 We have guys that have battled through. We've been dealing with stuff all year and guys consistently find a way to battle, find a way to go out and compete. Hellyard has just gone 68 yards. We did some good things. Jones in trouble. Zack! We did some obviously things that are going to get you beat. We got to have complimentary football. We just got to play better on defense. We got to create turnovers. We have to try to get the ball out. We just have to be able to reset and do it together. Here's to another edition of the Mike Brable show. The Titans enter there by week eight and four after falling to the New England Patriots on Sunday. As you review that one, you summarize it. What jumps out? Well, I mean, I think the same things that we talked about after the game. We had seen it the first time. We probably did enough good things to win the football game, but too many bad things to win it as well. And that was just turning the ball over special teams, penalties that created poor field position. And we just didn't make enough plays on defense. We didn't create enough negative yardage plays, and we didn't turn the ball over. Let's take a look at some of the good plays for the Titans, beginning with first touchdown of the ball game for the Titans. It came in a third and goal situation. Interesting call. Well executed by your team. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's something that we've been working on in practice. And, you know, there's a timing element to it. And obviously, you know, you got to get those guys going through those DBS in a legal fashion so that they're not, you know, blocking downfield and they have to be releasing. And I thought they did a nice job of doing that. You know, Nick Westbrook there being able to secure the catch and finding a way to get in the end zone. We had to challenge that one. Had to challenge it, but the Titans are able to come through and are able to get the touchdown. It was 7-6 at that point. A little trickery coming up. Westbrook Akina involved again. Return to center. Return to center. Great job by Hilliard. You know, Don Trell getting there. Recognizing the safety pressure. Getting rid of it. Ryan being patient back there. Nick being able to play, you know, down the field with some play strength, you know, some tight coverage. Had a couple guys open, you know, would like Ryan to try to find, you know, Dez. Dez really did a nice job of selling it on the left side. And Ryan made a decision, you know, as he is the quarterback to go there with Nick and get a big play. Speaking of Don Trell, you're talking about Don Trell Hilliard who finished the game. 12 carries, 131 yards. 68 of it coming on display. I love the call here. Love the play third and four. You know, get these guys rushing a lot of space for a back that, you know, has got some juice and then shown some quickness and, you know, guys blocking downfield, extra efforts and, you know, really, really nice bright spot for us with Don Trell yesterday. Right before halftime, Don Trell Hilliard with 68 yards was 16 to 13 at the half. In the second half, some sharp defensive plays for the Titans getting pressure on Mack Jones. It's the fourth career sec for the mayor of Murfreesboro, Kevin Byer. Well, well timed. And again, I think that this was well executed. Thought it was a good time in the game to call this and try to create a negative yardage play. Everybody did a great job. Kevin disguised it well. The coverage was really good. You know, made Mack try to go somewhere else with the ball and he just didn't have enough time. He finishes the game leading the team with 12 tackles. Offensively, the Titans got over 100 yards from Don Trell Hilliard and got 109 yards rushing from Deontay Forman. Here's one of his better efforts of the day as he shows quickness and power. Yeah, he gets it on a landmark and is able to run through there. Tori Carter out there leading the way. 14 yard burst there. And so that was a, you know, a really nice play. They did a couple other good runs and, you know, those guys did a nice job for us. Unfortunately, they each put the ball on the ground, which we can't have. How did Tori Carter do it fullbacker? How has he done? I think he's gotten better. And I think that he went in there and played physical against, you know, two physical linebackers and Bentley and Hightower. He didn't turn his face and didn't shy away from contact. Speaking of physical, let's talk about some of these young defensive linemen. Naquan Jones. I got ready to call him Daquan. Naquan Jones combining with Derek Roberson for a sack. Yeah. And I would say that Naquan's gotten some more opportunities because he's taking advantage of the ones that he's gotten. You know, Roby there. I thought Roby factored at times yesterday. I really did. And so it was good to see him, you know, get in on the sack or half a sack because, you know, he had really hadn't had much opportunity up until, you know, a few weeks ago. And I think he really factored the other day. Maybe the best he's played in terms of run defense and pass. That's probably fair. You know, there's probably some plays that he'd like to have back, but I think he did factor. And like you said, you noticed them. I noticed them during the game. A lot of new guys getting opportunities and that's, that's part of it is you, you hopefully have built some depth during this stretch for players that you'll be able to count on over the final five games. Yeah. I hope so. I think that's probably fair as hopefully that these guys have gone out there and had some battle scars and wounds and good things and try to continue to improve and help us down the stretch. When we come back, we'll talk by and we'll also talk Delta Dental as Mike Grable. Not Delta Dental. Yes. I love it. We'll try to guess the Titan, all that more coming up as you're with us on the Mike Grable show. Titans in the pie week. It finally comes in week 13. Everybody out of here on Tuesday evening. I guess you'll be back tomorrow on Wednesday for a little bit of work, but not heavy stuff. And then everybody getting out for a couple days. Yeah. I think everybody's going to get away. We have to get some guys healthy. We've got to, you know, we're going to have a busy training room. You know, Todd and his staff will be in there busy training, trying to get these guys back healthy. You know, the ones that are healthy are free to go. But I think we have to kind of recover here a little bit physically and mentally. You know, I think physically and mentally I think that that's a component to it. You know, get our minds as sharp as we possibly can to come back here and be ready to work and make a strong push. You talk about the mental part of it, the grind. I mean, 12 straight weeks, two West Coast trips. It's very much of a job. It's very intense. And at a certain point you have to let it go for a couple of days just to be healthy. Yeah, I think so. You know, I'm concerned about the staff and their families, you know, it's, you know, they have kids and I want them to get them at school. I want them to go to as many games as they can and do as much with their family in the next four days that they possibly can. I want our players to get away from football. You know, we talked a lot about the truth today. Tomorrow we're going to try to make sure that we continue to show them all the positive things. But today was about, you know, fixing mistakes in the football that just is going to get you beat. All right, let's take a look now at a man who never gets the Titans beat. This week's subject for our Delta Dental. Can you guess this Titan? We're going to show it to Mike Vrabel. He took a look, an advanced look. Now he gets this look. I get the whole break to figure that out, right? Get the whole break to figure it out. Delta Dental's got to be loving this, right? That's a great look. He does wear a mouthpiece. How do we wear the mouthpiece? Yes, he does. Okay, we need to go to, what? We'll get this. We'll get this. Yep. All right, we're going to bring one to check that up. We're going to break, and when we come back on the Mike Vrabel show, we will talk about the subject of this week's Delta Dental. Can you guess this Titan on the Mike Vrabel show? His favorite part of the show each week, Delta Dental's, can you guess this Titan? It really should be, can Mike Vrabel guess this Titan? It is absolutely my favorite part of this. I know it is. All right. A little bit of an evil smile. It's a frightening Halloween-ish, ghoulish smile. It's a smile only two people could love. Okay. Delta Dental and that person's mother. And that person is Ben Jones or David Quisenberry. Which is it? It was either or. No, no, no. There's no either or. It's Ben Jones. Okay. Thank you. Ben Jones. Ben Jones is amazing to me. Every game he gets up and you think there's no way he can keep going and he keeps going. It's the standing A-count. Right. It's the standing A-count. You know, there's always, that is a tough profession to be in there wrestling, 330 pounders, and then having running backs and other people falling your legs. And, you know, he is a heart and soul in the middle of our offense, keeps us, is the glue and, you know, he battles. And one thing that I, you know, I don't appreciate how much this football team and how much this quarterback means to Ben is, you know, we didn't want the game to go the way that it did. I made a decision at the end of the game just to run it and get out of there and try to get some guys out of there. And I was going to have Ryan go hand the ball off. And I had substituted Ben and Ben says, if Ryan's going to be in there, I'm going to be in there. And that just meant a lot to me. And I know how much, how important this team is to Ben. And it's guys like that who are going to make this group go the rest of the way. Absolutely. You know, those are Titans. Those are guys that I'm going to want to be around for a long time. When we come back, it's time for the Titans Files. We talk special teams with NWI. And also take a look at the Titans standings and what is to come just to make sure you're on the same page with us on the Mike Gravel Show. What's good, Tennessee? It's hard to say we're clocking in because we never stopped. Let's go to work. Back to the Mike Gravel Show. To have great special teams units, it takes total buy-in. And that buy-in has to come from players at several different positions. In this week's Titans Files, Amy Wells finds a receiver who's having a really good year catching the ball, but is totally bought in to being a part of teams. If you're a regular viewer of the Mike Gravel Show or any football coaches show, you know that special teams is a favorite topic. Always. In 2021, it has been even more relevant than a year's past as the Titans overall special teams have been nothing short about standing. Randy Bullock making field goals has been exhibit A and Brett Kern's amazing punting has been a topic for over a decade now. But go deeper into Titans special teams than just the men kicking the football and you find a group changing games every single week. Nick Westbrook, Akina shows up a lot. The second-year wide receiver is typical of the player that is standing out on the Titans special teams largely because he really enjoys it. It's so much fun for me because, you know, it's a different aspect of the game that people don't really see and there's kind of like a beauty to it because if you're good at it and you understand the situations and how to make those plays, they're real impactful plays in the game. So I'd probably say that's the biggest thing is it's the most underrated part of doing it is just being able to make an impact that people don't see and, you know, it's my chance to play on defense. You know, as an offensive player and it goes the same way for some of those defensive guys to be able to, you know, play on offense and have that experience. The Titans special teams performance has been a byproduct of the hard work of coordinator Craig Ackerman and the infusion of players who have added professionalism and leadership. Long snapper Morgan Cox heads that list. The native Tennessean made three Pro Bowls in Baltimore and he's a steady hand for the Titans both on and off the field. He's just automatic to feel like in the same way as Brett, you know, really unsung hero, you know, in our special teams unit being able to be so consistent but then also behind the scenes the research he does for us to understand, you know, a game plan and understand where they're going to be kicking the ball so we can know and have a better game plan on kickoff return and just all those kind of things and also, you know, just like a spiritual leader on the team as well as Brett, you know, helping to lead this team more than just football and just being, you know, great men as well. Matthias Farley is a leader in our special teams room more than anything. Brings a lot of experience, you know, he plays and leads our special teams unit just by being smart, understanding situations, being competitive, you know, and bringing the juice to our special teams meetings within all sort of practice and game. Nick Zubnar, he's a leader as well. He leads our team, he's always the one breaking us down before we're going out on the field on kickoff or kickoff return and kind of sets the tone, you know, for our special teams to be able to play fast, play aggressive and do whatever it takes. You know, he's one of those guys, goes in there, does the dirty work, does the ball or not, you know, he's just going to go out there and play his tail off. Another guy who works his tail off was mentioned earlier, special teams coordinator Craig Ackerman. He's been well respected for years inside St. Thomas Sports Park and his attention to detail, his ability to communicate and the juice that he brings to the Titans special teams unit all are very important. Plus, like every good special teams coach, the man known as Ack might be just a little crazy, but you know, crazy in a good way. Ack's a great dude. Like you said, he's got a lot of juice, always brings it, he's never turned off, but it's good because, you know, it makes practices kind of, not light hearted, but it just makes him fun, makes it fun to play for him and fun to go out there, you know, every Sunday or Monday or Thursday night, whatever it's going to be, you know, he's going to bring the juice and have us ready to go. Ask any Titans special teamer who has won so far, and the answer would be consistent. Dylan Cole's caused fumble and Tori Carter's recovery of the second half kickoff against the Saints. It was an obvious big play, yes, but it came from not just hustle, but a lot of preparation. That was a point of emphasis, stopping their kickoff returner, you know, he's a great, you know, electric returner and being able to go down there, make a big hit and cause a fumble that, you know, really changes the game and you want to be, is be game changing, make game changing plays. We got to do whatever it takes, accept your role, you know, whatever it takes to help the team win and understanding the importance of special teams and just have an alpha dog mentality. You know, that's something we always talk about is being the guy that's going to win your one-on-one matchup against, you know, their best special team player and turn the tide in the game in the special teams aspect and, you know, play competitive football. We're totally up to speed on where the Titans are in the standings right now and what is to come. Let's take a look first at the AFC South picture where we find the Tennessee Titans with a two-game lead on the Indianapolis Colts. It's actually a three-game lead because the Titans have swept the Colts, magic number for the Titans to win the division, any combination of three Titans wins or Colts losses. In the AFC overall right now, the Tennessee Titans stand third. First place, obviously, in the AFC South puts them third overall behind Baltimore and New England. If the playoffs started today, the Titans would open up against Buffalo in a three-six matchup. Now let's look at what is to come for the Tennessee Titans, of course. This Sunday, December the 5th, the Titans are off a bye weekend and then it's Jacksonville at home on December the 12th. That's a noon kickoff. A noon kickoff the following week in Pittsburgh against the Steelers. Tennessee turns around and plays the following Thursday night December 23rd hosting San Francisco many bye weekend following that game and then on January 2nd Miami comes to town for the final regular season home game. The Titans finish the regular season playing in Houston on January the 9th playoff weekend begins January the 15th. So that's what's coming up. What are the Titans keys to having a great bye week? Mike Vrable rejoins me for that. The Nissan Keys to Success next on the Mike Vrable show. The Nissan Keys segment is one of my favorites on the Mike Vrable show each week. The head coach gives us his keys to victory. Well there's no game this weekend so how about the keys to a successful bye week? The Nissan Keys for Mike Vrable just a couple of keys to success to a bye week recover physically and mentally. Yeah there's a lot to this first one you know I mean we've got guys that played a lot of football for us that are grinding through that are battling we also have some guys that haven't played football for us or have been off a few weeks that we're going to have to get back in there after this bye week and this will be a great week for them to get healthy get an extra day this next week and and also the mental aspect of it is that one we can make corrections and that we you know we're not preparing for an opponent this week but we we could take a look and take a step back and say what are we doing well what do we have to fix in order to win football games and I think that's critical. The other Nissan Keys to Success is really quite simple says Mike Vrable it's about taking care of assignments. Well every week you go out there to be a perfect look and so you have to be able to adjust on the fly understand your job be able to to go out and execute and that's really just making sure that our coaches are coaching better we're better teachers and that our players are taking the initiative to retain the information to transfer the meeting room out to the practice field and then ultimately take it from the practice field to the game where it matters the most and that you only get maybe one or two cracks out of the game and you have to be on it. What do you do during the bye weekend? I will try to get away from here I'm going to get away from here Jen and I are going to go get away from it. Relax. Relax. Good for you. Well you deserve it. 8-4 pretty good place to be. Yeah no time to look around no time to look around and see where the finish line is our goal is to be really great this week and get healthy and come in here ready to go for Jacksonville. Thanks for your time. I appreciate you. If you want to follow the Titans board join us for the official Titans podcast the OTP go to Tennessee Titans dot com slash podcast and find out how you can subscribe and download the official Titans podcast every single week. For Mike Vrabel I'm Mike Keith thanks for joining us and we'll see you next week.