So, I had this idea for a long, hopefully interesting post on what to expect from the second half of the Titans season, a season that looks lost and for which I indicated a record of 2-6 like the first-half record is likely, unless the team starts playing a lot better. What are the goals for the second half of the season, then? Play young players, sure, that’s great, but they’re already doing that.
More specifically, find what out what level of quarterback addition, if any, you need to make in the offseason. As I mentioned on Twitter this week, I scrapped half-done the UFR post I had planned to do on Zach Mettenbeger this week. Like a deep dive on Jake Locker this past offseason, it wouldn’t have convinced anybody of anything they didn’t already believe and even more importantly, the analysis contained within it would be rendered irrelevant by future events. I’ll do a deep dive into Mettenberger at some point if he play warrants it.
The other thing I’d really like to see from the Titans the second half of the season is to establish what most people would call an identity, but which I think is more like a level of consistency and predictability. If you’re an irrepressible optimist and a counterpart to my glass-mostly-empty approach, you see quarters, halves, and in some cases full games where the Titans have performed at a reasonable level at all phases of the game. From any given half to any given half or any given week to any given week, though, they haven’t done any of those things consistently. As a team, that makes them relatively consistent-by Football Outsiders’ variance measurement, they’re a pretty average 19th-but it makes them frustrating to watch and to analyze to me. Aside from the right side of the line being unable to run-block, I’m not sure what will happen this week.
Anyway, here are the inactives.
BALTIMORE RAVENS: WR Michael Campanaro, DT Terrence Cody, C Gino Gradkowski, CB Rashaan Melvin, OT Jah Reid, S Brynden Trawick, DE DeAngelo Tyson
TENNESSEE TITANS: RB Antonio Andrews, TE Brett Bracket, WR Kris Durham, CB Brandon Harris, DT Sammie Hill, OT Will Svitek, QB Charlie Whitehurst
Hill is down, while Nate Washington is up. Coty Sensabaugh returns to the lineup. The Ravens are playing without a depleted secondary, as everyone else has written about this week. If Mettenberger was Ryan Fitzpatrick, I’d look for a big game from Kendall Wright against whoever plays slot for Baltimore, which has been safety Matt Elam in recent weeks. But I don’t know if Mettenberger will successfully throw 96 short crossing routes a game (Fitzpatrick would throw 98 of them, and the other two would be ghastly interceptions, but you know the drill). I’m still expecting a boatload of 11 personnel from the Titans, because that’s what they do.
On the other side of the ball, it’s a Gary Kubiak offense, minus some bootlegs. I’d look for the Ravens to run the heck out of the ball and have success with it.
I’ll be chiming in during the game on Twitter, so follow and yap at me there if you so desire. Recap up after the game, snap report Monday, and maybe a post or three during the week, unless it’s like this past week.
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