The Atlanta Falcons dominated the game’s early stages, lost their lead, then rallied in the fourth quarter for a 31-24 victory over the Tennessee Titans in tonight’s preseason opener at the Georgia Dome for both teams. The Falc… oh, who cares, it’s a preseason game and writing a conventional recap is kind of a silly exercise. Most eyes in the Titans tonight were on Marcus Mariota, so let’s talk about him.
The drive chart for Marcus Mariota’s first three possessions as Titans quarterback is kind of ugly. His first drive ended with an ugly sack followed by his first interception since training camp began, on a screen pass of all things. His second possession, on his first third down as a Tennessee Titan, he fumbled the ball and it was returned for a touchdown. The quarterback who never threw a pick had helped stake Atlanta to a 17-0 first quarter lead, just like he was a 2014 Titans quarterback. He and the rest of the first-team offense got to stay out for a third series, and that one ended in the end zone. Mariota’s third downs both ended in conversions, one when he showed good patience in the pocket and found Harry Douglas for 17 yards on third-and-12, and the other on a great touch throw for 26 yards on a wheel route to Antonio Andrews. I’ll go into more detail in my eventual recap post (Monday, if I don’t laze out over the weekend), but the offense, from a variety of personnel packages, looked reasonably efficient. He had some rookie processing speed moments, like the sack before the fumble, but no more than I expected.
A lot of the first teamers around Mariota, I can’t as easily pass off their shortcomings. The first-team run defense was good, but the pass defense was lousy. Atlanta’s play fakes were particularly effective, with Avery Williamson looking like a major culprit. Perrish Cox looked silly trying to bring down Julio Jones on Matt Ryan’s only possession. Bishop Sankey has gotten a lot of praise from the Titans, and I’d still take him over any Titans running back in fantasy with even ADP, but still looked humdrum as a runner. Questions about the offensive line were not answered, with Byron Bell, Chance Warmack, and Brian Schwenke all having multiple negative plays in a brief night’s work, plus Andy Levitre releasing late might have helped cause the interception (Mariota should have killed the play, for the record).
Once it was a matter of backups against backups, the Titans performed better. Quarterback was part of it. Zach Mettenberger looked better than T.J. Yates did. My defensive line issues with the Titans don’t extend to their depth, and Atlanta’s O-line is questionable. Yates notwithstanding, the pass defense still had their moments where they looked like the first team had. Atlanta quarterbacks as a whole went 21-28, and several of Yates incompletions were ghastly unforced misses. The Titans’ only sack of the game, by Ropati Pitoitua, came when Yates held the ball forever.
The best-looking Titans back of the night was David Cobb, who entered in the second half and ran hard. He finished 11-53 despite not breaking off a run longer than 10 yards. Chase Coffman led the team with four receptions, with Harry Douglas, Jacoby Ford, and Philip Supernaw all with three. Coffman and Supernaw’s big gains both came on over routes, something the Falcons also had success with. Dorial Green-Beckham had one catch, a 32-yarder. Justin Hunter looked the same as he did; the pick on the pass thrown his way was a deep ball underthrown by Mettenberger I didn’t think he attacked as aggressively as he needed to, and complaining to an official while the Falcons DB ran the ball back was an ugly look. Jacoby Ford got most of the looks at kick returner, though that might’ve just been a function of Atlanta scoring in the first half. Jeremiah Poutasi played a lot at right tackle, staying in with both the second- and third-teamers and gave up a sack late. I could mention a bunch of random notes here, but I’ll save those for the recap post where I can supplement them with observations of the plays that didn’t stick out to me live.
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