Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-US PREWIRE
The Tennessee Titans went to Houston this past Sunday to take on the Houston Texans in what was sure to be a hard fought, divisional game. Let’s look at what the Titans did offensively.
QB- Well, losing Jake Locker on his second pass attempt was n’t the way to start the game. On a busted blitz pick up, Locker was blindsided by Houston Texans DB Glover Quin and injured his left shoulder and had to leave the game. Luckily it was his non throwing shoulder, but there should be some concern in the fact that this is the second time this season that he has hurt his left shoulder. Matt Hasselbeck stepped in and looked decent. He had a few dropped balls from his receivers that could have extended drives. He also threw two pick sixes that were absolute killers in the second half and lost one fumble. He did throw two TDs, although the last one to Kendall Wright was right at the end of the game and only helped make the score look a little better.
RBs- Welcome back CJ2K!!! Playing against one of the best defenses in the Houston Texans, Chris Johnson looked decisive and determined all afternoon and ended up gaining 141 yards on 25 carries. Most of the day, Johnson made one cut and hit the hole, exactly how he should. Having 25 carries must have felt great as well, and I’m sure it only helped Johnson get in his groove. Moving forward with the rest of the year, I look forward to seeing our run game click like it did this last week. Now that we see what it can do, there should be no reason for anymore abysmal outings by CJ. Here are a couple things to like about the running game on Sunday: Johnson averaged a season high 4.65 yards before contact per rush between the tackles, he also was only hit once in in the back field on 25 rushes. Before Sunday, he averaged 1.3 before contact and was hit seven times in 27 rush attempts on the season.
Receivers- Eight different receivers caught a pass from Matt Hasselbeck on Sunday. That is great ball distribution. Kendall wright caught a TD in garbage time and Graig Stevens caught one in the second quarter to make the score 14-7 Texans. The Titans had a few dropped balls that killed drives and one tipped pass by Taylor Thompson that was a pick six. In general, the receivers played sound football but the lack of consistency in catching the ball ultimately kills drives and kills chances to score.
O-line- The line did a magnificent job of opening up holes for the running game. For the line to block so well for Chris Johnson that he averaged 4.65 yards a carry before contact when running between the tackles is awesome. Most of the day they did a good job of pass protecting, but when the Texans blitzed there was always someone that got a free hit on our QBs, ex. Glover Quin. Luckily, there are not a lot of teams out there that play defense as well as the Texans, but we still need to work on picking up the blitz.
Surprisingly the Titans were in the game against the Texans until the third quarter and then the wheels fell off. This offense, without Kenny Britt and with Hasselbeck playing really has no explosiveness in the passing game. Fortunately, Hasselbeck is a good, accurate QB that should provide some consistency at the position until Locker’s shoulder heals up. It was awesome seeing the run game come alive and I hope that continues.
What say you?
Shawn Eagle
You can follow me on twitter @RS1Eagle