Cam Ward & Titans Offense MUST Improve in Week 5 | MCA Titans Podcast

Cam Ward & Titans Offense MUST Improve in Week 5 | MCA Titans Podcast

Titans at Cardinals this weekend. A late game, Justin. 3:05 p.m. Central time kickoff on CBS. We’re going to preview that game now. What are we expecting from Cam Ward? Can the Titans bounce back and just get on track this season? What lingering questions will be answered by this matchup and some game planning notes for Titans at Cardinals? This is the Music City Audible. Let’s get to it. Ah, welcome everyone to another episode of the Music City Audible podcast presented by Sinkers Beverages, the premier wine, spirits and beer store in East Nashville in partnership with 440 Sports. I’m Justin Graver with me as always, Justin Melo. Justin, we got a decent amount to talk about here. Titans fifth game. Let’s just start right here. Are the Titans going to be 0 and5? Probably. I mean, that’s probably that’s my expectation going in. I’m doing well. Doing well. Not that you asked, but um I don’t have to ask. I know you’ll tell me. You’ll know. I’ll tell you. I’m doing well. Doing well. Um yeah, we had a lot to talk about. You know, there were some interesting things that happened in Titans Land with, you know, the Cam Ward quote that went viral. And Brian Callahan, Jeffrey Simmons, Ammani Hooker, they all had some interesting responses to it. And then Brian Callahan and Bo Hardigree I thought said some interesting things during Wednesday’s press conference. Uh we got to grade Cam Ward. We haven’t done that yet based on Sunday’s performance. uh in in their fourth straight loss obviously and uh we’re going to talk about the matchup as well. I I’ve got some interesting notes on the Cardinals that I want to get out of my system. They’ve got a former Titans exec as their GM in Monty Austin for it. So, we’ll uh preview that matchup as well. Yes, we will. So, let’s start with Cam Ward. Let’s start with the comments that were made on Sunday. Cam Ward, if you don’t remember, we played it on the show. Here it is once again in case you missed it. I mean, if we keeping a buck right now, we ass. So, we owing for it. We have this point. We got nothing to lose. We dropped a quarter of our games and we’ve yet to do anything. So, we have to lock in. And look, coming out of this, I don’t think you and I had any problems with him speaking like this. In fact, I kind of love that he’s speaking like this. Like, he’s keeping it real, which rarely happens with athletes in the media. He is keeping it I mean real and honest but the fire you can clearly like the amount that he wants to win and the frustration is clearly communicated in this quote but it does seem like Brian Callahan and maybe some of his teammates you mentioned Simmons and Hooker Cody Barton Kevin Zitler were also asked about it also spoke about it I have a pretty long little clip I’m going to play of the first three guys we talked about there Callahan Simmons and Ammani Hooker and what they how they responded to these Cam Ward comments because maybe they didn’t take it the same way you and I did. Justin, here is that clip. He’s he’s still a really he’s a young player, you know, he’s in his he’s he’s the he’s the number one overall pick. He’s the he’s the face of a franchise, if you will. Um he’s got high expectations for himself. Uh we have high expectations around him. Um, and we all want to meet those and his ability to uh be in that spotlight in that moment, I think, is is a growing process for him. I think he’s I think he’s growing up. I think he’s starting to understand the weight of his words, what those things mean, uh, when he speaks and everyone’s listening and watching. Uh, and then even though uh, he says, you know, he follows up the commentary with a lot of the right things, uh, it’s the it’s the oneliner that gets taken. and you know, he’s learning how to deal with with you guys and how to understand how to have those conversations and still um you know, maintain the image that he wants to maintain as as a starting quarterback. So, uh growing up is not always easy and and I think there’s some things that he’s learned along the way just like we all do. Um me and Cam talked about that off record. You know, I’m going keep that between me and Cam. But man, the end of the day, you know, um we owe and for you know we and when you turn on the tape, you know, everybody going he like I said, Cam have the right to speak how he want to speak to the media, but you know, I had some advice for him and like I said, I keep that off record. Um I mean that was just in the moment, you know, he just kind of said how he he was talking to you guys as if he’s talking to, you know, his buddies, which is which is good for you guys, but you know, just trying to find a way to be able to express how you feel. Um, but also understand that you are a leader and a first round pick and a quarterback of a team. So, everyone’s going to look up to you whether you, you know, you take it serious or not. We want to stay positive whenever we can. So, it does seem like on reflection maybe he shouldn’t have said if we keep it a buck right now, we ask. Because I understand that to mean right now we just played this game that I just played and I’m speaking to the media right now. we just played. We were ass today. That’s how I took it. But I could understand how maybe some of his teammates were like, “Whoa, we’re not ass.” I mean, yeah, we got beat again and we made a lot of mistakes, but Jeffrey Simmons went on in his clip to say, you know, we come in and watch the film every week and we’re like, “We’re right there. There’s plays to be made. We’re not making them.” So, I can understand how they might feel like he should have said, “We played bad today, but we can be better.” Which he did sort of say. I mean, he said all of that, but to start it with, we ask, yeah, he’s got to know that’s going to get taken uh and run with by the media and maybe not the full context of what he said will not be included. Yeah, I’m, you know, I can see both sides to this argument as well for fun because look, I’ll start, I want to be very clear. I had no problem with it. And it seems like everyone in the media is on the same page here. Like Paul Kuharski wrote a story. Buck Rising, I believe, Buck Rising wrote a story as well. all talking about um you know, god forbid that he has expectations and god forbid that he shows fire where I think Paul Garcia had a great headline like the others are flinching where Cam Ward is showing fire. So I didn’t have a problem with it. I thought it was an honest assessment. On the flip side of that coin, I get Brian Callahan’s especially that part where he talked about the oneliner like you know it’s going to go vi like it’s embarrassing when your quarterback goes viral for saying we ass right? Like John Robinson took a shot at it on Instagram. Like John Robinson does Yeah. I didn’t even know he had social media. He posted it’s still my fault. We asked, right? Like the and the players like to be fair. And I know I think most people in the comments, that’s why I’m saying this, most people in the comments are going to say they’re going to side with us. Who cares about what he said, he’s right, we suck, yada yada. I’m all for that. But we do have to acknowledge that the players and the coaching seem to be consistent in their opinion in response. It doesn’t sound like any of them liked it, right? Like But Monty Hooker said he’s growing up. It was a great line for you guys, but when you’re a leader, a first round quarterback, the players don’t want him to say that. And look, it’s easy for us to sit here and criticize and say they’re bad. They are bad. We know they’re bad. But I do get the sentiment that when you’re the players in that room and you’re putting your body on the line and you’re watching the tape every week and you’re going, “Damn, like we had a lead on the Broncos. We forced a bunch of turnovers. We went toe-to-toe with the Rams for a lot of that game. We were losing 6 nothing to the Texans. Like in the fourth quarter, like they had every right to feel for one play of the fourth quarter. I know there’s a lot about like late in the third quarter you’re down one score. Like it was it was the drive to end the third quarter that positioned them to get their first of three, fourth quarters. You know what I’m saying though, right? Like I get why the players who are the ones actually suffering and struggling and watching the tape and I get why they feel like damn most NFL players will tell you and you a couple of plays decide every game. So when you’re invested in the situation and you’re invested in your own play, I get why you’re sitting in the film room going, “Damn it.” Like if we just hit a couple more plays, we’re right there. They’re frustrated. So they don’t want to hear we’re ass. They want to hear we’re trying our hardest. We’re we’ve come so close. We’ve got to keep working. We’ve got to execute when it’s time to execute cuz they’re not. When the decisive moments arise, they’re not executing. And that’s when the game gets swung the other way. And it’s done that for four weeks in a row. So yeah, when you’re 0 and four, you suck. And you got the worst point margin differential in the NFL, you suck. They do suck. But um certainly not you know the players just for me I have to acknowledge the other side of it cuz it seems like they were all consistent in their feeling uh that they didn’t love it. I agree with that and that’s what stuck out to me is that when I first like yesterday was happening everything’s happening fast quotes are just hitting the timeline. and you’re not sure who’s saying what and when and you get Callie’s comments and you’re like, “Oh, come on, Callian.” And you’re really going to like like we want the fire as fans. We love that that stuff. And then you get the Simmons quote hits the time and you’re like, “Oh, really? Jeffrey Simmons, the guy who once threatened a media member at kids day of training camp.” Yeah. You’ve got advice for Cam. I’m sure it’s great advice. But after you watch the full video and again Cody Barton, Kevin Zitler also had similar comments and you get all that context and you really start to reflect on it, you can you can be like, “Okay, yes, he shouldn’t have done that.” At the same time, Cam was asked if he regrets it and he said no. And he was asked like, “Is he surprised it blew up?” And he said, “No.” Like, you know, they’re going to take anything I say, whether it’s positive or negative, and blow it up, which maybe he’s used to the way he was treated at Miami. I don’t think he’s going to get the same kind of treatment in the NFL until or unless the Titans become more relevant. Um, and then asked like, “Are you focused on what people say?” And he’s like, “No, I’m focused on this team and I’m focused on winning football games.” Which is the right answer. Of course, it’s it is funny that all these guys said he shouldn’t have done it like that and they’ve all had conversations with him. And he didn’t go up to the media yesterday and say, “Uh, yeah, maybe I shouldn’t uh maybe I got to watch my words a little more.” He’s like, “No, I don’t care.” Yeah. I mean, like like I said, to me, I’ve got no issue with it. I wish more players on the team had the fire that he had and I wish they showed the same frustration that he’s showing. Um, but certainly I think there’s two sides to this and I just wanted to acknowledge both sides of it. While we’re talking Cam Ward, let’s get to the grade because as the viewer, the listener knows, we’ve been grading his performance every single week. We’ve been saving it for later in the week lately. Um, I think this is a no-brainer. Sunday’s game against the Texans was probably his worst, not probably, it was his worst game of the season. Um, he was at times inaccurate, held on to the ball too long, completed 10 of 26 passes, I believe. So, he had his worst completion percentage of the season. He threw an interception that, you know, the more you look at it, it was an offtarget ball. My initial I was initially frustrated because I saw Alec Matter get hands on it, but he’s reaching back. It’s behind him. It’s an offtarget ball that offtarget balls do get tipped into interceptions occasionally. That’s what happened. It goes on both of them. I mean, it’s more on Cam because he threw the ball and he was requiring his teammate to make a hell of a play to save that play. So, it is more on Cam. At the same time, you know, nothing against Alec Manor, who we love as a fourth round rookie. If that’s Jamar Chase, if that’s Malik Neighbor’s preacl ter, if that’s one of the top puka nakua top receivers in the league, it’s probably a catch, but it’s still on Cam. It’s a bad throw. It’s behind him. It’s got to be better. So, it’s a bad throw. It’s behind him. So, we’re going to give him the worst grade we’ve given him so far this season. It was his worst performance of the season. We’re going with a C minus. I I I think he’s got to be better. And I’ll say this, like, you know, I we’ve had some comments. I had to block a guy. It was like he had a bunch of bots saying these ridiculously disgusting things. But um you know we’ve been a little bit accused. Oh, you know you’re protecting Cam Ward. You’re biased for Cam Ward. I do want to see him play better this week against the Cardinals. Now there’s a stat out there I’ve got in front of me. You probably see me looking at my phone. The adjusted EPA leaderboard per play in 2025 by the computer cowboy. He was a phenomenal Twitter account. It’s got all these advanced stats and metrics. Now Cam Ward, now the discrepancy is interesting, but it’s bad either way you cut it. Cam Ward’s raw EPA per play is 0.28. This is among 32 starting quarterbacks in the National Football League. That is second worst in the league, only behind Joe Flacco, who is 47 years old and has already been benched in Cleveland for Dylan Gabriel. Now, again, that is the raw EPA. That doesn’t take surrounding factors into account. Well, what computer cowboy does for the adjusted EPA is it is adjusted based on pass protection, receiver drops, dropped interceptions, fumble recovery, all that stuff, right? A lot of the stuff in honesty that we’ve been using as a bit of not I want to say a crutch because they have been really bad in pass protection on occasion. They dropped a ton of passes in the first couple weeks, but the data is the data. Taking all that stuff into account, Cam Ward’s adjusted EPA per play is still the worst in the league. It is negative uh 0.08. In fact, the differential between his raw EPA and his adjusted EPA, this is the funny part of it. It being 0.20 points better is the second different differential in the league. The only one guy who is benefiting more from the adjusted is is Jake Browning. So, but so it’s funny that both things can be true, right? If you see what I mean. Like Cam Ward has been hurt significantly by the drops, the pass protection, all of that stuff. But even when you adjust for all that, his EPA is still the worst in the NFL among all 32 starting quarterback. So, all I’m just saying, I do want to see him play better moving forward because he wasn’t very good in the Houston game and I’d like to see it uh better against Arizona. Yeah, I mean my like those are good stats and they’re obviously valid, legitimate stats, but the um EPA is a team stat. EPA is a team offense stat and I know that’s what the whole point of the adjustment is. But you said like benefiting the most from the adjustment, EPA is a team stat and even with the adjustment, he’s still one of the worst. I get it. But that’s a that’s a reflection on the entire offense needing to be better. You know how many you know how much EPA goes down when you take a sack and how much it goes up when you score a touchdown? like the Titans don’t have any long touchdowns. The Titans don’t have the Titans have two three They have three touchdowns all season in four games. Um I didn’t want to sound like I’m letting the offense off the hook. I hate Brian Callahan’s offense. Didn’t like Bo Hardigeree’s offense very much for the first time. Like I I think the concepts are often broken. They’re spamming. Guys are sometimes running in the same areas. Like there’s clusters of routes. There’s stuff that’s long developing. There’s not enough outlets. There’s not enough checkowns. he has spammed certain concepts. I think Zack Lions pointed out how how often they run daggers concept. We saw a lot of we’ve seen too many screens in the uh was it the Rams game even though they hit a couple big plays. They were spamming the sort of roll out bootleg play. Like certainly there’s a lot of issues with Brian Callahan’s offense that is hurting Cam Ward. There’s no doubt about it. I hate this offense. But I just think we have to be a bit honest and talk a little about accountability a bit more than we have. And I just want to see him because he individually wasn’t very good against the Texans regardless of all those things. And I want to see him be better against the Cardinals. No, I don’t disagree. He’s got to be a lot better. He wasn’t very accurate on many occasions. He wasn’t very his timing was off. He mentioned on the back shoulder miss to Ayam Manor that he threw the ball too early. And this is one of the things I mentioned on our postgame recap show is that I felt like he’s being sped up by the defense, by his coaching staff, by the got to get rid of the ball, got to get rid of the ball, got to get rid of the ball mentality that is being instilled into him that I don’t necessarily love because he makes his best plays when he doesn’t get rid of the ball. Now, obviously, if there’s instant pressure, if there’s a blitz and he’s got a hot solution answer to that blitz or whatever, like obviously he’s got a play in structure and get rid of the ball, but he can’t get rid of the ball just for the sake of getting rid of the ball because the biggest play of the game was a 33 yard completion to I am manner where he extended the play and didn’t just get rid of the ball immediately. So, I it’s definitely a balance and you can’t do that. You can’t even look to do that on every play obviously. But um yeah, he but bottom line is he needs to be better. He needs to not be sped up. His timing needs to be precise. And that’s something that Brian Callahan was harping on in the press conference and Cam was talking about too is that and they’re asking him like are there drill like what percentage of drills do you do that work on your timing and footwork of the offense? And Cam’s like well it doesn’t really work like that because I need to see everything happening together. I need to see where that guy’s at in his route when I take when I go from one to two. It’s not just about working the footwork in the eyes. Like, it all has to come together. So, it does take reps and it does take time. And I think that I’m hoping to see an improvement against the Cardinals for one massive reason. Let’s get into lingering questions now. Justin, the biggest lingering question I have, and this is coming off of a week of press conferences. I’ll set the stage like this. You’re four weeks in, you’re 0 and4, you’re the worst team in football. The NFL and coaches and players, they like to view the schedule, they like to break it basically up into segments, right? And now that they’re 17 games, it’s not quite as easy as it used to be, but we are about a quarter of the way through the season. This is a point where teams start looking and it’s not just a oneoff sample, a one bad game, a few bad plays. It’s like, okay, we have a four-ame sample now of us being the least productive offense and the worst team in football. What are we doing wrong? How do we change it? How do we fix this? And this isn’t just a Titans thing. This is a leaguewide thing. You’re going to see teams trying new stuff this week all across the league. This it it happens in cycles and it happens like this every season. Do you remember that year the Raiders gave up like the most yards of a three-game span in NFL history like four or five years ago and then they come back and for the rest of the season the defense is like not good but like they changed something and it it worked for the most part for the talent that they had. That’s what the Titans need to do now. And on Tuesday, the coordinators spoke. And I hate what I hate what the Titans are doing this season because they aren’t recording these and posting them on YouTube, which I guess is like good for the local media who can actually go, but it sucks for me cuz I can’t watch these press conferences. Um, but the coordinator spoke on Tuesday and both Bones Fossil and Dinard Wilson talked about simplifying their units and how m sometimes making things simpler makes things easier. And I think that this is coming from the top down. Like maybe it’s Callahan actually like credit to him if it is. Maybe it’s coming from even above him that it’s like this is a teamwide mandate. This isn’t just the defensive unit. It’s not just the special teams unit which has been pretty good. Um this outside of the missed field goals. This is like how do we be better as a team? Everyone’s thinking too much. Everyone’s like, especially did you guys did you see Jeffrey Simmons mentioned that the coaching staff told them in the last game against Houston in the first half they had two missed tackles. In the second half they had 35 missed tackles. What? Now that’s not just about being overly complicated versus simplified. That’s about the offense can’t sustain a drive and the defense is on the field for 40 minutes. They’re going to get tired. they’re going to get worse at tackling towards the end of the game if the offense can’t sustain drives and give the defense a chance to catch their breath. But it does speak to the fact that if everything was a little more simple and you could play a little more fast, maybe you get to that ball carrier a quarter of a second quicker and you don’t miss that tackle because he doesn’t have a chance to put a move on you. Whatever. My big lingering question is, can this simplified approach get the ball moving on offense? because I’m honestly less concerned about I have zero concerned about special teams. They’ve been great again outside of two missed field goals. I’m not that concerned about the defense because what are your expectations for a defense that has a bunch of talent deficiencies, no pass rush, like we know it’s not going to be that good. We just need them to make a handful of plays when the situation calls for it. But the Titans haven’t even been in a situation where it’s like all we need is a stop here and we can get this win. It’s like they haven’t had that chance yet because the offense has been so bad. So, can simplifying things fix the offense? I think it can help. I mean, it’s not going to be fixed. I don’t think they’re ever going to just become a good team this year with a good offense, but I do I have, as the week has gone on, Justin, started to gain some of that irrational confidence, some of that irrational hope that this is the week it all comes together. Well, look, the beauty of it is they’re going to play a game on Sunday and we’re going to have an opportunity to analyze what happens, right? Every game is a new opportunity to to play better, to analyze, to talk about. I hope we don’t come on here on Sunday and and on the postgame, the live postgame and say they’re awful. They got shut out again. They shot like it’s a new opportunity to analyze and it sounds like the coaches have been doing some selfanalysis and self-couting. Now, I don’t have a lot of faith that this is the right staff to come to the right conclusions and right answers, but again, Sunday’s a chance to prove that wrong, right? You’re going to play a Cardinals team that’s not very good. Um, that’s certainly better than they are. They’ve won two games. They’re two and two. They won eight last year. They’re certainly better than the Titans are. Um, but it’s an opportunity and and I I I want to I want to give you a chance to talk about some of the things that Callahan said in relation to simplifying the offense and other questions he was asked about the offense in general. I know you took some issue with it. I took a little issue with it, but you especially had some good notes about uh about what he said. Well, first let’s listen to him talk about simplifying the offense. Dennard and Bones yesterday talked about uh maybe the importance of simplifying things. schematically to get guys to what whatever it is, think less, act more, um get back to basics, to to try to especially on offense, wondering what you guys might can do to jump start a unit that hasn’t been good enough. Yeah, there that’s all a part of the process when you when you’re trying to evaluate on on, you know, why why do we not perform a way that that we think we can? Why are we not uh producing at a rate that that we should be? Um you always go back and look at yourself first. You know, we all do that. Um, I do the same thing is is how how do we how do we best put our players in position to be successful and uh sometimes the answer is is do more and sometimes the answer is uh do less. And I think our guys have done a great job of of reflecting and understanding and trying to figure out uh what is the best thing for this version of our football team, this 2025 team. And uh every year, every team is different and sometimes the things you think are going to be good going in uh to a season aren’t as good as as as maybe you had anticipated. Uh so you have to be ready to pivot and adapt and adjust. And that’s the name of the game in this league is how quickly can you pivot and adjust and find a solution to a problem. And that’s our job is to find as many solutions as possible. And that’s always a part of it is what do we need to do? And if it’s if it if it is simpler, then that’s what we’ll do. Um, if it’s a different schematic approach, then we have to do that and that’s what the good coaching staffs in this league do and we got to do a good job of of finding a way to to get a win and that’s our focus and whatever that takes will be willing to do. So, long answer there, sorry, but I think it was interesting to hear all of that. Yeah, it is and it is a good one. And this is the thing about Callahan like he can talk. He’s smart. It’s just we have issues with the way he knows. Yeah. Yeah. Like and that’s what continues to give you a little hope that they that this will start clicking at some point. Um, but yeah, I mean, have the Titans been great at making adjustments? Well, I don’t know. We have a lot of questions about that. Have the Titans been good at identifying the best way to put their players in a position to succeed? I don’t know. They haven’t had a lot of success under Callahan. So, there’s definitely skepticism because of the last 21 games. Have none of them have gone well outside of the three that they won. One of those against a backup quarterback, like one of those some sort of miracle win in Houston, one in overtime win against a rookie quarterback, and another inept coaching staff that is no longer in New England. So, it’s not like he beat anyone good ever. You know, maybe the Texans here. Impressive. I mean, they scored 34 points, I think, or 30 something in Houston. That’s fair. Yeah, that’s the one Texans. Yeah. So, there’s a chance that like maybe the Titans can pull that version of themselves out in this game. And I’m kind of hanging on to that hope. But I do think that we will see a an actually different approach to a lot of areas of the game because it’s been so bad that they’re willing to just try something. I don’t think that different approach is like, oh, start Ello at receiver. I don’t think Restrepo is getting called up this week. I think there’s a lot of people who want to see him. I am one of them, but I don’t that’s not happening this week. None of that stuff is happening. Ridley didn’t practice on Wednesday. We saw he was banged up on Sunday. JC Leam also didn’t practice on Wednesday. Yikes. Um, so it’s like it’s not all just going to be rosy and good here. I think Kevin Ridley plays though. I mean, we’ll see. But I’d be surprised. I think so, too. But we’ll see. Yeah. Um, I think there is an answer I want you to get to, if you don’t mind, about RPOS’s that you took an issue with. I have a I have a different issue with. We talked about it off air and I’m glad I can bring it up separately, but I don’t know if you are you playing the clip for that one or do you just have the answer about RPOS’s? Yeah, we’ve we’ve dabbled in it. Um there’s some things the RPO game is uh can be hit or miss at this level. Um there’s some really good looks at it occasionally and then there’s some not great looks at it. Um defenses have gotten pretty good at at finding ways to make it challenging. Um so yeah, there are things that we just keep probing and we keep working on and we keep finding where they might fit for us. Um, like I said, we’ve we’ve done some um we’ve done some run, you know, run option things, not say RPOS’s, kind of two different, you know, pre- snap alerts versus actually like reading defenders. Um, we’ve done a little bit of it and we’ll keep we keep growing with it. We have plenty of it in in the arsenal. We’ve worked it a bunch in training camp. Um, just depends on who you’re playing and and what kind of style and structure you face. I don’t I took a little issue with it because I just watched Jaden Daniels, Cliff Kingsbury, and the Washington Commanders last year tear up the league, relying heavily on an RPO system, like RPO based system. It’s like, if they can make it work, you can find a way to make it work. You’re telling me they just happen to play a bunch of defenses that don’t guard RPOS’s well last year? Like, give me a break. That’s not how it works. I do agree that it can be defense specific and there can be some teams that are maybe whether it’s personnel or scheme that are better suited to defend an RPO type of action, but I don’t know. I think I should have set up the question a bit better. So, in case anyone is wondering or if you feel lost in this discussion, Brian Callahan was asked about RPOS’s because a Cam Ward was pretty good at executing them at Miami last year and b the Titans don’t really run them this year. So that’s why the the Brian Callahan was asked the question like why not the offense isn’t working. Why aren’t you running more RPOS’s? And he had that answer. Now I took a bit of a different issue with his answer. Number one, I think our pal Mike Hernand pointed out in our group chat like you know he talked about defenses are really good at stopping it. Well, they’re also really good at stopping everything you’re doing, right? Like you’re the worst offense in the NFL. So maybe, you know, try something new. Try something different that it’s not just trying something different for the sake of trying something different. Cam Ward was really good at executing them, right? that too. It also kind of there’s a little element of just for the sake of running out of thin air, right? Like Cam Ward was really good at at at running them last year at Miami. The issue that I took with his answer and maybe this is a case of we’re all frustrated so we’re finding issue with everything that’s being said. Um he talked about the gametogame variance. That should be the case, right? like you you attack different defenses every sing, right? Like you address what they do well. You analyze what that defense does well and doesn’t do well and you formulate a game plan around that. I get that there should be some game-to-ame variance or there there should be a lot of gametoame variance. But then I get frustrated when I’m like when I’m thinking about gametoame variance is running two long developing flea flickers against that Houston Texans Dline when you don’t have your right tackle. Is that the game toame variance we’re looking for? Like when you’re looking to identify opportunities, that’s the game you’re identifying a flee flicker opportunity when they’ve got Daniel Hunter and and Will Anderson Jr. rushing the passer and they’re really good at it and you don’t have your right tackle. Like, is that the time? Is that the variance? Like that that makes me question your ability to identify when the variance is appropriate, if you know what I mean. And to Brian Callahan’s credit, I keep, you know, I’m so such a friendly Canadian. And I keep playing bold sides of the coin here to his they asked Cam Ward about if he’s lobbying for more RPOS. And you I mean he said we asked he’s not the type of guy that just tells you you know what you want what the coaching staff wants to hear. He said he’s not lobbying for more RPOS’s whatsoever. So I thought that was interesting that maybe Cam Ward sort of sided with Brian Callahan on that one. Yeah. Cam Ward also said, you know, it depends on the defense you play. And that that is true and like I have no problem with that. But, you know, on the flea flicker note, I’m glad you brought that up cuz I did want to say I did want to mention that just the timing of those calls could not have been more horrific. So, the Titans to my count, I believe, had three plays that went for more than 20 yards last week. They had the 33 y to I am manner on the first drive. Cam Ward shakes Will Anderson off script launch it across the field. Tony Pard ripped off a 21-yd run in the second quarter. And then later in the game, Cam hit Calvin Ridley on that crosser before halftime. Uh that set him up for another missed field goal. Um that went for 22 yards. I’m I’m pretty sure that was it. Maybe I missed one. Let me know if I did in the comments. Subscribe to the channel, like the video, drop a comment below. Shout out Sinkers Beverages. But those two flee flickers came after the first two 20 plus yard plays. The first one was right after the I am maner 33 yarder which I’m like okay whatever. The second one right after Tony Pard’s 21 yard run they try a flea flicker with Shimmer DK that loses I think four yards because Houston’s defense covers it perfectly there. Shim cannot throw that ball back across the field to Cam Ward. He does a great job of like realizing that and getting up field but he doesn’t get up field because he’s behind the line of scrimmage so he gets tackled for a four-yard loss. Um, look, both of those plays coming off of your basically only success in the whole game is mind-boggling to me. Those are the type of plays I feel like you pull out when you are stale, nothing’s clicking, you need a spark, you need to manufacture. They feel that way all year, right? But but the I mean when you really feel like we need to manufacture a big play here versus let’s run our offense and see if we can create a big play. They just created big play. They create a big play in the offense with Cam doing his thing with him and Alec Iman being on a having a connection a downfield offscript connection. Let them keep running plays like that. Why are you trying this flea flicker nonsense and getting completely blown up? kills all the momentum that you had and they end up obviously if Kam hadn’t got smacked in the head or if they called that smack in the head play maybe things are different anyway the second one though really kills the momentum you’re banging it up the middle with Tony per he’s bouncing off tacklers he gets a 21 yard gain keep pushing it run a playa action fake the next play because per just gashed him or keep giving it to per so he can keep gashing him if something’s working keep going back to that and make the defense make an adjustment before you try somethinging crazy. I’ll bleep that. Crazy like that. Like uh flee reverse flea flicker nonsense. It takes you It just takes them out of the rhythm of the offense. And while we’re talking about Bo Hardigree, Bo Hardigree was by far the worst play caller of week four and it wasn’t close. This is based on market and script efficiency with with personnel diversification. I don’t know what this means, but I’ll put the graphic on screen if you’re watching on YouTube. Look at how far Bohard’s line goes to the left. I mean, he broke the chart. This is horrible. So, I’m hoping that that was sort of like a first game as play caller. I’m going to try some fun creative flea flicker stuff and it’s like that didn’t work at all. I wonder how much say Brian Callian had in that stuff. It’s like let’s get back to the basics, simplify, which is where this conversation started, and just run a good offense. Like, goodness gracious, it can’t be that hard. Wasn’t a good look for Bo Hardigree and he’s got to do better this week. Um, I’m gonna hit some rapid fire notes on the Cardinals before we get out of here because we haven’t talked a whole lot about the matchup, but I do have some good stuff I want to mention. They’re a two-2 football team, right? Not that impressive though. They beat the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers by one score a piece in weeks one and two. They were perfect 2 and 0. They lose 1615 in week three and then lose 23-20 in week four. Not scoring a lot of points. Not exactly a high octane, exciting, explosive offense. The their two losses were on game ending field goals. Just point that out. They scored 15 points and 20 points for sure, but they’ve been competitive. They’ve been competitive. No doubt about it. But the point is the first two wins not that impressive. It’s the Saints and the Panthers and then you lose your next two games and you score 20 or less. They haven’t been that impressive. They’ll be down to their RB3 against the Titans. James Connor had a season ending injury two weeks ago. Trey Benson, who took over, hurt his knee in last weekend’s loss to the Seahawks, a Thursday night game, and he’s not going to be recovered. He went on IR actually, so it’ll be out minimum four games. I’m sure their RB3 will torch the Titans, right? This is what it’ll be. Emory Deercado, I think, and a combination. Michael Carter, who I was going to play Demarcado in fantasy, but now I’m scared because Michael Carter said something in the locker room like, “One week you’re on the practice squad, the next week you’re starting.” Seems like he said something that maybe he shouldn’t have said. Um, but anyway, it’s going to be Michael Carter and Emry Decado. If he was starting, I agree, but it gave me some pause. This is a team similar to the Titans who struggled to rush the passer last year. They weren’t quite as bad as the Titans, but they were bad in the talent department. They had a lot of sacks schemed up from linebackers. So, what do they do? And they got a defensive mind, the head coach who’s great at it, and Jonathan Ganon, but they didn’t have a whole lot of individual talent. So, what do they do? They go out, they sign Josh Sweat and Kus Campbell in free agency. Sometimes that works. Mike Borganzi, they are leading the team in sacks this year. They got three sacks a piece. By the way, uh Josh Sweat is fourth in pass rush win rate among edges according to ESPN analytics. And Kus Campbell, the ageless aging like fine wine. Kas Campbell is fourth in pass rush win rate among defensive tackles. As a team, they are fifth in pass rush win rate and seventh in run stop win rate win rate by the way. So, the Steel Lions playing really good ball going to give the Titans all they could handle. I liked Josh Sweat a lot. I wish the Titans made a play for him in free agency. They didn’t. He’s playing well. Dante Stills, their uh other interior D lineman’s playing pretty good, too. Underrated ball. He pops up in those win rate uh leaderboards when you look them up. Dante Stills is on both of them. They are fourth in pass block win rate. Like, this is painting the picture of a pretty good team. 17th and run block win rate. What’s really interesting is the matchup for Jeffrey Simmons. Two of the Cardinals starting interior offensive linemen are top five in pass block win rate among interior linemen. So good matchup for Jeffrey Simmons specifically with Evan Brown. Now what what’s really interesting to me about this Cardinals team is they were 4 and3 in 2023. That’s when Monty Austin took over as GM former Titans exec who by the way I wish the Titans hired him when they hired Ran Carthon. Like they interviewed him, they gave him a shot. I mean, I’m happy with Mike Boronzi, I think, but I think Monty Austin for it’s obviously a better would have been a better choice than Ran Carth. Cardinals go four and 13 his first year. Their full-blown rebuild. They come back last year, they go eight and nine. You know what’s funny to me? They almost strike me as an outsider as a team that probably should have only won like six or seven games last year because now they’re coming off an eight- win season. I think fan expectations a little bit unrealistic. I think there’s some frustration that they didn’t go harder like this off season. Yeah, they signed Josh Sweat, but they they fans feel like they could have done more and they didn’t. And I’ll be honest, this is striking me as a eight or nine win team again, which would have been acceptable if they had won six last year, like they probably should have, but uh now there’s some frustration setting in because that’s what expectations do to you. But they’re two-2. Um I got long-winded there. I’m going to close this out with my predictions. I don’t think you have a whole lot to respond to that. Um I’ll just say this. Um, I would love to see this team actually do something in the quick passing game to mitigate a pass rush. I’d love to see them actually execute some screens. And I’d love to see them on defense. It’s going to be similar, I think, to the week one game with Bo Knicks in terms of the pass rush plan because you got to keep Kyler in the pocket. Uh, the Titans have what, three sacks in four game, four sacks in four games. Um, it’s pretty I’m pretty sure Jeffrey Simmons has two, Ammani Hooker has one, and Ardan Key has one. They have one sack from the edge group. Yeah, give me a break, man. So, let’s see if they can get pressure on Murray without creating huge running lanes for him. And the Cardinals have been an out of sync offense, especially. I mean, they got they kind of got it together there late third quarter, fourth quarter against Seattle on Thursday night. But overall, like things haven’t been very in sync. Kyler’s a high Varian quarterback, right? Like he’s frustrating as hell. Marvin Harrison is still figuring it out in real time. RB3. Uh Trey McBride’s their best player on offense right now. Sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off, but I’m just saying like Kyler can kill the Titans, but he also might throw a dumb interception, right? Like he’s he’s a variance guy on a week- toeek basis. Yeah. So, um let’s take it to our predictions. I think we both predicted a Houston win last week and we’re both going to predict a Cardinals win this week. We are. Uh until the Titans win, I don’t think I’m predicting a Titans win. Cardinals are two and two. Uh they’re, you know, good on the D line, good on the O line. I think they could win this game in the trenches for the most part. I’ll give the Titans some credit. I’m gonna go 2317 Cardinals. All right. I’m going to go 2420 Cardinals. But I will say again, I’m with you. I am not predicting a Titans win until the Titans win. I will say if this was the week where they look like a competent professional operation and it’s a close game all the way through the fourth quarter, it wouldn’t surprise me based on everything we said like this is the week where they’re going to try to fix things with different approaches. Not just by doing the same thing but correcting the little thing. No, like they’re going to take different approaches to certain elements of things this week. So, I don’t want to get my hopes up too much, but like I said, I have started to enter a place of irrational confidence again. And I think there could be something for this Titans team this week. Again, the car like this is a winnable game. Now, what we said last week holds true. Like the winnable game doesn’t mean it’s a winnable game for the Titans, but they cannot be this bad every week. And holy crap, does the fan base, does the do the coaching staff, does the players need a win like this. So, I’m not going to predict it. You’re not going to predict it, but I will say like I’m holding on to a little bit of hope that they can at least cover a seven and a half point spread against a two and two Cardinals team. I’m hoping you’re right. My for the sake of my mental health, that’s what I’m rooting for. Um but that that blind hope on Wednesday, Thursday sometimes gets you, you know. Oh, there’s something we didn’t talk about at all that I want to quickly mention. And I don’t know if he’ll be back this week, but based on his own interview in the locker room yesterday, based on the fact that he’s been out six weeks with what, a sprained ankle? It’s not like he tore something or broke something. I think Taj Spears will be activated for this game. And I think this is a create. This is how bad the Titans offense has been that I’m actually going to say this. Taj Spears could be a playmaker. He is. He makes defenders miss in space. He’s a good pass catcher. Like absolutely like he’s the kind of guy that can add real juice and create explosives which this offense desperately needs. So I’m if he’s back that’s pretty exciting. And what I mean by like man, we’re we’re getting really going to get hyped up about the RB2 being back. Like that’s the state of things though. Exactly. So, I’m excited to see if he can uh if he can make some plays in this game cuz it it almost sounds like I may be reading into this too much, but if you watch his interview, if you watch Kian’s press conference when he gets asked about Spears, it almost sounds like they have one or two things dialed up specifically for him that they’re excited to roll out this week. I’m not holding out too much hope yet because the medical staff will ultimately make that I heard DA Andre Sweat say he was going to play and then he got placed on AR. So medical staff will make that opinion. They they open the 21day window. They might want to give him a week of ramp up before they actually activate him. So I’d like to see Kevin Winston this week. That’s another guy. I’d like to see JC Leen, but I don’t think I’m going to cuz he missed Wednesday’s practice again. Like I want all three of those guys badly to play on Sunday. Wouldn’t shock me if they go 0 for three with those guys actually being available. Uh we’ll be back Sunday right after the game. Remember this is 3:05 central kickoff. So of course a bit later. Our plan is to go live the second that game ends because we’re on a pretty tight schedule that day actually. But we will be live soon as it ends and tell come with us. I’m going to drink a beer. Uh either Graver is going to say I feel like a huge idiot for saying they could have figured it out this week cuz they didn’t. Or is he say I tried telling you this might be the week they figured out. We’ll see which direction Sunday’s show goes. I’ll have an interesting beer in hand. Either way, until Sunday, y’all stay safe out there and tighten up. A Broadway Sports Media production.

Justin Melo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Justin Graver⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ are back for a deep dive preview into the Week 5 Titans at Cardinals matchup. We start with the reaction from Brian Callahan and Titans veterans to Cam Ward’s Sunday comments before giving out our grade for Ward’s Week 4 performance. Then, we hit our Lingering Questions that will be answered by Sunday evening. After that, we run through some notes for the Titans-Cardinals game, and finally, we wrap up the show with our final score predictions for this contest.

0:00 Titans Week 5 Preview
1:38 Reactions to Cam Ward’s Comments
10:09 Grading Cam Ward’s Week 4 Performance
17:07 Lingering Questions for Week 5
33:03 Cardinals vs Titans Notes
38:21 Final Score Predictions
41:42 Wrap Up

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