Titans still need to be careful to avoid a familiar 9-7 fate
By Brady Akins
Who Are The Tennessee Titans?
As Tennessee Titans fans shift focus from the crucial win against the Baltimore Ravens to the next game against the Indianapolis Colts, one thought keeps popping into my head.
Frustration. This team is frustrating.
Through every third-down conversion allowed, every long drive the defense suffers through, every blown pass block, predictable play call, every missed field goal, blown punt, dropped touchdown, and opposing quarterback made to look like a John Elway/Tom Brady hybrid– the Tennessee Titans are maddening.
Have I ever told you the definition of insanity? It’s being a Titans fan in 2020.
But not because the Titans are bad, they’re not. Not even close. We can whine and scream all day and night about everything I just mentioned, but that’s not what makes Tennessee so frustrating. It’s the fact that buried somewhere beneath a layer of historically bad third-down defense and perpetually awful special teams is an elite team with an elite roster.
Even with all that they have working against them, the Tennessee Titans are still ranked in the league’s top ten in points per game. They’re still seventh in yards gained per play. Ryan Tannehill is still seventh in passing touchdowns, and Derrick Henry still leads the NFL in rushing yards.
And that’s just on the offense. The underperforming defensive side of the ball is still one loaded with talent, with two All-Pro players in the secondary in Kevin Byard and Desmond King, the NFL’s leader in run-stopping win rate at defensive tackle in Jeffery Simmons, a multi-year Pro Bowl player in Jadeveon Clowney (who is on I.R. for now), and a Super Bowl hero playing cornerback in Malcolm Butler.
And yet, I would direct you to the top of this slide. For all it’s talent on paper, this defense is allowing teams to convert on third down 54% of the time. They’re allowing touchdowns on 69% of opposing offense’s red zone visits. Only two teams have sacked the opposing quarterback at a lower rate than Tennessee, and only four teams have allowed more passing touchdowns than the Titans.
The Titans are a team that can’t seem to live up to what they have. Overflowing talent on both sides of the ball, enough to take care of business early in the year while teams were still overcoming the rust of a weird, shortened offseason. But now in the late part of the season, with teams across the league on their feet and fully prepared, cracks in the Titans foundation are starting to show– and not just on defense either.