According to the NFL's official participation information, here's how the Titans lined up against the 49ers.
Offense (59 total)
QB: Jake Locker 59
RB/FB: Chris Johnson 51, Jackie Battle 3, Collin Mooney 3, Darius Reynaud 3, Shonn Greene 2
TE: Delanie Walker 55, Craig Stevens 11, Taylor Thompson 2
WR: Nate Washington 50, Kendall Wright 49, Damian Williams 37, Kenny Britt 19, Justin Hunter 10
OL: Andy Levitre 59, Michael Roos 59, Brian Schwenke 59, David Stewart 59, Chance Warmack 59
Defense (65 total)
DE: Lavar Edwards 54, Ropati Pitoitua 41, Karl Klug 25, Kamerion Wimbley 12
DT: Jurrell Casey 59, Antonio Johnson 48, Sammie Lee Hill 29, Mike Martin 8
LB: Colin McCarthy 65, Akeem Ayers 60, Zach Brown 59
CB: Jason McCourty 61, Alterraun Verner 47, Coty Sensabaugh 12
S: Bernard Pollard 61, Michael Griffin 45, George Wilson 27, Daimion Stafford 2
Beau Brinkley, Tommie Campbell, Zac Diles, Mike Otto, Chris Spencer, and Blidi Wreh-Wilson each only appeared on special teams. Ryan Fitzpatrick did not appear in the game.
After the jump, the normal collection of notes and observations.
1. After I noted after Week 5 the Titans offense had had between 67 and 70 snaps in each game, they've failed to break 60 snaps, with only 52 last week and 59 this week.
2. Whatever was up with the first series Darius Reynaud experiment, only 3 total offensive snaps for the game showed it was not something they were serious about trying. In that case, since it wasn't something worth exploiting if at first you don't succeed, why try it? I really didn't get that.
3. This seemed like a Shonn Greene game, so how much of his 2 snaps (1 carry) had to do with his injury lingering and how much that they didn't think their run plays with him could be effective against the 49ers? Also, an inside handoff from the shotgun on second-and-13 is now what I think of as Shonn Greene territory, since I seem to be in "I don't get this" mood this morning.
4. I don't know how much it's worth it to keep harping on this, but the Titans were an 11 personnel (one back, one tight end, three wide receivers) team today and barely even tried to run the ball. I thought running Chris Palmer's 2011 offense, abandoning the run (and run personnel) and throwing a ton of short passes, was the right solution for Ryan Fitzpatrick. Schematically, that's what we saw today. They tried to run something other than that offense this year for a reason. I once again refer you back to my 2011 "this offense is broken post" that's been on my mind a lot lately. This is probably a subject for a longer post.
5. With the switch from Rob Turner to Brian Schwenke, the Titans have no longer had the same offensive line every snap of the season. It is still, however, the case that every offensive lineman who's started the game has played every snap that game.
6. I raised the question in my pregame post whether Lavar Edwards would be able to play all the snaps Derrick Morgan normally would have played after being listed as questionable, and if so who would fill in for Morgan. Question answered, as Edwards played plenty.
7. A good sign of who the 49ers are: All three starting linebackers played at least 91% of defensive snaps.
8. Continuing on the same theme: Coty Sensabaugh played 12 snaps. San Francisco's third wide receiver, Jon Baldwin, played 13 snaps. By point of comparison, the Titans' fourth receiver has played more snaps than that in five out of their seven games this year. The 49ers gave wide receivers 98 snaps, so they averaged 1.5 wide receiver snaps per offensive play. The Titans today averaged 2.8 wide receiver snaps per offensive play. It wasn't just in the secondary where the Titans responded accordingly, as they averaged 4.25 defensive linemen on the field on each defensive play.
9. San Francisco is the big exception to how teams line up on offense this year. Don't expect to see these defensive usage patterns reappear this season.
10. Was it just a function of the 24-0 lead that the Titans played more effectively on defense after Michael Griffin went out? I'm going with yes, and this is something that could have cost them against a team that wanted to throw the ball.
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