This is the OTP pregame presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Plan on paying less for the coverage you need with Farm Bureau Health Plans. Get a quote today at FBHP dot com with Amy Wells. I'm Mike Keith, so pleased to be joined by Titans Radios Ramon Foster. Welcome to the OTP pre Game.
Thank you.
We're very glad to have you back with us. And of course, five topics. That's what this is going to be. We're going to hit five topics during the course of this program, so let's jump right in with topic number one.
Well, Mike Keith, I'm taking over this week. We need a change in.
The juju a little bit. I get we need we need something a little different going. So you're out. I'm in, But I have my five topics.
You didn't tell me you were going to I have five topics right here.
So much about that.
I have my five topics right here, and I think that this is going to be just the ticket.
This is what we.
Need for the turnaround.
This is where the turnaround starts.
I mean turn all the way around for anything to get a win. So go ahead, take over.
Don't you feel like we need a little just take over.
I should have known something seeing Amy today, Like I mean, Titans fans might not feel like Soun's out, but sons out in here.
Your gun's out right now? Okay, yes they are. Let's go.
So okay, five topics, I've got them, Ramon. I feel like a good place to start because the Tennessee Titans are getting ready to play the New England Patriots. This is the pregame show. We have to discuss your relationship with your on Mao. You guys were roommates, you guys were teammates, and what I need to know from you is was there a moment in your guys' friendship that you really realized that at some level he could be a very successful coach?
Yes, easily, I want that started with his work ethic. I'll just start that.
I think it was the first one to really play out of all of us as a freshman and whatnot. But his delivery into saying and he said it, adam ly, I'm doing three years and I'm out. So to understand there was a plan for him even towards ACL and still got it.
But it started with coach Chevis.
John Chavis is a former defensive coordinator for the Tennessee Valls.
Mayo was the.
Green dot in college for a while. And for a young guy to have that on his table, to be able to make plays and also have the ability to command the defense as a young dude, you understood that intellectually, mentally right, mentally, he could handle the workload. And he just continued to approach college honestly like a business to where it wasn't just playing and starting. It was about building something more than just making plays.
But did you think he had the ability to be the head coach of the New England Patriots? To be able to run And I mean, I know you yeah, think that when you're nineteen. But I'm saying if someone had said that to you, could you have said, yeah, I could see that happening.
You could because he comes from a military fan base. He's from the DMV area. It is that DC Maryland Virginia area. His family is in the service. So his upbringing with his brothers and his mom and his stepdad tells you a lot about what he was going to be able to do. So if you'd have told me, I'd not It is like I could see Mayo doing that super, just calculated in his movements, which is what coaches have to be.
He was that way when he was younger.
Funny funny story is through college we all have you know, we will date or you know, have like certain conversations about who's going to be your wife and stuff like that, and Nails is one one person that wanted to talk to him. He was like, I can talk to him. It's like, what are you talking about? It's like, well, just look, I don't even think she make athletes.
I'm like, whoa Girod? Like why are you playing that far ahead in life?
But that just gives you his mindset into where decision making for himself was important, even if we're talking about DNA. Yes, yes, Mike, Michael, why right now?
Roommate?
It was awesome competitive, it is what he was. We'd wrestle, Oh my gosh. Just he was just a guy that enjoyed college the right way and we used to laugh and joke about certain things like my roommates were. I will say, I'll Bragtice a little bit very successful considering having five guys. Saint Claire Cannon, the business owner in South Carolina, Robert Ayers first round draft pick to the
Denver Broncos now on the Tennessee Vall stuff. Inky Johnson, Just say the name and you know who Inky is, right, Giard Mayo first round draft pick, and myself so and I'll be honest with you. The way we navigate and walked on campus, we were considered somewhat lame or corny for what you're supposed to be doing in college.
Right.
We didn't go out drinking on Thursday nights like other guys did, or we weren't trying to be the first ones to the party every weekend. We might've just had a chill night. Our job was to be successful and do everything it took to get to that point.
So that was our house motto.
Is everybody I always said, everybody eats right and everybody was pulling in the right direction. So that's Mayo's mentality. Was it that meant staying in and playing FIFA or Madden or college football? We were going to do those things because we needed rest for the next day for workouts and holding each other accountable. I don't care if it was hitting the line on every run. I don't
care if it was making weight. I don't care if it's how many games you made in the summer, like everything was pointed towards success, and it was all of us had different leadership qualities. But I could tell you this from the day Mayo just came on campus. He just moved different and he showed that online of different ways too.
Sounds like a house full of adults, like those are grown ups. Those are grown up decisions to make when you're.
Different. Episode So, topic number two, Jeron.
Mayo called his team soft after they lost to the Jags in London. Two part question here, Number one. Does it surprise you that he would make a statement like that, calling his whole team soft so publicly, And does it also surprise you that he has created a culture where guys respond to that and went on to beat the Jets the next week.
No, and no, I will be honest.
The win at the end may have been a little bit surprising, but the accountability side of things, No, he's uber honest. And I do think that's this military upbringing. His mom and dad just never held you know back with them.
Uh.
He was the same way with his brothers and siblings also, and he was the same way with us. If we weren't on our stuff, he would call it out and we all did that too. That's, you know, the basis of a good friendship is Hey, I'm a ride with you, but I'm also be very honest with you.
He's still that way to this day.
We have a group chat now the class of two thousand and four, most of our recruiting classes in there and hearing I mean, the way he speaks in there. Still he's very calculated and what he's saying does not say so the accountability aspect of being a professional is what he's.
Going to do.
I will say, it's kind of bold to call guys you're not far removed from soft, but to get that response, it's probably what that team needed. And he knows this.
I know for sure. If you're gonna do that, you better be right in being.
Able to call guys out like that, because I'm a grown man just the same way as you are.
And I know Mayo gets that.
As a player, if you were a former player in the National Football League, how do you respond to that when your head coach says something like that.
You could take it personal, you can understanook yourself in the mirror. One or the other has to happen. But here's what I do think about Gerd and his ability to be the Patriots head coach for some years, I would say this, I think he understands where his roster is. We're having that conversation here are we not understand I know this. He has a really good relationship with Robert Kraft, so he'll have the back end. I think he may get the time also, so to be able to say that.
As a player, it's about being able to tell troops.
Right.
We always tell guys just be honest with me. The best thing a coach can do with you is telling your soft or and you might not like it, and then you can follow up, well, tell me how, tell me why I can be better. Those are the ones that you want on your teams that don't take offense to what this tape is showing us. And if I'm not mistaken, I think McCardy Devin mccordy right, gaven a definition of what he said they mean by Patriot soft.
I think it was not stopping the run, not being able to run the ball, and it was another category that he said, and those things weren't showing up on tape. So if that's their standard of what Patriot soft is he has every right to do it, and those dudes responded accordingly by doing the opposite of what Mayo said they were.
That was my second topic too, if you'd let me do my five, let me just throw out one more part of that though. How would Gerard Mayo respond to Bill Belichick criticizing him for calling the Patriots soft?
He would probably tell Bill, you run your team the way you run yours, and I run mine like I run mine.
So I got another funny story.
So I was talking to a guy when I went up and played them, and Gerd was still on the roster, correct, And well you don't know that Gerd was still on the roster, but he wasn't playing number ten overall pick.
They had a little bit of a youth movement.
And I asked one of the dudes and that we're joking in between because it's a brotherhood in between commercial breaks.
It's like, where are my dog Mayo at? You know what?
The dude said, Man, he's oldest crap, he ain't playing right now. And I was just like, huh, they got transparency. His standard wasn't what they wanted to be at the time, I guess. And they had young linebackers that were playing in his position. So Bill Belichick saying that I'm sure he'd be as honest to Gerrod or to that team
as Rodd is too. It's just that Bill has his method of communicating in the public to where you get five answers to a question, and I mean five words to an answer, and that's.
It all right.
Topic number three, we are moving right along. Two first year head coaches will be facing each other at the halfway point of the season. Brian Callahan dry mail. Is that still in week eight a compelling storyline the first year coach thing? Or is it kind of irrelevant at this point in the season.
All this is competition, It's very much relevant. That's the same way we were talking about Caleb Williams and Jaydon Daniels.
Right like rookie quarterback versus rookie.
We saw Peyton and Philip and Tom and Eli and being play those matchups and it meant something. I do think coaches do the same things. I do think front offices make changes and feel a certain type of way about we gotta go get this type of win. Because they won't talk about in public, because they're not interviewed like that but I do think there is an importance to winning versus the number one, who's essentially your class is basically class of twenty twenty four coaches.
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All right, topic number four, Ramone Foster, This one's a doozy. How does the Tennessee Titans offensive line stop getting holding penalties?
Exact, it's two sizes of that for me. One tape knowing what you're gonna get, expectation of how you're gonna get rush's or how teams run block you or run stop you.
That's important too.
And then the other part of it is good feat That's something I always had to work with is making sure I was in good positioning in the run game and in the pass game, specifically on the passing game. Is setting yourself up for success. Do not let a defensive line and dictate what you're gonna do.
You may get.
Caught in a bad spot, but you always take back control as it contains, as it pertains that you doing your job. But again we're speaking about an offensive line that is young, growing up and adjusting to all things they've never seen before. Peter Skearonsky, I think is still at a part at a spot in his career where he's still figuring out guard and I see that from time to time, and if you were to ask him, I'm sure he'd be honest and say, yeah, I'm still
figuring this out. But I always tell people so about three years before you start seeing that payoff. The same thing goes for JC. But I'll tell you this, some holding calls may be warranted because I'd much rather hold you than allow you to tear my quarterback's face off. This is all a part make of doing business. What I would tell you in response to that is find a way to negate that, and that's the next play,
making sure that your quarterback does have time. But a lot of these things that we're speaking of is is time in the league. Just being completely honest with you, because if I lose and I know how not to lose again, right and if I saw this guy, I should know next week with the film study, then I'm probably gonna get the same sim or move that that guy did to beat me. So it sucks going through
growing pains, and I went through on myself. I actually thought I was gonna get cut my second year in the NFL because I had a guy run through me, which I didn't know how to hold my base at the time, sacked the quarterback and pushed his fist through his helmet, broke his nose, and I just thought undrafted.
Second year. I told him I'm probably cut. I'm probably gone.
But grace and understanding development is a part of this, and from that moment forward, I made sure I knew everything and to understand what to fight and finish and grind and strained to close out your blocks. It is a maturity thing. So I am not mad at you know, holding penalties. It's a matter of do you let it carry over and can you stop it?
I asked that question, and Jessin, I appreciate that you gave such a good answer because what no, because what.
That says happened to me. Well, I asked it in a very joking way.
But what I appreciate about that answer is that but it says to me that there are still a lot of coachable moments here. We haven't reached the halfway point of the season, and it's like, well, we don't know what to do with this team. Well we can't fix these problems. Well there's nothing that can be done. We don't know what to do. There's a lot of learning left to do on this Titans team. And I appreciate
so much saying, hey, that's film study. It is Hey, that's learning how to play your position at a higher level. That's learning how to do this and how to be a pro. And so much of that is a byproduct not of having a bad team, not of having the wrong guys on your offensive line, not of having the wrong guys in whatever position they're supposed to be. It's a byproduct of having a young team that still needs to learn.
And you know what's even cooler behind the broken those stories to your point, having a young team like I must say, I had a veteran team that I was around, and I had a guy that played a few years in the league at the time too on that broken nose situation. Never mentioned it, The quarterback never mentioned it. It never got brought up. And you know what the
did for me, and I'm fighting harder for them. You know, I want to sell out even more because if he cannot mention that or I not be cut, You've gained me even more. And that's what this group is getting now. Is it may be bad or it's not as good as you want it to be, but being in those trenches with those dudes that have to be here because they're under contract, right this is where that growth comes
into play the world. We may see them in year six, seven, eight, because I think they're right behind each other and say we've dealt with this. This is where those combat plays where you're down six and you need seven to score. This is where that stock is gained right now. But it absolutely not can acknowledge it sucks going through the process of growing paints because there's nothing you can explain other than we're getting better.
Topic five.
That was a great answer, A good answer, all right. Topic number five? Is there one thing that could happen caveat other than a win? We know that wins are the old goal and the number one thing that can fix a lot of problems. Is there something that could happen on the field other than a wind? Maybe it's a play, Maybe it's some sort of a trend that starts to devolve. Maybe it's some sort of a moment. Is there something that could get this team back on track and heading in the right direction.
It's gonna sound cheesy, but this is just as simple as a get because I'm going around and give you the answer.
I promise I'm making you the answer. We're all still kids.
And when we're walking, when we put on that those shoulder paths, those pants, Coach Manchak used to call them putting on your silks.
The jerseys.
Right, we're still kids and we play a game as adults that has a business behind it. What good needs to happen is positivity, just being honest with you, And that's so cheesy. No fan wants to hear that while you're losing, no player really wants to. But it's the truth because as much as we talked about how youthful this group is, you ask what good needs to happen.
A clean game where you run the ball how you want to, where you can score in the tight red zone when you want to, when the defense gets a turnover and the offense immediately sets you up, and it's sets the offense up for a score, Having clean special teams where you lock everybody down, no big splash plays
like it's the process of procedure of the game. And that's what this team hasn't had this year because Miami, they won, but it felt like it was choppy, like only one person was rowing the boat on one side. And what we finally made it the shore right understanding when you asked me that question, the method of how we pieced together a win, and I don't think we've seen them piece together a win the way a football team wants to.
Right.
A dub is a dub is a dub is a dub.
Sure, right, But knowing that I dominated you in a run game, I might have given up a sack today, but my quarterback was two and eighty five yards to touchdown. The defense held them to ten points. Special teams made fifty yarder and kept it cleaning every other face with no penalties. They've yet to have that moment. So it's funny saying positivity and good plays, but that's truly what's gonna because, as his young group knows right now, struggle.
Best way to get out of that is a put it all together.
See the point of this too, which is really interesting. And I know we're now four days away from the game in Detroit, but I would have loved to have seen the Titans kick off to Detroit at fourteen fourteen the ball go through the end zone for a touchback instead of being run back seventy two yards. And I would have loved to have seen them play that game fourteen fourteen Detroit at their own thirty yard line because at that point in the game, you've sacked their quarterback
three times. He's hurting because you've you've worked on him quite a bit, You've moved the ball, you've got some confidence, you've driven for two touchdowns. Now it's a ball game. Let's play the ball game now. Pretty good chance you lose because Detroit's better than you are there at home. Who knows, but at least you could have seen that. Instead you saw kickoff return, interception and return punt return.
This you never got a chance to actually play the game because even after some mistakes early on a bad interception and a seventy yard run, you had gotten it back to even. And if this team cannot play themselves out of a game with some sort of massive mistake, it would be interesting to see where they could flow, because there are signs in different areas at times that they can make a bit of a move. This game this week, I think, is the chance for that posse jctivity that you speak of.
It isn't.
And going to the Detroit game and lessons were being given by Detroit that's gonna benefit them later too, because you know what happened.
You brought up a banged up Jared Goff.
I do think that Dan Campbell kept him in and the game that they knew they were gonna win at that point to show his team this is how we fight to a finish.
Lessons.
You know, there'll be a cold game or they might have to go on the road and play against the team, and Jared Goff just got to suck it up and fight and continue to play for his teammates. But Mike, you bring up those bad points of the game that happened for the Titans, fourteen fourteen coming out of the halftime, it was fourteen to fourteen.
Yeah, after the touchdown drive. I mean that's yeah early in the early in the game.
Yeah, yeah, early in again, not at halftime. But you know what what that play did though, to the guys on the sideline, specifically offense, is that special teams play that was giving up essentially reset them towards like, well, we've done everything we're supposed to, right, there's no answers.
And then what most folks don't understand, and at that moment, that young inexperienced group offensive league or let's say new group put together because there's some elder guys on there, right that's been around the league, but it puts them up against the wall because now we gotta pass, and we have to pass, and the hardest thing to do in the NFL is consistently throw the ball around for a group, specifically the old line who didn't give up
many sacks after that. I don't think any sacks after that, But how many times, can we drop back and hope that we make a splash play and we don't because all they have to do is send four and drop seven.
That's a hard life to live, tough.
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Ninele visit Snickers dot com slash Rookie Mistakes for details. Time Now for the key ingredients of the game, delivered by Little Caesars, which means the pizza boxes come out. Amy Wells has her timer.
Keys to the game. Mike Keith hit it.
Key Number one is keep feeding Calvin Ridley. Ridley's twenty twenty four season was jump started with a ten catch one hundred and forty three yard performance last Sunday. The Titans got involved early and often, and he made some big plays, including a forty seven yarder. Calvin Ridley is the Titans' most dynamic offensive performer. If the offense is to continue to grow, you have to feed him. Key
number two. Keep up the heat. The Titans have gotten three sacks in the last two weeks from arden Key and in limited passing downs for the Lions last Sunday, Tennessee recorded four sacks. As a team. The pass rushers, one on ones the blitzes contributed to the pressure. More of this, please, No matter who the quarterback is for New England, they need to feel this sort of heat from the Titans. Key number three. Keep the ground game going.
The Titans overall results have hardly been what they wanted, either from a record standpoint or from the offensive statistics, but one area has been consistently good. The ground game. It's been consistent no matter the score of the opponent. It was the biggest factor in the team's win at Miami.
One hundred twenty rushing yards and four point four yards per game are both plenty good the Titans need to clean up several areas while maintaining what has been the best part of their twenty twenty four team, the ground game.
Little Scissars is the official pizza partner of your Tennessee Titans. Download the Little Caesars app and get your favorites delivered today. Delivery fees apply. Mike Keith, did you write that because it was wordy?
Word a minute?
Sixteen, my friend, little over, little over today.
Moving on.
I had a lot to say.
You did have a lot to say, which is so good.
There was really key, just a little more loquacious maybe than they should have been given your time constraints.
All right, are moving right along.
In honor of drug Mayo Mayo from Almonds, It's a Mayo toivation from Helmans.
Mayo Titans cheers, be loud, and your buffalo Chicken dip make you, your mama and the entire family proud. Helman's the official Mayo of the Tennessee Titans.
Mayo game Day, be delicious, May it.
Be so mm hmm good?
You say two really good words. I heard everything, but the way you say Mayo is good. And the way you say mama, thank you like you may have been the person like, yo, mama, like you do that really?
Well?
Yeah, I never really found the appropriate way to deliver yo mama joke.
Maybe I should bring it, you should or maybe not here four.
The other thing was interesting from our trip to ford Field, the PA announcer refers to them as Detroit, not Detroit. He says Detroit. I found that very interesting. I never.
So do you think he says it that way in a sentence like thank you for coming to Detroit.
He referred to them as the Detroit Lions. Everything. Every time he referred to them, he called them Detroit. I don't know if that was a PA announcer thing just personal, or if that's how they how a local says it Detroit, but it is Detroit city. But when you referred to him as Detroit City, which is the referred to in song, in another way.
I thought that was just for the song.
Well, I know, yeah, I look at him just like in a sentence, maybe the Detroit Lions. I get that one in an announcements, but it's just Detroit.
Right, I thought, I.
Kind of like Detroit.
You like Detroit.
Yes, Well, I'm gonna say something might upset some people, but I just like Shelbyville.
You see where I'm going.
Some people will like point a finger to you if you go Shelbyville, it's Shovelvlle.
Well it's really Shellville, Shepville like Marvelle.
Now Mirrorville, I could get. It's not Maryville nor Mervill.
M you are our full.
Okay, So it's it Louisville Louisville.
Well, it's interesting, it's Louisville, Kentucky. It's Lewisville, Tennessee.
See, and neither one of them are Louisville.
I say Louisville Louisville.
I try not to say Detroit.
This discussion brought to you by all Right. So we're on the air Sunday from Nissan Stadium in Detroit, not in Detroit downtown.
Well, and see the music city problem.
It was a problem in my house because because my father referred to them as Nissan Nissan.
I kind of like that.
Well, but that's how he's and he called on him for years. They were a client of his. Said I'm going over to Nissan in in Smyrna. And so when we got the the the naming rights, I had to say Nissan because that's what they they say we will be at not Nissan Nissan Stadium, not new Nissan Stadium, field Nissan Stadium this Sunday. Uh. They're on the air with Titans Countdown. I'm recorded. I'm off doing something eleven a m. Central noon Eastern kickoff set for twelve oh
two Central. The Titans and the Patriots this Sunday at Nissan Stadium for our good friend Ramon Foster and Amy Wells if he took over the OTT. Good to do I Mike Keith, Hopefully we've turned it around and thank you for joining us for the OTT