Tennessee Titans vets need to handle Indianapolis Colts rookies
By Will Lomas
Sunday is a great day for the Tennessee Titans vets to have a big day.
The Tennessee Titans are red hot right now after back to back wins against Dallas and New England.
However, on Sunday they will be going against another team who has done really well the past few weeks. The face the Indianapolis Colts who have made a living beating some of the worst teams in the NFL the last three weeks: Jacksonville, Buffalo and Oakland.
Those wins came directly after a 1-4 stretch ending with a brutal loss against the New York Jets where they never looked close.
Anyway, the big theme behind those Indy wins is that they haven’t allowed a sack in the last four weeks which is pretty incredible. While some of that is the offensive line, another reason for it is the Colts just don’t really throw deep passes often.
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Andrew Luck is on pace to throw 650 passes this season (which would be 70 more than the leader last year) but a large chunk of those passes are short and quick. Part of this is to protect a young offensive line and part of this is because early in the season they were scared for Luck to either A) get hit or B) attempt to throw a deep pass.
Ultimately for the Titans, the best pressure for them and against an offense like this is interior pressure. The problem is the Colts are getting a ton of praise for their ability to protect on the inside.
Again, the Colts have played absolutely 0 talented interior pass rushers in the last three games. Before that when the Colts did have to play talented DTs their interior offensive line wasn’t exactly grading out well, specifically Quenton Nelson:
If anyone was wondering why Colts LG, Quenton Nelson wasn't in our current Top 20 rookies. Here's why:
— Neil Hornsby (@PFF_Neil) November 13, 2018
Wks 1-4 ranked 39 of 74 guards
Wks 5-10 ranked 6
He'll be there. Just some more catching up to do from a slow start.
The three best DTs the Colts played this year were probably Geno Atkins, Matt Ioannidis and Fletcher Cox. One thing they all have in common is that they all sacked Andrew Luck in their matchups.
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So that got me thinking, this would be a really good week for Jurrell Casey to finally get back on the stat sheet and come up with a sack this week.
In fact, when you look at it, a huge chunk of this game will be decided by the Titans ability to beat rookies with veterans.
Quenton Nelson vs Jurrell Casey is a big matchup, but so is Nelson vs Wesley Woodyard and Jayon Brown. The two linebackers have combined for 8 sacks this year and get better every week.
On offense, the likes of Ben Jones, Quinton Spain and Josh Kline need to be able to stone Darius Leonard. Leonard is solid, but he is pumped up a little bit by the fact that he is the only player on his defense that can really make a tackle.
Leonard has 150% as many tackles as the next closest man on the team, which I view as an indictment of the talent on that defense rather than a huge plus for him. For example, Avery Williamson led the Titans in tackles and had 150% as many as the next closest man. That defense was right at the middle of the pack and has been completely re-tooled since then.
The other notable rookie for the Colts is Braden Smith the right tackle. He has been fine, not spectacular but an alright player. He has started just 5 games this year and has been a decent pass protector (largely because he was rarely stressed given the way this offense works) but a bad run blocker.
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He is 30th among tackles as a run blocker according to PFF. That makes me believe that the perfect matchup for him is Derrick Morgan who excels as a run defender and isn’t a huge threat to get to the QB anyway.
There are a bunch of holes in this Colts team, but to really have a great chance at winning this game they need to dominate the matchups between rookies and veterans. Do that and the Titans should win their first game against Andrew Luck in the last 10 matchups.