 Press guy takes the snap has time fires and it's intercepting fire To the bet MGM studio and the Mike Grable show presented by shift four with the head coach I'm Mike Keith and the National Football League all you ask for is an opportunity at the Tennessee Titans have one in week 18 heading to Jacksonville a win and your end game Against the Jaguars 7 15 kickoff you can hear us on Titans radio beginning at 6 o'clock on 104 5 the zone It's for the AFC South Championship. Yep. It absolutely is and everything that's happened up until this point It's not really gonna matter. The only thing that matters is what we do on Saturday night and our preparation leading up to it It's fun. It's exciting. Yeah, I think that I want everybody to be excited I want our players to enjoy the preparation I want them to embrace the opportunity and you know get to work Get to work indeed. Let's do it right here on the Mike Vrable show the six-pack tonight some key topics Surrounding Saturday's game so a little bit different Let's talk about in topic number one some of the things that happened in the first game on December the 11th Now the four turnovers were really the overriding fact I think so that's it's hard to hard to win when you turn the football over four times But you made the point right after that game You said hey we did some good things in this ball game a few of the numbers Derek Henry had 20 touches for 154 yards the offense with a good performance got in the red zone three times and scored three touchdowns exactly what you want to do but For sex allowed. Yeah, and the other thing is we had nine explosive gains, which is second Yeah, which is which is the second most at Jacksonville defense has given up on the season So again, we talked about having done some good things We have to be able to protect our quarterback And we have to be able to take care of the football offensively continue to do these things that we did Be better on third down. These are some things that we can improve on And finding ways to again, this is a good defensive front. This is a team that's you know hit the quarterback a bunch We're gonna have to protect the quarterback and get it out of our hand Yeah, Jacksonville been hitting the quarterback as of late on the other side the Titans not able to do as much as they wanted to with Trevor Lawrence no sacks on him and that leads to the 368 yards passing passing, but you did hold them to 60 yards rushing on 25 carries Yeah, they ran it. We did do a nice job at the end explosive back But just didn't do enough to affect the quarterback and again, we can say zero sacks But it's the 120 rating that is gonna get you beat with the touchdown passes and the efficiency in which the Quarterback can operate so we are gonna have to find a way to to affect the quarterback whether that be in coverage You know being tighter You know the other thing we have to do is we have to be great tacklers. We have to be great tacklers half of their yardage their passing yardage on the season is Basically after they catch the football and so you know close to 2,000 yards of their passing comes after they They catch it and that's gonna be a huge key here is making sure that we're great tacklers We saw the numbers for their tight end Evan Ingram with 11 catches for well over a hundred yards and two touchdowns Well, he had the one down the field and then other than that It was a lot of stuff at close to the line of scrimmage. You had to catch run at a screen and he gained some big yards on Really good player He's really good with football and he's fast and athletic and you know, so it'll be important that we're on them You always talk about teaching and learning. What did the Titans learn from that game on December the 11th? Well, hopefully a lot of the things that we talked about is that we can move the football again There's no guarantee, but you can't win if you turn the football over you can't win if you Don't stop them better in the red zone You know that it just comes down to us being able to to be tighter on them to affect the quarterback But to find a way to get to turnovers that you just can't win You know if you don't turn the football over in this league consistently in the last two minutes of the first half Well, situationally, yeah, and I think we you know, we did check the box there. We had the same situation come up the next week in LA you know kept out of the null and we kept my out of the end zone and points But we were able to get an interception there with Roger So Roger missed one against Jacksonville at the end of half came back Everybody was you know forcing them to throw the ball out of bounds obviously or just throw it through the end zone You know he tried and we made a play made the tip to Caloo. Yep Very good play when we come back a look at the fact that the Titans will have a better roster available for Saturday night in Jacksonville, you don't want to miss this on the Mike Vrabel show presented by shift for state Titans Jaguars Saturday night in Jacksonville 715 kickoff the Mike Vrabel show presented by shift for continuing from the bet MGM studios When the Titans took on the Jags back on December 11th There were several significant Titans who did not take part in that game. The list is pretty impressive when you look at it Danico Autry is somebody who jumps out Trey Avery trailing Berks Christian Fulton Hassan Haskins one of your better special teams players. Yep. Also did not play in that ball game So you have some reinforcements that you expect to have back on Saturday night And that's certainly a good thing well It can never hurt, you know, but how they play is the most important thing and Danico is gonna have to You know help us do what we talked about in the first segment, which is affect the quarterback He's gonna have to bat balls down hit the quarterback You know do some of those things that that are gonna help you win You know Trey Avery is gonna have to come back and play better at times And he did against the Cowboys and continue to try to get some ball production You know he has had some PBU's, but you know also I think some some some lapses and judgment and and technique Trailing, you know continue to progress he can help us, you know offensively You know Christian Fulton's got to go out there and he's got to cover, you know part of the fact in the quarterback is tight coverage And and he's gonna have to prove that and that he could match up with those guys And then you mentioned Hassan and hopefully he can help us on special teams. Hassan did a nice job the other night against Dallas Yeah, he runs hard, you know, he runs hard again. We talked about the fourth down run and you know We've got to give him a little bit more room and do a better job on some of those runs, but he runs hard and again, you know, his toughness Has never been in question and taking that opportunity that he got against Dallas gaining confidence I would think I think so, but I think he's done that through special teams And you know even some of the returns that he had for us in the kickoff kickoff return phase earlier in a year But but he's gained some confidence in special teams units and you know Hopefully we can find ways to have him help us offensively as well And there were some guys who did not play against Dallas last Thursday night who hopefully will have the opportunity to be available That listing is headed by Dylan Cole who's missed the last couple of games with an ankle injury Of course Derek Henry also Jumps out on that list as does a Monty Hooker who's been battling back from a knee injury and Jeffrey Simmons Who got a needed week off? He's been battling that ankle since October. Yeah He's he's been fighting and making sure that he's there each and every week and again I know what he goes through every week to get there You know, hopefully, you know, we're gonna need a big game from Derek You know, I mean when your best players have to play good for you to win in this league and you know You talked about a Monty Hooker, you know, hopefully we can get some some ball production and some tackling From him or what we're gonna need plays to come from all all areas and then Dylan Cole, you know I'm sure, you know, we'll see where he's at at the end of the week to to be able to return to his You know special teams role and see where he fits in defensively through the time that you've spent over the last two Or three weeks where you've had to have a lot of young guys play Some guys who've stepped up and that that have gotten your confidence more and more in that period of time That you're not afraid to throw him back out there now at any point. Well, I think Monty Rice has improved I think Dr. Gibby Jack Gibbons has improved. I mean, that's you know Plain to see and then the way that these guys are around the football, you know Trey Avery's been around the football and I know that you know, there wasn't there were some mistakes made against Dallas Roger McCreary continues to play aggressive and tight and you know, I know he had the PI but you know He's gonna keep challenging. He's gonna keep coming back and swinging and that's I think what we love about him And tier tart we see right there had his first career sack in the ball game Lot of those guys on the defensive line really played hard last Thursday Yeah, I mean, I think that they were all looking forward to the opportunity and I think they went out and made the most of it We even got PV in there. We got Jaden PV in there and got him some snaps. So You know, we'll see where things shake this week and of course the Titans will start Joshua Dobbs Saturday night in Jacksonville What did you like about Josh and his performance against Dallas? And what do you hope he's able to build on going into the game Saturday? Well, I thought he operated well I thought he was decisive with the football. I thought he knew where to go where he wanted to go where he needed to Progress to based on pre snap looks based on post snap looks, you know, we moved the pocket with him And I thought he was efficient, you know, this throw here to trailing on the move Had had some really nice throws down the field what was able to Get going with the end of the half situation and get it out to trailing and allow us to call time out There is on the move right there to chag early in the game So, you know a lot of good things he was able to progress through We didn't help him early on with some drops Which you know, hey that's gonna happen, but we have to limit those we have to you know Make sure that we're helping the quarterback the best that we can and we have to be able to protect them But what I'm hopeful for this week is that he improves and you know Goes out and has some fun and leads our offense when we come back We're gonna introduce you to epic Western genuine Titan Hent it's one of those defensive linemen that played a good game the other night against Dallas That's next on the Mike Vrable show presented by shift for He describes himself as a Swiss army knife on the defensive line and Denico Autry might be his football idol this week's epic Western genuine Titan meet DeMarcus Walker DeMarcus, are you having the best year of your career? statistically, you know, yes correct You know This has been a blessing so far and you know to have a lot of success, you know It's been surreal because I'm a hard worker You know just to see the fruits, you know of your labor pay off start to pay off. You know, it's surreal Why did it come at age 28 trust me? I wanted to happen at 25 23 24 Simple answer. I just wasn't ready, you know, I had a lot more things to work on a lot more things to see for myself and I'm You know trial and error is definitely, you know a bit of why I'm here and every year I felt You know, I just got back up attack harder than all season. I read That you had a stutter when you were a young man And so you like to encourage kids who have a stutter to not be ashamed to keep working through it and to understand There's nothing wrong with someone who studies absolutely no one's perfect and you know in Denver I was I started my own foundation for speech impediment kids and sometimes I might have that situation where I might get caught up on my words Through the grace of God, I was able to overcome, you know That situation and be able to control my stomach and use my words and be able to you know talking to any platform or any situation without feeling too much pressure and You know still to this day I haven't really got a chance to home in and you know find some kids that you know have or struggle with that problem But still to this day, you know, I'm I'm there and willing to help anyone who has a speech impediment because I've been there I've Overcame so many emotions depression, you know with you know, like that's something that like people really people really struggle with that man You know not be able to say what you want to say imagine if you're in trouble I'm mad if you just matter sad you're not let you're not able to get your words out now What's that kid one day? So being able to have You know a strong stomach and be able to use you know my words correctly, you know, I'm so thankful for You sit down with the Marcus Walker. You cannot help but really enjoy the guy. Yeah, very engaging Polarizing and and again his his hard work. He comes to work every day with a great attitude willingness to Learn and and work and get better and improve and and he knows there's so many things that he can continue to improve on Fits your program. He's a genuine tight. That's why we made him the genuine. That's exactly right. Well done choice All right. Know your foe is next Jacksonville is the foe. We'll talk more about that on the Mike Vrabel show presented by shift for Time to know your foe on the Mike Vrabel show presented by shift for Of course, you have to start with Trevor Lawrence the quarterback, don't you? Yeah, I'm in big athletic strong arm Can throw in the pocket can throw outside of the pocket. It's really done a nice job of taking the taking care of the football lately 14 touchdowns to just two interceptions here the last couple weeks he's not getting hit and He's doing a nice job of distributing the football to these different weapons You can see the timing here on that and then again He's athletic enough to to be able to to run when called upon so, you know He's playing well He wasn't the first pick of the draft for for no reason and we have to do everything we can to try to affect him And he's got receivers and talented guys around him ETN the running backs already over 1100 yards You talk about Kirk and Jones and Ingram Two wide outs and a really talented tight end a lot of speed a lot of speed and ETN has got Contact courage. He is not afraid to run in between the tackles. This isn't just a change of pace Speed guy. This is a guy that will cut get downhill run right through two defenders and you know, it's 88 now at the gate because he has track speed and You will have to do a great job of first starting there making sure that there's not a lot of seams But then you know a lot of skill players a lot of guys catching a run Kirk is good with the football excellent with the football in his hands after the catch Ingram as we saw there earlier in the graphics And then obviously jay jones gives them a consistent big target in the secondary on defense some talented young players But the leading tackler in the nfl Foy olacoon is something else. He's probably going to lead the league again Josh allen is up to six sacks and then in the secondary andre sisco making plays But ray shon jinkens is really making things happen from the safe well, you can see here the pressure that they put on a quarterback Force and turnovers. I think they're they're third in the league and force and turnovers So that'll be obviously paramount You know, you mentioned olacoon. He just makes every tackle pretty much that gets past the the defensive line very instinctive player Was really come into his own But but it's about this front It's about these edge guys that they keep rolling in there allen You know leading the team in quarterback hits Arden key continues to to play everywhere walker chase on And they just keep throwing edge guys at you. All right when we come back nissan keys to success to win the afc south That's next on the mike rape will show Mike rape will show presented by shift four continues from the bet mgm studio Time for the nissan keys to success for saturday night in jacksonville First one pretty obvious after the december 11th game titan's got to win the turnover margin Well, yeah, not only captain obvious after that game, but also And i'm referring to myself. I thought you're saying i was captain obvious. No, no, no This team when they've lost the turnover the eight times they've won the turnover Lost the turnover margin and they're two and six not counting last sunday They're they're one and one and six Um when they lose so obviously you flip that around when they've won the turnover margin They've been able to win a lot of football games. So it starts there and we got to take care of football We got to find ways to get some turnovers against them From our defense got some against dallas. Yeah, we did that's turning around. We did maybe it's turning around We just got to make sure that we're tipping some passes. You know the ball's not round I don't know which way it's going to bounce, but we got to start tipping it up in the air and hoping it bounces our way All right red zone time is key number two You've got to win the red zone matchup. Well, they've averaged uh 28 points a game their last six games So they're scoring a bunch of points. Uh, they've hit some x plays But they were also, you know doing a nice job down in the red zone if they get the ball down there You know, we have to force them to kick and attempt field goals We can't turn this into you know, let's trade touchdowns with the jaguars I don't think that that's the recipe and when we get down there We have to continue to do what we've done and what we did against them last time Which was score touchdowns in the red zone. It feels like the red zone offense has gotten back on track Yep, we had a couple clunkers there for a couple weeks, but uh, you know, I feel like You know guys are understanding what's going on and we've been able to try to punch it in there when we've gotten down in there Yeah, like the robert wood's touchdown. Absolutely where he settled down for josh dorbs got in between the zone Caught it drop step and and scored a touchdown good stuff. All right. Finally They have a great returner to the jaguars in jamal agnew So you got a cover. Yep, you're gonna have to you know, man We feel like this is going to be something where He's got six career return touchdowns And I don't care what the numbers say. This is a talented players a fast players got great vision great strength We're gonna have to be great. We're gonna have to go down there But also when you do that you can change some momentum you can bring some excitement You can you can start to set the table For the defense if you go down there with some speed and some violence To try to win the hidden yardage All you asked for in this league is an opportunity and you got one saturday night I agree. It doesn't matter what happened to get to this point as we're here and uh, you know, we got to win You got to get in the tournament. Absolutely. All right. Good luck. Thank you We're excited about this ball game coming up saturday night Tia a bank field in Jacksonville It is a 715 kick You can hear the broadcast on 104 5 the zone and other titans radio stations Beginning at six o'clock Titans countdown with ret brian and amy wells for head coach mike verbal. I'm mike keith. Happy new year We'll see you next time