The headline says it all. The Tennessee Titans came out and played most of a great first quarter. The offensive line in particular was very strong against a good Ravens front seven. For the first time all year, they looked like the strength of the team and one of the league’s best units. It wasn’t all sunshine-and-roses, as a Shonn Greene fumble at the goalline meant they didn’t get any points on the opening possession. The Ravens went three-and-out, though, and Zach Mettenberger found Leon Washington for a touchdown the next drive. Titans up 7-0, the first quarter nearly gone, and things were going great. Then, the rest of the game happened.
The offense had most of the problems. Following the initial burst, all the usual culprits returned. Penalties. Third down failures. Inability to get anything done on anything like a consistent basis. Protection breakdowns. Mettenberger holding the ball too long for sacks. The Titans would go three-and-out on seven of their next eight offensive possessions, the exception coming when they were backed up inside their own 20 in the final two minutes of the first half.
The defense was keeping the Titans in it. Mostly. Baltimore struggled to find consistent running room. In the first half, Justin Forsett had only 20 yards on his seven carries, but he’d found the end zone on a fourth-and-one play when he outran Kamerion Wimbley to the corner. By halftime, though, the game seemed to have turned. The Ravens pass game was spluttering, partly through mistakes of their own but also partly because the Titans were getting Joe Flacco off balance and flustering him with a heavier dose of blitzes. But in the third quarter, they finally found enough offensive consistency, and Forsett’s touchdown made it 14-7. When Flacco finally connected on a deep pass to Torrey Smith for a 21-7 lead early in the fourth quarter, the game was virtually over.
What to say about individual performances? Delanie Walker suffered a concussion on a nasty but legal-looking hit late in the second quarter. Dexter McCluster suffered a first quarter knee injury that did not let him return to action. Greene’s goalline fumble saw him relegated to the bench for most of the game, not that he might have played much otherwise. The Titans played more 21 personnel in particular early; it wouldn’t surprise me if Jackie Battle ended up with a season high in snaps for this game. Bishop Sankey finished 17-58 as the primary back, and yeah. Avery Williamson looked very active on defense. Jurrell Casey seemed to be in the backfield more than he’d been lately and finished with one TFL. Derrick Morgan had the only sack, when he beat RT Ricky Wagner. Mettenberger, on the other hand, took five sacks.
Bottom line: a promising start, but really a familiar Titans game, a mostly desultory and uninspiring loss in a season with entirely too many games like that already.
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