Tennessee Titans: The Disappointment Grows
By Shawn Eagle
Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE
Heading into the season most Tennessee Titans fans knew the first four games were going to be tough, but the disappointment of the first two games is simply inexcusable. So what happened and what can be done?
Where should I start with the tongue lashing? Ok, I’ll start with when the Titans stepped off the plane in San Diego. This team is ill prepared on both sides of the ball, and the coaching staff is owed a very good portion of the blame. The offense resembles that of a Division II football team and the defense plays with a safety 75 yards deep so we can avoid the big play!
I do want to say that I was very worried heading into the New England game and Chris Palmer talked about how the offense would do what the Patriot defense allowed it to do. I’m sorry but I want an offense that does what it does no matter what.
Chris Palmer was brought in to help tutor a young QB and install a new offense that would look to throw the ball, score points in bunches, practice run and shoot concepts, take advantage of our young offensive weapons, and also take advantage of our new, young, mobile QB in Jake Locker. Now what the Titans have shown in two games is that we are focusing on none of what I just mentioned. The run game is as vanilla as I’ve ever seen. There are no counters, no sweeps, no stretch run plays, no traps, and only one draw play that they’ve run that is as predictable to diagnose as the rest of their offense.
What do I say about the running game? I say we line up against the Detroit Lions this week and give CJ 25+ carries. Why? Look, we lost our first two games with an average score of 36-11. Odds are that the Lions, after losing to the 49 ers will come to Nashville and hang half a hundred on us so why not? We just played the Chargers and had the ball for fifteen minutes of T.O.P. Remember, there are 60 minutes in a game. That means the Chargers had the ball for 45 minutes. They had the ball for three quarters of the game.
Have we seen one bootleg yet? Have we moved the pocket to take advantage of Locker’s mobility? Have we run a rollout yet? Have we tried the screen? Have we done anything creative on offense? Has Palmer put together a decent game plan so far? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding, “NO”. This team offensively is light years behind the Colts who start a true rookie QB. Absolutely amazing how bad we look offensively.
Onward now to the defensive side of the ball. I will say, there were a few good adjustments made yesterday and the defense looked good in spots, but that’s it. I will also say that I have more faith in Jerry Gray getting this defense together than I do Palmer getting the offense together. The first absolute shocker that comes to mind with the defense is with safeties. Why in the world when the Titans are playing the Chargers in San Diego is Robert Johnson in L.A.? Ok, that was meant to be funny, but seriously, Robert Johnson spent a good part of the game yesterday 30-35 yards deep even though the Chargers didn’t show the ability to hit the deep ball all day.
Why in the world is Griffin playing SS this season? Does he scare anyone in the running game? Is his range being utilized by playing closer to the line? Griffin just doesn’t fit there, but maybe he’s the best fit at SS out of the safeties we have on the roster. If so, then that isn’t saying much at all about our safeties.
Note to future opponents: If you have a TE anywhere on your roster, line him up, run a seam route and you will score multiple times each game against us. If you are down to your back-up TE, no worries, do it anyway. This is something that must be fixed, the Titans have simply been horrible about covering the middle of the field for two years now.
The grumblings have to be growing louder and louder at Baptist Sports Park this week as the Titans looked absolutely horrible. What the Titans talked about doing in the off-season has not happened. We all knew heading into the season that the first four games were going to be tough, but I think we all thought they would be tough, hard fought battles. That simply hasn’t happened.
What say you?
Shawn Eagle
You can follow me on twitter @RS1Eagle