Who should be the Titans’ next head coach? + Breaking down Chiefs-Lions FALLOUT 👀 | NFL Live

Who should be the Titans’ next head coach? + Breaking down Chiefs-Lions FALLOUT 👀 | NFL Live

in NFL live with some breaking news. Adam Shfter with us right off the top. Chefy, what can you tell us? Hannah, the Tennessee Titans have become the first NFL team this season to fire their head coach, Brian Callahan. He went 4 and9 in two seasons. The team struggled. It struggled to protect its number one overall pick, Cam Ward. It won one game in Arizona. Everybody remembers that game from last week when Amari de Marcado fumbled the touchdown into a touchback. And now the Titans have fired Brian Callahan. We’re waiting to see who they decide to appoint as the interim head coach. Couple of candidates on staff that would make sense. Mike McCoy, formerly the head coach of the Chargers, John Fossil, who served in an interim role before. We’ll see what direction they go, but they better figure it out quickly because this weekend, one of the coaches that the Titans already fired, Mike Vrabel, is leading the Patriots back into Tennessee to face the Titans. How ironic is that? Uh, thanks, Adam. We’ll get back to you shortly. Listen, we have so much to get to. We have the crew to do it. We have Jac. We have Field Yates here. Dan Rolovski is in Atlanta to call the game tonight. Mina Kims is with us. Dan, uh, let me start with you. What’s your reaction to this news? Yeah, the first call I would make if I was Tennessee would be to a guy who’s going to be coaching on the field tonight behind me is Joe Brady, the offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills. The second call I would make is Mike McCarthy, then Vance Joseph. I’d call Arthur Smith, who’s doing a great job in Pittsburgh, and Jesse Mentor as the defensive coordinator of the Chargers. Those would be the first five on my list. You have to have somebody that has a uh at least a vision of what is next for Cam Ward. It’s going to be very much so dependent on trying to get him to play up to his possib best possibility. The reality is yes, this is a results based business, but there’s also an improvement that was needed in in Tennessee. That did not happen. There wasn’t at least on tape. Didn’t see to be a ton of buyin from some players when it cames to come to what Brian Callahan was preaching and they obviously did not win. So, it’s a new start. They got to build some at least continuity in Tennessee. They fired a lot of people in the last five or six years, but those names that I mentioned would be my first calls for Cam Ward in the Titans future. Yeah, you hate this mid-season for Cam Ward, rookie quarterback. Uh, having that kind of change is never a good thing, but it’s also not surprising. Um, Callahan, you know, there’s the win loss record, but he was brought in to fix the offense coming from Cincinnati. And the offense has been an abject disaster this year. They rank last in just about every meaningful category. But the one that really jumped out to me looking they’re they’re averaging under four yards per play on offense. To put that in perspective, there has not been a single NFL team in the last 20 years over the course of a season that’s averaged under four yards per play. I know it’s week six, but things haven’t been trending in the right direction. On top of that, there’s been issues with clock management. I think back to the end of the first half versus the Colts, the field goal fiasco. um admissions about not knowing the rules. You remember with the catch and all told this is not entirely surprising even if you do worry about what it means for Cam Ward’s development this year. Yeah, it seems to be the norm. 17 out of the last 39 quarterbacks drafted since 2016. Head coach has been fired in either the first year or following the first year. So when you look at that, that seems to be what Cam War is going to go through and what so many other guys like him have gone through as first round draft pickicss. I look at this situation for the Tennessee Titans and Dan hit on what’s the future for them when they start interviewing who’s going to be the permanent head coach. But for right now, they have the New England Patriots coming into town Sunday. Mike Vrabel was there, had a lot of success, was coach of the year. I got to assume they’re maybe looking at this situation and saying, “Hey, maybe we get a little bump from an interimm head coach letting go of Callahan as Vrabel’s coming into town.” And if they were going to let go of him maybe after, you don’t want to give him that satisfaction. I don’t know exactly why right now in this instance. Maybe just to move on and see what’s next. But hey, for Cam Ward, it is a long road ahead now. Uh they’re going to need that interim head coach to be able to cover pass catchers with the way that Drake May is playing right now cuz his Patriots offense is certainly finding its rhythm at least in the passing game. It’s the perfect storm here for Brian Callahan. I think there are people that closely monitor this team that think this might even be a few weeks too late. Four wins and 23 efforts. The only win this season, frankly, was a game that the Cardinals lost. The Titans won that game, but Arizona really handed it to them as well. On top of that, I felt like at some point a change was coming when I heard their best player, Jeffrey Simmons, yesterday after the game talking about how Thursday was their worst practice perhaps of the entire season. The team finally getting a little bit of momentum after a win, maybe feeling slightly better about itself, and then your best player basically saying the tone was set on Thursday in a negative way. Not a surprise. I guess these are always a little bit surprising given the timing, but at some point this change was coming. piano. Yeah. So, let’s be honest about the Tennessee Titans, though, okay? I I don’t know their ownership group, and there’s a lot of respect obviously, but their ownership in the last four or five years, Baby Face, you know, this has fired a general manager and then hired a new general manager and then fired a coach and fired that coach and fired that general manager, now hired a new general manager and hired a new coach and fired the coach. the there’s no continuity within the organization when it comes to topdown leadership. And so Tennessee, new stadium, super talented quarterback, new general manager comes from K Kansas Kansas City in the recent past year. You’ve got to make sure that you get these choices right of general manager, head coach, and the people around the quarterback to build long-term success. This can’t just be let’s hire and fire every two years cuz you’re not going to win that way. You’re not going to get your young quarterback to play well that way. And let’s give you the list of names that you’re talking about there, Dan. They fired general manager John Robinson, who had collected a tremendous collection of talent there in Tennessee. Then they fired Mike Vrabel, who obviously has gone on to have the success that he’s had here in New England. Then they fired Ran Carin, who did a nice job there and was one of the bright young minds in the NFL. And now they’ve fired Brian Callahan. So, they’ve gone through an awful lot of people in Tennessee. You mentioned the new stadium coming. That could be a part of it. But the fact of the matter is there were a number of gaffs this season. I think people across the league thought the Titans would be patient to the end of the year, but obviously the owner did not want to do that. The last four quarterbacks drafted number one overall and six of the last eight have now seen their head coach fired during their rookie season. and Rasheed Rice is also back as of today or as soon as they start practicing. What did you see from the Chiefs offense last night? Trust. And I’m talking the trust from Andy Reid and Matt Naggie when it comes to the offensive line and the perimeter players. That’s really been something that’s been lacking in this offense for two years. And you see it back now with their red zone creativity. That is something that has been a staple. But one win at the line of scrimmage. Watch the left foot jab by Worthy. Then that creates really that man-to-man pick by Guju. That’s the first touchdown of the game for the Kansas City Chiefs. Then I’m talking about confusion. Man across the board. This is vintage Andy Reid and Matt Naggie. Motion by Hollywood. But when we flip it to him, we bring Kareem Hunt cross linebackers paying attention. Don’t block the defensive end. No clue where the football is. Lead blockers out front. This says to me, Matt Naggie and Andy Reid are like, “Hey, our offensive line’s good enough again. Our perimeter players are good enough. We can get creative. And then the final touchdown, really the one that seals the game. Once again, manto man. You’re going to fast flow the back, snap it four by one. Now look at all the traffic that they’re creating for Hollywood Browns defender to have to run through. You get linebackers running into linebackers and safeties and a lack of communication in that flood. For me, I really haven’t seen this from this offense in two years. I’ve talked about the last two or three weeks. It’s the best they’ve looked. It’s the most complete they’ve looked. They’re doing more things that solidify their offense. Now, yesterday reminded everybody the creativity is back and that’s because they trust that group up front and the playmakers outside. Yeah, Andy Reed may be one of the single greatest play callers against man coverage that I’ve ever seen. Um, this game, the Chiefs Lions, both defenses played a ton of base, three backers, four defensive backs. The difference was Kansas City was able to take advantage of it in a big way. I mean, Jack Campbell and Alex Analone, they’re good linebackers, but the Chiefs hunted them in this game. 15 targets between the two of them, 12 catches for 155 yards. It was at all three levels, RPO screens, deep balls, downfields, and it was absolutely relentless. The other thing I want to add is what you’re seeing here. I’m only I’m mentioning this because it’s part of the reason they were able to keep them in base. Some of that had to do with injuries, but also it’s something that Dan and I are obsessed with. They were so much better running the ball from under center. Isaiah Pacheco, 50% of his carries were under center this game. Nearly six yards per carry. We have been begging for this all season. It’s good to see that number goes up. I think it could go up even more and then they can continue building the play action off of that. Yeah, because the running game still hasn’t been great so far, but I would say Patrick Holmes right now leads the Chiefs with 222 rushing yards. probably not a trend the team wants to persist for the full 17game regular season. I’ve never seen him weaponize his legs as well as he is right now. The ability to buy extra time and then these kind of decisions that he forces a defensive back or a linebacker or even a defensive lineman into. Do you hard charge to try to make a sack or hit behind the line of scrimmage on Patrick Mahomes and risk him potentially throwing the football down the field? Or do you hold back and retreat and then see him pick up 10, 12, 15 yards as a scrambler? He has four rushing touchdowns this season. Already tied for a careerhigh. He is on pace for over 650 rushing yards. Jmack. He probably won’t get there because at some point this won’t be the same type of offense they play. But the way that he is weaponizing his legs puts defenses into a bad decision pretty much every single time he escapes the pocket. It absolutely does. And I hated it as a DB when the quarterback’s coming at you and you have to make that split-second decision. Uh something that Mina said, I was watching this game and what I looked at I was like, man, I could be out there playing. This reminds me of the 2010s where it was just base personnel 12 21. You had all of these guys running downhill. And as I’m watching that game for the Chiefs on defense, what stood out was Nick Bolton and Leo Chanel. Those guys were flying around and making tackles all over the field. The Lions run game. Yes, they had some positive plays, but you didn’t see those 25, 30 yard plays where Jir Gibbs is running. It’s a long explosive touchdown. They kept him under wraps and they were able to make some plays defensively to really hold this offense back. Dan Campbell said it. We’re gonna have to score 30 points to win this game and they limited this Lions offense which is a huge deal coming off of that Monday night game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Yeah, I love that. Jac Baby Face, I wanted to touch on your point with Patrick’s legs and I think there’s a a very big difference this year in comparison to last year. Last year he was running for his life often. this year. I think what you’re seeing with the under center with some of the play action and the tight ends is they’re just sitting there going, “Let’s run some of that. We’ll make sure there’s some protection and if we don’t win on the pass concept, the quarterback will go create.” I think there’s a big difference between last year running for his life and this year it’s really just I have the time and that’s kind of like the second play within the play that he’s doing and that’s an added part that is kind of old school Patrick as well. Let’s talk about what happened after the game because Dan mentioned the perfect storm during the game. Uh but afterwards there was a dust up as well. Brian Branch really igniting that scuffle. RCA I want to get your take on it. But first Adam, if you could just take us through the sequence of events after that and the potential fallout. Yeah, clearly Brian Branch was not happy with the way that the game went and certainly the incident postgame. You see him go to shake Juju Smith Shooter’s hand and he slaps him in the head with an open slap. Juju comes back at him. Guju gets thrown to the ground. Obviously, I think Brian Branch was frustrated earlier from some of the play. Watch him here on this particular play. He’s spot shadowed here. And you see that he’s blocked in the back. Nothing’s cold. There were very few, if any, penalties called last night on the Chiefs. Brian Branch gets frustrated postgame. There really is no excuse for behavior like this on either side. If this had happened before the game, then there’s every possibility that one of those players, maybe both, would have been thrown out before the game began. So now the NFL is reviewing the incident. Certainly, at the very least, there’ll be significant fines. Suspensions are also possible, and we’ll see what the league decides to rule and whether Brian Branch will be playing a week from tonight when the Lions host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You know, I know a lot of times we aren’t supposed to talk about some of these hidden rules, but here’s a hidden rule in football. Payback is actually allowed. It’s within the rules. As long as you do it from whistle to whistle. If Brian Branch wants to attack Ju Guu Smith Schustster on a crack block or a stalk block or when he catches the football, he has every right to do that because it’s within the game. But you cannot take it what’s outside of these lines. And I know this was still on the field, but the game was over. This is when everybody on that field becomes human. Everybody on that field becomes a part of the brotherhood. And you don’t have to like them. You don’t have to go to dinner with them. You don’t have to be their friend. But there is supposed to be a level of protection and respect. And what Brian Branch did is inexcusable. And I’m a huge fan of his. And him like me is someone who got a lot of personal fouls for playing this game extremely hard. So how do you get to retaliate on something that you have also been guilty of? And so for Brian Branch to start this fight and for a guy like Patrick Mahomes who’s the face of the league to actually be a part of this skirmish, it could have ended up way more dangerous and way and and more bad than it ended up being. And so for Brian Branch, he has to grow up, right? He has to be more mature. He has to think about not only himself but his entire team, this entire league. And I for one am disappointed in him because he’s a better man than this. He’s a better player than this. He is one of the best that this game has to offer. And from whistle to whistle, he plays it extremely hard. He plays it extremely physical and he plays it at a high level. And I hate that now this is the vision that people will have of who Brian Branch is. And I believe that the league will investigate this and I expect that there will be some sort of fine or some some sort of punishment levy to Brian Branch because of his action. Yeah, especially with the emphasis this year on sportsmanship. Dan Campbell saying afterwards that is not acceptable action within their organization either and he apologized. Adam, this was really tough to see yesterday. As if things weren’t bad enough for the 49ers. Fred Warner, oh my goodness. So, take us through that and some other injuries. Well, the moment he went down, you knew it was serious. You could tell by the way everybody reacted when TV doesn’t show the replay and he goes down and he’s carded off right away. They put his ankle in an aircast. Turns out that his ankle is broken. It’s dislocated. He’s going to have surgery. He’s going to be out for the year. It’s a major loss in every way for the 49ers. As for Puka Nakua, he sprained his ankle yesterday. Now, the Rams are supposed to leave this week for London to play the Jaguars on Sunday morning. Shawn McVey, the Rams head coach, said that Puka will be considered day today going forward. It was not as bad as they thought it could be, but Puka’s been so valuable that they always want to have him out there. We’ll see whether or not he can play on Sunday. A Mecca Ibuka certainly does not look like he’ll be playing next week for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They play the Lions on Monday night. Ibuka left the game yesterday with a hamstring injury. He’s going to be tested on Tuesday, have imaging done to determine the severity of the hamstring strain. Obviously, it could be a couple of weeks, it could be more than that, could be a month. It’ll be dependent upon what the testing shows. But that’s a game in which the Buccaneers already are expected to be without their running back Bucky Irving and their wide receiver Chris Godwin. Todd Bulls, the Buccaneers head coach said today that he’s not counting on either play player playing next Monday night against Detroit. The Cowboys defensive struggles, those are for real. It’s not just one thing or another. Dallas ranking last in passing yards per game allowed, 29th in rushing yards per game allowed. No team has allowed more first downs than the Cowboys. So, uh, Dan, the man, how did the Panthers take advantage of that Cowboys defense? I don’t know. That’s not me. There we go. There. Um, this Carolina yesterday had the best offensive line of football. And what you saw was them make a clear decision to double team and run behind the double team against Dallas’s defense. And the way that they just between their guards and centers or guards and tackles moved people at the point of the run was fantastic. Backside left guard and left tackle combination. This is a huge part some of their counter stuff. Look how far they’re moving that Cowboys defender off of the ball. This is a hole for Rico Dael. That’s an easy run for a talented back. Again, left guard, left tackle. Just watch the movement that they gain. They’re taking that defensive tackle on a downhill run. He becomes opposite of the hash when he started in the middle of field once again planting them on the ground. Their tight ends were very big as well. I thought their tight ends and then the receiver Bryson Tmaine number 87 were big time. And these this is the run that look at that hole guys. I mean this is the run that they started to really lean into that long counter as the game went on where they pull that backside guard. Look at the pinning that they are getting from those outside blockers on those double teams and then those guards. Rico Dado had great patience when it comes to the vision and setting those blocks up, but this was a double team fest by Carolina’s offense. And I think it’s one that really starts to establish Carolina offensively, at least at the line of scrimmage, as one of those best offensive lines run gamewise in the NFL. Yeah, usually when you see a stat line from a back like 183 yards, you there’s a 50 60 70 yard run baked in there. I was expecting that. I go I watch and nope, it’s just seven yards, 11 yards, 12 yards, complete and utter physical domination at the line of scrimmage. Dan outlined it. Um that part though I would say was not entirely surprising, right? We knew this Cowboys run defense was bad. I would argue the more surprising part is what happened on the other side of the ball which is the Carolina run defense holding Javvante Williams to 2.2 2 yards per carry because as you saw see there, he came into this game with one of the best uh the Cowboys had one of the best rushing attacks in football. And think back to last season, guys. The Cowboys defense and the Carolina Panthers both had the I would say 31st and 32nd ranked run defenses in the NFL. But Carolina, unlike Dallas, actually seems to have improved in this regard. I thought the two Browns, Bobby Brown, Derek Brown, were excellent in this game. The entire front seven played well. If I’m a Panthers fan, that is something I’m really optimistic about because it is such a stark improvement from last year. I want to go back to something that Dan said, which was he believes it was the best offensive line in the NFL yesterday for Carolina. They did it without three starting offensive linemen, including perhaps their best one, the right tackle, Taylor Motton. That’s not a good sign for this Cowboys run defense. They are completely devoid of any sort of difference makers right now once they traded Micah Parsons. There is zero reason to believe this team has any chance of getting any better. The only way that the Cowboys are going to be able to play football this year is to follow the Bengals model from last season. We hope that we can beat you in the race to 35 points in a game because every single week they make the opposing quarterback like a Pro Bowler. Bryce Young got things going in the second half. I thought two weeks ago that Bryce Young had an immensely important twoame stretch against the Dolphins against the Cowboys. Two favorable defenses. They were down 17 early against Miami. He helps them come back and win. They win again yesterday at the buzzer. Things feeling a whole lot better for Bryce Young and the Panthers at three and three. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

On NFL Live, Dan Orlovsky, Mina Kimes, Jason McCourty, Adam Schefter and Field Yates weigh in on the Tennessee Titans firing head coach Brian Callahan, the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs’ scuffle and more.

0:00 Titans fire head coach Brian Callahan
6:40 Chiefs-Lions scuffle
16:30 Carolina Panthers defeat the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6
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