Titans sputter through 28-14 loss to Browns

Well, that was not nearly as much fun as last week.

A week after jumping out to a quick early lead against the Buccaneers, the Tennessee Titans found out what it was like to start a game the Tampa way. The Cleveland Browns went up 14-0 just over eight and a half minutes into the game, extended their lead to 21-0 before halftime, and just when the Titans nearly made things interesting, got another big play score for the 28-14 final.

The dominant storyline for this game should probably be the error-prone nature of the Titans’ offense. The Browns’ first touchdown came after the Titans went backwards on their first possession thanks to a first-play penalty. Their second started at midfield after a Terrance West fumble. The Titans’ third possession included 30 yards in unnecessary roughness penalties. The fourth ended in Marcus Mariota’s first fumble of the game. Their fifth featured a knee injury to Chance Warmack that saw him carted from the sidelines to the locker room. Their sixth would have ended with another Mariota fumble, but for a saving delay of game call that wiped out the play. Their seventh was a three-and-out, followed by a punt the Browns’ Travis Benjamin returned 78 yards for a score. When Ken Whisenhunt declined a face mask penalty that would have extended the eighth for an untimed down before the end of the first half, I found myself nodding along with his conservative decision.

Defensively, there’s no question it was a rough start for the Titans. The second play the Browns were under center, Coty Sensabaugh appeared to get beat for a 60-yard touchdown by the aforementioned Travis Benjamin. The second possession was longer, but consistently success. The most important play of that drive might have been Zach Brown getting flagged for illegal use of hands, giving Cleveland an automatic first down after a clipping penalty pushed them back to first-and-25. Then again, they might have converted that anyway. After that, though, they settled down. The Browns went three-and-out on five of their next seven possessions, and one of the others included a fourth down stop in the red zone. Some of that was Johnny Manziel missing plays that were there (he finished 8-for-15 after starting 4-for-4), but a lot of it appeared to be solid defense of the sort I thought they could manage. But after the offense cut it to 21-14 late, the Browns chunked out a couple first downs on the ground and Manziel hit Benjamin for a 50-yard score after escaping from pressure to put the game away.

Notes and whatnot:

• Seven sacks of Mariota. Jeremiah Poutasi looked bad on a couple of them. A couple Mariota bore a good deal of responsibility for, not reading the field and just standing there in the pocket too long as the line collapsed around him.
• Warmack’s knee injury after the game was reported as a Grade 2 MCL sprain. I wouldn’t expect to see him next week against the Colts, and returning for the Bills game after the bye is probably an aggressive but not unreasonable timeframe. Check your local injury person for more information after his MRI tomorrow for more information.
• Mariota put the ball on the ground four times, including the one that was negated by delay of game. This was one of the big knocks on him coming out, and it was a concern of mine. The next to last one, on the final drive, was especially concerning. Defensive back K’Waun Williams, coming on a blitz, appeared to just slap the ball out of his hand while he was in the pocket. No, no, no, no, no bueno.
• Whatever revenge thoughts Terrance West might have had were mostly quelled after his early fumble. He finished with three carries for 10 yards.
• This was Dexter McCluster’s best game as a member of the Tennessee Titans and possibly on offense since he came into the NFL. He finished with 10 carries for 98 yards, including a 44-yard run. He mostly hasn’t gotten the corner and hasn’t done much when he has, but that was not the case today. He also had four catches for 26 yards.
• Kendall Wright left the game with an injury early, only to return after missing just a play, but he was quiet today. Four targets, 2 catches, 17 yards. I wonder if he was affected.
• Big game for the tight ends, as Anthony Fasano led the team with five catches and 84 receiving yards, including a score.
• Harry Douglas: 8 targets, 1 reception. I’m not saying, I’m just saying.
• Mariota had plenty of rookie moments today. Not just the rookie processing speed resulting in pressure, but a lot of missed timing on horizontal routes across the middle. Some too far, more behind. This included a few of those Douglas incompletions.
• Avery Williamson saw some bench time today for Wesley Woodyard, with no reports of an injury I saw. More on this in tomorrow’s snap report.
• Another way in which this was a reverse of last week was the play totals. The Titans trailed and ran a lot, the Browns lead and ran hardly any (relatively speaking; 46, not counting plays negated by penalty or kneeldowns).

More on this game later, really.