Todd Downing continues to destroy the Tennessee Titans

The Tennessee Titans made fun of the Colts for laying an egg and scoring zero points against the Jacksonville Jaguars, unfortunately, the Titans’ offense and Todd Downing embarrassed themselves just as much as their rivals in Indianapolis.

This was a loss so bad that Titans legend Frank Wycheck tweeted for the first time in a year.

I didn’t even know Frank knew what a hashtag was!

I could essentially reprint my article from last week about just how badly Todd Downing let down the Titan’s offense, but I won’t. I’ll make a new one.

Todd Downing is not a good play caller and I have (more) proof.

Let’s look back at this game, just this one time, and then we can put it behind us forever.

The Titans scored and looked great on their first drive. While we do not have great insight into what actually goes into the game plan, we know that the first drive or two that teams play is what they call “scripted”, essentially meaning that coaches plan the plays in advance during the week ahead of the game.

On these plays, the offense looked good. The scripted plays worked!

For the second week in a row, the Titans scored on their first possession of the game after being absolutely miserable on their first drives last season.

That is all the good news I have.

The long list of bad news about the Tennessee Titans offense

Immediately after that, the offense became absolutely impotent. Nothing, nada, zilch.

After the Tennessee Titans’ 2nd drive of the game, five of their nine possessions were three-and-outs and three more were turnovers.

Those play calls fall on no one else but Todd Downing. Not only did the offense produce less than it did last week, it looked worse than it did last week. This is not surprising in hindsight since we knew the Giants were undermanned and not very good.

I am sorry if I sound undiplomatic and angry, but I am feeling undiplomatic and angry at this point. And listen, at the end of the day, I do not think it is fair for me or anyone else to call for someone to lose their job. That said, the issues in Tennessee’s offense are clearly and obviously a play-calling problem. The Titans’ organization, Mike Vrabel, Jon Robinson, or someone has to step in and be responsible for fixing the problem.

Three and outs, personnel packages that show exactly what you’re going to do (or make no sense at all), the inability to get your best players the ball; it all comes down to the leader of the offense which is Todd Downing.

Every second that Mike Vrabel does not do something about the offensive woes puts him further in his own hot seat. The offense is a train wreck and it has to be addressed, and the longer it takes the more proverbial heads will need to roll.

Even if I ignore the play calls that Todd Downing is responsible for, Mike Vrabel has to take responsibility for the other two glaring issues that are hampering the Tennessee Titans. I touched on those earlier, but to be clear I am talking about the personnel packages and the clock management in the first half.

Personnel-wise, if Austin Hooper is on the field, the defense knows it’s a pass. If Geoff Swaim is on the field, they know it’s a run and they play both accordingly. Or the personnel packages simply make no sense, like having an empty backfield and splitting Geoff Swaim, Tory Carter, and Derrick Henry out wide as receivers.

Get more creative in your personnel packages, what else is there to say? It’s an abomination.

Then, before halftime, down 17-7 with 45 seconds left and two timeouts, why do you decide to pack it in against one of the best offenses in the NFL and not try to at least get three points?

That too was a Mike Vrabel failure.

The only defense I have of Downing is that injuries hampered the Titans from the first snap. Trenton Cannon and Taylor Lewan Went both left the game before the 2nd offensive play.

But, it is now two games in a row that the Tennessee Titans have looked awful on offense.

In this game specifically, I have trouble even providing many examples of what worked because I am trauma-blocking some of those memories but also because the Titans were rarely on the field for longer than three downs at a time.

If I have to see another outside toss to Henry, I will have Ryan Stonehouse punt me into the sun.

I am not sure how much hope Tennessee Titans fans can have with Downing at the helm of the offense. It is a disaster and there are few words for the complete throttling that the Titans just experienced, but especially considering how thin the defense has become with injuries, the offense has to become better or the season is already over.