Well, that was a lot more fun than last year. Dominating 42-14 wins for teams like the Tennessee Titans don’t come often, even if the opponent is as bad as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were last year.
Marcus Mariota’s first “real” game in the NFL went about as well as it could have, starting with a third-and-long conversion plus a long touchdown pass on the opening drive, and ending with him spending the entire fourth quarter on the sidelines wearing a baseball cap holding onto a perfect 158.3 passer rating. The day didn’t go too shabby for the defense either, as they harassed Jameis Winston all day, scored themselves before allowing any points, and allowed multiple first downs on only three of the Buccaneers’ ten “real” possessions.
Mariota play and stat line (13-16 for 209 yards and four touchdowns) will obviously be the biggest takeaway from the game. Ken Whisenhunt and company met him at least halfway, featuring a mix of “traditional” NFL offensive plays with a number of plays more familiar to Mariota. The big third-down conversion on the opening drive was a traditional play, a dropback pass where he found an open Delanie Walker over the middle. The next play was where football might be going and something we didn’t see with Mariota in the preseason, a fake handoff from the shotgun combined with a quick slant Kendall Wright. Mariota hit Wright in stride, and he faced 52 yards to open the scoring just 1:38 into the game. The same packaged play concept showed up several times later in the game, including a couple times the Titans next possession, which concluded with Mariota moving and hitting Bishop Sankey with good touch on a 12-yard throw. His final two touchdowns came on close quarters third down throws, a 4-yarder to Harry Douglas and a 1-yarder to Walker that staked the Titans to a 35-7 lead in the final minute of the first half.
The defense started off with a bang. Tampa made it to third-and-3 on their first possession, but Brian Orakpo got a good push against Bucs’ rookie left tackle Donovan Smith and Winston floated a short out route Coty Sensabaugh jumped in front of and raced 26 yards with for the early 14-0 lead. Three-and-out the next time, and it was 21-0 before the Bucs saw the ball for the third time. Tampa was able to grind out a score then, but it required a fourth down conversion, one the Buccaneers couldn’t get on the ground their next possession. Another interception, on a great leaping grab by Deiontrez Mount, followed, and the game was basically over after three quarters. Even in the second half, though, the Bucs couldn’t do much better, as they started the half with -2 yards on offense their first three possessions. Only after Mariota had been benched at 42-7 did Tampa score again, and it required another third down conversion.
With a 42-14 final that more or less accurately reflects how one-sided the game was, there wasn’t just one or even a couple players who looked good. I’ll definitely be rewatching this game in great detail as soon as I can. For the meantime, though, here’s a partial list of standouts:
- Mariota made a couple rookie mistakes that, with worse luck, could have resulted in interceptions. But on the whole you saw why other players praised his accuracy and placement.
- Ken Whisenhunt had a great gameplan for today. Mariota did so well in part because his life was easy. Tampa Bay was clearly not ready and did not respond well to what the Titans did. I named Whisenhunt the Titans’ biggest disappointment in 2014, but he was a winner today.
- When you throw the ball accurately, fast players can run after the catch. Kendall Wright showed that today, gaining 61 of his 101 yards after the catch. He also drew a pass interference penalty against Alterraun Verner (no yardage there, it was offset by a holding call).
- Sankey looked good on the touchdown grab and ran the ball well, gaining a career-high 74 yards rushing on just 12 carries.
- I thought they had a good matchup, but the offensive line created room for Sankey. Of the two sacks he took, one appeared to be a busted screen (and I don’t specifically remember the other one and why it happened).
- Mount’s interception was a great athletic play.
- Orakpo didn’t show up much in the box score, with just one tackle and one quarterback hit (not on the first interception), but he looked good on my TV screen a lot more than that, including drawing a hold. On the other side, Derrick Morgan had two sacks.
- It was hard to tell given the lack of downfield shots, but Winston seemed to struggle a lot because he didn’t find anybody open quick. Vincent Jackson had only 4 catches on 11 targets. Once I see the all-22 and get a feel for how the coverage worked, I’ll be able to distribute credit more appropriately. For now, I’ll just say it was a collective effort to deny Winston the easy looked he needed to succeed behind that offensive line.
- Jurrell Casey had three tackles, all of them behind the line of scrimmage. That included one of the Titans’ four sacks, with rookie Angelo Blackson getting the other as the game script enabled him to get plenty of work.
- Phillip Supernaw made a great play to help down a punt at the 2.
Don’t get me wrong. This game wasn’t all positive for the Titans. The front players, the line and tight ends, were flagged for too many penalties. The Buccaneers’ second touchdown came after some ugly tackle attempts by Michael Griffin and Da’Norris Searcy. Mariota had a pick that should have been. The defense should have had more interceptions of Winston than they did, with Daimion Stafford perhaps the one that really should have been. Ken Whisenhunt was surprisingly down on the team’s performance the first two quarters in his halftime interview for the coach of a team up 35-7, but he had at least some of a point. Not all games will be this easy, and that starts next week in Cleveland. But on the whole this was a great team performance Whiz and the players will probably spend Sunday night enjoying before getting back to the film and correcting the mistakes for Sunday. For now, though, the only real dark cloud was Delanie Walker’s hand injury that knocked him out about the team he probably would or at least should have been pulled anyway, so celebrate away and we’ll talk about the other stuff later.
Snap report Monday, and whatever other coverage I can manage whenever I can manage it.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
