Tennessee Titans:Take Different Approach to Kansas City Game
By Les Bailey
Due to the quick turnaround after Sunday night’s 27-14 win over the St. Louis Rams, the Tennessee Titans will need to take a non-traditional approach when they travel to Kansas City for a Friday night matchup with the Chiefs.
More at Titan Sized: Tennessee Titans game two standout: Offense
Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt said that it’s like a Thursday night game, and they will not have the time to treat the third preseason game like normal game three where it is a dress rehersal for the starting lineup.
The Sunday night opener at Nissan Stadium against the Rams left many of the players nicked up and they will need time to see who will be available and prepare accordingly.
I think the most important thing for us is that we try to continue with what we did in this game and that’s to play physical and start fast, but the only way you can do that is if we can get healthy enough by the end of the week.
I think you have to throw that out of the window. If you really think about it we have one day of practice and that’s Wednesday. Today is an off day for the players, they’ll come in tomorrow. We aren’t even going to practice until late tomorrow afternoon and it’ll be an abbreviated workout for a lot of guys that played a lot and then Wednesday is a regular practice. Thursday is a little more than a walk through, then we travel to Kansas City. We don’t have a lot of time with them to install a whole plan, practice it.
In a normal situation, teams use the third preseason game to get the starters some serious time on the field to get ready for the regular season leaving game four to players trying to make the roster.
But it sounds like we will probably see Marcus Mariota and the starting offense for about the same amount of time that we saw them in games one and two.
Whisenhunt did say that a lot would depend on the energy level the starters have in Kansas City.
Based on everything that was said in the Monday presser with the head coach, they would get another look at the revamped offensive line, and their ability to execute the running game,
One of the nice things happens to be the fact that the Chiefs run a 3-4 defense(something the offense is used to in training camp), and they have faced Andy Reid‘s West Coast offense before. This should cut down on the prep-time needed to play a preseason game.
With starting cornerback, Jason McCourty now out until after the season starts and probably out until after the bye week, this game should give Coty Sensabaugh, Cody Riggs and Marqueston Huff more time to get snaps before the season starts in Tampa on September 13th.
Expect the Titans leading receiver, Delanie Walker to get some snaps with the first team on Friday night, and we should get to see Sammie Hill for the first time this year.
The Kansas City Chiefs are 2-0 in the preseason so far, with wins against the Arizona Cardinals and the Seattle Seahawks. I wouldn’t expect to see a lot of Jamaal Charles and much out of starting quarterback Alex Smith.
According to Zach Blochlinger at KC Kingdom, the matchup with the Titans will give the Chiefs more time for backup quarterback Chase Daniels to get ready for the regular season and on defense, get more time to look at backup cornerbacks.
With Zach Mettenberger and Alex Tanney being the top rated passers during the preseason so far, and expected to get the lion’s share of the snaps on Friday night, this should keep rookie Marcus Peters and second-year DB, Philip Gaines busy.