Titans OC Nick Holz reveals why NFL scoring is down around the league

In what's advertised as a pass-happy, high-scoring league nowadays, points and passing touchdowns are way down to begin the 2024 NFL season. Through two concluded weeks of the new campaign, 69 passing touchdowns have been thrown. That's significantly lower than the 2023 (86) and 2022 (105), and represents the fewest number of passing scores through Week 2 since the 2006 (67) campaign, according to StatMuse.

The Tennessee Titans have certainly struggled, though the majority of their issues can be attested to boneheaded turnovers by quarterback Will Levis, and blocked punts in consecutive games. Levis has committed more turnovers than touchdowns thrown (2), and the offense has managed just 17 points in consecutive games.

NFL defenses have reacted to pass-happy offenses by fielding two-high coverage shells (Cover 2) with regularity. A defense designed to take away the deep ball and explosive completions is working. It's creating so much controversy that ESPN NFL insider Mel Kiper recently recommended banning two-high coverage, which is a ridiculous thing to say, because, well, they should be allowed to play defense.

Titans offensive coordinator Nick Holz was recently asked about counter-punching two-high safety coverage shells. Holz delivered an outstanding, thorough answer. The Titans may be struggling on offense, but it's not due to a lack of imagination or understanding by the coaching staff.

"In a two-high shell in pre-snap, it just kind of hides everything now," Holz said. "When the safety was down, you knew who was going to buzz out and those kinda things. You could recognize that pre-snap. These two-high looks nowadays, they just hide everything. There's more post-snap recognition now, which is harder. They can match things now. It used to be all spot-drop zone, but now they're in middle-open and matching."

"It kind of plays out like man coverage underneath. It still gives you a zone [coverage] look that can play out like man [coverage]. You have to see the man defender and the zone defender. I think using motion has been big for us," Holz continued when asked a follow-up by Turron Davenport about using more pre-snap motion to get defenses out of their two-high shell. "We motion a lot. We're getting into tight formations and it's making them adjust to us. Those two-high shell match coverages, they have a million rules. We try to manipulate those rules. We're in motion, shifting, and changing the formations. That's where it's going."

Holz and head coach Brian Callahan clearly possess the answers required to solve the two-high coverage looks. Now if only Levis stops making ill-advised decisions, and the punt unit could execute properly, the Titans will be in business. The man in the mirror, now two-high safeties, has been the Titans' biggest adversary so far.