so you have the option of listening and if you're watching, you know that you've already gone to the Titans YouTube channel or Tennessee Titans dot com.
I mean if you can subscribe to that too, can you? I think, well, and.
You can subscribe to the YouTube channel. Yeah, and you should be well no, no, no, you should you can?
You actually can.
Yeah, you can subscribe to the Titans YouTube channel. You can't subscribe to the OTP on the YouTube channel, but then you get everything on the Titans YouTube channel, which you want.
We should put this on a sticky. But you guys can subscribe to everything.
Absolutely there it is. So let me do something too here before we get started. Just personally, I've never been a big birthday person. No, and after two thousand and one, I especially was an even less of a birthday person for good reason, having a September eleventh birthday. But my birthday has just passed, and many people have been kind enough to wish me a happy birthday. The team put it out on X they did. I was surprised by that. Yeah.
And then Ashley Ferrell put out a video of me dancing in the booth to wish me a happy birthday, which many people saw on Instagram and the former Twitter. Yeah, and not even bothered, you know, not even as annoyed as you would probably think I would be because.
Because Ashley put it out. If I had put it out, I'd be fired.
No, But I because I just very much appreciated all of the birthday greetings. I thank you for all of them.
They made my day. And what especially made my day was all the pictures that people posted in different places where we've had a chance to meet at games, on road trips, at different team meetups outside of playoff games in London, when I stop at Starbucks, you know, whatever where we've met, and and the pictures and over the years, and I'm looking back on thinking, oh, well that was that year because I recognized the pullover or I you know, recognized the glasses at that time. Oh I had those
back then, So that was just great. So thank you. I just wanted to say thank you to the ot people and everyone else.
Well, happy belated, I.
Had a wonderful birthday. Very kind.
People like you a lot.
Mike Key, well, thank you, coach. That's very kind. We like you a lot, coach, and we like and we like you on the OTP Pre Game, which comes out every Thursday night at eighth Central. So the OTP with Brian Callahan Mondays at eight Central, it hits, the OTP Pre Game Thursdays at eight Central, it hits. So you get two a week. You've got two a week, and now you know when and where to expect them.
Yes, hardest working people in show business.
I'm going to write all this down for you.
All right.
So what we have is the OTP Pre Game. We have five topics, and here's topic one for Coach Mac. The Titans will practice this week and will enter Sunday's game with the Jets with every player from last weekend season opener available, no one lost for the game. Is that really a big deal? Making too much out of it? And if it is a big deal, why big deal?
Big deal? Continuity is what you look for, and especially with this new staff and a new football team coming together and you've got a lot of new players now they've been together since the OTAs, But being able to get time on task in the regular season is really big. You don't want to get segmented with different people having to come in and out, in and out early in
the season. It's a big deal. It's a real big deal for a coach, and it's a real big deal for the continuity and then the flow and the function of your football team.
I can't remember that happening where the Titans have left Week one healthy enough that they could go into Week two with exactly the same group. It always seems like, even if it's just for a week, you've lost one or two or three guys.
Yeah, I can't remember a time where it was completely the same from one to the next. And I think that to max point that consistency is so good. Being able to get more time to kind of gel together and become that unit that because of all the communication things, of all the just choreography of making all of this work, successfully having more time with the same people is so valuable.
So hopefully, I mean, knock on what let's I mean, let's keep this going as long as we can, because the more consistency, the better it feels like that.
The other thing about it is is you're getting people, even more people put on more, getting more people back.
This is a like Jamal Adams. This is a huge plus, Okay huge. Can Brian Callahan and his offensive coordinator Nick Holts design a game plan that can help Will Levis build confidence as he plays against this Jets deal?
They absolutely can, And every every game takes on its own nature. But what you want to do, you want to you and in form it not only to the structure of the defenses you're playing against, but also to the to the character of your team. They're just still finding out the character of this football team. But can they that that is the design, That is what you that's what you look at. You look at the matchups of who you're playing. You look at some of the
things that you've done and see what you've done. Well, you've got one game shot at this already, and you see what you're going to have to be able to string together. But absolutely they can't. Every week. Every week the game plan is formed around the opponent that you are playing. You still got basic things that you work on all the time. But that's the difference in the National Football League going week to week to week is you got to form it depending on who you're playing.
Now, coach, I've never been a play caller in the National Football League or otherwise, but I know that when you're putting together your plan for game days, you try to script out some of your first couple of plays, the things that you really want to make sure that you're you're getting in there. Are they going to put in extra emphasis on some things that we can definitely get this for Will? This is something that is it
going to be a home run? We don't know, but it's going to help him gain that confidence that things are going well. Are there some of the safety plays, I don't know, confidence builder plays that they can infuse into their plan.
Most of the scripting is done to be able to get a look at how the defense is going to react to personnel groups, how they're going to react to what you set up. Now you talk about getting a quarterback in rhythm, there absolutely is, not only with Will Levice, but with all the offensive coordinators I've been associated with. They like to give their quarterbacks something to get started. And I mean it's kind of like you know, starting
your engine. You don't match the accelerator to the floor the first time you get behind the wheel, but you'd like to get something started off then you can gradually start to accelerate. So the answer to that is yes.
Now it is.
Different depending on the defense that you're playing against. Some defenses just won't allow you to do some things. But that's that's what the game plan is about. Tailoring some of those fast starters. And it's not explosive plays. It's to get in a rhythm. This is a chain progression offense. You want to get into that rhythm.
When you say that, what do you mean a chain progression offense?
You're going to take what they give you early on. You're trying to get in. Second down is huge for this offense. The way this offense is put together. Second downs are huge because what you can do with second downs as as a defense. If I have an offense in second and seven plus, the advantage goes to me because all of a sudden, now I can do things that I wouldn't do on first down or on second
five or less. I just it limits you. Just like if you then if you put a defense in second and four, second three, second two, now they're in a conflict situation because now still you've got second three, so you've got it down that you might could say waste to try to hit something big, but at the same time you still got to defend the box. So the chain progression is big. They had a chain progression offense
going in the first half. The chain progression, you could see it because and then once defensive coordinators, which I have been one defensive coordinators, as you start to move down the field on them, you get impatient. You get impatient, and that's when you look for and feel for as an offensive play caller, the impatience of it. So all of a sudden, are they going to start borrowing from the back end to get the front solidified so that you can take one on one shots downfield.
How do you describe a Robert solid defense?
Well, it's all predicated on the front. It's the defensive front. This is a free flowing defense with the back end. They play off of a front, and so everywhere that he's been, when he was in San Francisco and then when he comes to the Jet, they build it off of a big front and let the linebackers free flow off of it. And also he would love to play the whole game, rushing for and covering with seven. He's a big four on three to three on two guy
with coverage. So if you can force him to bring to borrow from the back end to bring somebody else down, now he's got something right now that he's really never had, even at San Francisco. He's got Sauce Gardner. So when you've got a guy that is is a true you know you hear lockdown corner a lot is a term thrown out, but there are very few of them. This guy is one. So now he can let him have whoever he deploys him on and then work some things
with his other ten. That is really when you've I had one of those guys in my career at Es Williams, so I could I could just pretty much put the hat on an on the guy that I that we knew was going to be the most dangerous as a quarterback target and use the other ten. So that's what you're going to see out of him.
I was listening to Serious XM NFL radio channel eighty eight this morning and Solomon Wilcotts was hosting, and I respect his opinion. He said this morning that he considers the Jets defense to be a top three defense in the NFL, even though they didn't have a good game Monday night in San Francisco. What do you say to that.
I absolutely agree. I absolutely agree. The other thing. The other thing that he's got when you start looking, just start looking at his personnel across the board. He has got what he's got that guy in the back end that you can win on one with, and then Quinn Williams across the front. He plays him everywhere. Everywhere he's gonna find. They will get their game plan. They will find who they think is the soft spot of the offensive front, and that's where they're going to play Quinn Williams.
And they can they move him. They move him there a lot like what we used to do here when Jim Wahburn would move Albert Haynsworth around. You know, Albert Haysworth is a defensive tackle, but a lot of times he would play out there on the end and do and work games with Kyle Van and bisch inside. This is what he will do. But they've got the personnel and plus they've got the history even with this group of being a top five defense. I agree with Solomon.
Otp pregame topic number three for coach Mack. Did you notice anything different about Aaron Rodgers on Monday Night Football?
He doesn't have the mobility that he's had in the past. When he first got into the league and he started being the gunslinger that he is, he could also run. He was an athlete clearing out forty years old coming off of an Achilles' injury. He's more stationary. He has still got the arm. He's got the arm, and even more so with the arm, he's got the knowledge. You're not going to give him things that he hasn't seen.
He's seen most everything that you can give him. So when you play quarterbacks like this, you play quarterback like Peyton Manning, those kind of guys, you're not going to fool them. So you've got to be really, really conscious
of your technique. You've got to be so technique sound against guys like this, and your your front and your back end have to be tied specifically together, because if you've got a young quarterback, you can do a lot of things bogie disguise, move around, jump around, and they'll bite on it. Veteran quarterbacks don't bite the cheese on this stuff. They just don't You have to play solid,
solid fundamentals. You can get away with a little bit of a little bit of free balling when you've got a younger quarterback with a veteran no.
Any other comments on that topic.
Well, so the strategy has to be to force him to move around then, right, if he doesn't have the mobility piece.
Anymore, well, that just comes with getting pressure, and it comes first of all, and it's it's a legitimate question, but against against a quarterback like that that has got limited mobility to start with inside pressure, inside pressure, because really, edge pressure doesn't bother veteran quarterbacks because they can manipulate a pocket and move up in it, even though even if even if they're even if they're vertical and their horizontal agility is limited, and it was in their younger years.
But if you start affecting and I mean moving that that center guard triangle back in his lap, then there's nowhere to go. There's nowhere to go. Younger quarterbacks will exit, they'll exit out of the sides if you so you want to pressure older quarterbacks up the middle first, I mean we've seen that, we've seen that with the Titans, defense. When we've played Tom Brady before, we've done it. You know, right out here playing Tom, you've forced the middle of
the pocket. It gives them no chance to manipulate.
And the Titans have a clubber Lang type Russian there with to Andre Sweat and Jeffrey Simmons.
I like that clubber lane type.
They got a lot of more.
They got a lot of club Lang.
Would say they got a lot of mo that, but they do, and just keep bringing it. It's Clipper Lang straight.
Ahead and with and with the way to and Andre Sweat, you know, in his first debut. I mean, he's a guy that when they get into the meetings on Wednesday, when you start putting up the roster with your meetings in the offensive meeting rooms, they will have that red laser dot on this guy we have to handle. We knew we had to handle Jeffrey Simmons, but this guy, this guy we've got to handle.
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Past protection? Their past protection must be better. This this defensive front is going to bring heat. And we talked earlier about what is the strength of this It's the front. It's the front. So you just need to be more technique sound because you know what's going They gave us some pressures in the first ball game and so that's what the Jets defense is looking at right now. So technique with your protection is from from tackle to tackle all the way through, has got to be better.
What do you think this week is like for JC Latham?
A huge learning week. Learning week I mean his The advantage that he has is he has Bill Callahan as a mentor. I mean this this thing their last game will be gone over frame by frame as far as the protection because and what happens to younger players. And I haven't talked to JC Latham. We haven't talked to him, but just in my experience, that first game they get into a lot of times if it starts getting a little bit hot, they start reverting back to what they
haven't worked on. So that will be reinforced. It's a huge I know how conscientious he is. I think we all do. The thing that to his advantage is is he's got Bill Callahan in that room to frame by frame it with him. So I mean he's looking to improve, all right.
Topic number five for Coach mac on the OTP pregame, what part of the New York Jets offense is not discussed enough?
Brice Hall. Brece Hall. Breece Hall is a really good back. Now the forty nine ers bottled him up. Surprised me. Breece Hall. And their run game is they've went out and got some veteran offensive linemen, but the run game, and especially with the way that the quarterback is now Brece Hall. Don't sleep on Breese Hall. Don't think it's just an Aaron Rodgers. Air it out, you know, and throw it to Garrett Wilson and and spin this thing all over the field. They've got to stop the run.
They did a good job last week of stopping the run. They've got to do a better job this week defensively of stopping the run. Breece Hall is a is a legitimate elite back in this league.
Nice, I thought you were.
I thought you were going to say, Garrett Wilson, Well, Garrett Wilson is a You're looking at Garrett Wilson. You think about the quarterback, but people always think about the quarterback and Garrett Wilson Breese Hall.
So Garrett Wilson though, No, Look, I'm not arguing with you. I'm just going to make it. I'm going to make a different point. Get sensitive.
You can tell. You can tell I'm a sense of human You.
Really are very sensitive. We'll have to stop the tape and just have a little moment anyway. Garrett Wilson caught four passes in the first quarter for forty six yards against San Francisco. Uh Bill Belichick was on the Manning cast, and by the way, he was really good, and I'm not surprised at all. He's really really good on all the media stuff he's doing. But he made the point which I thought was interesting and quite a compliment toward Garrett Wilson. He goes, oh, I'd be doubling him.
Well, you know why, why If he singled, that's where Aaron Rodgers is going, even though he brought Allan Lazard with him from Green Bay. If he's singled for the majority of the time, that's where he's going.
So you double him just in order to say you've got to go do something else.
You either you either do that, And I'm not running to Ard Wilson's defense.
That's okay.
I know when we had when we had a guy like that, we would either we would either double. But you double him in different ways. You can up and back him, you can in and out him. You can do it. We call bump slice him where you start and you force him. You start to force him outside that overplay the inside with help coming. There's a lot of different ways that you can do that. But if he senses single coverage that I mean when they start looking at those pads. That's where he's going.
What's interesting because he had four catches for forty six yards early and then for the rest of the game just two for fourteen. So I'm guessing they did something different.
They heard Bill Belichick.
They heard Bill Belichick.
Well, Bill Belichick's not wrong.
Well, but that's what Bill Belichick always did though, is he would say, Okay, you've got this guy, he's not gonna beat us.
Well, they take away Bill Belichick and Dinard Wilson will do the same thing. Any good defensive coach. Take the problems away, right, make them beat you without their known problem.
All right, it's good stuff.
I don't believe I ever want to be bump sliced. That does not sound good.
Where did he say bump sliced?
He said, it's one of the ways that they would double cover them.
When you slice, when you slice somebody, bump slice, bump slices. When you slice somebody in and out, you're just playing in and out on If you bump slice them, you get up there and press them, and then you got to write bump, slice, bump slice.
You want to be pressed and then sliced?
Uh huh you Nope, you.
Bump slice them. So, I mean it's something that you do on really good receivers and good quarterbacks, because then now they think you're inside out on them. You start to force them outside. Then you jump outside and overplay the out, trying to encourage if they think, okay, all right, now we're playing inside technique and over the top you bump, slice them, start to force them with that inside leverage and then jump outside of them and bring somebody else down on the inside.
Sounds uncomfortable, it does.
He's he's been quite good.
Mac Oh, Yeah, he's great.
Not a surprise. Yes, we have to do a couple other things on the OTP pre game. The first thing we have to do is the key ingredients of the game delivered by Little Caesars, and I have to do it in sixty seconds or less.
Wait hold, please, hold please, I must set my watch begin.
Aaron Rodgers lasted only four plays in twenty twenty three, but he already has a game under his belt in twenty twenty four and will be ready to come to Nashville on Sunday. Even in his early forties, Rogers still does a lot of things well, especially when he is improvising key number one don't let Aaron Rodgers improvise. Key number two take advantage of early scoring chances. Robert Salaz defense forces mistakes with heat. But as you saw in San Francisco, the Niners built a lead and put the
Jets defense on their heels. For the Titans this Sunday, they have to take advantage of early scoring chances and hope to keep the Jets defense at bay. Key number three is be prepared for a special teams assault. The Jets have one of the best special teams coordinators in the league, and Brent Boyer and special teams didn't have a great game in Chicago. Tennessee must execute on special teams on Sunday. And that's not just talk.
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But they have pizza Pizza.
They have pizza pizza. But you get one pizza, all right? One a day?
Yes? How long did that take me?
By the way, I don't know. I accidentally turned on my timer from putting my child to bed instead of my stopwatch. We'll call it forty five second, I don't know, three minutes and thirty one second.
We have to conclude this edition of the OTP pre game with a mayotivation from Oh, by the way, coach, we.
Didn't give them as pizza, but I am mayonnaise.
Hang on, you got to hold these just for fun, just for fun, hold them, hold them.
Thanks.
Yes, I thought you.
Just got one. I got three.
You got pizza, pizza pizza. This is a mayotivation from Hellman's Amy.
Go right ahead, Mayo Titans cheers, be loud, and your buffalo chicken dip make you proud or make your mama proud, whichever The.
Official mayo of the Tennessee type.
Mayo Game Day, be delicious. I think I'm going to change the the cuisine as the season goes on.
Is that right?
There are other mayonnaise based foods other than buffalo chicken salad, chicken salad legs.
I love chicken salado salad, but I mean they but they say, you're supposed to say that. That's what.
Yeah, but I think we're going to highlight the variety of what Helmans has to offer.
Well, I understand that, but I don't think you can change the copy they send us. No you can't.
This is great like that you can make all kinds of stuff with Helmans.
See. The great thing about Coach Mac is he's doing all these ads. I mean, if you heard how many ads he's doing on the radio.
You can't listen to the radio without hearing Coach Mac.
What are you not advertising these days? Pizza? He's like, he's like Charles Barkley and Peyton Manning. He's on, He's on like.
Everything, insurance, pizza, cars, trucks.
Pizza, pizza.
Trucks.
It's crazy how much stuff he's selling right now. I turned on the radio the other day and three of the four commercials were Coach Mac.
I love it.
The best part about it is people are buying it.
Here, pizza, pizza, pizza. They don't want to say pizza. They want to say pizza pizza.
You can only get one pizza.
As I said, pizza pizza sales are going to go through the roof Right now, they're going to get some more dough cooking.
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Visit snickers dot com slash Rookie Mistakes for details. For Dave mcginnison, Amy Wells, I'm Mike Keith. We're glad you have enjoyed this edition of pregame on the O T P Pizza Pizza ot P O T P Pizza Pizza.
Would you only get one pizza?
Okay? Mayo have a great time listening