 For a lot of you guys that were here before I got here and any of these coaches got here. This is the 200th win in Tennessee Titans history. Let's be grateful for the ownership that we have. They let us do our job. They're gonna support us. It's Joe Blitz. Here they come. Sack! Simeon under pressure. Sack! We are into the first down. Keep swinging and do it together. Do it together. That's the way to fight away the win. Right, took everybody. Wasn't pretty, but we found a way to win. Let's go. Titans on three. One, two, three, Titans. I'm Mike Diep and this is the Mike Gravel Show. The Tennessee Titans are 8-2 after a two-point victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. The team gave you everything they had in a battle that you knew you were gonna get. Sure, absolutely. We knew they were gonna play hard just like, you know, we were gonna play hard. And you get these stretches here after the halfway mark and they're beat up and we're beat up and they're playing different guys. And, you know, that's the time of season we're out here in the national football league. All right, so we've got two six-packs. We're gonna run the first one here and these are some of the biggest plays of the game, starting with a 50-yard pass to Marcus Johnson. Yep, it's great to get these catch and runs. And right here, right, we're an empty, we get an attacker, man coverage. Marcus is able to get inside and Ryan's able to catch him on stride. You know, Nick Westbrook's there is trying to get an extra block, not really sure where he's gonna go. Just get on him, Nick. Don't worry about directing traffic. Just get on him. Let Marcus or let the guy with the ball to side. But, you know, you could see a throwing lane, clean pocket, you know, they bring five and they're in post-safety, man. So we're able to gain a huge player in that situation. Ryan does such a good job throwing it where the guy can catch it and then run with it. Well, that is, that's key, you know. And then we have to do a better job of that. There were some throws that, you know, we'd like to be in better placement and, you know, receivers gotta make the quarterback right and the quarterback's gotta make the receivers right. Okay, this throw was pretty good on a trick play. Let's take a look at Adrian Peterson in the Wildcat and then a handoff. Yeah, just a little trickeration here, trying to hit a shot down the field, but, you know, at worst, it's still a, still an explosive gain there to find an AJ. You know, this is a good front. You know, there they are. They play a bunch of guys. They're longer, athletic and, you know, hopefully we get a little better ball and we give Ryan a little bit more time. But, you know, it was something that we felt like there. We could take advantage of the situation and try to get one over the top of them, but, you know, it didn't work like that. So we just, you know, took what we had and took a huge gain there down to the fringe. 16 yard gain. Titans were leading 13 to six at the end of the half when the Saints moved to the Titans 35 with exactly a minute to go and then the defense come through first, Jeff Simmons. Yeah, well, this is a, you know, a good call. I thought this was a good call here. We pressured and Elijah's in there battling and then again, that's, you know, Jeff does a lot of creating his own stuff. And this was other guys creating. There's Elijah making a move and the good coverage. And, you know, there's a lot of guys doing their job for a quarterback to hang on to it that long. So the clock keeps running because the Saints are out of time outs. And so they've got to get back on the ball. They snap it with 38 seconds to go and yet more pressure and another set. Yep. You know, Harold tries the edge. And, you know, again, Harold gets up, does what he always does, chases. And, you know, sometimes you get you a covered sack and sometimes it's a, you know, you beat somebody and sometimes you just get one because you have great effort and everybody else is around just doing their job. And that was the case there. And it felt like we handled that situation really well, you know, really well made them get them out of field goal range. And then five seconds left, they ran out of time there to try to get into field goal range. Stays 13 to six as we move to the second half, the Titans get a takeaway that we'll see later and they cash in with this pretty touchdown pass. Yeah. And a good play, you know, good play fake and Bruce sold it really well, you know, kind of sold it in there on a run, bounced around on some guys and, you know, just able to slip out of there. And, you know, Ryan was able to give him a perfect ball there for a touchdown. Third touchdown catch of the year for Michael Pruitt, tied for the team lead, continues to make things happen when called on down around the goal line. The Titans defense had to be counted on down around the goal line at 23-21, a minute 16 to go. The Saints go for two. Here it is. Well, we backed them up, you know what I mean? We had a nice play there to get them to a false start. And then, you know, this is a matchup they had been taking most of the game. And so the quarterback felt good about it. You know, but Jayon was there. He was ready to go and did a fantastic job of covering his man there when we call that gotta have it situation. Jackrabbit Jenkins also coming over in coverage. Titans win 23-21. Those are some of the key plays when we come back a six-pack of guys whose names you need to know from the victory. That's next when the Mike Grappler show continues. This season, due to all the injuries, the Tennessee Titans have currently played 82 players. That's tops in the lead. I didn't know that that was a stat. Okay. I guess it's okay to be number one on that stat. As long as you're eight and two, it's really good as a matter of fact. Okay, so here are some of those kind of guys who came through in the Titans victory over the Saints. Names that maybe last spring or even during the summer, early part of the fall you didn't know. Let's start with Nikwan Jones in the defensive line. Yep, that's the player that started on the practice squad. You know, it improved and we brought him up and it's a really nice pass for us move when he's into the pocket quickly. And, you know, that's just, it's the guy that's transitioned into the pocket. You know, right there, that's the easiest way and the quickest way to get to the quarterback. You can see a really nice move and being able to bring Trevor down. Jeff Simmons said he was very proud of Nikwan for that move. Oh good, I'm glad Jeff's so proud of him. That's okay. Now, speaking of Jeff, Jeff Swame is a name. Maybe you knew it tight end, but gosh, he's caught four passes in each of the last three games. Here's a 16 yarder. Yeah, I thought this was a well-designed play. We just need some extra blocks down the field here. You know, AJ's got to be able to block better when he doesn't get the ball. We always talk about that, but I thought this was a well-designed play. I thought Taylor did a nice job of coming back here, sealing the edge right there. Ryan, one of the edge, you could have taken it. A lot of guys open right there. Prue's open and, you know, just catch the ones they throw to you as a tight end. All right, so two guys on this play, whose names you need to know, Dylan Cole and then Tori Carter. Cole with the hit, Carter with the recovery. This is the second half kickoff. Yeah, we're looking for speed here and nothing changes the game like a kickoff fumble on special teams. Fumble recovery. Dylan's double team, that's him getting up off of it, makes an excellent hit. You know, a good hard legal hit and Tori's running to the football and good things happen when you're around the football. But, you know, they double team. Dylan Cole, he was on the ground, gets up and you can see it put his face mask and his helmet right there, great tackle and guys running to the football and a huge recovery. Tori's in there. He has to fight for it. There's a skill to getting a fumble. Sure, there's some stuff going on down there at the bottom of the pile that it's probably not safe for work. All right, so how about another Marcus Johnson shot? Marcus Johnson, a guy that was cut by the Colts early part of 2003, signed by the Titans right before the Baltimore playoff game, played well in the preseason, hurt and a big game on Sunday. Yeah, you know, Ryan, you know, good stair step there, match coverage. Ryan does what he always does, standing in there, getting hit. We got to protect better. But this was, I thought this was a great job by Marcus, by creating separation. I mean, this is man coverage. You know, he straightens the guy up, his physical comes over there and, you know, he wanted to score. You can see that he wanted to score and he's starting to build some confidence. So, you know, that's a great thing to see. We're going to need to see more of that on Sunday. Speaking of confidence, Deontay Foreman, first double digit carry game for him in nearly four years, 78 total yards for him in the ball game, two for 48 on catchers. You know, again, I thought this was a well-designed play. You know, Ryan being able to pump over there to AJ, great blocking down the field. And there's Deontay, there's guys getting extra efforts, stays in bounds, come back, get us a couple extra yards and, you know, that was a huge ex-play there, well executed, well blocked. You can see Ben out there getting the linebacker and let us get the play started. Crew on a second level. Here comes Big Rodge cleaning up whatever's left and Deontay running with it. Rodger Saffold is always hustling. I would say most of the time. We all need to hustle a little bit more. All right, so let's take a look at one more hustle play. Who else but Nick Westbrook Akita, who makes the play on the onside kick, never any drama with NWI. Nope, he just does his job most of the time and that's always great to see. We put the guys out there that we trust and, you know, Nick's got a block. If the ball's passed him, if he feels like he can recover it, we trust him to right there. High point it. Mathias Farley coming over there and cleaning up and protecting him is something that's going to go unnoticed but that's a huge team play right there. Him hustling over there to take some steam off the guy that's trying to hit Nick. Smart player. Absolutely. All right, speaking of players, how about naming a Titans player? That's right, ladies and gentlemen. It is Delta dentals. Can you guess this Titan? Let's take a look at the picture. Worst part of my day, Mike. No, it's not. Don't say that. Well, the people in Delta dental. No, no, no, I love Delta dental. I know you do. The pressure of this game. But it hurts their feelings. They think you love this. All right, we need to go to break. When we come back, Mike Grable will attempt to guess this Titan. Oh, I know this one. Okay, all right. Wait till after the break, it's a show. Mike Grable show, continuing next. Mike Grable show continues with Delta dentals. Can you guess this Titan? He was happy during both of the six packs, especially the second one, because you get to recognize a lot of players. Now we're to Delta dental. We're to the segment. If he gets it right, he's generally happy. Mike Grable, are you gonna be happy? Yeah, of course I'm gonna be happy. This is the best part of the show. Six packs are great, Delta dental better. That's rookie Monnie Rice. Monnie Rice from Huntsville, Alabama. Is that right? It is. You know, he grew up a Titans fan. That picture of Brett Kern is with him and Kern. Him and a Titan of Jersey and Kern kicking in that game that he was at, it was precious. How special would that be to play for the team that you followed that with? Well, you were a Steeler fan. No, I was a Browns fan. You're Browns fan. I was a Browns fan. You don't live in Akron, Ohio. Okay, but your grandfather was a Steeler fan? Well, from Pittsburgh, so more of a Pirates fan. And then obviously when I played for the Steelers, that made his day. Still, to get to do that when you've grown up a fan, so special. Right, especially in that area. And then, you know, I'm sure Monnie's family is excited. And being a few hours away, they'd come up here and watch him play home games. And, you know, he's really starting to develop, made his mark on special teams, started to build some confidence, got an opportunity at Limebacker, played and was productive against the Colts, helped us win. Got another opportunity to hear this past week. And so hopefully we can start stringing some weeks together. And Dave McGinnis on Titans Radio loves Limebackers. You know that because he coached him for years. He says this guy's got a GPS and he's got some juice. He does. He can run. He sees the ball and he goes and gets it. And there's some, you know, obviously always some things that we, you know, there's a lot of adjustments that go on during the game. But, you know, felt like Monnie, when he sees the ball, he goes and gets it. He plays with great speed. And I think he's only going to get better. Good player, Monnie Rice, rookie out of Georgia. Two of the last three games he started this past game, he made 10 tackles against the Saints. When we come back, two of the biggest names in Titans history to be honored this Sunday, they're part of Amy Wells Titans Files. Sunday at Nissan Stadium, it's not just a big AFC South matchup between the Titans and the Texans. It's a day where the Tennessee Titans will put into their ring of honor two of the men who helped establish Titans football in the Mid-South. I'm talking about Floyd Rice and Jeff Fisher. As Amy Wells delves into the Titans Files, she goes and gets an assist from our in-house expert on both Fisher and Rice and what they meant. In 1994, Floyd Rice was a rookie general manager with the Houston Oilers, and he inherited a mess. The NFL had installed a salary cap that year and the Oilers had not prepared for it. Most of the team's best players departed and Rice basically had to start over with the club's personnel. He made a lot of decisions in his first season as a general manager, but the best one might have been choosing Jeff Fisher to be the team's interim head coach and then making him the permanent leader. The Rice-Fisher combination would face challenges, especially a move to Tennessee that took four years to fully complete. Let's get up! We got a little up here. But the duo persevered, and by the time the Oilers became the Tennessee Titans in 1999, the two men had the franchise ready to go to new heights. Over the next five years, the Titans would win 61 games and made NFL fans of people all over the mid-south. TennesseeTitans.com senior writer-editor Jim Wyatt covered it all, and he is quick to credit Rice for the talent that he assembled. I think Floyd Rice did a really good job of finding the right players at that time for this organization, and God bless him. He did his best to keep that group together as long as he possibly could. Pre-struction deals, knowing that at some point things were gonna have to change, but just look at the long list of players that he brought in here and his impact and keeping those teams together for so long. I mean, Floyd was a football guy and loved it and loved the scouting part of it, loved building teams, loved working with Jeff Fisher together. And yes, Jeff Fisher deserves a lot of credit for the successful run, but Floyd Rice helped build those teams. I'm very happy he's getting recognized for that. Jeff Fisher has been recognized for the 147 wins that he totaled in his 16 plus years as the franchise's head coach, but Fisher was more than the Titans head coach. He didn't just win games. Fisher dove into middle Tennessee in a way that no one could have imagined. He became the face of the NFL in the mid-south. He was out there in the community. He was trying to generate some buzz with the football team, building a program at the same time. Ended up getting this team to four playoff appearances in five years, two AFC championship games, a Super Bowl, and at the same time, built a fan base that is strong and large part because of the work he did back then. It was a stick-on details and had people in place that helped him do it, had players in place that had his back at all times. And there was a culture when he was a head coach, certainly during the successful run that wanted to fight for him. We lost Floyd Reese to cancer on August 21st, and everyone is crushed that he won't be there on Sunday to go into the ring of honor with Jeff Fisher. They didn't always agree, but with years of hindsight to draw on, it's apparent that this was a great duo. Floyd Reese and Jeff Fisher made the other better and in the process made the Titans special. I mean, they had different personalities. And yeah, maybe they did butt heads on some draft picks and some personnel moves, but you always got the sense that they were in it together and in it to win together and had each other's back at a time when everybody was trying to pull the weight the same way. So I have such good memories of both of those guys, what they did for this organization, what they did for this community, and what they did for the NFL. I'm happy to see them recognized. We can't wait to see them put in the ring of honor on Sunday, and we can't wait to see the Titans try to go to nine and two. The Nissan Keys with Mike Vrable when the Mike Vrable show continues. Time to dive into the Nissan Keys to this week's game, the opponent from the AFC South at Houston Texans. Their record, not stellar, but they've certainly done some good things, particularly on defense. And that's why key number one is about cleaning up the offense. Yeah, just the operation. We have to be better operationally. We have to get out of the huddle, see what's going on, make our checks, make our calls, and play with better fundamentals. This is the time of year where guys are beat up, guys are banged up, and we have to play with better fundamentals. We have to catch the ball better, block better, try to take care of the football better, ball security, this team has caused fumbles, it's gotten turnover. So if we're sloppy, it's not gonna be easy. And you want red zone offense to execute better as well. Well, we always do. We took a step back against the number two red zone defense in the league. And so, we knew that it wasn't gonna be easy, and we didn't make it easy on ourselves because just too many self-inflicted wounds last week. Okay, I'm guessing that key number two in the Nissan Keys has got to be something about defense, right? Well, yeah, it's about force and negative plays. Sacks, tackles for loss, turnovers. We've got to cause more fumbles. We're playing okay defensively, but we're not knocking the ball away from anybody. We got to start hitting people in a manner in which the ball comes away from the body. And like Dylan colded on a kickoff. All right, so let's talk special teams. Titan special teams have been very good overall this year, Nissan key number three, dominate field position battle on special teams. Anytime that you can go shorter rather than logger on offense, that's a good thing. And when you make them drive the football, that's more opportunities for your defense to make some plays. So I would love for us to build on this special teams performance that you and I have talked about from last week, get these returns going, get these kickoffs outside the 30 and really start to compliment the offense and the defense with our special teams and tied all together. Brett Kern, Penzem, Chester Rogers comes up catches, punts, return punts. Marcus Johnson, a nice job on kickoff. He did, we covered everybody up and he hit it. And you know, I didn't think we did much on the first one, we were out to the 31 yard line. So just by not having penetration on a kickoff return is gonna help us get these things started and get the ball outside the 30. So good to be at home again. Yeah, it is good. No travel. Two weeks in a row. No travel, no long travel. Go get them. Thank you, Mike. Titans and the Texans this Sunday at Nissan Stadium, you'll be able to hear it on 104.5 the zone beginning. The Titans countdown at 11 a.m. That's Amy Wells and Rhett Bryant. For Mike Vrabel, I'm Mike Keith thanking you for joining us for the Mike Vrabel show.