Tennessee Titans pass rush win rate vs Denver Broncos

Titans pass rush success.

It might not have looked like it, but the Tennessee Titans had a good game disrupting the quarterback in Week 1.

Now, every fan wants their team to lead the NFL in sacks and be feared across the league, but that isn’t how every defense is built.

In fact, even if a team’s defense has a stacked group of pass rushers on the front line, that doesn’t mean that they will be a top-5 team in sacks. Why? Because when a defense has that level of talent they rarely want to cause problems in the secondary by blitzing.

Take the Titans for instance, who spent all of last season dropping into coverage on 3rd downs and trying to force quarterbacks to make the right presnap reads instead of trying to force mistakes by bringing blitzes.

So, what stat do you turn to when you want to find out how often a defense is winning and getting pressure on a QB without just looking at hits or sacks? Well, ESPN has a stat for that.

How did the Titans do?

Despite missing one of their top off-ball blitzers in Rashaan Evans for most of the game and the loss of Logan Ryan on defense, the Titans still found ways to get pressure from their talented front.

The Broncos had a good gameplan of moving the pocket, throwing screens and just running the ball that made it hard for the Titans to get into a rhythm early, and (stop me if you have heard this before) that altitude makes it really hard to breathe for visiting teams.

Despite those two additional factors, the Titans ended up winning their pass rushes at an above-average rate and that isn’t something you would expect when you see the goose egg on the stat sheet for sacks.

The addition of Jadeveon Clowney to a line that already have Harold Landry and Jeffery Simmons is paying dividends already, and in Week 2 it looks like there is a shot that they could have Vic Beasley and Derick Roberson added to the rotation as well.

If Tennessee generated good pressure with the aforementioned trio struggling to breathe the thin air, then just imagine this group with a heavy rotation of speed at home this week. That might just help fans forget about the injuries the Titans have suffered on defense.