Situational gumption cost the Tennessee Titans a win

The red flag on Mike Mularkey that the Tennessee Titans need to worry about.

The Tennessee Titans played their first game of the season yesterday, and it didn’t go the way they hoped.

Still, the are in a division with a crumbling Houston Texans team and a rudderless Indianapolis Colts franchise. Combine that with a team piloted by Blake Bortles and I still really like the team’s chances here.

Great players are going to make plays and it always takes the Titans a week or two to find themselves. In fact, last year it really took four games and then they went on to have one of their best seasons in the last decade.

My concern is with Mike Mularkey.

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I’m not a fire-Mike-Mularkey guy, or at least I haven’t been after I saw the job he did last year. His personality and mindset seem to mesh well with Jon Robinson, the man who has the most job security in the entire Titans franchise.

However, I don’t get what he was thinking yesterday.

Let’s start with the onside kick. When you kick an onside kick to open up the game, you are telling me that you don’t think you can beat a team straight up.

What you are trying to do with that opening kick is steal a possesion. Now, whether that is because you don’t know if your defense can get stops/turnovers or if you are worried about your offense, I can’t tell you.

Either way, it is a bold and risky strategy that shows you are going to try to aggressive to win the game.

That is fine, in fact I like that mentality. That is why the plays in the redzone made absolutely no sense to me.

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If you are going to kick an onside kick and be aggressive, you can’t settle for field goals inside the 10 yard line. Especially when you are down one of your starting safeties.

When you hear situational football, this is what it is. It is deciding whether or not to go for it on 4th down or be safe.

The Raiders were in a similar situation on the goal line and went for it. Even though when they converted they still ended up kicking a field goal, that was a chance for the Titans to stop them and get the ball back.

If they tackle Marshawn Lynch there, the Raiders don’t get a field goal and they lose three point.

The Titans had the ball twice inside the 10 yard line with the most efficient redzone QB of all time and they kicked two field goals. If they had had the gumption to go for it they could have had 8 more points (best case scenario).

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Situational football directly cost the Titans 11 points in a game that ended up being a 10 point game. If it is the Titans who win those three plays, then Tennessee would be up 1-0 right now.

But no, Mularkey went ultra conservative and the defense couldn’t tackle the elusive Lynch and the Titans end up with a loss.

Now, it isn’t all bad. There were a lot of good things to take away from the loss, but those don’t get you any closer to the playoffs. The Oakland Raiders are going to be a very good football team that probably goes far into the playoffs if everyone stays healthy.

There is no shame in losing to them, but it hurts knowing that the Titans were three plays away from the win. Three plays that a different coach may have been able to win.

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