The Titans returned to work from their bye week Monday tied for first place in the AFC South at 4-3 overall. But it's safe to say they are going to have to play much better over the second half of the season in order to stay there.
Frankly, the Titans haven't played all that well since a September 24th win over the Seahawks at Nissan Stadium. The defense failed to show up the next week in a 57-14 loss at Houston. The offense was abysmal with Matt Cassel at quarterback in a 16-10 loss at Miami the following week. Even wins over the Colts and Bengals the past two weeks were nearly derailed by slow starts that have become all too typical from this team.
The Titans have to play better and they know it.
"We've got to play way better football than what we've been doing," Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jurrell Casey said following practice Monday. "Yes, it helped us win these first four games, but this is when the real guys come out and play. This is when the real teams step up."
What must change? Well, Casey and the defense would love to be a bit better against the run, having slipped from third in the league a year ago in rush defense to 10th this season, but that's still very respectable. They'd also love to get home to the quarterback and improve upon the 11 sacks that currently has them ranked tied for 30th in the NFL.
But that, too, is a bit of a misnomer for the team's ability to affect opposing team's quarterbacks considering the Titans' pass rush has actually created more pressures this year. The combination of mobile quarterbacks and, perhaps just bad luck, has led to the lower sack numbers.
So let's focus more of our attention on an offense that ranks a disappointing 18th in the NFL through seven games. The running game hasn't been terrible, averaging 124.6 yards per game, but those numbers are down in large part because they're facing more and more defenders in the box looking to stop the run. Through seven games, the Titans have faced eight or more defenders in the box on about 70 percent of their running plays.
The result is a drop in production on predictable run downs. In their base formations of a single tight end and two running backs or two tight ends and one running back the Titans have lost more than a yard per carry this season compared to a year ago. That's led to fewer positive plays on first and second downs, and more third and long situations, which in turn has hurt the team's ability to convert on third downs this year.
The Titans' ability to reclaim their smashmouth identity and run the football even into the teeth of defenses looking to stop the run will be critical to their success in the second half of the season. But the biggest key to the offense getting going is it's ability to convert in the red zone.
Tennessee scored touchdowns on 72 percent of it's trips inside the opponents' 20-yard line last season, which was tops in the NFL. This season, the Titans are walking away with TD's just 46 percent of the time, a precipitous drop off that has proved costly. Walk away with field goals instead of touchdowns too often and you're going to get burned, as was nearly the case in their 12-9 overtime field goal fest victory at winless Cleveland a week ago.
Titans' coaches made figuring out their red zone slump a top priority during the bye week, and believe they've come up with some solutions.
"We've targeted what we think it is," head coach Mike Mularkey said. "Obviously, we've got to get better down there, no question. We definitely saw some things down there that we need to get better at."
While Mularkey wouldn't divulge the solutions his staff came up with, you can bet it involves a resolve to impose their will in the running game against opponents and also a desire to get Marcus Mariota going.
The third-year quarterback was widely praised through his first two seasons in the NFL for his red zone efficiency as he threw for 33 touchdowns against zero interceptions. But Mariota is yet to throw a red zone TD this season, and has thrown for just four scores total.
Whether it's the hamstring injury Mariota's been dealing with for the past month, injuries to other weapons or the play-calling, something has gone wrong, and the Titans have to fix it to be the team they believe they can be. This isn't an offense built to be explosive, but rather to wear teams down over four quarters. But it has to be efficient when it reaches the scoring zone.
The Titans know they must put up more points, and don't believe they need to make wholesale changes in the second half of the season to do so.
"Man, I don't even think we've scratched the surface yet," receiver Rishard Matthews said. "The defense and special teams are getting it done. Offensively, we're not getting it done. Me, personally, I don't think we've scratched the surface. There's a lot out there we can do and I think we're going to do that."
****For more on the Titans, watch the above videos for Jonathan Hutton's mid-year analysis.****
