Tennessee Titans: Winners and losers preseason week 3
By Will Lomas
Loser: Position coaches for the OL, DL, LB
Finally, I want to touch on something Mike Vrabel talked about in his post game press conference.
He made a comment about how he needed to make sure that the backups and starters were all being coached the same way. The way I took that, was Vrabel taking the blame for the team’s backups not looking anywhere near as good as the starters.
When I went back and watched, there were some pretty clear instances of position groups struggling.
Keith Carter’s backup offensive line really didn’t look like they had any idea how to handle the starter for the Steelers and when given time to adjust on the sideline he only made things worse as the sacks kept coming. His unit was the most under preforming unit on the field by far.
The front seven looked out of place and confused by simple outside runs. Rarely was there a hard edge set by the end man on the line of scrimmage and guys on the interior were non factors.
Off ball linebackers are obviously a part of the front seven and they weren’t immune to bad play either. Often you would see a linebacker shoot the wrong gap or miss a tackle to spring someone for a big gain.
I would be extremely nervous if I was any of those position coaches because Mike Vrabel is going to be double and triple checking everything they do after that performance. The Titans HC was already very detailed and thorough, but getting embarrassed in the Titans only primetime game of the season is going to leave a bad taste in his mouth as it should.