The inactives are out for today’s game at LP Field between the Tennessee Titans and the Cleveland Browns, and here they are.
CLEVELAND BROWNS: DB Pierre Desir, DL John Hughes, DL Ishmaa’ily Kitchen, DB Robert Nelson, TE Gerell Robinson, WR Rodney Smith, RB Glenn Winston
TENNESSEE TITANS: ILB James Anderson, WR Kris Durham, DL DaQuan Jones, QB Zach Mettenberger, OT Byron Stingily, TE Taylor Thompson, CB Blidi Wreh-Wilson
No big surprises for the Browns. Desmond Bryant was listed as questionable, and I expected him to play.
No huge surprises for the Titans, either. Taylor Thompson was doubtful, so Chase Coffman is in the lineup again. After not practicing all week with his concussion, I expected Wreh-Wilson to sit. The only thing of note is the minor switcheroo at backup linebacker, with Akeem Ayers active for the second time this season. I’ll be curious to see if plays on defense; I don’t expect him to barring injury or, perhaps, the Browns running 80 or more plays.
When I was at the Colts game last week, Nate Dunlevy mentioned Chuck Pagano’s keys to the game were, of course, to run and stop the run, which of course had very little to do with how last Sunday’s game actually proceeded. The hoary cliches are much more true this week-Brian Hoyer is not a quarterback who will do what Andrew Luck did last week. As Ryan Burns mentioned in the Q&A, the Browns have run the ball effectively, and that’s really been the cornerstone of their offense. Given how the Titans defended the run against the Cowboys and Bengals (they did better against the Colts, something I regard as mostly a function of the opponent), I would expect Cleveland to look to run and run a lot. They might come out passing, though, given Kyle Shanahan’s Kubiak links.
On the other side of the ball, Jake Locker returns to the lineup. The disclaimer from the Colts game still applies-if he plays the way he did in the first half against the Cowboys and Bengals, the Titans will be hard-pressed to score points and can lose to anybody in the league. We’ll supposedly see Bishop Sankey in the first half-will it be almost all from shotgun, as his work has been the past three weeks, or are they willing to let him run under center as well? Can passes to Justin Hunter and Nate Washington actually be completed? Can the offensive line communicate and pick up rushers? Can Locker get the ball out on time instead of holding it and allowing pressure to come to him like he and Whitehurst have both done this year? Can the Titans actually convert a third down or two? This may be an even more frustrating offense to write about it than it is to watch, simply because they could do some things well or they could do almost nothing at all well.
I’ll be chiming in during the game on Twitter, so follow and yap at me there if you so desire. Recap up after the game, snap report Monday, and content of some kind likely during the week, really.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
