What have the Tennessee Titans changed since beating the Kansas City Chiefs in November
By Will Lomas
5 Angry Men
When you look back at the Tennessee Titans performance against the Kansas City Chiefs, there is a lot of uncertainty in pass protection with the QB and the line not being in sync. Those issues ended up in 4 sacks for Kansas City on Ryan Tannehill.
Since that game, the Titans have only had one game where Derrick Henry has played (more on that in a second) and they have allowed 4+ sacks and that was way back on December 1st.
In a chicken and egg situation, the Titans have found success in the running game because of the performance of the offensive line improving on a weekly basis. In turn, that makes the play action game so deadly that it helps the offensive line in pass protection. When the defense starts playing on their heels to stop the play action pass, then the OL dominates in the running game with no reason to stop running the ball until the defense adjusts.
This cycle has repeated for over a month against some great teams and it worked well against two of the AFC’s top three seeds in the playoffs.
Taylor Lewan, Rodger Saffold, Ben Jones, Nate Davis, and Jack Conklin are playing on another level right now and I should throw in some praise to guys like MyCole Pruitt and Khari Blasingame who have really helped in that area as well.