Tennessee Titans Week 6 report card

How a terrible two weeks culminated for the Tennessee Titans.

The Tennessee Titans turned a 3-1 start into a 3-3 mess and fans and critics alike are coming out of the woodwork to chew the team out.

So who is to blame? The quarterback? The coaches? The offensive line?

Well, don’t worry there is plenty of blame to go around.

Just like when the Titans beat the Eagles, anything the team does is usually the culmination of all or nearly all of the position groups. So when they were getting praised for being a likely playoff team, a slump like this is going to get killed.

Let’s get into some grades.

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Quarterbacks: C-

Marcus Mariota had no time to do anything yesterday. The offensive line was awful and the receivers really weren’t doing anything to help him, but getting sacked 11 times isn’t 100% on the offensive line.

Of those sacks, there were probably three or four that you could argue he should have gotten the ball out quickly. That combined with a costly miss deep to Taywan Taylor gave this offense no hope.

Mariota was NOT the reason the Titans ended up with one of the worst losses in history, but I think we all see that while you can win a lot of games with Mariota, it is going to take good coaching and supporting talent to elevate him to a QB that can go for a deep run in the playoffs.

Running back: D

Dion Lewis is struggling to make defenders miss and he isn’t looking like the spark that the offense wanted to get from him. Derrick Henry meanwhile constantly looks like he is off balance and is trying to find a way to fall forward instead of running through contact.

This was supposed to be a strength of this team, but this unit has probably big the biggest disappointment of the season. I expect the Titans to try to move on from one of these back this offseason and the other one will get a much reduced role going forward.

Tight ends: C-

While Luke Stocker, Jonnu Smith and Anthony Firkser weren’t great they had three catches including either the second longest of the day.

Firkser should be the top TE in this offense and it has looked like that since the preseason. In a league devoid of TE talent the Titans were lucky he wasn’t signed by another team and he is the only hope of getting consistent production at the position while Walker is out.

Wide Receiver: C

I give the DBs of the Ravens a lot of credit because they were staying tight with the Tennessee WRs despite sending pressure all day. The DBs knew that if they could hold on for three seconds that they would win and they did that consistently throughout the day.

Corey Davis and Taywan Taylor should have seen more volume and it wasn’t their fault that they didn’t get many opportunities. Taylor had his man beat for a TD early in the game but a screen from the official and a throw that was just slightly off ended in a miss.

In the only real target to Davis he caught a nice explosive play that should have ignited the offense.

I shouldn’t forget Tajae Sharpe who also did fine in limited chances.

Offensive line: F-

They were terrible. I love Lewan and Conklin and I think they have all the potential in the world to be very good players, but it takes more than two tackle (who weren’t really at the top of their game last night either) to make a good OL.

Marcus could have gotten some of those passes off, but more often than not the offensive line looked confused at the protection and were getting destroyed even when they theoretically picked it up.

A good offensive line rarely gets a lot of praise but a bad one gets killed by the media, and this week I expect a LOT of negative attention for this offensive line who allowed 11 sacks and didn’t do anything in the run game.

Defensive line: C

Jurrell Casey and company honestly didn’t have a bad day on 1st and second down. The issue is that when it came down to the big plays on 3rd down they were almost non existent.

I thought this would be an area where the Titans got pressure and disrupted the Ravens, but even when Alex Lewis went out of the game the Titans got nothing done up front when it mattered most.

Linebackers: B-

I put the fact that so many 3rd downs were converted squarely on the defensive backs and the defensive coaches. Too often the WR would box out a defender in bad position right past the sticks.

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However, there were several times in the game last night where the middle of the field was wide open. Again, a lot of that was poor play call, but you would think that at some point the linebackers would cheat back.

The reason why his grade is so high was that I thought Rashaan Evans looked like a first round pick yesterday. He was flying to the ball and making running backs pay for staying in bounds. He only had 1 TFL on paper, but there was another that was borderline and another that was wiped out to accept a holding penalty on Baltimore.

Jayon Brown also had a nice day, but I found myself waiting for a big play that never game.

The EDGEs were afterthoughts. Brian Orakpo was alright, but Harold Landry, Derrick Morgan (now injured), Kamalei Correa, and Sharif Finch really didn’t do anything at all.

Another issue with this coaching staff that that keep trying to make Landry something he isn’t. They try to make him a balanced player instead of using him as a pure edge rusher. He needs to be getting upfield quickly or he doesn’t need to be on the field.

Defensive backs: D

Before I start this there is a couple of things to note.

-Logan Ryan is having a good year.

-Adoree Jackson is having some big highs with very few lows.

-Kevin Byard got his first interception of the season last night.

-Kendrick Lewis (who is their 4th or 5th best safety) is alright, but not above average.

Now, let’s talk about Malcolm Butler. I noticed yesterday (and not for the first time this season) that Butler was getting routinely targeted on big plays and didn’t do anything to make anyone regret it.

This abuse is getting national attention to. Look at what Mike Clay said.

Ravens’ plan on their first drive was pretty clear - attack Malcolm Butler. It worked. Crabtree beat him often and took them right down the field (including the TD). Butler has been a major liability all season. #WRCBMatchups
— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) October 15, 2018

This is something that the Titans need to fix now, or make a move to fix it. Whether that means Butler has to take a game off and let Sims come in or whether it needs to be a bigger move is up to the coaches, but right now Butler is the center of the problems on the defense.

Rick Merritt also had a damning comparison:

Malcolm Butler = Nick Harper.
— Rick Merritt (@R1ckterScale) October 14, 2018

The Titans have made some plays on defense this year and honestly have been pretty good, but almost every time that someone has gashed the Titans with a big play #21 has looked like the guilty party.

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