Titans look bad while losing badly to Chiefs

The press of other obligations meant I didn’t get to watch the game live, thus the late recap.

Five days after controlling the second preseason game against the Rams, the Titans found the shoe on the other foot in Kansas City on Friday night. This time, it was the Chiefs that jumped out to the early lead, and never looked back for a 34-10 victory.

Let’s do this by winners/positives and losers/negatives rather than game recap. First up, the winners/positives:

• Marcus Mariota. He wasn’t perfect. He still had some rookie moments where it looked like he was adjusting to the speed of the NFL game, and his incompletions were part of the Titans’ slow start. But he rebounded like he did against the Falcons, leading scoring drives on his last two possessions, and finished 7-11 for 99 yards, including a gorgeous deep throw to Kendall Wright.
• Dexter McCluster. The winner among the running backs tonight. He had some nice runs and work after the catch. Final stats: 5 carries for 37 yards and 2 catches for 20 yards.
• Kendall Wright caught that deep pass and showed some nice run after catch ability. He led the Titans with 3 catches and 60 receiving yards.
• Jacoby Ford got the early kickoff return work and played with the second team offense. I’ve been dismissive of his chances to make the team, even if the Titans do keep six receivers, but his usage tonight could indicate the Titans value him.
• Philip Supernaw. Had some nice run after catch work to convert a third-and-10 after catching a pass short of the sticks.
• No apparent major injuries.
• It was just a preseason game. Play well in Tampa in a couple weeks and this will mostly be forgotten.

Now, the other side of the ledger:

• Bishop Sankey. Looked great last week. This time, 17 yards on 6 carries, plus a fumble, and looking as blah as he did as a rookie.
• Justin Hunter. Dorial Green-Beckham did end up sitting, so Hunter got more looks than previous games. Four targets, no catches. Was it all his fault? It never is, but it keeps happening. He was also flagged for offensive pass interference.
• Zach Mettenberger. 3-11, 38 yards. The receivers didn’t help him out, but he did not look nearly as good as he did the first two games.
• Early offensive movement. Anthony Fasano had a false start when the Titans went for it on fourth-and-1. Chance Warmack had one on third-and-1 inside the 5. Andy Levitre had one (on first down).
• The offensive line. Only one sack, but like the Titans did against the Rams last week a lot more pressure. The running game was mostly blah as well.
• The defense. All of it. Chiefs drive chart: touchdown, field goal, touchdown, interception, end of half (one giveup play), field goal, touchdown, touchdown. The interception was a terrible play by backup quarterback Aaron Murray, airmailing a throw back across his body that Perrish Cox was able to dive under. You’re not going to win games if you give up 34 points in 7 possessions.
• The defense. Tackling. Zach Brown had a couple ugly missed tackles, but he was just the most prominent culprit.
• The defense. Assignment soundness. The Chiefs’ work with the first team looked like they knew how to play the Titans. Play-action, bootlegs, misdirection of all sorts worked wonders, just like it did for Atlanta.
• The defense. Disrupting passes. The Chiefs had a conservative offensive attack, granted. But they threw the ball 38 times, and the Titans (officially) got their hands on one, Cox’s interception. This has been a pet peeve of mine I should write more about, but the Titans have done a poor job of getting their hands on passes and disrupting contested catches. On the other side of the ball, the Chiefs got their hands on 7 of the Titans’ 25 passes.
• Punt coverage. The Titans punted five times. The Chiefs returned four of them, gaining 25 yards twice, 13 yards once, and 18 yards the fourth time (though a penalty truncated this one).
• Starting field position. The Chiefs scoring all the time meant the Titans were backed up all night. After Cox’s interception, they started at the KC 43. Their next-best starting field position was their own 23.
• Injuries. Ken Whisenhunt described David Cobb, who did not play, as week-to-week with his calf injury that wasn’t announced until yesterday. Hakeem Nicks and Da’Norris Searcy both left the game with knee injuries.

More on this mess later, if I can stomach it.