Sam’s Week 2 Titans Reaction

Today’s performance was anything but lifeless at times, but the defense just wasn’t able to close out the fourth quarter against a solid receiver corps and Jalen Hurts.

The Tennessee Titans came off an extremely disappointing week one and kicked off their outing against the Eagles with a quick three-and-out, followed by an interception on Jalen Hurts in the Eagles’ first drive. Yes, at the end of the day the team is 0–2, but there were several victories today inside Nissan Stadium. This time last week, the entire fan base was outraged, calling for coordinators’, quarterbacks’, and coaches’ heads and honestly just didn’t know how to feel today. I still see a lot of negativity about the overall play of the team, but I’m here to tell you that this Titans team is night and day better than what we saw just seven days ago. Let’s break it down looking at each phase of the game and see what went well and what needs to continue to improve on this young team.

Offense

Looking at the offense, there were several positive things to look at in both halves of the game. For starters, Cam Ward was able to go another week without a turnover and even punched in two 1-yard rushing touchdowns himself. He did start the game looking very conservative and shying away from the pocket, but we quickly saw him gain a moment of confidence with some positive blocking from the offensive line. Cam was only sacked twice in the game against the Eagles, but managed to still throw 13 for 20 on the day for 183 yards and a 94.4 rating. Cam had some good-looking throws, namely the pass to Elic Ayomanor that turned into a 41-yard play where Ayomanor had the opportunity to posterize Marcus Epps on an over route. Ayomanor finished with 2 catches for 69 yards on just 3 targets. There were still a few easy passes that fell apart, and we also didn’t get to see too much from Cam since the play calling was split 29 runs to 20 passes. Unfortunately, a play action was called in the fourth quarter that was the catalyst that led to a Joey Slye field goal instead of a touchdown when Cam was sacked in the backfield by Jalen Carter. In regards to elements of the passing game that need to continue to improve, Cam seems to be throwing a step or two behind where he needs to be targeting his receivers so they can catch it in stride, and early in the game we saw him shy away from the pocket when he didn’t even need to. That’s something he even called out on himself in the post-game press conference:

“I think there was times where, you know, I shouldn’t have left the pocket so early just because of how well they protected it. I think the O-line had a great day.”

In regard to the run game, we saw 122 yards on the ground from Pollard (14 carries, 64 yards), Spears (7 carries, 41 yards), and even Nicholas Singleton (4 carries, 10 yards). The run game wasn’t fantastic, but it definitely was an element that helped some of our passing game open up as it should. Spears was even able to break a good run on a third-and-long play that got the Titans down to the PHI 9 and kept the drive alive. While the offensive line play wasn’t bulletproof, we did see some solid blocking at times against a tough Eagles defense that included Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith Jr.

Looking forward, I’d like to see more consistency and bigger plays besides screens and slants from the offensive play calling.

Defense

Moving onto the defense, we again saw Anthony Hill Jr. lead the team with 10 tackles. The Titans picked off Jalen Hurts twice, with Amani Hooker taking one back 92 yards to set up Cam’s first rushing touchdown. Per Paul Kuharsky, that return was the third-longest of the Titans era, which is a heck of a stat line to hang on Hooker in Week 2. Second-year corner Marcus Harris then hauled in his first career interception in the fourth quarter to set up Joey Slye’s 33-yard field goal that put Tennessee up 20–17. The Flying J’s brought Hurts down three times, with Jeffery Simmons, John Franklin-Myers, and Jacob Martin each getting home for a sack. Simmons was in the middle of most of that pressure, tallying three QB hits and the sim pressure that forced the Harris interception. On the negative side of the defense, we did see the defensive backfield get picked apart on several occasions, giving up 264 passing yards led by DeVonta Smith’s 10 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown. While the defensive front was able to get sacks on the day, the pass rush wasn’t consistent, and that really showed in the final drive where the Eagles drove down the field in a minute and 56 seconds running nine plays for 65 yards, capped by a 3-yard Darius Cooper touchdown catch to steal the game 24–20.

Special Teams

Special teams definitely wasn’t as bad as we saw them perform last week, since we didn’t see any of our returners get run into by our own team. I would still like to see punts not go through the back of the end zone or out of bounds in the coming weeks.

The Bottom Line

All in all, this game was a very positive experience after such a terrible outing against the New York Jets. Yes, Saquon Barkley wasn’t as much of a factor since he didn’t hardly play, but the amount of weapons the Eagles have should’ve still been enough to put the Titans away early in the first half, especially in 98-degree heat that felt like 106 by the fourth quarter. This tells me that this team is not just going to lay down after a rough week. Yes, the team has plenty of work to do on all phases, but the improvement in just seven days is a very positive sign. That makes me think we can still perform at a better level than we did last season. The Titans travel to New York next week to play the Giants, and I hope to see less caution on the offensive side of the ball, because at this point you’re 0–2, throw the ball, take risks, and go for the big plays. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll was definitely coming out on fire against the Eagles, but all I saw throughout the game was a lack of play calling. This game was a positive signal to Titans fans, showing us that they are not done after one bad game of the season. I definitely think the Titans should’ve won this game, but after watching everything unfold, even with the loss, all I saw was growth.