The OTP: Recapping 2 Games in 5 Days

today if you love the Tennessee Titans. After a performance last night that, at least for the final twenty minutes of the game, most Titans fans would like to forget. Yeah. I don't know if Friday scaries are a thing, but I definitely have them. That was not my favorite, my favorite Titans game I've ever been to. I've enjoyed some more than that. But you know, there's a lot of room for growth here, Mike Keith and I am choosing to focus on the positives, and that is the positive

room for growth. Your positive is room for growth. Take me there. Where is the room for growth that you specifically see over the last seven weeks where the Titans could could make that progress? Well, pretty much anything on special teams that feels like a good jumping off point. We've got to get this kicker punter thing figured out.

I don't think that it's not figured out. To clarify, I don't think that anyone had confusion about what was going on going into the game against the Colts, but I do think that maybe there's some part of this recipe that doesn't seem to be jibing super Well, well, let's talk punter for just a second. Can we do that? I would love to, okay, because I want to throw out a little clarification on the whole punter thing. So

Brett Kern is hurt, he can't punt. He's gonna go on ir They COVID test a bunch of punters and they have to go through the five day process. The story that John Robinson told is one of the guys that they COVID tested, it's Trevor Daniel, and Trevor Daniel thinks he's being prank called when they get him on the phone. He's been he's been out of football. He's been still training and still working and everything, but he hasn't gotten, you know, a sniff at any point in

a while. And so he's gone to work for FedEx driving a delivery trick. He's gotten a job so great eight months and so they say would you like to come try out? He's like, yes, I would, and so Trevor Daniel drives in. He makes his last two drops of the day for FedEx. He drives to Saint Thomas Sports Park, comes in the gate in his FedEx truck and goes to the COVID. What is it. It's like a trailer. Yeah, a trailer trailer. That's what I was looking for and starts the testing process and so he clears.

Other guys clear. Ryan Allen is another guy who clears, and on Saturday they can come into Saint Thomas Sports Park and basically have a tryout. The most impressive guy in the tryout is Trevor Daniel, and so they want Trevor Daniel. But they play the next day against Chicago. Ryan Allen is the guy who has held for Stephen Gaskowski for six years, and Trevor Daniel is going to have no chance to practice with the Kickers. So they decide, we'll sign Allen to the active roster, We'll sign Daniel

to the practice squad. So Alan punts eight times in the first game, nearly has a couple blocked in that game. His were pretty good. He hit a couple a little low, a couple of off target where they were supposed to be. But they were going to go to Daniel after the fact anyway, once they had time to prepare, and so once it became obvious on Monday and Tuesday that he could hold for Gaskowski and they'd had some practice, they

were making the switch to Daniel. So it was not as if they made a switch to Daniel based on how Alan performed against Chicago. Is this making sense? This makes a lot of sense. It was predetermined that the switch was going to be made, that Allan was the person for Chicago, and then we were going to move on to Daniel. That's what they thought would happen. If Daniel worked out with Gaskowski in practice, Okay, that was

the switch they were gonna make. When he did, they decided to make the switch now, so they called Daniel up from the practice squad along with Matt Overton the snapper, and Alan is made inactive. So as we speak, you know, the two punters are there, and I mean, we'll see what happens from here. But I would contend for people saying, well, this change in punter caused the problem. No it didn't.

Now it did not cause the problem was the problem Alan had against Chicago and the problem that Daniel had against the Colds, and that is people coming flying up the middle. Alan could have had. If you go back and watch it, and you see the problems that Alan was having with people coming up the middle, and then Daniel had the problem. And unfortunately we called the block punt on Titan's radio. We called it Coach Max said, they're coming. I said, here they are. When I saw

the result of that amy watching it back. Daniel barely got the ball off his foot so much so that he kicked EJ Speed with the ball in the neck. Usually when someone blocks a punt, they get a finger tip on it or they get a hand on it. I mean he fully he nearly impacted Daniel's foot before he had kicked the ball. And on the one that he shanked, and it was a shank, there was so much pressure coming up the middle, he just mishit it. For people to think this is a punter problem, I

think they're incorrect. That's so that was the punter issue, right, and I think I think it's very easy for people, myself included, because I started off this conversation by doing this, so I am contributing to the problem. People are very quick to say this kicker isn't working, this punter isn't work. They blame the people that you see doing the most. I guess exciting activity in what that play is. What you forget about is that there's more people involved in

this recipe. There's not just a kicker standing there with a ball. There's also a group of people who are blocking for him and who are helping to make that successful. So I guess it's bigger than just those two positions. Special teams as a whole needs to correct some of the mistakes that are being made. Someone on Rabel's press conference this morning referred to it as punt coverage, the proper term, where the Titans punt coverage is fine, the

Titans punt protection not so great. I mean, when you've got guys, the whole thing is, punts are rarely blocked from the outside, okay, if somebody's coming from the outside, because punters get punts off so quickly today that that there used to be three step punters and then they became two step, two and a half step whatever. I mean they get. They get the punts off so much faster than they used to The snappers are so much

better than they used to be. That the only way you really block a punt is coming up the middle, and that is if you are more or less unabated. If somebody misses their block. As a punter, if you take the snap and you have a guy coming straight at you full speed, that's not fantastic. You will just hit a punt and and I mean it throws you more than anything else because there is nothing you can do because when that guy comes up the middle, you

can't even really run from him. If somebody's coming from the outside, you can cut around them or whatever. But if they're coming straight out at you and you've committed to punting the football, there's nothing you can do. And I don't know, I don't know what happened. I just know that punt protection has been a big issue for the Titans in the last two games, more so than punter. Now.

The kicker thing with Gaskowski's a different issue, and he when he missed the kick, and Vrabel said this morning. There was not a whole problem with that. When he missed the kick. I mean, that was the ball game right there. That was it, because if he makes that, it's what, it's a seven point game with how much let me look up how much time remaining. I think it's around eleven minutes. I've got it right in front of me right here. Yeah, twelve eleven left in the game.

Plenty of time. It's a seven point game. Ye, not saying you win it, but you certainly keep playing it at that point and the game is still on. When he the kick, even though there were less than fourteen thousand people in the stadium, you could feel the air go out of Nissan Stadium. Yeah, that was the moment that everyone went. You know, it's the collective like sigh of defeat. And just to speak on Nissan Stadium for per minute. When that game started, it was rocking and rolling.

It was not a full stadium, of course, because of the times that we're in, but the people who were able to be there were fired up. It was it was a really cool atmosphere. And so to swing from that to kind of that deflated, Oh no, feeling is hard, all right, So of the stats. What is the stat that concerned you the most about the game. Oh, Mike, um, let me look here. Can I don't mean to go first? Yeah, I want you to go first, debating between like three,

so you go first. The stat that concerned me the most was the Titans in the passing game. Yeah, that was one of mine. So I'm glad I waited. There's some on defense that are obviously concerning, but those are kind of obvious. I'm going with the fact that the Titans through for one hundred and thirty seven yards and then this past week overall just weren't very good in the passing game, and in watching it and looking at it,

it does not feel like it's Ryan Tannehill. It's it's protection, it's it's drops, it's guys not winning in certain situations. Tannehill has thrown a couple of bad balls. Don't get me wrong, He's not been perfect, but they are just not in sync right now. That's the one that concerns me the most. And while Derrick Henry nineteen carries under three yards is his thing, it's almost as if the Colts would say, Okay, Derrick Henry, as long as you don't break a ninety yard run and go for two

hundred and fifty yards rushing. We'll give you one hundred and three because we think we can stop your passing game right well. And to that, I think the one the step that I'm willing to pick that stands out to me is the Titans third down efficiency three for ten on converting third downs. Get out of here, like, you need to stay on the field longer. You just have to. You can't get any sort of rhythm started if you're not on the field sustaining long drives. You

just can't do it. And so, yeah, the offense has seemed a little disjointed. It hasn't been that cohesive, solid kind of train that we thought in the first part of the season. And I think a lot of that is because they can't stay on the field long enough to establish any sort of rhythm and kind of find their group of Every offense in the league when you start a game has to find kind of that rhythm. And you can see as a fan, you can see when an offense is just firing on all cylinders and

they've kind of hit their stride together. These guys aren't on the field long enough to be able to establish that three times they converted third down three that's not enough. They've been pretty good on third day. That probably directly relates to the passing game too. Yeah. You know, this offense, when it's really rolling under Ryan Tannehill, it's gonna have some chunk plays. It's gonna have a deep throw to Calif Raymond and you know, some sort of deep shot.

I mean they had one in a situation to John new Smith and Tannehill just overthrew him. They had a deep shot to a j. Brown that he should have caught that he did not catch, which would have been a big play. Yeah, they've got to have some of those chunks to make their offense work the way they wanted to. Yeah, let me move to something else real quick. Speaking of wide receivers, let's talk about Corey Davis for a second and what he did last night, win or lose.

It would have been a courageous performance. Regardless his brother dies. He does not practice on Wednesday. His brother, Titus was I believe twenty seven, dies of a very rare form of kidney cancer. He had been diagnosed just back during the summer, so this was not an extremely long fight for him. Their background seven children total Wheat and Illinois.

The parents trying very hard but don't have enough to provide for all seven children, and so Titus Davis goes to live with the Hall family, their legal guardians, but stay in touch with the parents with the biological parents. Corey Davis goes to live with the Graham family in Wheaton. They become the legal guardians, and yet Titus and Corey stay unbelievably close. Titus goes to Central Michigan, breaks all

of Antonio Brown's receiving records. Corey Davis goes to Western Michigan, sets all of their records, sets the MAC records for receiving, plays against his brother twice in college, becomes the fifth overall pick. Titus has a cup of coffee in the NFL trying to make rosters and eventually decides he's going to retire from the game. And then this happens. And Titus Davis was Corey Davis's big brother. They shared a room when they were young. He was his football mentor.

He was his overall mentor, as it was described to me. He meant everything to him. And the end for Titus Davis sort of the last part of his battle lasted multiple days, Amy, I mean multiple days. Corey has the great game against Pittsburgh and flies to Houston, where his brother is receiving treatment with Amy Adam strung. She takes him to Houston because they think they're afraid this is it. Yeah, and eventually he realizes Titus does that treatment is over,

and so he goes back to Illinois. But Corey has been dealing with this for weeks and dealing with the finality of what is going to happen, that his brother is not going to make it, and so all of that. What incredible stress, what courage under pressure he shows and

he always shows courtesy and kindness to everyone. But while so many people have enduring so many things during this pandemic, he's dealing with this added burden of his brother having a terminal illness that has hit him way too young and so hard, and trying to balance everything out and then going out and playing last night because he felt like that's what Titus would have wanted. I think it shows a lot about why we feel the way we

do about Corey Davis. Yeah, nobody would have known that Corey was struggling with something, or that Corey had something going on in his personal life. He always stays even keel. He's very cool, he's very calm, never gets super high or super low. And I think that's why he's been so successful. I think that being able to kind of keep everything kind of in check is what makes him a good receiver. I think that this lot, you wanted

Corey to have a big game today. You wanted this team to get a win for Corey and everything that he has been going through and the amount of just stress and weight that has been on his shoulders. It is unimaginable. And then to have a job where everyone evaluates you based on such a finite amount of time and to feel like you need to perform in this three and a half four hour window or you're going to hear about it for a week. And yet you've got all these other bigger things, like you have the

actual world on your shoulders. You know. It's it puts so much football in perspective in that way that this is a guy who I mean, did he have the day that he wanted to have against the Colts? Probably not. Does it matter to him right now? Also probably not. You know, there are way bigger things that we're dealing with and you know, you see that he doesn't play well against the Bears. After he's played well against the Steelers and he's played well against the Bengals, he doesn't

play well against the Bears. And you don't know. I mean, that's the whole thing, is you. It's often been said you never truly know what somebody is going through in their life at a certain moment. But this is a person who is grace under pressure exhibited. I've defended Corey Davis at different times because I think he's a good player. I'm glad he's part of the Tennessee Titans. But the truth is, I just like him. I like him as a human being. I like how he goes about his business.

I like how he represents the organization. I've been thrilled for him when he scores TI touchdowns and when good things happened for him. You know, he played last year hurt and you know, maybe didn't have the numbers he did before. And AJ becomes a star, and that's okay too, and he's happy for AJ becoming a star. I think the Titans will certainly be better if we could have seven games down the stretch where Corey AJ and Adam Humphries are on the field together. Agreed that would be

a huge help. Hopefully, you know Adam can get back from concussion protocol with this extra time, because we sure need him against Baltimore if he can play, absolutely, But on the other hand, you want Adam to take care of himself in this instance, Amy, this is not something that would have been done twenty years ago. Adam Humphries would not have set out two games. I'm glad for his long term health that they are taking care of him.

I'm hoping that he recovers to the point where he can bounce back and get out of protocol and come back. But back to Corey, I don't see how he functioned last night. I don't know how he got out of bed yesterday morning. I don't like. That's not something I

can wrap my head around. So I'm having a hard time even putting into words how impressed I am by him and how proud I am of him, because I can't even it's not a scenario that I can even wrap my mind around having such a huge loss in my life and then going out and performing on this

incredible stage and doing what I need to do. I wouldn't be able to eat a sandwich, Like, arguably the most important person in your life passes away, and he says the biggest reason that he is where he is today and that he is how he is, And there were a lot of people, I mean, the family at

Western Michigan certainly cared for him. The Graham family took good care of him, like I said, they've had In spite of the fact that it was better for the children to be raised in other households, that family stayed connected, which is which is an amazing story and a credit to those children realizing the parents were doing the very best they could. And it's hard, and it's hard when you know the people involved, like we've gotten to know Corey over a period of time. So five catches sixty

seven yards great. Whatever the fact he was out there, all pro all world, all life, I mean, whatever you want to call it, many props to him. Now moving back to where we are this game and how it was lost and the fact that the only thing that the Titans have to hang their hat on from the night I think in terms of statistical performance was Derek Henry. I'd say that's about it. But let's take it, Mike, well,

I did. I mean, it doesn't feel good because there's nothing that you come back and say, Like the Steeler game, you said, well this happened, dude. You know whatever. I mean. Sometimes you lose games you say, well, you can draw some positives. It's hard to draw positives out of this. The only positive that I can draw is the sun came up this morning. There are seven games left. The Titans are six and three. And here's the thing. Let

me read this to you. The Colts played green Bay this week, Okay, then they played Tennessee November the twenty ninth. The Titans played Baltimore this coming week, November twenty, second week from Sunday, and then they go to Indianapolis. Amy, if the Titans win that game, regardless of what they do in Baltimore and regardless of what the Colts do against green Bay, then the Tight control their own destiny in the AFC South. I like that. That is something

that is encouraging to me. Mikeith See, you're finding it the silver lining. So if they're both seven and four at the end of that day, if Tennessee beats Indianapolis on November the twenty ninth, they are in control because of this, because Indianapolis lost in Week one at Jacksonville. Indianapolis has a loss in the division. Okay, two teams would split, but Indianapolis has at the Titans have beaten

Jacksonville and they've beaten Houston. Indie still has to play Houston twice, they have to go to Las Vegas, they have to play at Pittsburgh in Week sixteen, and then they finish against Jacksonville. So, I mean, bottom line, it's still there. Right. It was a ball game that was lost. It was a bad loss from how it felt and from how it came down, particularly the last twenty minutes.

But the season is not lost. Now. If the Titans played like they did last night against Baltimore or at Indianapolis or whatever they've got left to do, that ain't good. I mean, none of this matters. But if they get the ship righted, they can still win the division. Well, and if you think about it, Mike, given the choice, I would rather be the angry team coming into the second matchup with the Indianapolis Colts then the team that

thinks they are somebody. You know, I want to go into that second matchup at their place at Lucas Oil, angry and with something to prove, because that when this team plays the best when they're mad, and they have a point to prove. Again, division tiebreaker with two teams head to head record is one. If the Titans win that game on November twenty ninth, it's a split, right correct.

The second tiebreaker. The second tiebreaker is division record, And so if the Titans could finish five and one in the division, then they are in a position where they could win a tiebreaker if they finished with the same overall record as the Colds. So it's still there. It's still there, I mean, and I'm sure I would have to think I'd be interested to know what you think, because you know Mike Vrabel as well as I do, he's gonna say that at some point, right he's gonna say, look, guys,

this stump, this was bad. We're gonna look at it, we're gonna break it down, we're gonna make changes. But it's all still out there for us to do this. That sounds to me like the Monday Morning message. You know, this team has the unique opportunity to take a couple of days recollect our thoughts, reflect, heal our bodies, a little bit like these are all things that can be accomplished over this weekend where the team's not playing, So in that time, it gives you a chance to kind

of recalibrate some things. And so to your point about Mike Rabel's message, I think that that would be a pretty on brand Mike Rabel Monday morning message of hey guys, this was not great, but we still have the world in front of us. But we've got to get back on track and it needs to happen. Now. There's a sense of urgency. Now sure, well, I'm not doing sunshine and lollipops. I'm not doing rainbows and unicorns. I don't

think anyone listening to this podcast we're doing sunshine and lollipops. No. But but that's my point is that may be how it feels. This is accurate, This is on a piece of this is what it is right, and if you just want to dismiss, well, they can't do that because they played bad in one game. Listen, I've seen Titans teams bounce back from bad games too, you know, to come back. I mean, this happens, and there will be

things changed and there will be things fixed. And I have a feeling that after the harsh reality of the film breakdown, then you go on the other thing too. There are people who think, well, they play bad, they need to practice all weekend. It's like, no, not how that works. Not how that works, but also not what I believe they need. I think they've got to get away,

you know, for at least Saturday and Sunday. You've got to They'll have to continue to COVID test, by the way, you know, they so they It's not like they can leave town or whatever without you know, doing They have to COVID test every day. But they they got some guys who desperately need to heal up. I mean, you saw it on the sidelines last night, guys coming off, you know, so many guys hobbling both Sunday against the

Bears and then into this game. I mean we're sort of into hobble time where when you get towards mid to late November, everybody's hurting. Everybody's hurt, and it feels like guys are just dropping like flies, when in reality, everybody's dealing with something. These guys just have it a little bit harder. I mean, nobody is healthy in November in the National. If you have played at all in the first half of the season, you are not healthy in the second half of the season. That's football, That's

how this works. But yeah, it seems like the Titans are getting hit a little harder with the old injury bug as of late. And I don't think that's unusual. I don't think that there's some sort of bad juju in the air. I just think that it is what it is. And the more that we can start getting some guys back, getting a Dory Jackson back on the field, getting Adam Humphreys out of the concussion protocol, giving Roger Saffel the chance to really heal up, giving Jadavian Clowney

a chance to really heal up. There are guys that are playing at about fifty percent. If we can get them to eighty percent, we'll be in a better spot as a team, all right. So we're going to wrap up this edition of the OTP a happy, fun episode. Yeah, the one where you charge me ninety five dollars for letting me talk, and I'll charge you ninety five dollars for letting you talk. The Therapy OTP edition. I like

it when it comes to your healthcare coverage. Speaking of healthcare covers, it comes to your healthcare coverage, you should be the one to make Paul So call Farm Bureau Health Plans. They've been protecting Tennessee and since ninety seven. Do want to mention one happy thing for sure, and that is Tuesday at eleven Central, Amy Wells and I will be revealing the finalists for the Tennessee Titans twenty twenty Mister Football Awards. It's the most wonderful time of

the year. Mike Keith. I love Mister Football. I think it's so fun. I love the event. I like that everybody is just so happy and optimistic and we get to celebrate these guys who have had awesome seasons, and I mean some of them have had some kind of wacky seasons, you know, with COVID and all the changes that different schools have seen. So this one's going to be an extra special one. I think that the guys who are going to end up being finalists are going

to be guys who really deserve it. And we've got some great players in Tennessee man who So five semifinalists cut to three finalists. They will come to Nissan Stadium for what will be a different looking Tennessee Titans Mister Football Awards banquet, not as many people. That is December the eighth, so it's a week later. It's actually after the Blue Cross Bowl weekend, which is different, and it's on a Tuesday, So we will have that and we're excited about that. That Amy and I will announce the

cut from semifinalists to finalists. Those will be the people invited to the dinner and you can go to Tennessee Titans dot com and watch it Tuesday morning at eleven Central. One of the things that mister Adams loved it. The guy who got us into it was Bob Hyde, who ran who was our VP of community relations for years. It was a great move. Mister Adams was very excited about it. He liked it. Kenneth Adams loves it because

I think he understands just how special it is. And it's been embraced up down the line by coaches, by our general managers, our former players are current players. When we talk about this, people say that is so cool that as a high school kid you get to come to the Titan Stadium and you know, experience what it's like.

And we try very hard to make it as special as possible for the young men and their families and their coaches, the administrators, because we truly do love high school football because it's awesome, but also it's sustaining, you know it. We've had a lot of mister Football winners who become great NFL players, right, so it is so special. I hope you'll follow it if you're a football fan, I hope you'll learn these names. And we're very proud of it. And I just wanted to mention that Tuesday

we will reveal the finalists. So if I talked enough, well, I mean, I could listen to you all day, Keith. I really could nice you to say, yeah, I know, I'm feeling pretty nice this morning. Yeah you're better. I'm better. You know, there's a lot of football in front of us, might Keith. The sun is still shining. It's a little chilly, but I can handle it. Football is in front of us. We're gonna be okay. I'm not better yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow. It's gonna take a whole day. Yeah, that

was just I thought. When we stopped him on fourth down, I thought, we're going down the field right here, We're gonna drive ninety nine yards. We're going to drive a stake through their heart. Yep, we're winning this ball game because that's just I just believe that would happen. And I think a lot of people were like me, and I think Rabels like that. I think John Robinson. I think that's who that's who we expect to be as a football team. And when we didn't do that, it hurts.

And and if you're caught up in it, you know, I get it. I mean, you have some Mondays that are worse than me. I do have Mondays that are worse than you. I yes, this one, I like. I think I feel encouraged that we get another crack at them so much. That's fair. That is I think what's helping me through this whole process, besides the therapy, that is the OTP. I think that we get to turn around and get right back to these guys. That's fair. That makes me feel good. Gotta get ready to go

to Baltimore too, Okay, that's fair. The thing about the NFL is you have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Why we do this As we go to Baltimore, we remember the highest of highs from January winning the playoff game, and today feels like the lowest of lows for for this moment. I tell people, I said, I've been to the super Bowl, and I've been two and fourteen, so you know, I mean you you you find the range. What you have to learn to do if you're really good at it, you got to learn

to flush it. You've got to learn you have to flush it. And the great teams flush it and get on with it. And that's and that's what we're going to find out now is can they flush it? Yep? Will be the true test for this team, absolutely all right. So that does it for this edition of the OTP. For Amy Wells, I, Mike Keith, we thank you for listening. We thank you to Farm Bureau Health Plans for their sponsorship, and to all of you, we appreciate you being with us.

For the teams, people where the legends, everybody knows it's our house making three. Greatness is we got Side and Bud running through a bea