 How about that Titans defense? If AJ Brown and Julio is healthy, don't know if I want to see the fight, I want to see it. You to the Mike Grapple show. Titans beat the two time defending AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs 27 to 3 on Sunday. It took a total team effort, but I certainly want to start with a fantastic defensive performance. It was, it was a great defensive performance. Give all the players the credit to the players, obviously, and the defensive coaching staff that come out there and execute. And to honor them, we have a Mike Grapple 12 pack, six on defense, six on offense. A lot of highlights. A lot of highlights. Let's begin with the defense and let's take a look at one of the early big plays in this game as Bud Dupri makes his presence felt. Huge, you know, just trying to set up. You see the speed of power by Danico allows Bud to get around the edge, kind of something that we set up, forcing him that way, forcing him to his left, you know, excuse me, his right, our left. And then you can see Bud running around the edge and always looking for that football gets it out. You know, would love to be able to recover that thing and really try to, you know, give the offense another short field, but it's a great way to get a starter right there. And it was on third down too. First of what we hope are many sacks for Bud Dupri with the Tennessee Titans. Let's turn to later in the first half when the Titans make a big play in the passing game. It's the two inside linebackers combining for a takeaway. You know, we gave away the shot. You can see we took away the first read, forced him now to our right, his left, and David Long plasters. And we had talked about those guys in traffic, you know, being able to tip one up there or volleyball it up to your buddy or they bounce it off their shoulder pad. And, you know, that's a great job by David and a good job by Rashaun hustling and being able to get both hands underneath that thing to get the interception. He's battling a big receiver there in Josh Gordon, fights him for position as David Long and the first career pick for Rashaun Evans, hustling to the football, a takeaway. Good things happen when you run to the football, Mike. Always. Always. Good things happen when you chop at the football. Titans been working on this and Kevin Byrd was listening. He was and I think that the entire sideline as Mahomes is starting to scramble and we get them on the move again. We'd like to be able to get them there in the pocket. But you could just see Kevin just iron it up, iron it up, iron it up. Everybody's yelling hammer, hammer, hammer. And it was huge. And you could just see the excitement and the energy on the football field on the sideline. And it's a great recognition there by Kevin finding a football and knocking it out and being able to recover it there for us. Matthias Farley coming in and making a clean recovery, not going out of bounds, which is an important thing, a veteran move. He played 44 snaps and the ball game did a good job. He did a great job. You know, I went in there and executed and I'm sure we'll talk about him and a few other guys later on the program. All right, let's take a look at some quarterback sacks. Third quarter, how about a little Danico Autry? He had two in the ball game. Here's the first. You know, and, you know, Smith had been playing well, but, you know, that's a tough matchup for a rookie. You know, Danico has length and he can go over you or around you here. He just goes with the old power rip. You know, great job being able to corner there at the top of the pocket and not getting washed by and, you know, finishing there on the quarterback. And, you know, he's done some really nice things for us and, you know, we're going to need to continue to have him play like this for us to be successful. The Titans have the second leading sack man in the National Football League in Harold Landry. He's got seven and a half. His one sack from the ball game on Sunday came in the fourth quarter. Yep, did a nice job of getting on the edge there, speeding and dipping under round, brown and massive guy. And, you know, Harold can really bend and come out, you know, on the other side. Harold Landry playing good football for the Titans. And you see, using the speed to come around the edge, Mahomes, although talented, has no chance in that situation. So again, Harold Landry with seven and a half sacks on the season. And here's the one that ends it. It's another Danico Autry with an assist from Jeffrey Simmons. Yep, two big fellas inside there. And, you know, again, there's a lot of coverage going down the field and it's, you know, just a testament to the entire defense. No doubt about it. There's long trying to run with it. He was ruled down on the play, but the Titans got pressure up the middle. Ola Adani coming with heat to make him step up. Autry first, and then Simmons knocked it out, but he was ruled on the ground. That's a big leg he ran into right there. That's a very big leg. That was Patrick Mahomes' last play of the ball game. When we come back, speaking of plays, we'll look at six from the offense when the Mike Brable show continues. We like to make the head coach happy, so we started the program with defense, but we've got to look at some offense from the Titans. Of course we do. Of course we do. From the Titans. You never make me happy. Well, I tried. We tried, but we did defense. We got to do offense. Let's take a look at your first touchdown end of a beautiful 75-yard drive. You go to the king cat, and you let the big man throw it. Yeah, we had to start fast. We did that. We started fast on the first drive, and we got down there, and thought we'd give Derek a chance to throw one in this week, and he'll run plenty, and I hope for us. But what a great throw. Proust sold it there, and Derek was able to get that ball up and down in a hurry with some great touch. So, you know, he enjoys doing it, and he enjoys doing whatever he can do to help the football team. Wobbles a little, but it's on target. Second touchdown of the year for Michael Pruitt gave the Titans a lead they would never relinquish. And then a deep shot coming next. Initially ruled no catch, Mike Vrable wins a challenge for this 46-yard game. Yeah, I had a great pocket. You know, I mean, you can see right there there's no leakage in the middle of the pocket. We're going to complete a lot of passes down the field when we do that. And, you know, it just felt like A.J. had control two steps and then took that third step. And that third step landed, you know, if you see there one, two, and then that third step, he got the whole foot on the ground. It wasn't like it was a stumble. It was the whole foot on the ground. And, you know, to me, that was a pretty easy challenge. Folks upstairs gave you some good looks, too. Yeah, you know, we just needed that initial one. And I'd like these guys to be able to go upstairs and have their themselves fix it. And not allow us to have the challenge. But that's how it goes sometimes. Mike Rable, two of two on the year-end challenges. And at the end of this drive, how about another hookup? Tana held a brown on third down and seven. Took a shot. You know, we needed a little better protection, but just a great ball on A.J. This is, you know, this is the type of football that we're going to need from these two guys. And, you know, it goes up and plays physical with this DB. And, you know, you can see that there's not a whole lot of room right there, but that's just playing strong with the football and going up and getting it. A.J., eight catches for 133. And this touchdown, giving the Titans a 14 to nothing. You know, great block right there by Jeremy McNichol stepping up in there and picking up the safety that was blitzing as well. All right, so then the Titans are also going to hit Julio Jones with a big catch on the way to a score. It turns out to be a 20 yarder. Yeah, and it's a, you know, it's a six yard pass that, you know, Julio and his play strength and his speed is able to create 20 yards just by drop stepping and zone coverage, breaking one tackle, you know, two tackles, you know, being strong with the football and there's three and four for 20 yards. So, you know, that's, that's what we have to be able to do. We have to get the ball out quick. We have to get it into these guys' hands and let them go do something with it. Julio Jones, two catches for 38 yards in the game. This drive is finished off by Ryan Tannelli. He could have thrown it. He says, now I'll just run it in. Yeah, you know, kind of glad that he didn't, you know, we probably would have gotten an OPI there, but glad that he ran it in, you know, just trying to get a little misdirection down there. And, you know, we got to be careful there with the, with the celebration. He caught a little toe pick there last year and kind of got his knee a little long there in one of those games. But anyways, we always like when the quarterback can run it in untouched. More of these would be appreciated. Yeah, well done. End of the half, like to see Randy Bullock who's 13 of 15 on the year in field goals, bang home a 51 yarder as an exclamation point. Yeah, you know, I was just trying to not get too cute down there. And, you know, we got down, we moved the ball and Randy's kicked great for us all year. And it's just exciting. And, you know, the players appreciate what he's doing and he's taken advantage of his opportunity. Six touchbacks in the game for Randy Bullock. Field goals of 34 and that one from 51. Titans lead 27 to nothing at the half. Go on to win 27 to three. And so now to the important part of the program. It's Delta Dental. Can you guess? I would rather try to win a challenge than win Delta Dental. This is like winning a challenge. Can you guess this Titan Mike Vrable? Do I have to answer now or not? No, we'll go to break. Why don't we go to break? When we come back, we've also got the Titans files. A special one from Amy Wills is we talk about next man up. Stay tuned. Can you guess this Titan? Presented by our great friends at Delta Dental of Tennessee. Can Mike Vrable guess this Titan? I tell you what, that looks like a Delta Dental smile. I'm surprised that this guy hasn't been there, but that is Randy Bullock. You're going with the kicker, Randy Bullock. It was the punter. It should have been Randy. He had a better game than Brett. Well, I don't know. Brett Kern was pretty good now. Great, he didn't play any points on the board. So we'll try it again next week. He held. Yeah, I know. Great job, Brett. But the two punts. Fantastic punts. I mean, so good to have him back. I mean, part of the situational, you're just not going to play along, are you? No, I will, I will. I mean, we expect that from Brett. I'm going to be honest with you, we expect that from Brecker. We expect him to pin them inside the tent. Just every time? Well, when we're punting from the 50 yard line, I think that we do. Like, that's what we pay him to do, and that's what we've come to expect is my point, that's his job, is coffin corner, hit it, spin back. But inside the tent is what the expectation is for Brett Kern. We've been spoiled here because we had Craig Hendrick first. Absolutely. Who was a great situational punter. Brett Kern may be better. If that's possible. But I mean, I remember Craig and, you know, Brett, I joke, but that's like, you know, go take care of your business and, you know, pin them inside the tent. Yeah, the Titans rely on a lot of people to do their jobs well. One heck of a smile. He has quite a smile. He does. I didn't recognize it either. You already know it's on your sheet. No, it's not on my sheet. It's not on my sheet. It says, whatever. What we can talk about though, is the next man up. And that is a philosophy that Mike Variable and John Robinson preach all over this facility. It's been a big part of this season already through seven games. Amy Wells delves into next man up in this week's Titans file. Titans fans came to know Nick Westbrook Aquina as a special teams player during the 2020 season. The undrafted rookie from Indiana played in 14 games and caught three passes as a reserve. This season, Westbrook Aquina remains an important part of special teams, but he's much more of a factor of wide receiver. He's catching passes in clutch situations and throwing blocks on big touchdown runs. Westbrook Aquina is on the field more in year two because he can go into the game at all three wide receiver positions, a rarity. And because he has realized that the NFL is still just football, the same game he played as a kid. That's definitely kind of how it feels. You know, it's a childhood game that you fell in love with and had to remind myself that that's how it was. And I feel like it's worked so far and hopefully it'll continue to work. I feel like the biggest thing is just, you know, confidence knowing that I understand the offense. I understand, you know, what's asked me on special teams on just going out and playing freely and not playing so uptight. I feel like that's kind of what I struggled with last year and just, you know, kind of cutting it loose, not focusing so much on being perfect, but just doing my job to the best of my ability. Taking advantage of opportunities is what the next man up and an NFL team must do. Think about Ola and Danny at Seattle, where his sack of Russell Wilson in overtime sets the stage for a Titans win in week two. How about Joe Jones with three special teams tackles at Jacksonville? Or Michael Pruitt, who has made plays at tight end every time that he's gotten the chance for four years. Kendall Lamb also falls into this group. Lamb signed as a free agent this off season and has had to wait his turn in the offensive line room. But when his number was called, he came through. Kendall Lamb has the perfect next man up mentality both as a player and as a person. I go back to my rookie years and my first few years in Houston. Coach Devlin, Mike Devlin, my offensive line coach, you know, he told me a long time ago. He was like, Lamb, I'll never get caught up in being the glamour guy. He was like, you know, that might not be your role. That might not be your life. That might not be your journey. He was like, just appreciate what you do. And he said, you know, if you can go in there and do that for a long time, you can play in this league for a while. And you know, for me, it's whether I come here and I want to start whether I come here and I'm the sixth man whether I come here and I'm the last lineman, you know, like I stated earlier, you got to be ready at the drop of the diamond. Just some of the guys making an impact in the next man up role for the Tennessee Titans certainly didn't hit them all. No, it would have been hard. But that was a great piece and I appreciate Amy and everything she does for us. And that was a great piece to cover all those guys that have helped us. All right, when we come back, it's time for some Nissan Keys round two with the Indianapolis Colts next. The head coach tells you how the Titans need to play to be able to knock them off again. That's next on the Mike Grapple Show. Second game against the Indianapolis Colts in five weeks. Keys to beating them presented by Nissan. The head coach gonna throw them out. Let's take a look at key number one. Gotta stop Jonathan Taylor, right? Yeah, and all three of those backs. And I think that as efficient as Carson Wentz has been, it starts with the run game. It starts with Taylor. Hines has accomplished. Mack, they run the ball with. And it's just a very good offensive line of physical They've run it since the last time they played us. All right, key number two, when the one on one matchups in the kicking game, what exactly does that mean? Well, that means when you're blocking somebody, it's one on one. Like you can't double everybody. And those gunners on the outside, when you got one on one, you have to go down there and make a fair catch. And when you cover a kickoff, you're gonna have to beat somebody and be able to disrupt their return. And that's what special teams is. Special teams is winning one on one. All right, key number three among the Nissan Keys has to do with ball security for the Tennessee Titans. Well, you know, I've talked at length already tonight, just about, you know, Darius Leonard and that Colts defense and how many turnovers they caused and, you know, 16 turnovers caused. And so, you know, we have to be able to run with the football. We have to be able to protect the football and take care of the football if we have a chance to win this game. You know, the first time they had three takeaways against you and you were fortunate to win that one. That was a mirage. Yeah, all right. So the Titans and the Colts coming up on Sunday, if you don't remember the first game, we'll have a review for you in our next segment as the Mike Brayville show continues. A lot of Titans fans really enjoying keeping up with the progress statistically of Derek Henry and what he's doing. Let's take a look at the Kings count now. So far this season, Derek Henry with 869 rushing yards. He leads the man who is second in the NFL in rushing, Jonathan Taylor by 290 yards. So that means obviously he needs 131 yards to reach 1,000 for the fourth straight season. And right now Derek Henry's rushing total tops 25 NFL teams. That's how well he's running the ball for the Tennessee Titans. That is the Kings count for this week. One month ago, the Titans played the Indianapolis Colts at Nissan State View. You remember they won the game, but maybe you don't remember all of the details. Here's a quick instant replay. The Titans outplayed the Colts in the first half, but led only 14 to 10 because of two turnovers. Indianapolis had a great third quarter drive coming away with a 28 yard field goal. So Tennessee led 14 to 13 heading into the fourth quarter. The Titans mounted a drive that started at their own 41 yard line. Four plays later, the Titans were at the NB 10. Tana Hill looking, firing complete to McNichols at the five. Did he get in? Yes, he did. Jeremy McNichols touched down Titans. Tana Hill gives Henry. He's in there, two for double two. And the Titans have a two score lead. The Titans led 22 to 13, but could not enjoy a two possession advantage. The Colts quickly drove to the Tennessee six where their drive stalled. A third Indianapolis field goal pulled the Colts back within six. It was all on the line for the Titans at this moment. And Ryan Tana Hill and the Tennessee offense came through. 14 plays, 67 yards and over seven minutes off the clock to put the game away. Randy Bullock nails a 32 yard field goal and we've got our final Tennessee 25 Indianapolis 16. Tana Hill threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns. Derek Henry rushed 28 times for 113 yards and caught three passes for 31 yards. Ola Adani led the Titans defensive effort with a sack and a half. In the end, Tennessee was minus three in turnover ratio but gained 103 more yards than Indianapolis and played better third down and red zone defense. Was it pretty? But it was an AFC South wind for the Titans on September 26th at Nissan Stadium. So on Sunday round two, the Titans and the Indianapolis Colts from Lucas Oil Stadium, we're on the air at 11 a.m. on 104.5 the zone with Titans countdown. We hope you'll join us. For Coach Mike Vrabel and our fine staff, I'm Mike Keith. Thanks for joining us for the Mike Vrabel Show.