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Colts @ Titans Game Reaction.
After the Tennessee Titans managed their first win streak in over 2 years with a convincing victory over the Dolphins followed by surviving a late rally from the Browns last week, momentum was building, and dare we say confidence and optimism was also on the rise that the Titans had come through early season struggles and begun to show what this team can be capable of. Then Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts came to town. Andrew Luck and the Colts smashed the Titans right back in to reality and showed this Titans team still has a long way to go before they return to relevance. Below we’ll comment on the performances of all 3 phases of the Titans team, Offense, Defence and Special Teams as well as picking out the good, the bad and the ugly from this weeks’ performance.
Let's first talk about the performance of all 3 phases of the Titans team individually, looking at the different aspects of the Offense, Defence and Special Teams.
Offense
The most disappointing aspect of the defeat on Sunday was the way the Offense, and Marcus Mariota, seemed to regress back to the performances of the first few games of the season. The Wide Receivers were nowhere to be seen, barring a couple of big plays late on, and when they did find space Mariota’s accuracy was way off. On multiple easy first down conversions he just completely missed the target, throwing high and wide. The positive of this game though was again the running game, something that went under the radar really due to the disappointment of witnessing yet another defeat to Andrew Luck and the colts. DeMarco Murray, for the third time this season, ran for over 100 yards, running for 107 yards on 25 carries. With running for an average of 4.3 yards per carry it was infuriatingly frustrating to see Terry Robiski and/or Mike Mularkey calling pass plays in 3rd and 1 scenarios. This decision still baffles me 2 days on, how can you preach smashmouth football but refuse to just run the ball through the defensive line when all you need is 1 yard? It is decisions like this that still keep me 1 foot on the anti-Mularkey train. He apparently puts days, and nights, of thought in to game plans for each week, planning out what plays to use in different scenarios, and he consciously plans, before the game, to throw the ball for a 3rd and 1. It’s bad enough he decides that is the best way to go before a snap is even played, but he also keeps with that opinion in a game in which the running game is the only thing he and the Titans can rely on. The Colts had no answer to DeMarco Murray in this game; it was the perfect chance to show the entire league what this “2 headed smashmouth” attack they’ve been talking about for months is. They should have run Murray down their throats, demoralising the defence as he runs for 1st down after 1st down, then when Murray is tiring, throw Henry in there and let him power through an already tired defence, the pair could have racked up 20+ carries each. The Colts defence would be focusing so much on stopping the running backs that this would also free up Mariota to get some big gains with his legs, just as we saw against the Browns. The Colts would have had to hoard the box just to try and stop the 3 of them. This would have then opened up easy mismatches for Walker and the receivers for the odd throw to just keep the Colts guessing. The most frustrating aspect of this Titans team at the moment is even with a clear identity being preached by the coaching staff and by Robinson for months, they just don’t practice it on the field, even when it would be clearly advantageous to do so.
Defence
The defence in this game was largely disappointing. There was a huge drop off in the quality and effectiveness of the pass rush. Baring 2 sacks (officially credited with 1.5) from Derrick Morgan and some great pressure once again from Karl Klug, with a pass deflection to his name late on, there wasn’t much to shout about for this unit this week. It’s difficult to say if that was the result of ineffective play calling or the players just not executing to the best of their ability. However, considering the plays are being called by the greatest defensive mind in the history of the game in Dick Lebeau, the blame must go on the players. When you have one of the best performing pass rushes in the league going against the worst O-Line in the league and the QB has as much time in the pocket as Luck had on Sunday you have to put that on the players. It’s hugely frustrating to see the likes of Casey and Orakpo who have been, not only 2 of the Titans best players, but 2 of the league’s best defensive players this season go missing in a game that was set up for them to put on an absolute clinic. The secondary in this game was even worse than the pass rush. If there’s one thing you can credit this team with this season, even in defeat as well as victory, it’s the ability to shut down the oppositions biggest weapon, and some of the best players in the league including Adrian Peterson, Amari Cooper and Deandre Hopkins, who almost went a full game without a single reception for the first time in his career. However this week T.Y Hilton had his way with the Titans secondary with 133 yards and a TD on 7 receptions. Couple this with Jack Doyle’s 78 yards and 1 TD from 9 receptions, and for an offense that was as depleted as the Colts to put up these numbers says a lot about how much work the Titans still have to do with their pass coverage before they can even think about challenging the better teams in the league. An injury also to Perrish Cox doesn’t help matters either due to the large drop off in quality and reliability behind him.
Special Teams
The special teams kept up its knack of contributing to the downfall of the Titans this week, starting with a botched extra point attempt, after a great opening drive for the Titans offense resulting in a Taylor Lewan TD (Credit where credit is due, this was a great play call for the Titans. The Colts did not see it coming). What a better way to kill momentum for the team after an opening drive TD? After this there was an absolutely awful attempt to recover a surprise onside kick to allow the Colts to recover the ball with great field position. Luckily on that occasion the defence held them to a field goal. This was made even worse after the game with Mularkey saying he fully expected the onside kick at that moment and predicted as much to Steve Hoffman before it happened. Even if you did expect it, maybe after such an awful attempt to deal with it you just don’t admit it. It just makes it worse knowing he fully expected it but yet still failed to plan for it effectively. Just these 2 incidents alone lead to the colts having an extra 4 points which, had they not had them, it would have completely changed the dynamic of the last few minutes of the game. This could have resulted in the Titans, despite the poor play, stealing the win at the end. That is all conjecture though and all 3 phases contributed to the Titans downfall this week, it’s not all on the special teams unit. Something has to change with this unit though and soon, it’s ridiculous to see the mistakes they are making week after week. The botched snap for the extra point is an absolute shambles. Beau Brinkley has 1 job on this team, literally 1 job, and its long snaps. If he can’t do that right what is he doing taking up a roster spot over someone who could actually be useful. I guess that’s a point for another post though as he’s not the only ST Player who is seemingly taking up a needless roster spot.
The Good, The Bad and the downright Ugly
Picking this weeks’ Good Bad & Ugly points was a little easier for the bad and ugly than it was for the good to say the least, but I’m sure we can think of a couple of points to be happy about, so here goes:
The Good - In a way, picking the best part about the Titans performance on Sunday is easy; it was obviously the running game. However, when you consider the insistence on veering away from the run on short distances and once again failing to utilise the talents of Derrick Henry effectively, the run game itself still has bad points. All in all though, another 100 yard game for DeMarco Murray is fantastic. Murray’s performances are the one shining light on the offense at the moment and as long as he keeps up this pace the Titans will have a chance in every game they play. It’s just the play calling and special teams, along with inconsistences in the passing game, which will prevent the team from winning most games.
The Bad - You can take your pick this week with the bad, there was plenty to go around. The 2 biggest contributing factors to the defeat in my opinion were the pass coverage on defence and the passing game on offense. Mariota seemed to regress to his early season form again in this game. He threw some really awful throws, didn’t use his legs much and just seemed too afraid of making a mistake to take any chances. We all know Mariota has the ability to be one of the best QBs in the league and it’s frustrating to see him have games like this, especially against the Colts, and after the past couple of games when he’s seemed more relaxed and been able to rely on his instincts more. Hopefully he’ll get back to that against the Jags on Thursday in what really is a must in game.
The Ugly - Once again the ugly is unquestionably the special teams. It’s difficult to understand what the issue is with this unit at the moment and the coaches don’t seem to have an answer for it. The players just seem incapable of making plays when playing special teams. This season we’ve already seen punt returns, blocked extra points, botched snaps, on-side kick failures on both sides and it’s all getting old. Mularkey and Hoffman must make changes and soon.
Summary
For a Titans team that is desperate to show that they are a new team, that they’ve turned a corner and this is a completely different franchise to the one that has won 5 games over the past 2 years, this was a must win game. If they were able to beat the Colts for the first time since 2011 it would have shown that they can be competitive in the division and would have given the whole franchise the confidence and momentum to really push on this season. However, in losing they showed the opposite. They showed that this is the same team that can’t win when it matters, they showed this is the same team that can’t make the plays that matter and they showed this is the same team that cannot beat the Colts. The Titans are now 0-2 in the division this season with the Jags to come on Thursday. Losing this next game will not mean the Titans season is over, this division is so close that it’ll only be later in the season that any team is ruled out, but to go 0-3 in the division would not be a great look. The Jags are really awful this year and they are the one team in the NFL the Titans have been able to beat, even when they couldn’t beat anyone else. On Thursday they need to take care of business.
#TITANUP
