Tennessee Titans: Positive and Negative Notes from the Game

This is what happens when your don’t have a big tough guy playing center. That guy grabbed Velasco and threw him down… Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE

Tennessee Titans fans were quick to start ranting and raving after the Titans loss, which fans were more than entitled to. That being said, some of the ranting was off-base. Here’s a list of positives and negatives about the game yesterday that I’m making as I rewatch the game (yeah… I’m putting myself through it twice in one day….):

Positives:

• DE Derrick Morgan was a beast. It looks more like he was playing against a rookie instead of Wimbley. Hopefully we see more of that in the future.
• DT Mike Martin had a really great game as well, though he was a little jumpy. Still very excited about this guy.
• OLB Zach Brown played much better than I expected. That was nice to see. He recorded a FF, a sack, and six tackles in his first start.
• The Titans finally sent Akeem Ayers in on a couple blitzes, to varying degrees of success.
• After setting a world record for missed tackles last week, Griffin led the team with 16 tackles this week.
• CB Alterraun Verner was all over the place and nearly picked off two passes but had to settle for one.
• Lavelle Hawkins did well returning kicks.
• Damian Williams caught basically everything thrown his way while seeing an increased workload while the Titans took it easy with WR Nate Washington.
• The Titans were better against the run, though they fell apart at the end due to being on the field the entire game.
• Chris Johnson did a great job of catching balls thrown to him.
• Brett Kern was killing every punt he made.
• Locker wasn’t sacked once, while the Titans recorded four sacks.
• Witherspoon against the run.

Negatives:

• As we suspected, the Titans linebackers struggled in coverage without MLB McCarthy in there. Chargers TE’s had a field day with them.
• Robert Johnson struggled to make a play and watched an interception sail through his hands, as well as a few tackles slip through them.
• Ryan Mouton looked lost in coverage out there. I still don’t understand why he’s getting more time than Campbell.
• Griffin still struggled in coverage.
• Penalties, penalties, penalties!!! They killed the Titans, who eight penalties for 59 yards.
• The Titans had possession for 16:21 of the game, compared to the Chargers 43:39… That’s awful.
• 10 of the Titans 11 drives lasted four plays or less, according to John Glennon of the Tennessean.
• The Titans coaching staff didn’t do anything to fix the Titans run game which resulted in Johnson getting only getting 17 more yards. He has 21 yards over two games now.
• Watching Velasco get thrown to the ground while he was pass blocking for Jake Locker at the Titans own 5-yard line.
• Witherspoon against the pass.
• The Titans in zone coverage. Rivers picked it apart all day.

That’s a quick list of things that were both bad and good about the game. For a fun little note, there were actually two times that the Chargers ran into P Brett Kern, both of which were not called. This is the second week the Titans have suffered from poor calls by the refs. Last week there was a PI in the endzone that also was not called.

They’re certainly not helping a Titans team struggling to move the ball.

You can find me on Twitter @JustinLStewart