Tennessee Titans vs Carolina Panthers: Week 9 predictions
By Will Lomas
Final staff predictions for Tennessee Titans vs Carolina Panthers.
After some pretty interesting late week additions and surprise inactives, it is time to take a look at our staff predictions for the Tennessee Titans at Carolina Panthers.
I’ll start off.
The Tennessee Titans are a good football team, but until I see them surpass that I am not going to expect anything more. On the other side of the field, the Carolina Panthers feel very familiar.
They are starting their second QB of the year, the offensive line has been disappointing, the running back is a key factor, but most importantly the strength of their team is the defense.
Going into Carolina, the Titans should feel very uneasy with Ben Jones missing because now the question has to be, who is calling the protections? Do you let your backup QB who is starting his third game of the year make those calls? The most veteran offensive lineman is left tackle Taylor Lewan and he consistently looks to Ben Jones for clarification on blocking assignments (as he should).
That more than anything is my biggest concern, and while I think both defenses are outstanding, the Panthers missing Mario Addison and the Titans missing Jurrell Casey are pretty big losses.
It is going to come down to the trenches and right now I just don’t trust the Saffold-Douglas-Davis trio inside, like at all. While none of the Titans lineman are as bad as Daryl Williams the weakness of the interior vs the Panthers DTs feels scary.
Ultimately I don’t know what will doom the Titans, but my money is on either a Mike Vrabel decision or a series of bad run calls/lack of targets for Corey Davis and A.J. Brown from Arthur Smith.
In a low-scoring game I’ll take the Panthers, but not by much.
Carolina Panthers over Tennessee Titans: 17-14