Titans shock the world: Instant analysis of win over Ravens

Here’s some instant analysis of the Tennessee Titans’ 28-12 Divisional Round win over the Baltimore Ravens.

No, you are not dreaming, the Tennessee Titans just defeated the formerly “unbeatable” Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round and will advance to the AFC Championship Game to face either the Kansas City Chiefs or the Houston Texans.

And for those of you Titans fans who suffered through the tough defeats of the 2000’s, this is sweet, sweet revenge. Enjoy every single second of what just happened on this very special evening.

Let’s get to some instant analysis of one of the biggest wins in Titans franchise history.

Offense

–Ryan Tannehill once again failed to put up gaudy numbers (7-of-14 for 88 yards and two touchdowns), but who cares? The Titans QB made two huge scoring plays to help his team win. His 46-yard dime to Kalif Raymond for a score was a thing of beauty and was set up by the Ravens selling out to stop the run. He later took a read option play for a rushing score from the one-yard line.

-People keep expecting Derrick Henry to have a down game, but he just keeps chugging along, running defenders over. Not only did King Henry rush for 195 yards on 30 carries, but he also threw a jump pass to Corey Davis for the Titans’ third touchdown of the game, which was setup by his own 66-yard run.

-The Titans’ offensive line did its thing for Henry once again this week, but was also mostly effective in pass protection, allowing one sack. Tannehill needed enough time to make the touchdown pass to Raymond, and he got just what he needed.

Defense

-Tennessee was able to keep Lamar Jackson from getting game-breaking runs, instead forcing him to the middle of the field. When Jackson did get to the edge, there was usually a Titans defender there to meet him in order to avoid big plays. Sure, Jackson did run for over 100 yards in this game, but Ravens running backs combined for 42 yards on nine carries. Jackson was forced to throw the ball 57 times with his team trailing early. That was easily a season-high.

-The Titans’ defensive line was getting consistent pressure all night and turned that into three sacks. Jurrell Casey showed why he’s a legend for this franchise, as he notched two sacks, one of which resulted in a fumble. Tennessee’s D-line won the battle in the trenches all night long. Jeffery Simmons was also incredibly disruptive and recovered the fumble forced by Casey’s sack.

-The Titans made two huge stops on fourth-and-1 situations in this game. The Ravens were a perfect 8-for-8 in such situations this season coming into this game.

-The secondary, led by a great performance by Adoree’ Jackson, who seemed to be all over the place tonight, did its part in making sure that Jackson didn’t have an outlet to pass the ball with the front seven doing a solid job keeping the ground game in check. Tennessee nabbed two picks, one via a pass deflection that fell into the hands of Kevin Byard, and Kenny Vaccaro jumped a route to get his own interception.