The inactives are out for today’s game at Nissan Stadium as the Tennessee Titans host the Carolina Panthers, and here they are:
CAROLINA PANTHERS: RB Cameron Artis-Payne, WR Brenton Bersin, DT Dwan Edwards, S Dean Marlowe, G Andrew Norwell, WR Kevin Norwood, RB Brandon Wegher
TENNESSEE TITANS: RB David Cobb, CB Perrish Cox, DE Mike Martin, CB Jason McCourty, DE Ropati Pitoitua, G Quinton Spain, WR Kendall Wright
Perrish Cox was questionable with his hamstring injury, and he sits. Jason McCourty was declared out, so the Titans are down their top two corners and Blidi Wreh-Wilson, who’s starting opposite Coty Sensabaugh, was questionable with his own hamstring injury. As far as opponents go, though, Carolina is maybe the best team in the league to have those sorts of cornerback injuries against. The Titans are reporting Dorial Green-Beckham, not Justin Hunter, gets the start opposite Harry Douglas with Wright out; that matches what happened last week.
The one mild surprise is David Cobb is inactive the week after he was activated off IR-boomerang. The best explanation for this is the one Paul Kuharsky proffered, that Dexter McCluster’s ankle injury that caused him to be listed as probable has the Titans worried about their lack of a backup at that spot. Antonio Andrews has done it before, but he’s now the lead back and probably not the guy they want doing that. So, with Cobb possibly still working his way back, he’s down.
Carolina was pretty healthy-Edwards is a backup to Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short, both of whom but especially Short have been playing very well, and Amini Silatolu has played for Norwell at left guard before, including last week against the Packers.
The Panthers feel like kind of a funny team-they’re obviously good since they’re, you know, 8-0 and two games up on everybody else in the NFC after last week’s win over Green Bay. I’ve mentioned Lotulelei and Short, Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly is the best nickel linebacker pairing in the NFL, and Josh Norman is deservedly the new hawtness at cornerback, plus Cam. As far as 8-0 teams go, though, they’re that great. The defense is really good, but the offense is only above average and special teams are nothing to write home about. Overall, they’re fourth in Football Outsiders numbers (I write for FO perma-disclaimer), but well behind third-place Cincinnati. Split the distance between the Raiders (currently 12th in DVOA) and the Bengals, roughly, and there’s the Panthers.
Matchup-wise, I mentioned the corners. The linebackers let them control the middle of the field where Mariota has done a lot of his work this season. They don’t have the sort of standout pass rusher that got Jeremiah Poutasi benched, but they’re still 9th in FO’s adjusted sack rate. Yes, the coverage has something to do with that. Cam Newton obviously presents a bunch of special challenges; if you’ve watched him in the past six years, you know that. When the Titans rolled the Panthers four years ago, they forced him to make tough throws and he failed at the task; he still has some inconsistencies in that area, but they feel more play to play than week to week to me (or maybe I’m just making stuff up that sounds good). The line as of a little bit ago was the Panthers -3.5 points. That’s probably about right as a general point for the Titans with Mariota, but some of the matchup issues bother me.
Snap report Monday, and I’ll have something this coming week for sure because they play the Jaguars Thursday!
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