According to the NFL’s official player participation information, here’s how the Tennessee Titans lined up in yesterday’s 38-10 loss against the Miami Dolphins:
Offense (69 total)
QB: Marcus Mariota 59, Zach Mettenberger 10
RB/FB: Dexter McCluster 28, Antonio Andrews 27, Bishop Sankey 18, Jalston Fowler 6
WR: Kendall Wright 58, Justin Hunter 46, Harry Douglas 37, Dorial Green-Beckham 29
TE: Delanie Walker 51, Anthony Fasano 27, Craig Stevens 18
OL: Byron Bell 69, Taylor Lewan 69, Chance Warmack 69, Jamon Meredith 48, Andy Gallik 43, Brian Schwenke 26, Jeremiah Poutasi 21
Defense (67 total)
DL: Jurrell Casey 58, DaQuan Jones 54, Al Woods 37, Angelo Blackson 11, Karl Klug 8, Mike Martin 7
OLB: Brian Orakpo 63, Derrick Morgan 62, David Bass 9
ILB: Zach Brown 67, Wesley Woodyard 67
CB: Jason McCourty 67, Coty Sensabaugh 63, Blidi Wreh-Wilson 29, Perrish Cox 8
S: Da’Norris Searcy 66, Michael Griffin 54, Daimion Stafford 7
Beau Brinkley, Marqueston Huff, Steven Johnson, Cody Riggs, newly-promoted Justin Staples, and Phillip Supernaw each appeared on special teams only. Everybody who was active appeared in the game at some point.
News and notes and whatnot:
1. I’ve been wondering all year when we would finally get a game that is at least semi-competitive throughout and would feature roughly equal numbers of offensive and defensive snaps. The offensive player participation was probably influenced by the game script, but on the whole this is the best and clearest example we’ve gotten this year of what a “normal” game might look like.
2. The description of this as a “normal” game does not necessarily have any meaning whatsoever when it comes to the distribution of running back snaps, except insofar as it indicates that Bishop Sankey seems to have fallen more out of favor than I expected him to and that Dexter McCluster is the primary beneficiary of those reps. At least until that changes, which could be next week (I need to watch more Falcons to have even an educated guess about which back Ken Whisenhunt might favor against that defense).
3. Dorial Green-Beckham continued his trend of playing more snaps every week and matched Kendall Wright for most targets among wide receivers with 6 (the box score lists Wright with 5, since he had one negated by penalty. Plays negated by penalty still happen and reflect offensive intent, so I’m counting them in my numbers, dammit). Justin Hunter playing more than Harry Douglas could be read as the continuation of a trend from the past two games (59-35 to 41-40 to 37-46), but that’s thin gruel to me.
4. Believers in the mystical power of numbers: in his 21 snaps, Jeremiah Poutasi allowed three sacks to Dolphins end Cameron Wake. Each of those sacks was for a loss of 7 yards, so Poutasi averaged precisely -1.0 sack yards allowed in his 21 snaps. Wake’s fourth sack, allowed by Jamon Meredith, also resulted in a loss of 7 yards.
5. The distribution of defensive line snaps reflects one of the big changes in Miami’s look from previous games. I mentioned in the pregame post Miami had played the most 11 personnel (three wide receivers) in the league so far. The Titans would match that with sub package personnel and two defensive linemen, likely meaning a good number of snaps for Karl Klug and maybe Mike Martin. Miami was not primarily an 11 personnel offense, spending perhaps half the game in 12 personnel (two tight ends), so the Titans played more base looks.
6.. Whether the Titans had any quality depth at outside linebacker was one of the big questions of the offseason, and today was our first good look at how much the Titans were willing to rest Derrick Morgan and Brian Orakpo in a competitive game, especially after the loss of Deiontrez Mount. The answer: not much at all, with David Bass playing just 9 snaps. Playing them both over 90% of the time is not the ideal recipe for success late in the season.
7. Sub package = nickel personnel, not the dime they showed at times against the Bills, so Zach Brown and Wesley Woodyard played every snap. This was the first game Woodyard played every snap since the game in Indianapolis in Week 4 of last year. That was so long ago the Titans’ most recent home win actually happened since!
8. Weekly watch: opposing WR3 Kenny Stills 28 snaps, Titans nickel corner Blidi Wreh-Wilson 29 snaps. It’s a little more complicated than that, as Coty Sensabaugh played some snaps as the nickel before Perrish Cox left for good, but close enough for my purposes.
9. Marqueston Huff is Michael Griffin’s nominal backup, but when Griffin went down it was instead Daimion Stafford coming into the game. This was the second straight week Huff did not play any snaps on defense and Stafford did. Fine, Stafford’s the right choice as the dime back and it was mostly the injury fill-in role that’s the surprise, but I’m still reading that as the Titans saying something.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
