According to the NFL’s official player participation information, here’s how the Tennessee Titans lined up in yesterday’s 33-16 loss to the New England Patriots:
Offense (62 total)
QB: Zach Mettenberger 43, Marcus Mariota 19
RB/FB: Antonio Andrews 36, Bishop Sankey 16, David Cobb 11, Jalston Fowler 11
WR: Harry Douglas 52, Dorial Green-Beckham 49, Andrew Turzilli 12, Tre McBride 11
TE: Delanie Walker 50, Anthony Fasano 34, Craig Stevens 25, Phillip Supernaw 3
OL: Byron Bell 62, Taylor Lewan 62, Quinton Spain 62, Chance Warmack 62, Joe Looney 32, Andy Gallik 30
Defense (66 total)
DL: Jurrell Casey 49, DaQuan Jones 44, Al Woods 28, Karl Klug 22, Angelo Blackson 17, Sammie Hill 12
OLB: David Bass 64, Brian Orakpo 64 [J.R. Tavai 2]
ILB: Avery Williamson 66, Wesley Woodyard 34, Zach Brown 14, Justin Staples 2
CB: Perrish Cox 65, Coty Sensabaugh 63, B.W. Webb 26, Cody Riggs 1
S: Michael Griffin 66, Daimion Stafford 66, Marqueston Huff 21
Beau Brinkley, Steven Johnson, Jeremiah Poutasi, and probably Josh Aubrey each only played on special teams. Everybody who was active appeared in the game, I think.
1. First time I’ve run into this issue: some extreme sloppiness. The gamebook, at least as of Monday morning, listed 22-D.McCluster and 40-Y.Cudjoe-Virgil as among the Titans’ active players. YCV went on injured reserve before the Jets game, and McCluster joined him this week. Josh Aubrey and J.R. Tavai were not listed among the active players. My guess, based on Bass and Orakpo’s snap counts, is Tavai played 2 snaps, which gets the Titans up to 11 players per play, and Aubrey played only special teams. But that’s just a guess.
2. Marco-level point I could mention in most specific position groups: even though it was 24-3 and basically over at halftime, the Titans did not do the same sort of mass substitutions to get backups playing time to get a better look at them and give starters (and more known quantities) a rest that they did in Week 1 against Tampa.
3. Remember the David Cobb experiment? Decent rotation against the Jaguars, 28 snaps to Antonio Andrews’ 28, but just 18 the past two games. The positive read on this is the Titans are showing a lot of confidence in Andrews, and the balance of the snaps have gone to Dexter McCluster (last week) and Bishop Sankey this week, both more passing game backs.
4. Jalston Fowler’s fourth game with double-digit snaps this year: the Bucs game, the 82-snap Week 3 Colts game, and the 42-39 Jaguars game in addition to yesterday.
5. One target combined for Tre McBride and Andrew Turzilli: Zach Mettenberger’s interception after avoiding a sack and scrambling around, negated by a defensive penalty, was thrown McBride’s way.
6. Andy Gallik was benched at halftime, the Titans’ first in-game offensive line move since Jeremiah Poutasi’s second benching in three weeks against the Texans in Week 8. Mike Mularkey mentioned after the game they wanted a more experienced player because of the Patriots’ use of multiple personnel looks on defense.
7. Pretty standard defensive line rotation, given the Patriots’ offensive gameplan (mostly pass in the first half, mix of run and pass in the second half).
8. I mentioned this earlier so I wouldn’t stress on it over and over, but I would’ve liked to see Brian Orakpo in particular get more rest than he did.
9. My request in my pregame post for more Cody Riggs was not honored. The Week 11 experiment against the Jaguars where he played nickel over B.W. Webb has not been repeated, which may be a judgment based on that performance.
10. With Da’Norris Searcy down, the safety rotation was what I thought it would be-Stafford as the starter, Huff in the dime role (deep, I’m pretty sure, so Stafford was still the ‘backer).
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