Speaker 1: This is the OTP four D presented by Farm Bureau
Speaker 1: Health Plans turned to the folks who've been in the
Speaker 1: game since nineteen forty seven. Farm Bureau Health Plans offers
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Speaker 1: With Amy Wells, I am Mike Keith. Rhett Bryan is
Speaker 1: also in the house as usual as we talk about
Speaker 1: a seventeenth Titans football game. Titans went in Houston twenty
Speaker 1: eight to twenty five to finish twelve and five. Rhett
Speaker 1: eighteen teams say goodbye today, packing it up and closing
Speaker 1: them out never easy, always good when you're not one
Speaker 1: of that bunch. I've seen it in a world where
Speaker 1: I was still in the locker room on locker room
Speaker 1: clean out day. It's sad, I've seen it. I saw it.
Speaker 1: You know AJ Brown's rookie year after you know they
Speaker 1: got knocked out of the playoffs. But yeah, you never
Speaker 1: want to be carrying that contractor's bag full of all
Speaker 1: your gear in the locker you've collected all season long
Speaker 1: and saying see you win. The fact that you're in
Speaker 1: It's a whole another season reset. Here we go. The
Speaker 1: fact that you're in is one thing. The fact that
Speaker 1: the road to the super Bowl comes through your house
Speaker 1: is pretty sweet. What the Titans have been able to
Speaker 1: accomplish is incredible. And being in that spot today on
Speaker 1: a day that for so many teams is a really
Speaker 1: hard day, it's a great day to be a Titan.
Speaker 1: I think you made the point too last night at
Speaker 1: dinner as we were waiting on the plane, you said,
Speaker 1: I sure am glad we're not having to hire a
Speaker 1: coach or a general manager. What a blessing that is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's something that you know, Titans fans got used
Speaker 1: to for a couple of years. It felt like there's
Speaker 1: a lot of turnover really quickly being with an organization
Speaker 1: and that has had so much stability over these past
Speaker 1: couple years and success that's come with that stability. So
Speaker 1: you're not just sitting in a rut where people are like,
Speaker 1: well will they stay will they go? That some teams
Speaker 1: are sitting in right now. This is a group a
Speaker 1: general manager and a head coach that have a plan.
Speaker 1: The plan is working, there's noticeable, proven success attached to it.
Speaker 1: It's such a relief I know for fans, for coaches,
Speaker 1: for players, and for the staff who work with those
Speaker 1: people all the time. It's really hard watching guys get
Speaker 1: fired and knowing the ramifications of that beyond just their
Speaker 1: job and what it means for a team, for their families.
Speaker 1: It's not a fun day across the National Football League.
Speaker 1: So to be in a place where you know that
Speaker 1: your core is going to remain intact, that's pretty great.
Speaker 1: And for us selfishly, if we have to pack a
Speaker 1: bag again, it's to go to Los Angeles. Otherwise our
Speaker 1: bags are in the closet. I think that's the biggest
Speaker 1: thing that I take away personally, and I think that's
Speaker 1: what Titans fans feel, is that, hey, we get to
Speaker 1: have home playoff games, and the road to super Bowl
Speaker 1: fifty six in the American Football Conference is decided by
Speaker 1: what happens at Nissan Stadium. It's huge. The opportunity is there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I put my suitcase in the very back of the
Speaker 1: closet last night, so I have no intention of going
Speaker 1: in there to dig it out. I feel confident in
Speaker 1: my team. There you go, yep, there you go. All right.
Speaker 1: First down on this edition of the OTP for d
Speaker 1: your play that turned the game, Rhett Brian, you get
Speaker 1: to go first. I bet I know what you're gonna pick. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the Ryan Tannehill escape and hitting Nick Westbrook Aquina
Speaker 1: for thirty seven yards on a play that should have
Speaker 1: been a sack for a loss. It was amazing, we
Speaker 1: said postgame on Titans Radio. It was a lot like
Speaker 1: what Steve McNair used to do on a pretty regular basis.
Speaker 1: That was a play that the Titans desperately needed at
Speaker 1: that point in the ballgame, and it certainly was the
Speaker 1: place where it helped close the deal. So I cheated
Speaker 1: on mine a little bit because I was standing on
Speaker 1: the sidelines during the game, behind the offense bench, and
Speaker 1: Todd Downing came down the line and he said, to
Speaker 1: every single guy sitting there, this drive is going to
Speaker 1: be the most important drive of this game. So I thought,
Speaker 1: play the turn the games probably in there, I'm going
Speaker 1: to write this, So I did, and I just decided
Speaker 1: that whatever happened in that moment, that was going to
Speaker 1: be my play of the game. And it turned out
Speaker 1: that this was at seven oh four ish in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, and that was the Julio Jones touchdown, So
Speaker 1: got a good play out of it. It was so
Speaker 1: great to see Julio have that success. We saw him
Speaker 1: play a great game in Houston, and so to be
Speaker 1: able to see him contribute, to finally see all of
Speaker 1: his hard work come to fruition and to score points
Speaker 1: that really mattered in this Titans game, I had no
Speaker 1: problems at all, just copying what Downing said. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go back to the first quarter, and I think the
Speaker 1: Tannehill play where he threw Martin off his back and
Speaker 1: then completed the past to Westbrook Aquina was absolutely huge.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna go back to the second quarter. The
Speaker 1: Titans score on first and goal at the one in
Speaker 1: a scoreless game, and Jeffrey Simmons did not report eligible,
Speaker 1: so they lose the touchdown, and then they don't score
Speaker 1: on first and second down, but on third down and
Speaker 1: goal at the five, Ryan Tannehill passed short left to
Speaker 1: Anthony Firkser for a five yard touchdown. If the Titans
Speaker 1: had only gotten three there, this game I think gets
Speaker 1: vastly more interesting faster than what it did. By getting
Speaker 1: a touchdown, you established him dominance. You ended up dominating
Speaker 1: the second quarter. You got the twenty one nothing lead,
Speaker 1: and you needed every bit of that. But I just
Speaker 1: think there was this feeling after the missed field goal.
Speaker 1: There was just this feeling that if you leave a
Speaker 1: touchdown out there and don't get it and you only
Speaker 1: get three there, that you're playing with fire. As it
Speaker 1: turned out, you were playing with fire in the second half.
Speaker 1: I kept thinking about the Bullock missfield goal in the
Speaker 1: second half and how nice it would have been to
Speaker 1: have it. Not having that touchdown, oh goodness, I mean,
Speaker 1: that would have been so much worse. So I think
Speaker 1: cashing that in, overcoming that mistake was my play that
Speaker 1: turned the game. Fair enough. Fair enough second down. Your
Speaker 1: stat that tells the story, Amy Wells. Fact that the
Speaker 1: Tennessee Titans were four for four in the red zone
Speaker 1: when they were in a position to score, they did,
Speaker 1: and they were scoring touchdowns. Those were points that, as
Speaker 1: we saw the game unfold, mattered. The Titans have put
Speaker 1: an emphasis on this. This has not been the case
Speaker 1: all season long. The Titans have not been as successful
Speaker 1: as they typically are in the red zone this season
Speaker 1: as an entirety, and so seeing them have that success,
Speaker 1: get those touchdowns when they needed them, and be able
Speaker 1: to continue to put points on the board. When this
Speaker 1: was a game that came down to points on the board,
Speaker 1: I thought that was great for me. It was the
Speaker 1: tale of two halves. In terms of the yardage, Houston
Speaker 1: Texans had sixty seven total yards of offense in the
Speaker 1: first half. They explode for two hundred and eighty six
Speaker 1: more yards in the second half to finish three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty three yards from scrimmage. That tells you where
Speaker 1: that think went from twenty one to nothing until oh,
Speaker 1: my goodness, hold on for me. It's Dontrelle Hilliard nine
Speaker 1: rushes fifty seven yards, including the game winner on the
Speaker 1: flip play, which enabled the Titans to take a knee
Speaker 1: and put it away. Dontrelle Hilliard average six point three
Speaker 1: yards per carry in Houston for the season, Dontrelle Hilliard
Speaker 1: averaged six point three yards per carry and did a
Speaker 1: very nice job. The other thing about Dontrelle Hilliard is
Speaker 1: with Jeremy McNichols waved, the Titans used him as the
Speaker 1: third down back, and unless there's some sort of change
Speaker 1: which might occur, Dontrelle Hilliard can have a bigger role.
Speaker 1: He picked up a couple of first downs on third
Speaker 1: down runs Foreman is the power back of the two.
Speaker 1: I think we got a powerback coming back though I've heard,
Speaker 1: but Dontrelle Hilliard. I think it's going to continue to
Speaker 1: have a role as the third down back, as the changeup,
Speaker 1: maybe as the kickoff returner, and his speed and ability
Speaker 1: to do something with the ball when he gets that opportunities.
Speaker 1: Big didn't hurt he was released by the Houston Texans
Speaker 1: in the preseason two. There were a bunch of those guys.
Speaker 1: There were nine guys that had formerly played for the
Speaker 1: Texans and the unbelievable stat that they did not play
Speaker 1: a player. The Texans did not play a player in
Speaker 1: the game against the Titans who they had drafted before
Speaker 1: two nineteen, and the Titans played five players in the
Speaker 1: game that the Texans had drafted before two thousand nineteen.
Speaker 1: It feels a little a little nefarious when you say
Speaker 1: it like that, like we're all just sharing each other's Well,
Speaker 1: they stole five players from the Texas, But I mean,
Speaker 1: the bottom line is it shows you where the Texans
Speaker 1: are and where the Titans are at this moment. Yep.
Speaker 1: Zach Cunningham, former Texan nine total tackles. That was good.
Speaker 1: To have him. When he came out with the kick
Speaker 1: returners and warm ups, I tapped coach Mac and I said, look,
Speaker 1: who's out there with the kick returners. He's out there
Speaker 1: with that his helmet on, running around and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's ready to play. My man couldn't sit down any longer.
Speaker 1: He had to go do something. Yes, your area that
Speaker 1: the Titans have to get fixed is third down, rhet Brian,
Speaker 1: you go first. It's the explosive place. And that was
Speaker 1: what the story was in the third quarter. I believe
Speaker 1: there was five explosive plays that the Titans defense gave
Speaker 1: you up in the second half of that game. Now,
Speaker 1: the great thing about that is the Titans offense was
Speaker 1: matching those explosive plays almost play for playing this thing,
Speaker 1: because you mentioned the receiving game and how many first
Speaker 1: downs were you know, acquired by whether it's Anthony Ferkster
Speaker 1: or aj Around or Julio Jones. And then some shot
Speaker 1: plays in there as well. But that's one place they've
Speaker 1: got to shore that up. And that's where a lot
Speaker 1: of that two hundred and eighty six yards in the
Speaker 1: second half that the Houston Texans racked up came from
Speaker 1: mine most explosive plays as well. So, just for the
Speaker 1: sake of being different and saying something different, I'm going
Speaker 1: to say penalties, and specifically penalties on special teams, because
Speaker 1: as the Titans continue through the playoffs, field position is
Speaker 1: going to become more and more and more and more important,
Speaker 1: and those penalties on special teams can take a great
Speaker 1: play and all of a sudden put the team in
Speaker 1: a really bad situation. So whatever they can do to
Speaker 1: clean that up, tighten all of that up, not have
Speaker 1: so many penalties I think would be beneficial for this
Speaker 1: Titans team as a whole. Titans didn't have a great
Speaker 1: special team's day period. They had the penalty on special
Speaker 1: teams on Wilkins, which added fifteen yards to a thirteen
Speaker 1: yard return. It gave the Texans the ball at the
Speaker 1: Titans forty four to begin their second possession. They didn't
Speaker 1: do anything with it, but you can't do that with
Speaker 1: a good team. Missed a field goal. The other part
Speaker 1: two is you missed the field goal and you gave
Speaker 1: up a long kick return to Tremon Smith and got
Speaker 1: very fortunate that they called a penalty. The penalty didn't
Speaker 1: seem to be the reason that a kick return opened up. Now,
Speaker 1: it may have allowed it to continue, it may have
Speaker 1: made it into a bigger play, but it wasn't like
Speaker 1: they were going to knock him down at the fifteen
Speaker 1: yard line. So I just didn't think they had a
Speaker 1: great day overall. They've got to play cleaner in that area,
Speaker 1: all right, fourth down. One thing you noticed and wanted
Speaker 1: to share, Amy Wells the NFL this time of years
Speaker 1: really really fun. That's I know that's a very broad thing,
Speaker 1: but the last day of the regular season for the
Speaker 1: National Football League was pure insanity from start to finish.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about all of the games that happened
Speaker 1: on Sunday that were just nuts. Obviously, you have the
Speaker 1: Texans and the Titans, which was a very close game
Speaker 1: and a game that mattered. Baltimore and the Steelers went
Speaker 1: into overtime. That was a game that mattered. The forty
Speaker 1: nine Ers and the Rams went into overtime, The Chargers
Speaker 1: and the Raiders was absolutely nuts. I mean, you had
Speaker 1: all of this amazing football that happened. There were upsets
Speaker 1: all over the place. The Jags beat the Colts that
Speaker 1: was crazy, The Dolphins beat the Patriots. There were all
Speaker 1: of these nutty things that happened in the final day
Speaker 1: of football, and that is so cool to me. I
Speaker 1: feel very fortunate to be a part of a league
Speaker 1: where you can have a day like that, where so
Speaker 1: many things matter all at once, and as a fan,
Speaker 1: I mean, you can just wall to wall football all
Speaker 1: day and you are locked in two teams that it
Speaker 1: would have behooved them to lose to end up with
Speaker 1: the number one pick. Jacksonville and Detroit played their rear
Speaker 1: ends off and one yep, absolutely so for people sang
Speaker 1: tank and tank and all of this, that does not
Speaker 1: happen in the NFL. It absolutely does not happen. Ask
Speaker 1: the Indianapolis Colts. You don't have enough games to tank,
Speaker 1: like but there's reason too at times. Yeah, there's obvious,
Speaker 1: and we see it in other sports, but it just
Speaker 1: doesn't happen in the NFL, even though some people believe it.
Speaker 1: Want to keep the myth going, want to lay it
Speaker 1: out there. I mean, if you saw how Jacksonville played
Speaker 1: and you saw how Detroit played, you get it. Jacksonville
Speaker 1: took it to Carson Wentz. They sacked him six times
Speaker 1: for a loss of forty six yards, forced two turnovers.
Speaker 1: There was an interception in a fumble that Carson Wentz
Speaker 1: lost that they converted into ten points. They were super
Speaker 1: physical with him. One thing I was going to say
Speaker 1: about Amy's observation, it's the longest final Sunday of a
Speaker 1: regular season since the AFL NFL merger in nineteen seventy's
Speaker 1: eleven hours, thirteen minutes of professional NFL football yesterday, and
Speaker 1: Amy now understands why a tie isn't necessarily a bad thing. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's true, because you were pulling for a tie last night,
Speaker 1: so don't act like you were the first time ever.
Speaker 1: I was not going to publicly say it, but yes,
Speaker 1: I was pulling for a tie. I kind of like
Speaker 1: the calamity that that brought. There's a lot of drama
Speaker 1: around there being a tie, so I was very much
Speaker 1: into it. Yes, last night, I could see the benefits
Speaker 1: of there being a tie. However, No, However, in normal situations,
Speaker 1: I do not support this. Plus the Steelers not getting
Speaker 1: in might have made me laugh a lot. But the
Speaker 1: whole tie scenario I still think, and I've said regularly,
Speaker 1: if you're talking about player safety, which you should be,
Speaker 1: then don't have overtime in the regular season. Don't ties
Speaker 1: are Okay, it's not the end of the world. People
Speaker 1: would play the last two minutes of games like they
Speaker 1: were overtime if there was no overtime, So why have
Speaker 1: the extra plays the extra ten minutes. So you say
Speaker 1: we're going to cut it back from fifteen minutes to
Speaker 1: ten minutes for player's safety, then just cut it out.
Speaker 1: In the postseason, yes, you have overtime, but in the
Speaker 1: regular season, why do it? I hate this proposal, but
Speaker 1: it's about it. But I'm saying, if you're saying player's
Speaker 1: safety is helped by fifteen minutes down to ten minutes,
Speaker 1: how would it not be helped by no overtime. There's
Speaker 1: a fine line between safety and just ruining a football. Okay, Mike,
Speaker 1: all right, fine, Red Brian. One thing you noticed and
Speaker 1: wanted to share just how many Titans fans there were
Speaker 1: in Houston. It was really neat to see. And this
Speaker 1: has been They've been great all season, but this is
Speaker 1: building towards a fever pitch. Now. Talk to several Titans
Speaker 1: fans at the airport, riding on these airplane rides to
Speaker 1: get to and from the game, and just how excited
Speaker 1: they are and how they came out in numbers. You
Speaker 1: could hear it in several points in that game and
Speaker 1: in RG Stadium that they were there and we're making
Speaker 1: their voices known. It was really cool to see Anthony
Speaker 1: firks are coming alive. Certainly not Peter Frampton live. Peter
Speaker 1: Frampton comes alive, but Anthony ferks are coming alive is
Speaker 1: such a big thing for this football team. Down the
Speaker 1: stretch before the season, we thought Ferkser was going to
Speaker 1: have a really big year, and for three quarters of
Speaker 1: the year he was invisible, had a bad fumble at Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: just didn't play particularly well overall, and in the last
Speaker 1: three games he started to come back around and Vrabel
Speaker 1: even went as far as to refer to his confidence,
Speaker 1: the way he's playing, what he's doing that is so
Speaker 1: big for this offense on third down and in the
Speaker 1: red zone in particular. A J. Brown's back, Julio Jones
Speaker 1: just had his best game, Nick Westbrook, Akina had a
Speaker 1: good year, Derrick Henry's coming back. Lots of good things
Speaker 1: are happening, but don't under sell what Ferkser can mean
Speaker 1: in key situations. He helped you win the New England
Speaker 1: playoff game two years ago with two massive catches, and
Speaker 1: I just think he's a guy to keep an eye
Speaker 1: on as we head into the postseason. Tight ends factor
Speaker 1: in big in the postseason for some reason, they always do.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna come alive, now is the right time
Speaker 1: to exactly right. It makes me very happy that he's
Speaker 1: doing that. Eight for ninety three and two scores in
Speaker 1: his last three games. There you go, there's the numbers
Speaker 1: right there. There you go. Both of those touchdowns in
Speaker 1: the last two weeks, well, huge the touchdowns. But also
Speaker 1: if you look at the fact that he's averaging nearly
Speaker 1: twelve yards a catch, whereas at one point during the year,
Speaker 1: I think he was averaging right at seven yards a catch.
Speaker 1: It's not necessarily that Ferkser has to have seven to
Speaker 1: eight catches a game. It's that the catches he has
Speaker 1: have to be significant. That's when he plays well. It's
Speaker 1: great when he catches, you know, several passes. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that, but Ferkser is a weapon third downs and
Speaker 1: also in the red zone, and he has been lately
Speaker 1: because you're not asking him to be Delaney Walker. You
Speaker 1: have a j. Brown, you have Julio Jones, you have
Speaker 1: Nick Westbrook, Coquine, you have weapons at your disposal, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right. He needs to come up in those spots
Speaker 1: when his numbers called. Well, the catch that he made
Speaker 1: on the third down in six in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: for twenty four yards was Monday. I mean it was
Speaker 1: so big that he came through at that moment. So
Speaker 1: Firkser seems to be back and hopefully we'll continue to be.
Speaker 1: We're back with this program, the OTP. This podcast every
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Speaker 1: gonna do a podcast every day. I love it. The
Speaker 1: OTP Daily is what we're going to call it, OTPD
Speaker 1: Playoff Daily or just daily. I think it's just daily. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so OTPD OTPD. It sounds like a law enforcement group
Speaker 1: or an eighties group. Does it sounds like a bad
Speaker 1: pstrol maneuvers in the dark? Yeah, sorry OMD OMD, Yes,
Speaker 1: that was OMD. But the OTP Daily will bring you
Speaker 1: different interviews that we have updates on practices, news from
Speaker 1: around the league. We will bounce something to you each
Speaker 1: afternoon or evening at the conclusion of events of the day,
Speaker 1: so as you get your workout or doing your drive home,
Speaker 1: or even as you're coming in the next morning, you
Speaker 1: get a chance to catch up. Please subscribe to the
Speaker 1: OTP by visiting Tennessee Titans dot com slash podcasts. You
Speaker 1: can also subscribe to the Titans Amy and Coach Mac
Speaker 1: podcast at that very sight. Yes you sure can. We're
Speaker 1: gonna keep going as long as there's football. We're bringing
Speaker 1: you guests. Yeah, good stuff. Yep, all right. So for
Speaker 1: ab Wells and Rhet Brian, I'm Mike Keith. Thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us for the o t P four D. Gotta
Speaker 1: knows it's our house, fighting for Tennessee, making us to
Speaker 1: read greatness is meant to be as now here we
Speaker 1: got tight and butter running through a fence.