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00:00 Welcome to another Tic Tac Titans film breakdown.
00:03 I'm Tyler Rowland, host of the Locked on Titans podcast
00:06 and staff writer over at alltitans.com.
00:08 I want to take a look at the disguised coverages
00:11 the Titans used in week 2 to get off the field on 3rd down
00:15 and at the end of the day get sacks on Justin Herbert.
00:19 So we're going to take a look at this play in the first quarter.
00:22 The Titans are showing two people in the A gaps.
00:26 A double mug look there.
00:27 But the goal is here is to put six people on the line of scrimmage
00:31 so that the Chargers offensive line doesn't necessarily know
00:35 who their direct matchup is.
00:36 And what the Titans are doing in the back end here is
00:39 they're showing man coverage.
00:40 Over top, over top, over top, over top, over top.
00:45 So they're showing man coverage and they're showing pressure.
00:48 Like they're going to come after Justin Herbert.
00:50 So that's what the Titans want the Chargers to think they're going to do.
00:53 But what the Titans actually do is they drop out.
00:56 So we're going to let this play a little bit so you can see the dropout happen.
01:00 They're going to drop those two guys in the line of scrimmage off right here.
01:04 They're going to have Molden come here.
01:06 Aziz Alshire come here.
01:08 And what they're going to do is on the back end,
01:10 they showed man coverage, but this is actually going to turn into a cover 3.
01:16 Okay, so they show man all across the board in press,
01:20 but they turn this into cover 3.
01:22 And at the end of the day, this is the type of stuff that creates a split second of hesitation
01:26 for Justin Herbert.
01:27 There's nobody there because what he wants to do is
01:30 Herbert wants to throw this seam route right here.
01:34 Okay?
01:34 But we have to give credit to Sean Murphy Bunting
01:39 who had an absolutely fantastic game
01:41 because what he does is even though there's somebody out here threatening,
01:45 Murphy Bunting stays inside enough to take away this seam.
01:51 And Justin Herbert can't throw it.
01:53 He knows that he can't throw it.
01:54 So he has to wait.
01:55 He has to sit and hope to find something else.
01:58 He doesn't.
01:58 Okay?
01:59 And then Danico Autry is right on him to get a sack.
02:01 So the disguise coverage gave the Titans pass rush enough time to get there
02:06 against a talented offensive line of the Los Angeles Chargers.
02:09 You're going to see Danico Autry right here.
02:12 And he's going to get a one-on-one matchup.
02:16 And at this point, the Tennessee Titans count on Danico Autry to win these one-on-one matchups.
02:20 Look, he goes to the outside.
02:21 Nothing there.
02:23 Comes back to the inside.
02:24 And let me just point this out.
02:25 All three of these guys right here are focused on Jeff Simmons.
02:31 This is what Jeffrey Simmons does.
02:33 Jeffrey Simmons gets triple attention here,
02:36 leaves a one-on-one with Danico Autry,
02:38 a one-on-one for Harold Landry,
02:39 and a one-on-one for Arden Key.
02:41 All that has to happen is one guy to win.
02:45 And Danico Autry does.
02:47 Boom.
02:48 First sack of the game, third down, get off the field, force a punt.
02:52 Great job.
02:53 So let's take a look at this one.
02:54 The Titans, once again, six people on the line of scrimmage.
02:59 They do not want the Chargers to know who they have to block pre-snap.
03:03 You're trying to keep confusion out on the field.
03:06 Okay? But I really want to focus on the back end here because this coverage disguise is fantastic.
03:11 So you see, Kevin Byard was just at a too high safety look.
03:16 It was Mike Brown up here,
03:19 or Elijah Molden up there,
03:20 and Kevin Byard back here.
03:22 But Kevin Byard starts to walk up.
03:25 Okay?
03:26 So they're going to go from a too high look to a single high look,
03:29 trying to confuse Justin Herbert as to what he's about to see.
03:33 When you're in a single high look here,
03:35 you're going to get cover three,
03:38 you're going to get potentially man coverage,
03:42 and Roger McCreary's up, so you might have man coverage here,
03:46 like that.
03:47 Those are the possibilities.
03:49 What you don't normally see when a team rolls from too high to single high
03:54 is for them to go back again to a too high coverage.
03:59 Boom! Look at this.
04:00 On the snap.
04:01 Byard comes back.
04:03 That is Mike Brown.
04:05 My apologies. That is Mike Brown.
04:06 Mike Brown is here.
04:07 So the Titans show cover two or show too high,
04:11 and then they roll down to single high,
04:14 and then when the ball is snapped, they go back to a too high coverage,
04:17 and they're playing cover two.
04:18 And one thing that the Titans love to do in cover two
04:21 is have this middle defender here run with the vertical route
04:24 because teams like to threaten vertically through the middle of a cover two defense,
04:28 so the Titans have somebody run with them.
04:30 But, I mean, that is just incredible.
04:33 You're going from too high safety to single high safety,
04:37 and then when it's snapped, back to too high safety into a cover two coverage.
04:42 I mean,
04:44 that's what dreams are made of, ladies and gentlemen.
04:47 That stuff gets me fired up.
04:49 But look at Jeffrey Simmons here.
04:50 Watch Jeffrey Simmons who is the real star on this play.
04:54 He's going to get second year guard Zion Johnson out of Boston College.
04:58 Titans fans love Zion Johnson going into that draft,
05:00 and I still think he's going to be a pretty good player,
05:02 but he ain't got nothing on Jeffrey Simmons.
05:05 Jeffrey Simmons absolutely cooks him with a two-handed move.
05:08 Watch Simmons use both of his hands to swipe away the hands of Zion Johnson here.
05:13 Swipe, and now he's past him.
05:17 And now Herbert is lunch meat.
05:19 Bam!
05:22 Another sack, another third down win for the Titans against a potent Los Angeles Chargers defense--
05:28 or offense.
05:29 I want to take a look at this one because the Titans are in too high safety coverage here,
05:34 or too high safety look.
05:35 All right?
05:36 They're showing too high.
05:38 This is another third down.
05:41 The Titans are showing like they're going to be in cover two.
05:44 They've been running a ton of cover two all day.
05:47 The Titans ran so much cover two, not used to seeing so much of it,
05:50 but that's what the Titans are showing the Chargers here.
05:53 Too high safety look, probably going to play cover two.
05:56 All right?
05:56 But, of course, that's not what the Titans do,
06:00 and it almost results in an interception.
06:02 Can't wait to show you Kevin Byard's reaction at the end of this play,
06:05 but what happens is Mike Brown, instead of going back out for cover two,
06:11 Mike Brown instead comes into the inside,
06:15 and instead of this being a cover two like the Titans have been playing all day long
06:20 and showing three snap,
06:22 this turns into a cover three.
06:27 Now, another little technique like I showed you guys with the Titans cover two,
06:31 how they have that vertical runner go with the guy going through the middle,
06:34 what the Titans like to do is if the Chargers have a closed formation,
06:39 which is what they have here.
06:40 Let's go back just a little bit here.
06:42 The Chargers have a closed formation,
06:45 so they don't have somebody out wide.
06:46 This guy's inside.
06:48 Well, if the Titans are going to run cover three against that,
06:50 why would this deep third guy, Sean Murphy Bunting, get super deep?
06:55 The field is closed off right here.
06:57 You don't have to get that deep.
06:58 So what the Titans do is in this scenario,
07:01 and we're going to let this go ahead and play,
07:03 Sean Murphy Bunting is not going to get too deep.
07:07 He's not going to get too far out here, okay?
07:11 He's going to stay tight.
07:12 He's going to stay tight so that he doesn't give anything away.
07:15 Why be out this far?
07:16 And that's just a little technique thing that the Titans do,
07:20 and I'm sure a lot of NFL teams do,
07:21 but that's beautiful.
07:23 So the Titans show cover two with two high safeties.
07:26 Mike Brown comes into the middle here,
07:29 and it turns into cover three.
07:30 That is incredible disguise.
07:34 I mean, that is high level football right there, folks.
07:38 And Herbert, who is looking at the right-hand side the whole time,
07:42 he's thinking, "Okay, none of this is here.
07:45 This looks like cover two still because the third doesn't get that deep."
07:49 He doesn't even look over to the left-hand side
07:52 to see that Mike Brown isn't up here anymore.
07:55 Mike Brown's down here,
07:56 and he's like, "Okay, if these two options are not there,
08:00 then that means over the middle has to be."
08:02 Because that's where you're going to attack cover two, right?
08:04 You're going to attack over the middle,
08:06 and if there's two high safeties, this in theory should be open.
08:09 So Herbert doesn't see anything to his left-hand side,
08:14 and then immediately comes back over the middle
08:16 because that's where it should be,
08:18 and Mike Brown is right there.
08:19 Look how upset Kevin Byard is.
08:21 "Mike, catch the ball!"
08:22 From this angle, you can really see
08:24 how much this should have been an interception.
08:27 I mean, this should be a pick,
08:31 but, hey, good job, Mike Brown, breaking it up.
08:34 Titans get off the field.
08:35 Another third down conversion.
08:37 Let's look at probably the most important third down conversion
08:39 of the entire game for the Titans defense, okay?
08:41 And this is also red zone defense,
08:43 so it doubles as both.
08:44 The Titans are going to play cover two here
08:48 like they have been most of the day.
08:50 All right?
08:51 And they're going to take away what the Chargers want to do pretty easily.
08:55 Honestly, there's-- right now, look.
08:57 Is there anybody open?
08:58 Is there anyone open?
08:59 No.
09:01 There isn't.
09:02 On third down when you need it--
09:04 when you need a first down, there's nobody there.
09:06 So Herbert's looking around,
09:08 and no one's open,
09:09 and it ends up in a sack because there is an excellent,
09:13 excellent TE stunt here executed by the Titans.
09:17 You're going to see Danico Autry come this way,
09:20 and then you're going to see Harold Landry come this way.
09:23 And watch what Landry does.
09:24 Landry-- it's like a pick in basketball.
09:27 Landry picks No. 68
09:30 with the goal of getting Danico Autry to the outside.
09:33 But what happens is
09:35 is No. 79 leaves too big of a gap,
09:37 and it allows Harold Landry to slide in between the two.
09:41 So you're going to see it here. Boom.
09:43 Look, Harold Landry is literally just trying to set a pick for Danico Autry
09:47 to come around here.
09:48 That's what the design is.
09:50 But
09:51 because Landry gets in through here and No. 79 doesn't close the gap,
09:55 it actually gives Landry an opening to get through himself.
09:59 Boom.
10:00 And as soon as No. 79 leaves,
10:02 as soon as No. 79 leaves
10:04 to go take Autry,
10:07 Landry's through.
10:08 Sack.
10:11 Field goal.
10:12 Overtime.
10:13 Titans win.
10:14 I mean, excellent stuff.
10:18 Excellent stuff.
10:19 Nice to see Harold Landry so excited as well,
10:21 but that's going to do it for this Tic Tac Titans film breakdown.
10:24 Great disguise coverage from the Titans led to a win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
10:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]