Pain.
*Sigh.*
Dammit. Today sucked. But two things are true about this year’s Tennessee Titans team.
1. I haven’t had this much fun watching a Titans team in two decades.
2. I’ve never been this frustrated watching a good Titans team in.. well… ever.
But that’s how I’d sum up this season: fun as hell and frustrating as hell. And this Wild Card game against the Ravens was the epitome of it all. I know we don’t want to talk about it. Hell, I don’t want to blog about it. This has been sitting as a draft that I’ve been coming back to and chipping away at. Like when your mom makes you clean your room before you can have fun and you just put one toy away at a time. That was me today. But let’s stop stalling let’s just break it down.
The Titans Defense
A.k.a. the achilles heal of this year’s team. From the pass rush to 3rd down stops, they very rarely got it done. Until… today?? Lol, of course when the Titans face the most elusive quarterback in the sport, they sack him 4 times in the first half, despite only having 19 sacks on the season.
If anything, the Ravens did the Titans a favor by throwing the ball so much. They were able to mostly bottle up Lamar Jackson. Aside from two major runs, he was only able to get a few yards at a time, which is not typical of Lamar. Call me crazy, but I was hella impressed with the defense today. You keep Lamar to 20 points. You should win. Especially when your offense is top 3 in the entire NFL.
Mike Vrabel’s To Do list in the offseason should be to hire a damn defensive coordinator. This is now the second time he’s been “in charge” of a defense (Texans D.C. in 2017 and now Titans D.C. in 2020), and both teams finished with one of the worst defenses in the sport. I’m not saying Vrabel’s not a good coach. He’s a damn good head coach. But D.C.? Not at all. It’s like the reverse Peter Principle for him.
The Titans Offense
The Titans chose the worst possible day to play their worst game of the season. It was bizzaro world watching them play today. I don’t want to talk about it any more.
The 4th & 2
Did I like the call to punt it on 4th and 2 from the Ravens 40 yard line? Not at all. Did I agree with it? Not at all. Do I understand the reason? Maybe. I mean, this defense was playing their best game of the season. Keeping Lamar pretty bottled up. (If you compare how this defense got waxed by much worse quarterbacks this year.) Am I going to pin the entire game on this play call? No. Can I stop asking myself questions and then answering them? Probably not.
I do find it a bit ironic that Vrabel was willing to chop off his penis for a Super Bowl title last year, but not willing go for it on 4th and 2 from your opponents territory in this one.
Derrick Henry
Yeesh. I hope nobody else was watching this game.
But if they were, and they want to use that piss poor performance as an argument against Derrick winning the MVP this year, tell them they’re idiots. And then tell them that today’s game should prove the point of just how VALUABLE he is. The Titans have the 3rd best offense in the NFL. They average 30 points a game. When Derrick (yes, we’re on a first name basis) gets bottle up like he did today, the entire offense suffers. Thus proving how valuable he is.
But aside from that, you can do nothing but tip your cap to the Ravens. They bottled The King up. Like absolutely BOTTLED him. In most games, when Derrick has sub-100 yard rushing performances, it’s because the Titans fell behind early and had to play catch up, or in other terms, abandon the run. But today? Titans carried a 10-0 lead for a while. They ran Derrick 18 times. Still not the 24+ they would prefer. But he could only get 40 yards, and that tells me there was another issue. Not adjusting to the Ravens stuffing the box. Check this tweet from Paul Kuharksy.
It very much seems stubborn. If the defense is going to load the box that much, figure something else out.
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Did I realistically think this team could win a Super Bowl? With that defense, no. But I thought if that defense could play the way they played today, they could make a deep run. Lol, boy was I wrong. Oh, well. At least the Predators drop the puck later this week. I’m sure that won’t end in a terribly heartbreaking fashion!
