Marcus Mariota is a different man after Tennessee Titans bye

NASHVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 2: Marcus Mariota #8 of the Tennessee Titans looks to pass the ball against the New York Jets during the first quarter at Nissan Stadium on December 2, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 2: Marcus Mariota #8 of the Tennessee Titans looks to pass the ball against the New York Jets during the first quarter at Nissan Stadium on December 2, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images) /
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The Tennessee Titans franchise QB is starting to look better and better.

I’ll be honest, when Tennessee Titans QB Marcus Mariota threw his pick-six to start the game against the New York Jets yesterday the best way to describe my emotions was dejected.

After all this team has been through from injuries, to quitters, to underpreformers, to inconsistent coaching when this team had one last gasp at a potential post season bid, they were going to choke it away.

However, after that Marcus Mariota made some huge plays with his arms and legs and tallied his 11th game winning drive.

It shouldn’t surprise me or anyone at this point. Even when Mariota has bad stretches he has the athleticism and home run threat potential with his arms and legs to keep his team in the game even when they should be buried.

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I looked into it and since Mariota has been able to feel his hand (after the bye week) look at his stats:

In 5 games: 89 of 124 (72%), 1,138 yards, 9.2 YPA, 141 rushing yards, 9:2 total TD to INT ratio

All that with an offense struggling to protect him and with Delanie Walker injured, Rishard Matthews gone, and with Taywan Taylor only playing in two of those games.

Again, fans are dismissing the fact that Marcus Mariota is winning games with this team despite a below average supporting cast. People want to look at raw numbers alone and that is wrong, I prefer to look at raw numbers in context of what is happening on the actual field.

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For ever sack that Mariota gets credited there are one or two sacks that he is avoiding with his footwork and athleticism. He is making every player on this team better and that is why he is a franchise QB.

Even when the Titans have broken down for long stretches of the game offensively he seems to pull plays out of a hat and make something happen.

Give Mariota a ton of credit for what he has done this season and if the Titans go on any sort of run it should only amplify the respect he should get. If this team can find a way to add playmakers in the long term and/or get Delanie Walker back in the short term then they could be dangerous.