The offenses of the Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles couldn’t have been more of a polar opposite than they were on Sunday.
As many expected, Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown had a phenomenal showing against his former team. Titans fans know better than most what Brown is capable of when he plays with a chip on his shoulder, and his talents were on full display on Sunday.
Brown caught eight out of his 10 targets on the day for a total of 119 yards and two touchdowns. The Ole Miss product also averaged well over the league average when it came to receiver separation.
According to Next Gen Stats, the league average is approximately 2.93 yards of distance. Brown himself accounted for over four yards of separation.
The Eagles as a whole had four pass-catchers that averaged at least 3.5 yards of separation from the nearest defender at the time of catch/incompletion.
Tennessee, on the other hand, continued to struggle in the passing game. For starters, they only had one pass catcher eclipse the league average in receiver separation.
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine accounted for 3.13 yards of separation; however, he did nothing meaningful with it, only totaling four yards on one catch.
Robert Woods also continued to be non-existent on Sunday.
The USC product caught one of five targets for a total of six yards, averaging less than two yards of separation in the process, something that’s unfortunately become more common than not this season.
Truthfully, this game was realistically over the second Treylon Burks left the game early due to a possible concussion. Once that happened, this passing attack regressed back to it’s abysmal ways almost immediately.
To be perfectly honest, it’s pretty ridiculous that this entire passing offense is seemingly solely reliant on a rookie making monstrous plays. If he’s not there to do that, this offense often looks beyond lost and lethargic.
This only gets amplified once Derrick Henry isn’t able to be superman, which he hasn’t been for four weeks now, as Henry has averaged less than three yards per carry in three out of his last four games.
The most frustrating thing in all this is the fact that it doesn’t even seem like the scheme helps to put any of these guys in positions to succeed.
Tennessee’s offense doesn’t make opposing defenses think on their heels whatsoever due to their eye manipulation practically being non-existent.
The Titans’ offense hardly ever forces defenders to think on their feet. Far too often, what you see is what you get and that allows opposing defenses to play fast, freely, and instinctively.
No one is expecting this group of wideouts outside of Burks to be world-beaters or anything like that. But there’s no reason why this coaching staff can’t help these guys out by at least constantly moving guys around, which subsequently will help them to gain leverage and/or create mismatches.
Even Woods himself used to thrive off pre-snap movements prior to arriving in Tennessee. Before the 2022 season began, the Titans receiver produced the most yards in the league when being motioned before the snap from 2018-2021.
Since 2018, Robert Woods has carried the ball:
🌴 56 times to the outside (7.1 YPC)
🌴 11 times Off-Tackle (5.8 YPC)
🌴 Once inside (14 YPC)When motioning Woods, he ranks:
🌴 1st in Total yards (1,117)
🌴 3rd in carries (50)
🌴 6th in TDs (7)
🌴 7th in receptions (66)#Titans pic.twitter.com/uCPrf9stk0— Shaun Calderon (@ShaunMichaels31) June 10, 2022
Instead, this team stubbornly expects all of these pass-catchers to straight up beat their defender based off talent and technique alone.
And when Tennessee’s weapons aren’t able to accomplish this feat, the offense then reverts back to running Henry into a wall, with the Titans convincing themselves that he’s wearing the opposition down despite no passing attack to counter these little body blows that Henry delivers.
Today’s performance proved that something has to change if this team has any interest in competing with the legitimate contenders of the league.
Head coach Mike Vrabel hinted today that his team may be making some sort of change in the near future after saying the Titans are at a crossroads when discussing how they plan on moving forward.
Just give Tim Kelly a shot at OC at this point.
At minimum, let him call plays.
There’s no telling if it will improve anything, but it’s clear that Todd Downing can’t elevate this #Titans offense.They just gotta try something different https://t.co/RktgjQHc9b
— Shaun Calderon (@ShaunMichaels31) December 4, 2022
Realistically, i’s too late to drastically improve the personnel, but this team has to consider at least switching play-calling duties to someone like Tim Kelly.
The Texans’ former coach isn’t going to save this offense and turn it into an elite unit or anything of that nature, but there’s no denying that this group could use a jumpstart in some capacity.
There’s no telling if it will even make a difference, but it’s clear that standing pat and expecting things to magically improve on their own isn’t the magic solution, either.