Tennessee Titans: Instant analysis of Week 5 loss to Buffalo Bills

Here’s some instant analysis of the Tennessee Titans’ 14-7 Week 5 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

The Tennessee Titans dropped their Week 5 matchup with the Buffalo Bills, 14-7, in what was nothing short of an ugly game for Tennessee.

As painful as it’ll be, let’s get analyzing to it all.

Offense

–Marcus Mariota did the best he could in this game, but the protection was just dreadful. He was constantly under pressure, almost as if there was nobody blocking for him. What’s worse, Titans pass-catchers dropped multiple passes to make things even more difficult.

-If I take Mariota to task on one thing, it was his decision to not run the ball into the end zone during a play in the fourth quarter that led to the Titans’ fourth missed field goal. Mariota had an opportunity to find pay dirt as he was scrambling around trying to make a play downfield, and decided to throw it to A.J. Brown. While he completed the pass in the end zone, Mariota stepped over the line of scrimmage and it was called back.

-The Titans’ offensive line was putrid, from left to right, and it allowed five sacks to bring up Tennessee’s grand total to 22 sacks allowed in five games. It’s really in four games, though, as Tennessee didn’t allow a sack last week. If the Titans’ O-line wasn’t acting like a sieve, it was committing brutal penalties to set the team’s offense back.

-Rodger Saffold somehow found a way to be the most dreadful of the bunch, as he allowed multiple sacks and got beat regularly upfront. To me, it looks like Saffold has checked out. We thought things would improve for him once Lewan returned, but that was NOT the case.

-Dion Lewis should have no role on this team. He dropped two passes today and has contributed almost zero to the Titans this season. Derrick Henry needs more touches any way the Titans can get them to him, or Tennessee needs to bring in another back. I’d expect that to happen this week.

-Kicker Cairo Santos missed four field goals in total, two of which were from 33 and 36 yards out, and the other two were from 50-plus. The one from 33 yards out was blocked, and he absolutely shanked the 36-yarder.

-For whatever reason, Mike Vrabel decided to give Santos a fourth try at a another field goal, this time from 53 yards out, which, again, he missed. How Vrabel thought Santos, who had badly missed on an earlier, shorter field goal, would now make this one is beyond all reason. Not to mention, there was just under seven minutes left in the game and the Titans needed a touchdown. Bad call no matter how you slice it.

Defense

-What can you say really? Outside of a few big plays and blown coverage in a few instances, the Titans defense did everything necessary to help this team win the game. The Bills’ second touchdown of the game was a helper by the officials, who called a bogus unnecessary roughness penalty on Jurrell Casey.

-One of the Titans’ scores was setup by a Kevin Byard interception. Without it, the Titans might have gotten shut out. The Titans should win when their defense allows 14 points, but unfortunately that was not the case here.

-If we’re going to pick out an issue, it’s the Titans not getting enough pressure. Sure, Tennessee totaled four sacks, but there were some times when Josh Allen had too much time to throw the ball. The Titans need to do a better job of getting pressure when they aren’t blitzing.

Coaching

-We already mentioned Vrabel. It seems when it isn’t necessary to be aggressive, he goes aggressive. When it’s necessary to be aggressive, Vrabel goes conservative. He’s got to get this figured out. The call to let Santos attempt the fourth field goal from over 50 yards instead of going for it was egregiously bad.

-It’s hard to totally judge Arthur Smith here because the offensive line didn’t show up. What I will say is that Derrick Henry had just five carries in the first half, which isn’t nearly enough, and Delanie Walker should be more involved. Oh, and stop drawing up plays for Dion Lewis.