Titans: Offensive Line Issues Will Take a Load of Creativity to Resolve

We may be too deep into the season for any big time changes, so this Titans coaching staff has to put in some work to mask the deficiencies along the offensive line!

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I don’t mean to be a hater, but that’s exactly what I’m going to sound like today. The offensive line did not exactly have a banner day despite the Tennessee Titans beating the Washington Commanders 21-17 on Sunday. We’re living out the exact scenario that Owen and I feared on The Unofficial Titans Podcast when we said back before the season started that this team was one injury away from having some huge question marks along the offensive line. Now, here we are. Taylor Lewan is out for the season, and the Titans were down their best lineman of the season so far in Nate Davis on Sunday. We are indeed living in the worst Titans offensive line timeline.

We’ve all seen the Pro Football Focus grades at this point – 40s and 50s across the board. It wasn’t good. It just felt like there consistently wasn’t a push, guys were beaten one-on-one, and the offensive line repeatedly allowed the Commanders front to blow up plays. Now, though the Commanders have a 1-4 record, they still have a whole hell of a lot of talent on that defensive front. It wasn’t like the Titans were letting scrubs by or anything like that. I’d tip my cap to Montez Sweat. But, still – you can’t routinely have two guys doubling an edge rusher and getting beat. This is not a recipe for success:

How it started
How it’s going

That’s the same play, folks! Washington kept hitting on that left side in the first quarter of the game. I’m sure there’s some super official film-guy term for what they were doing, but I don’t know it because I’m not a super official film guy. But, we saw the interior man take on the guard, and then slide into the tackle, essentially absorbing two blocks so that the edge guy could run free. The Titans didn’t seem to have an answer for this:

Aaron Brewer just seemed to be overpowered on a number of plays, and Dennis Daley was playing frozen. Both guys have put some good tape out there this season, but this was a particularly bad match-up against a quality defensive line. This is why this type of stuff has such a disastrous effect on the offense. Not only is it just bad to get beat like this in general, but it also disrupts the timing of just about everything you do, and it undoes every match-up you create based on scheme. For instance, I like the design of this play:

This is some of the bread-and-butter smoke and mirrors kind of stuff this Titans offense loves to hit you with. You’ve got Geoff Swaim, Tory Carter, and Austin Hooper lined up to the right, with Robert Woods as your only guy out wide. It looks like a run right, but we know that the tight ends are going to head down field too. They don’t get tricky with the gadget plays. They get tricky with how they run multiple plays out of formations. Ryan Tannehill is going to get the ball, roll right, Carter comes back across the formation to help block the left side that looks wide open, Henry steps up and blocks left, and Tannehill is going to survey they field and go through his progressions. I love how this play was designed and the potential it has within the offense. Shit, maybe it could be a run depending on how the defense lines up! Maybe it could be a chain-mover to one of the tight ends who are open! But, it could also be a bomb to Woods if he wins his 1:1 match-up, and Tannehill has time to plant his feet and send it. The bases are covered with this formation. But when the protection can’t hold up, you get this:

No good. The pressure was on Tannehill from the jump, he couldn’t evade it, and ended up throwing the ball away despite Swaim being open down the field. That’s an example of an instance when the Commanders might not’ve gotten a sack, but they completely blew up the rhythm of the play. And, moving forward, the Titans just won’t be able to run their offense the way they want to run it with the personnel failing to execute like this.

So, what can they do? Hell, are they going to participate in this supposed fire sale from the Carolina Panthers – you just gonna give up the farm for Ickey Ekwonu? Can you pull starting caliber tackles and guards off the street in October? I don’t think so. It’s going to take a lot of creativity from this coaching staff to patch this shit together, and it’s going to take the defense pitching shut outs if the Titans are going to make any noise come January. Now, I should say, I think they’re certainly capable of that. It’s just a matter of how practical it is to expect perfection week in and week out. That’s the issue. Nonetheless, this particular shitty degenerate blogger’s take on what they can do in the here and now:

*Fucking run block better! They might not be in such a poor and obvious pass pro situations if they’re not having to pass all that often! Get the run game going (as they did against the Commanders), and it’ll alleviate the need to put yourself in more pass pro sets.

*Combo blocks and pulls – They ran a couple of plays where they pulled Dillon Radunz and it worked. Lining up Carter, Swaim, and Hooper everywhere and confusing the defensive line with who’s blocking and who’s running a route seemed to work on a couple of different occasions too. It’s some of that smoke and mirrors stuff we talk about with this offense. Good on Todd Downing and company for mixing these things up.

*Screens – The key is that they have to execute ’em, though:

*Deep threats – Who is separating down the field? Why would any defense have to worry about dropping extra guys into coverage? Why wouldn’t they just line up and send the army on every play? Maybe this is a matter of getting Racey McMath back and healthy. But, I also don’t think it’s wise to rely on a guy who has largely been unproven to this point in his career. This is something I don’t think the Titans would be unwise to explore via trade.

*Smoke and mirrors – If your blocking personnel was better at catching the ball, well-designed smoke and mirrors might work a lot more effectively (it would also help if your blocking personnel was better at blocking – sorry, I could not resist that cheap shot). Chig Okonkwo could be an interesting chess piece here, but he hasn’t routinely been on the field for whatever reason the coaches have. But, if you can get a little-bit-better out of everyone, these plays could start hitting at a higher rate.

I don’t know that there’s any one thing the Titans can do right now to make it all go away – there’s no magic elixir, and that makes me think this regime will just stick with what they have and try to fix it in-house. The fact that they’re winning games like this is a testament to Tannehill, Henry, this stout af defense, and the coaches. Downing won’t get the credit he deserves from this fan base, but he had a hell of a game on Sunday, too.

Also, these examples are from the first quarter of Sunday’s game, but I’m not finishing this game this week. I’m fucking exhausted – been running on fumes all week, and I just don’t have it in me. But, hey – I don’t want to be a total negative Nancy…it’s not like this line didn’t have any good reps against the Commanders. They are capable of some good play! They just need to eliminate the disastrous nuclear bomb plays, and do this a little more consistently. Here’s an example of some good protection on what ended up being a tough catch for Kyle Philips:

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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

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