According to the NFL’s official player participation information, here’s how the Tennessee Titans lined up in yesterday’s 29-28 loss to the Cleveland Browns:
Offense (68 total)
QB: Charlie Whitehurst 35, Jake Locker 33
RB/FB: Bishop Sankey 22, Shonn Greene 18, Dexter McCluster 16, Leon Washington 14, Jackie Battle 9
TE: Delanie Walker 58, Chase Coffman 23, Craig Stevens 2
WR: Justin Hunter 66, Kendall Wright 55, Nate Washington 48, Derek Hagan 3
OL: Andy Levitre 68, Michael Oher 68, Michael Roos 68, Brian Schwenke 68, Chance Warmack 68, Taylor Lewan 6
Defense (77 total)
DL: Jurrell Casey 55, Sammie Hill 49, Ropati Pitoitua 29, Mike Martin 28, Karl Klug 24, Al Woods 23
OLB: Derrick Morgan 52, Kamerion Wimbley 52, Shaun Phillips 38, Akeem Ayers 10, Quentin Groves 1
ILB: Wesley Woodyard 56, Avery Williamson 54, Zaviar Gooden 17
CB: Jason McCourty 75, Coty Sensabaugh 54, Brandon Harris 42, Marqueston Huff 10
S: Michael Griffin 77, Bernard Pollard 73, George Wilson 27
Beau Brinkley, Chris Spencer, and Daimion Stafford each only appeared on special teams. With Whitehurst getting in, everybody on the roster appeared in the game.
Notes:
1. That 95% playing time I wanted to see from Locker before committing to him long-term? Yeah, between the time he’s missed the last two weeks, he’s not going to get there. What does this mean for the rest of the season? Well, we know what Charlie Whitehurst is, so it doesn’t make any sense to play him, and playing Zach Mettenberger is a sign this season is not about 2014. It’s too early for that, so if Jake Locker is available to play next week, he should play even if I think the book on him should be closed.
2. Holy running back committee. Every other game, the back that has played the most has played at least 11 more snaps than the second-most used back. Not so this week, and there seemed to be more in-drive substitution of backs than in previous weeks. Take, for example, the second touchdown drive, when McCluster, Greene, Sankey, and then Greene got carries on consecutive plays.
3. For those of you asking for more Justin Hunter snaps, you got your wish this week, as he led the team in snaps and played ahead of Nate Washington in two-WR sets.
4. Did Taylor Lewan get any snaps after his personal foul penalty on the extra point after the second touchdown? If he did, I don’t think it was more than a couple.
5. Minor change-up in the defensive line rotation this week. Casey led the team in snaps at the group, as always, and Hill played plenty, but Pitoitua didn’t get his normal number of snaps to make it a big three. That may have been a result of the knee injury.
6. Some defensive snaps for Akeem Ayers, for the first time this season. I didn’t pay close enough attention to tell for sure if all of them came after Derrick Morgan’s ejection, but a number of them probably did.
7. Avery Williamson really pulled ahead in the race for the non-Woodyard ILB spot, playing many more snaps than Zaviar Gooden, and without the same sort of RB-responsive packaging they had used the last couple weeks. I’m assuming this was a response to the problems in run defense the past couple weeks. Did it work? Well, the Browns still ran with pretty consistent success.
8. Brandon Harris 42 snaps, Browns WR3 Taylor Gabriel 41 snaps. Close enough for me.
9. If Bernard Pollard does end up missing time, I would expect George Wilson to start for him. The big question then becomes how the Titans will play in sub packages, if they’ll bring Daimion Stafford in and let Wilson play his box nickel role or play Stafford in the box role and let Wilson play safety.
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