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00:00 Welcome to another tic-tac Titans film breakdown. I'm Tyler Rowland host of the locked on Titans podcast
00:05 Staff writer for sports illustrated over at all Titans comm want to take a look at the beautiful crazy
00:10 Performance of Will Levis against the Steelers in week 9. There was a lot of beautiful
00:15 But there was a lot of crazy in there as well. We're gonna take a look at all of it
00:19 We'll start with some of the beautiful stuff in this play right here. It's first and 23
00:24 The Titans are in the shadow of their own goalpost
00:26 Will Levis and DeAndre Hopkins find a way to manufacture an explosive play
00:30 So you have Hopkins down here in the slot?
00:32 And he's basically gonna be matched up with the linebacker right here
00:36 And what Hopkins is gonna do is Hopkins is gonna come over and he is gonna run a quick option route
00:41 He's just gonna stutter right here on the linebacker to keep him guessing and then immediately what he's gonna do is he's gonna turn it
00:48 Upfield into a vertical route. Okay, so that's what the play is. But Levis does a good job in the pocket as well
00:54 I'm just sliding over, creating time, creating space and then of course delivering a beautiful pass
01:00 Right past the earhole of the linebacker to Hopkins, hits him in stride so he can turn upfield, get more yards again
01:06 First and 23 in the shadow of your own goalpost and the Titans turn it into an explosive play
01:11 You can see here Levis is gonna do a good job of just sliding over away from the pressure and
01:16 then
01:18 Boom right over the linebacker. This is a
01:23 beautiful beautiful throw by Will Levis
01:26 The next thing that we're gonna see here is
01:31 Kind of an out and up concept for the Titans against cover three from the outside receiver
01:37 We're gonna have a vertical route which is meant to clear this cornerback right here
01:42 And then you're gonna have NWI run kind of an out right here
01:46 And then at the last second, he's gonna turn it upfield kind of I wouldn't call it a wheel route necessarily
01:52 But it's kind of an out and up meant to attack this cornerback in cover three
01:56 It's a well planned route combination by Tim Kelly, but Will Levis, I mean
02:02 Pressure, throwing it, lobbing it over
02:06 Perfectly to NWI right before the sideline, pick up the first down from the from the pocket here
02:13 Avoids the first pressure with two Titans missing the block
02:16 Second guy barreling down on him. You got a guy on his feet. You got a guy coming at his chest
02:22 He's up in the air right now. He's literally off the ground
02:25 And throws that ball. It could not get more beautiful than that. That is incredible
02:30 Incredible quarterback play by Will Levis
02:33 On this play right here, we're gonna have a just a standard dagger concept from the Titans
02:38 You're gonna have the vertical clear route here from Kyle Phillips
02:42 And then you're gonna have the deep in route from DeAndre Hopkins
02:45 The Steelers are in cover two on this one
02:50 So they're gonna have deep half here, deep half here. This guy's kind of a hole guy
02:55 So Levis is gonna have to read what the defense is doing and find a guy open
03:00 Trying to make a play here trying to get a win
03:02 Phillips does a good job of winning off the line of scrimmage out of the slot and then there is this hole
03:08 right
03:11 Here that you have to deliver that in front of this safety
03:15 Behind this linebacker who is playing the hole and looking for that and quite frankly Will Levis has the arm talent to get it done
03:22 Great throw
03:25 Great throw again. The beautiful is beautiful and we all recognized that Will Levis was doing some incredible stuff
03:32 Can we give a shout out to Dylan Radens right here?
03:35 TJ Watt with the spin move inside beats it then
03:40 Recovers to hold him on the outside. Good. Not perfect. Not perfect from Dylan Radens, but one-on-one with TJ Watt
03:46 Let's go. Let's go. I like that. I like that a lot
03:51 Okay on this one. This is going to be a vertical route from the outside again meant to clear the corner here
03:59 And then we are gonna have an underneath route from Kyle Phillips on the out line underneath and out route
04:04 I'm sick. Let me live. All right
04:06 But again, this is a tough throw by Will Levis to the sideline. You gotta have a lot of velocity and look at the pressure. I
04:14 Mean to allow Phillips to get out of bounds make that catch look at this pressure on him
04:22 Slide over give yourself room give yourself time
04:26 jump throw
04:29 Not necessarily a jump throw both feet off, but he's kind of having to pop up a little bit to see it
04:35 I mean that that's just that's just good stuff. This this is ridiculous. This is an arm talent. This is just playmaking
04:41 This is just finding a way
04:43 Finding a way to get the ball out. Look at the pressure on Levis and he flips it out to Henry bobbles it catches it
04:51 And again, it turns into an explosive play just because of the playmaking ability of Will Levis to even get this pass out of here
04:59 This is an arm talent
05:01 This is being a football player being tough taking a shot and making it work finding your teammate
05:07 Explosive play that is tough NFL quarterback play. It's beautiful. It's beautiful is what it is now this
05:13 Everybody talked about Will Levis and his touch and the layered throws and all that out of college
05:18 Well, this is an excellent play-action pass. You're gonna see trailing Burks
05:23 on the crosser here and
05:26 The linebacker recognizes it so these guys are getting back that makes it a tough throw for Will Levis
05:32 But he's still able to feather it over top of them and get it to Burks now
05:36 I've seen some criticism. Maybe he could have got that to Burks earlier
05:41 Maybe you get the ball to him here so he can turn up and run instead of getting it to him out here to where
05:46 He just has to go out of bounds, but honestly, I
05:49 Mean you got to take those chunks
05:52 You're in the shadow of your own goalpost again trying to find a way to go down and get points
05:56 Look at Dylan Raiden's winning one-on-one, baby. Yes. Yes Raiden's but that's that's a feathered pass. That's beautiful here
06:04 This is the last one I want to look at and we're back to the dagger concept that we talked about earlier
06:09 We're gonna have it's literally the same play Kyle Phillips runs the vertical route. We're gonna have Chris Moore
06:14 Come in here
06:16 for the for the deep end
06:18 Alright and this time instead of going to the vertical seam
06:23 Levis waits avoids the pressure
06:26 Manipulates the pocket fires a great pass to Chris Moore down the field again. This is pocket mobility here
06:32 Okay, it doesn't seem like a lot but there are times on Titans tape where I haven't seen this just a gentle slide over
06:39 Give yourself more room
06:41 more space
06:43 clean
06:44 Delivery that is beautiful
06:47 quarterback play but
06:49 but
06:50 There is some crazy in there as well. Let's look at some of these plays because this stuff I
06:57 Mean if Mike Rable was gonna come out and tell us that Ryan Tannehill is the starter
07:04 He could show these plays and say this is why now I wouldn't agree with him
07:08 I think you got to let Levis get through some of this stuff. But this would be why what is this?
07:14 You're take the sack
07:16 You're sacked. You're done. Take it take the sack
07:20 What in its second and six take the sack second and twelve see if you can get it
07:26 But he throws it backwards
07:28 That's that is almost a disaster and on the very next play on the very next play
07:33 He throws his best pass of the day. Maybe to NWI on that lob
07:37 He wouldn't even have had that chance if that play goes like it probably goes most of the time that that stuff right there
07:45 Is just unacceptable rookie
07:48 Veteran, I don't care who you are
07:51 Take the sack. That was insane. That was insane
07:55 okay, this isn't quite nuts, but this is a third down in the red zone and
08:02 Levis is gonna try to go to Hopkins. He tries to force it to Hopkins all the time
08:07 But Phillips shakes his man here and comes wide open you're getting pressure
08:13 When the linebackers coming up the middle here the middle of the field
08:17 Should be open and I like that Levis take shots down the field and I like that. He's aggressive, but it seems like
08:25 Sometimes he just hunts that stuff when he doesn't have to and making the decision like right here
08:32 He is looking
08:34 Right here both these guys he's looking over here who is open I mean Hopkins has no leverage
08:43 Hopkins has struggled against press coverage all year Joey Porter Jr. Did a good job getting on him
08:48 But look Phillips has shaken the defender out of his shoes. I mean, this is
08:55 This is simple easy. This is a simpler throw right here. The throw to Phillips is easier
09:00 For Will Levis. Take it. Take it. I mean Phillips is wide open. He has time
09:09 Does he not see it does he think that throwing the vertical to Hopkins is the better idea? I don't know
09:16 That's a bad decision. You just just can't do that second start
09:21 You got to hope that he gets better
09:23 This is why Levis has to play Levis has to play so we can iron out these decisions
09:28 All right this one a phrase that I'm gonna use here is turnover worthy place
09:35 So Levis is throwing this out route to Hopkins and he throws it right now
09:40 But in my opinion if you're gonna throw this to DeAndre Hopkins
09:45 You got to throw it earlier. You got to anticipate this a little bit because the guy is on him. All right, so
09:51 To me that this ball is gonna have to come out earlier if that's where you want to go now in my opinion again
09:59 This is a decision. I get it. It's third and long
10:03 You're gonna try to pick it up. I get it. But look at all this room here and look at Tajay Spears
10:09 So this is just like an aggressive decision
10:13 And we like Levis being aggressive, but so I mean hit hit Spears here hit Spears
10:20 He's open. He's got so much room
10:22 This is almost an interception
10:25 turnover worthy throw and if we look at that first
10:30 Where he throws the ball backwards and then this one, I mean these are almost
10:35 Disasters, you know, they could they could be game killers right here
10:40 The easier outcome here is just a punt or to take your check down and see if you can break a tackle and get it
10:46 You know what? I mean that those things are crazy. This might be
10:50 The craziest throw of them all we get a play action kind of move the pocket to the right hand side
10:57 You're almost to the numbers on the right hand side now
11:00 If you think that this corner is gonna get back to stop Burks, I hear you. I hear you. I do
11:08 Okay
11:10 Then in that case, there's nothing open but what we cannot do
11:13 Just throw it all the way over here
11:18 like I
11:20 Get arm arrogance. I get believing in your talent having confidence, but these kind of plays right here
11:26 I mean
11:28 Six out of ten times that's probably a pick six going the other way
11:32 Yeah, I mean we can't do that. I think that Levis could hammer this ball right here to trailing Burks
11:40 I think he's got the arm talent to do that
11:42 I think he's got the velocity to do that
11:44 But then again that would require confidence and maybe his confidence is saying I'm throwing it over to Hopkins
11:49 But yeah, like turnover worthy plays. These are insane. These are insane
11:56 The next one that we have here. It's another decision thing.
12:00 And again, it's on a critical down where you have to pick it up. It's fourth and four
12:05 Okay, it's fourth and four
12:08 And I get that sometimes
12:11 You can catch teams and the Titans are gonna try to catch them with a vertical route from trailing Burks
12:17 It's the play he got hurt on
12:19 but
12:21 We saw it against the Falcons
12:23 Couple of times I'd like to see him take the shorter route
12:26 Just be conservative pick up the first down fourth and four late in the game needs you to pick this up right now
12:33 He has a decision
12:35 Burks isn't even even so he ain't leaving Burks is behind
12:39 and you have Phillips again
12:43 Coming open right here even Chig on the out route right here
12:48 You might you might be able to fit that in but I would go Phillips here
12:52 But Levis has time look at Dylan Raiden's winning against TJ Watt. Let's go. You know, I just
12:59 Phillips is so open down here
13:03 It's a first down
13:05 To take that look at this
13:08 It's such a risky thing to do on fourth and four
13:10 You take this shot on third and four and then go for it and take the short one on fourth and four even the out route
13:16 I just you know, these are decisions and
13:20 situational decisions at that that a rookie needs to play
13:25 So that he can go into the film and be like, oh, yeah, maybe I should have taken the easy one on that
13:32 I mean he has time the camera angle right here
13:34 Feeling like an earthquake, but he has he has time. So that's a bad decision
13:40 Okay. Now back to crazy land. We have the Steelers in cover -
13:46 All right
13:49 Zone here and Hopkins is gonna run just a sideline vertical. Okay, maybe if there's a hole here you can hit it
13:57 But we're gonna see
13:59 Phillips sit down
14:02 Chig sit down, but there are one two, three four on this side one two three on this side
14:10 so I
14:13 Think you could go here
14:15 To this sit down to chick you go here to this sit down to Phillips the worst thing you could possibly do
14:19 It's thrown to the four man side and try to fit this in and again
14:23 It's like why are you so set on throwing it to Hopkins when he's nowhere close to open that should be a pick
14:29 That should be an interception right there turn over worthy play. That's insane. It's insane
14:34 Crazy crazy to make this throw. Oh
14:42 Boy
14:46 Now we're gonna get into the last two plays of the game
14:49 The two almost interceptions the Steelers are running a cloud three here one two
14:55 Three three deep thirds, but all guys are back deep
14:58 This is gonna be a tough one to go against in the red zone with the limited space or right outside of the red zone
15:04 I guess
15:06 To fit this in to chick here
15:08 like in this gap
15:12 With this triangle of dudes, I think it would be hard to do now
15:15 I know you're forcing it right here Titans have to score to win the game times running out, but it's first down
15:20 This cornerbacks going out here. Maybe just dump this off to Spears. Maybe he can pick up 10 12 get out of bounds
15:28 Something like that live to fight another day
15:31 forcing this is just whoo
15:33 It's dangerous man
15:36 Like you you gotta force it a little bit because you're trying to win the game
15:41 But at the same time, I mean if you give yourself zero opportunity to make a completion then what's the point of forcing that?
15:48 Again this is very similar right here. We are gonna have vertical routes by the Titans
15:58 Against cover three cloud
16:02 Right here and I
16:08 Guess again, it's the same thing. I guess I get it. You're trying to force it here, but if I had a choice
16:16 between
16:19 Wiley
16:20 Going into this triangle of guys
16:22 right here or
16:25 Throw into more between these two right here. I would probably go to Chris Moore now
16:31 This feels very armchair quarterback II so I kind of feel bad about it
16:34 I'm not blaming lettuce for this interceptor trying to force it
16:37 But just saying I think if there's a chance that you get this ball in and one or two places either you're fitting it
16:43 In here in between these three guys to Wiley or you're fitting it out here
16:49 Towards the back of the end zone letting more run under it
16:51 I just think you're gonna have it's a tough throw either way that probably gets picked
16:55 but I just think you have a better chance of throwing this to the back of the end zone to Chris Moore to the
17:00 sideline back of the end zone and
17:02 Trying to get it before the safety comes over since he's looking in and get it ahead since the cornerbacks underneath
17:08 But again, that's nitpicking. But either way this is another turnover worthy throw that turns into a turnover. So
17:15 while there was a ton of
17:18 beautiful
17:19 Sorry, if you can tell that I'm sick, but there's a ton of beautiful in here from Will Levis
17:26 But there is a lot of crazy too and most of it isn't
17:32 Necessarily bad throws. It's more bad decisions. All right, so
17:37 That is why everyone is screaming that it's so important that Mike Vrabel plays will Levis instead of Tannehill
17:44 Because Levis needs to work through these things now in a season where?
17:47 The Titans probably aren't going to make a deep postseason run
17:52 Okay, so in a season that probably isn't going to result in big-time winning
17:56 the biggest win you could have is the development of your young quarterback and
18:00 Levis learning what is the right and wrong decision to make and some of these opportunities is
18:05 The biggest win that the Titans could have this year. That's why will Levis needs to play
18:10 But that is the beautiful crazy of will Levis in week 9 for more analysis
18:15 Check out alltitans.com and the locked on Titans pod