So, the Tennessee Titans played their third preseason game Friday night against the Kansas City Chiefs. I gave some thoughts about the game afterwards, but those were mostly cursory notes based on a delayed viewing with no to minimal rewinding or watching of individual plays multiple times. Thus, this post, based on a more comprehensive analysis where I sat in front of my TV for a window significantly longer than the time the game actually took. Like my past preseason game reviews, that the Titans lost the game 34-10 is mostly irrelevant to the substance of my comments, which are about how individual players performed. Like those past reviews, I will go position by position with an implied depth chart, playing time notes, and whatever insight I managed to glean from the Kansas City Chiefs local broadcast shown to those of us watching on NFL Network.
General disclaimers apply in spades to this game. Preseason production values sometimes made player identification difficult. I do not have coaching film available and end zone/overhead camera angles were rarely shown, so judging things like passing windows, coverage, and just how big a running lane actually was was somewhere between difficult and impossible. What I write below, as is the case in about every post I write but is even more true here, is what I saw and think about what I think I saw, not definitive statement of fact. Snap counts are the official ones from the gamebook.
Further disclaimer: I did not rewatch the Titans’ final drive, even though I could have. Watching the rest of the second half already felt pointless and uninteresting enough. I am also not going to write as much about this game as I did about the first preseason game; again, this is not because I cannot but because I choose not to.
Quarterback
1. Marcus Mariota (29 snaps)
2. Zach Mettenberger (18 snaps)
3. Charlie Whitehurst (2 snaps)
4. Alex Tanney (7 snaps)
What we saw of Marcus Mariota this game reinforced what we saw from the first two preseason games and matched the vibe coming out of camp: his adjustment to the NFL will not be nearly as bad as some feared in his transition from Oregon’s run spread to Ken Whisenhunt’s dropback passing game. As I’ve said before, the interesting questions won’t be answered until we get to the regular season, and we may get different answers after the first, fifth, and tenth games.
Mettenberger’s ball placement was lousy, mostly behind the receiver and high, forcing players to make tough adjustments and contested catches. That’s an awful fit for this receiving corps. Whitehurst’s deep ball for Hunter was nice; his INT, he just didn’t see the dropping middle defender on a zone blitz. Tanney was in the period of time I did not watch.
Running back
1. Bishop Sankey (14 snaps)
2. Antonio Andrews (8 snaps)
3. Dexter McCluster (19 snaps)
4. David Fluellen (15 snaps)
The preliminary impression, that Sankey was back to being Sankey after looking much better against the Rams, held up on a rewatch. Andrews getting looks in goalline and third downs is an interesting mix; he had some third down work I wasn’t a fan of. In the first preseason game, I listed McCluster as “gadget” and that’s probably where he fits, rather than a conventional spot on the depth chart. He had a nice cut block on one third down and that he looked the best among the backs on first viewing held up on a rewatch, though he did not look special in any way.
Fullback:
1. Jalston Fowler (5 snaps)
2. Zach Boren (6 snaps)
For you people clamoring to Fowler to touch the ball, you got your wish. My note on that play was basically “he disappeared into a pile and somehow got 2 yards”; I really needed an end zone angle I did not get to see who blocked well or not well and if he did well to find a hole or just got what was there.
Wide receiver
Depth chart, more or less:
1. Kendall Wright (18 snaps)-Hakeem Nicks (17 snaps)-Harry Douglas (18 snaps)
2. Justin Hunter (22 snaps)-Rico Richardson (24 snaps)-Jacoby Ford (11 snaps)
3. Tre McBride (8 snaps)-Josh Stewart (3 snaps)
I was surprised to see Richardson get so much work with the second team with DGB out of action. Of course, he did not get targeted.
Hunter got four official targets, but that does not count the OPI he also did not catch. His play did not look better on a re-watch. I stand by my comparison of him to 2010 Randy Moss, that he’s only an effective receiver as long as he has at least 5 feet of separation from the nearest defender.
I listed Ford as a winner/positive in my postgame post, reflecting his spot on the depth chart and that he was the first kickoff returner. I still don’t think he’s very good, but his one catch was a good one on a poorly thrown ball by Mettenberger. He might be the favorite for the sixth receiver spot ahead of McBride, at least in their mind. I’ll have to think about him in the context of the 46 some more.
Tight end
1a. Delanie Walker (22 snaps)
1b. Anthony Fasano (16 snaps)
1c. Craig Stevens (13 snaps)
4a. Chase Coffman (10 snaps)
4b. Phillip Supernaw (12 snaps)
4c. Tevin Westbrook (12 snaps)
Ken Whisenhunt has run so many receiver-heavy sets in the past I’m loath to proclaim he’ll run a lot of 2-TE looks until he actually does it. But it does seem like the Titans could run a lot of 2-TE sets, with each tight end in somewhat separate roles and a credible blocker (at least among the three they’ll keep for sure) at that.
This was Walker’s first preseason action, and he probably played a little bit longer because of it. He had the only two targets of the top tight ends, neither completed. I’m not worried.
The backup tight ends are more separated into roles than the top tight ends, from Coffman the pure receiver to Westbrook the pure blocker. Supernaw had the most impressive reception of the night. After Coffman converted a third-and-long on a flat pass with little trouble, the Titans tried the same thing on a later third-and-long with Supernaw. The Chiefs defenders closed much better, but he bounced off a couple guys and got the conversion. I still think the balance he gives makes him the best fourth option if they keep a fourth (the probability of which increases in my mind after Sunday’s release of Fernando Velasco).
Offensive line
Depth chart, basically:
1. Taylor Lewan (30 snaps)-Byron Bell (30 snaps)-Brian Schwenke (29 snaps)-Chance Warmack (29 snaps)-Jeremiah Poutasi (29 snaps)
2. Byron Stingily (17 snaps)-Andy Levitre (17 snaps)-Andy Gallik (16 snaps)-Will Poehls (26 snaps)-Jamon Meredith (17 snaps)
3. Quinton Spain (9 snaps)-Josue Matias (8 snaps)/Fernando Velasco (1 snap)-Gabe Ikard (9 snaps)-Justin McCray (9 snaps)-Poehls
Back in 2013, I said something like Rob Turner won the starting center job over Velasco and Schwenke not because he was clearly better but because he wasn’t clearly worse and the coaching staff was less tired of his flaws than they were of Velasco’s. Something like that is true of this year’s starting offensive line, at least at the question marks of LG and RT. I don’t think the Bell-Poutasi combination is close to clearly better than the Levitre-Bell combination. Poutasi looked pretty unready to start, and gameplanning around him, both from Whisenhunt, Mike Mularkey, and Jason Michael on the Titans side and by the opposing defensive coordinator, will probably end up being a weekly focus once the regular season begins. But if the Titans are fed up with Levitre’s strength issues and snap-jumping attempts to get into good position so he can maximize what he can, as it seems like they are, then Bell-Poutasi it will be and I can’t definitively say they’re wrong. I would have liked to see Bell-Stingily tried, but at this point in the process it’s probably too late for that.
Relative to the investment, though, and probably relative even to where I thought it would be at the start of training camp, the offensive line as a whole feels like a disappointment.
After he looked good against the Falcons, Poehls had a few “why you don’t see (m)any 6’8″ offensive guards” moments against Kansas City. Gallik did not really stand out positively or negatively to me.
Offensive personnel groupings
These are off my count, not including the final drive:
11: 20 plays (14 pass, 6 run)
12: 13 plays (10 pass, 3 run)
13: 3 plays (2 pass, 1 run)
21: 5 plays (3 pass, 2 run)
22: 4 plays (4 run)
As a reminder, number of RBs is listed first, number of TEs second, number of wide receivers is five minus the two digits.
Officially, the Titans had 22 runs and 25 passing attempts. But the last drive was majority runs, a couple of those runs were Mariota scrambles, and I coded McCluster’s 17-yard “run” on a swing screen as a pass even though the ball was (probably) a lateral.
Defensive line
Depth chart, base, very roughly:
1. Jurrell Casey (27 snaps)-Sammie Hill (4 snaps)-Ropati Pitoitua (31 snaps)
2. Angelo Blackson (18 snaps)-Al Woods (16 snaps)-Mike Martin (22 snaps)
3. Derrick Lott (3 snaps)-Isaako Aaitui (8 snaps)-Karl Klug (17 snaps)
Depth chart, sub, incredibly roughly:
1. Casey-Pitoitua
2. Blackson-Klug
3. Lott-Martin
The sub depth chart is basically completely made up, based on the relative rough order of who played when rather than actual pairings (Casey-Pitoitua, Casey-Klug, Blackson-Martin, Pitoitua-Martin, Blackson-Lott). I could have also listed Martin/Klug as both the second- and third-teamers. Klug played first in sub, Martin played first in base, Martin played in the game last. I don’t intend to suggest by listing Martin first that he’s passed Klug.
It’s like the Chiefs play offense in a way that negates what your defensive line does. Andy Reid goes pass whacky (officially 38 passes to 17 runs despite leading the entire game), and most of the passes are quick and short. Pass pressure is mostly not a factor, even working behind a makeshift line, and what runs there were featured plenty of shotgun runs and draws. If you’re looking for a read on how the Titans fared against a “traditional” run game, this wasn’t the game for you.
Basically, that was all an excuse to say this was a blah game for the defensive line. Casey had a few solid plays. Pitoitua had a couple. Blackson was part of the missed tackle brigade. Martin was hit and miss in an expected fashion. Klug did less against backups than I might have expected. But on the whole not a big night in either direction.
Linebackers
Outside linebackers:
1. Derrick Morgan (17 snaps)-Brian Orakpo (19 snaps)
2. Jonathan Massaquoi (30 snaps)-Deiontrez Mount (22 snaps)
3. Kaelin Burnett (19 snaps)-Andy Studebaker (8 snaps)
4. Chaz Sutton (3 snaps)-X
Mostly left and right, but I saw Burnett play both sides. The Titans played some nickel with Massaquoi as part of a 3-man line with two sub package defensive linemen and Mount (mostly, I think) as a stand-up rusher. Like with backs motioning out of the backfield (the Titans had a few play in empty, including but not just Whitehurst’s INT), I noticed but did not keep formal count of this.
I didn’t see anything to change my basic view here. As long as he’s healthy, Orakpo will be an impact player in all phases, solid and with good pursuit against the run, a solid but not transcendent pass rusher, and the ability to drop into coverage. Morgan we all know. The backups, I like Mount because he once again got pressure by staying at home against a bootleg, and just how effective that’s been against the Titans this preseason has driven me nuts. I really wish we’d gotten to see a lot more of J.R. Tavai and Yannik Cudjoe-Virgil this preseason, since neither Mount nor Massaquoi thrills me at all or gives me any comfort, and snaps to Burnett or Studebaker feel like Coffman targets; we have an idea of what these players are, so I don’t feel like I’m getting strong informational content. But at least here it’s not like the coaches have much choice.
Inside linebackers:
1. Avery Williamson (32 snaps)-Zach Brown (32 snaps)
2. Justin Staples (24 snaps)-Wesley Woodyard (24 snaps)
3. Nate Askew (3 snaps)-Yawin Smallwood (3 snaps)
Oh boy. Brown leading the missed tackle brigade was no more attractive on rewatch than it was on the initial viewing. Williamson seemed to have a good chance on QB Alex Smith as a free blitzer, but could not get a sack (this was the completion to Kelce where Brown’s missed tackle resulted in many more yards). Woodyard had his own missed tackle. Staples had a few plays where I thought he looked pretty inexperienced as a defensive player. I stuck Zaviar Gooden on my latest 53 because I think the Titans will keep at least four inside linebackers, but that’s a spot that could easily by filled by a player from another team.
Cornerback
Depth chart, more or less:
1. Coty Sensabaugh (32 snaps)-Perrish Cox (32 snaps)
2. Cody Riggs (45 snaps)-Marqueston Huff (27 snaps)
3. Jemea Thomas (19 snaps)-Ri’Shard Anderson (9 snaps)
Nickel:
1. Cox to slot, Riggs to outside
2. Riggs to slot, Thomas/Anderson outside
As I just covered in the CB positional analysis, Jason McCourty and Blidi Wreh-Wilson’s absences give the Titans plenty of questions, and very few sure answers. Coty Sensabaugh was again strong tackling, and much less confidence-inducing as a pure cover player. Riggs was of the same mold; that he battles so well despite his size is a good sign, but I really wonder about him if, as seems likely, he’d have to play a lot of snaps against Tampa Bay’s big targets if McCourty and Wreh-Wilson remain out. Paul Kuharsky, among others, wanted to see Huff at corner. We’ve now seen it, and I’m ready to see him go back to safety and have the Titans carry a sixth corner if the injured two cannot play come Week 1.
Safety
1. Michael Griffin (32 snaps)-Da’Norris Searcy (12 snaps)
2. Khalid Wooten (26 snaps)-Daimion Stafford (33 snaps)
3. X-Huff
Injuries played a role here, as I imagine we would have seen Huff-Stafford followed by Wooten-Aubrey with better health at corner and for Aubrey. Searcy to Stafford felt like a big dropoff, but it’s not really reflected in my notes (or in KC’s offensive success, which was consistent throughout). Griffin was not part of the missed tackle brigade, at least in my notes, though he did slip in the end zone on the successful two-point conversion.
Defensive personnel groupings
Almost exclusively, base 3-4 personnel against 12, 21, and 13; and nickel, with both outside linebackers as potential rushers and both inside linebackers remaining on the field, plus a corner in the slot, against 11 personnel. We’ll see if they actually trust both inside ‘backers that much when the real games and regular season gameplans begin, but I’d expect to see a lot more dime in the preseason if they plan on making dime a big part of their personnel packages. They blitzed a fair amount, with defensive backs and of the zone blitz variety, but Kansas City mostly picked them up well.
Conclusion-Type Things
Outside of Mariota, a pretty ugly performance with little to recommend on either side of the ball. But the Titans went 2-14 last year and the Chiefs did a lot of things on offense I didn’t expect the Titans to do well, plus it was a short week. This game can be forgotten in a couple weeks with a win, or it could be a harbinger of why the Titans might well have a record pretty close to last year’s.
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