According to the NFL's official participation information, here's how the Titans lined up in Week 3's 20-17 win at LP Field against the Chargers.
Offense (69 total)
QB: Jake Locker 69
RB/FB: Chris Johnson 62, Collin Mooney 9, Jackie Battle 8
TE: Delanie Walker 54, Craig Stevens 23, Taylor Thompson 8
WR: Nate Washington 59, Kendall Wright 45, Kenny Britt 38, Damian Williams 25, Justin Hunter 10, Michael Preston 4
OL: Andy Levitre 69, Michael Roos 69, David Stewart 69, Rob Turner 69, Chance Warmack 69
Defense (59 total)
DE: Derrick Morgan 50, Ropati Pitoitua 41, Keyunta Dawson 9, Karl Klug 9, Kamerion Wimbley 6
DT: Jurrell Casey 57, Antonio Johnson 37, Mike Martin 13
LB: Moise Fokou 51, Akeem Ayers 34, Zach Brown 32, Colin McCarthy 7
CB: Jason McCourty 59, Alterraun Verner 57, Coty Sensabaugh 36
S: Bernard Pollard 59, Michael Griffin 56, George Wilson 35
Patrick Bailey, Beau Brinkley, Tommie Campbell, Mike Otto, Chris Spencer, and Daimion Stafford each only appeared on special teams. Ryan Fitzpatrick did not appear in the game.
Commentary:
1. Simple math (62 + 8 = 70, 70 > 69) tells me there was a play where both Chris Johnson and Jackie Battle were both in the game. I did not notice it. Anyway, let the eternal fan dream of the two RB backfield be renewed in Tennessee!
2. This is the third week in a row Craig Stevens' playing time has diminished in both raw and absolute terms. Obviously, he is behind Delanie Walker as the #1 TE and is overwhelmingly viewed as primarily as an in-line player rather than a move tight end.
3. The whole "what the heck will happen with Kenny Britt" thing is a much broader subject than I want to tackle right now, but he wasn't in on the final drive and played less than he used to. I raised an eyebrow when the Titans dressed six receivers, simply because I wondered how you found snaps for those guys. Of course, they didn't find many, only 14 (plus 12 for Preston on special teams). Well, at least one of Gooden or Wreh-Wilson may be up next week.
4. Derrick Morgan played 914 snaps last year, which I think about everyone agreed was too many, which was 81% of the time. So far this year, he has played 170 snaps in three games, on pace for 907 on the season, which has been 88% of all Titans defensive snaps. :whistling:
5. The flip side of Morgan's work is Kamerion Wimbley played even less than he did the first two games. Of course, Karl Klug, Keyunta Dawson, and Mike Martin also did not play much.
6. Morgan may be on pace to play as much as he did last year, but he does not lead Titans defensive linemen in snaps. That distinction belongs to Jurrell Casey, who has played 174 snaps, 90% of the time. Given trends around the league, I'm not particularly concerned with Morgan's workload (you do see other ends up around 90%), but I think Jerry Gray and Gregg Williams should think seriously about giving Casey 5-10 fewer snaps a game or there's a real chance he could be worn down by mid-November.
7. Zach Brown only had 32 snaps, which explains some of why he only showed up in the box score once. Maybe his illness bothered him more than I expected it to. With Brown limited and/or ineffective, the Titans played a lot of those three safety sets we did not see in the preseason.
8. Colin McCarthy is a backup right now. He played when the starter was injured, then left the game when the starter was healthy enough to play.
9. Opposing team WR3 snaps: 32. Coty Sensabaugh snaps: 34. Darn, and they were matched perfectly last week. Once again, I am not saying there's a perfect correlation here, but the numbers are neat.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
