Tennessee Titans Week 10 Snap Report

Written by Tom Gower on .

The NFL has begun keeping track of player participation information on a weekly basis and releasing that data to the media. Here's how the Titans lined up in Week 10's 37-3 win against the Miami Dolphins.

Offense (61 total)
QB: Jake Locker 50, Matt Hasselbeck 11
RB/FB: Chris Johnson 49, Quinn Johnson 24, Darius Reynaud 10, Jamie Harper 2
TE: Craig Stevens 46, Taylor Thompson 24, Jared Cook 23
WR: Nate Washington 42, Kenny Britt 33, Damian Williams 27, Kendall Wright 25
OL: Deuce Lutui 61, Michael Roos 61, Fernando Velasco 60, Steve Hutchinson 50, David Stewart 50, Kevin Matthews 12, Mike Otto 11

Defense (60 total)
DE: Derrick Morgan 43, Kamerion Wimbley 43, Scott Solomon 16, Jarius Wynn 9
DT: Sen'Derrick Marks 43, Jurrell Casey 41, Mike Martin 21, Karl Klug 15
LB: Zach Brown 51, Colin McCarthy 41, Akeem Ayers 23, Tim Shaw 19, Will Witherspoon 5
CB: Jason McCourty 60, Alterraun Verner 55, Coty Sensabaugh 27, Ryan Mouton 19, Tommie Campbell 5
S: Michael Griffin 60, Jordan Babineaux 56, Robert Johnson 4, Tracy Wilson 4

Patrick Bailey and Beau Brinkley each only appeared on special teams.

Analysis

 

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Titans take advantage of breaks to blow out Dolphins, 37-3

Written by Tom Gower on .

Well that was a change from last week's game. Showing you're never as bad as your most recent loss, the Titans got pretty much all the breaks and took advantage of them to rout the Dolphins in Miami, 37-3. The first break came after an exchange of punts to start the game-Reggie Bush converted third-and-13 with a run, but Jason McCourty forced a fumble the Titans recover. Jake Locker found Kendall Wright on third down, and he eluded pigeon Jimmy Wilson to find the end zone and a 7-0 lead.

The second break came to start the next possession. Jake Locker tripped with Chris Johnson on a playfake and went to the ground. Down in college, not in the NFL. He then gets up and runs for a 20 yard gain. Locker converts fourth-and-2 when Mike Munchak goes for it at the Bills 37, then Chris Johnson finishes the drive with a very Chris Johnson 17-yard run where he bounces the run all the way to the other side after the Dolphins think they have him bottled up and lose contain.

Break number three? Well, Akeem Ayers tips a Ryan Tannehill pass right to Colin McCarthy, who's able to catch it with a clear path and take it 49 yards for a score just under a minute into the second quarter for a 21-0 lead.

Break number four? That would come in the second half, when Jamie Harper loses the ball and is erroneously ruled to be down by contact, a non-challengeable call. Jake Locker finds Jared Cook in the end zone with a nice seam throw and better catch the next play, and the Titans take  31-3 lead to put the dagger in the Dolphins.

I've been critical of the Titans, but this was the best performance of the season. The Dolphins struggled to find any consistency on offense all game. All three starting linebackers would end up with interceptions-Ayers beat Fasano for his, while Zach Brown's was quite similar to Brian Urlacher's last week albeit with the QB managing to bring him down short of the end zone. Chris Johnson finished with 23 carries for 126 yards. About the only downside was Jake Locker's very inefficient day throwing the ball-only 4 of 14 for 37 yards in the first half before finishing 9-21 for 122 yards and the two scores.

The Titans get to head into the bye week on a very positive note and could consider themselves in the picture in a very, very murky race for the AFC wild card. There's plenty to say about this team after 10 weeks, and I'll try to take advantage of the bye to say as much of it as I can.

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Titans-Dolphins inactives, gameday thread

Written by Tom Gower on .

The inactives are out for today's game in south Florida between the Tennessee Titans and the Miami Dolphins, and here they are.

MIAMI DOLPHINS: QB Pat Devil, TE Michael Egnew, TE Jeron Mastrud, WR Rishard Matthews, S Anderson Russell, OT Will Yeatman

TENNESSEE TITANS: LB Xavier Adibi, S Al Afalava, G Kyle DeVan, DT DaJohn Harris, WR Lavelle Hawkins, QB Rusty Smith, OT Byron Stingily

There are no notable inactives for the Dolphins (they currently have 52 on the roster, thus only six inactives). No key players were questionable for them for today's game. For the Titans, Jake Locker returns to the starting lineup, which means Rusty! heads to the bench. Will Witherspoon returns to the lineup after his hamstring injury kept him out of the last two games. Ditto Patrick Bailey, who was also listed as questionable with his rib injury.

Feel free to leave your comments here during today's game or follow and yap at me on Twitter, where I'll be chiming in from time to time.

 

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Enemy Intelligence: Miami Dolphins

Written by Tom Gower on .

 

The Miami Dolphins are coming off a 23-20 loss to the Colts in Indianapolis that dropped their record to 4-4 on the season. The Dolphins scored 17 points on their first three possessions, but struggled to move the ball in the second half and lost on a field goal by Adam Vinatieri midway through the fourth quarter.
 
After the jump, what I saw of the Dolphins last week, and the others of their games I've seen.
 
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UFR: Zach Brown's play against the Bears

Written by Tom Gower on .

Zach Brown's playtime has been increasing for most of the season after the Titans selected him in the second round of this year's draft. First he played weakside linebacker against the Chargers when Will Witherspoon shifted to the middle against the Chargers. Then, beginning in the Vikings game he took away some of Witherspoon's snaps at inside linebacker and eventually got them all. Finally, in the last two weeks, he's displaced Akeem Ayers in the nickel.

Against the Bears last week, Brown played every snap except two (one of them the first snap of the game, which shows the oddity of valuing all players by starts) and led all linebackers in snaps for the first time this season. In addition to time on the field, he also hit the statsheet, leading the Titans with 10 credited tackles (7 solo), two of them for a loss, and also recovered a fumble.

Because I was interested in how Brown was developing, and whether some traits I saw in his earlier play were still present, I decided to take an in-depth look at Brown's play against the Bears. What I found was, well, after the jump.

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Phins Phocus answers questions from Total Titans

Written by Andrew Strickert on .

 

We thank Daniel Eliesen of Phins Phocus for joining us in this week's question and answer exchange with a blogger from the other side.  My answers to his questions are here.  Following are his answers to my questions.
 
Total Titans:  After eight games, what can you tell us about Ryan Tannehill?  Can he be the franchise quarterback the Dolphins have been looking for since Dan Marino retired?  What are his strengths and weaknesses so far?
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Titans fans, what are your questions about the Dolphins?

Written by Andrew Strickert on .

As we prepare for this week's game, we'll do another question and answer exchange with a blogger from the other side.  This time, we'll be joined by Daniel Eliesen of Phins Phocus, who will share his thoughts on the Dolphins with us.

If you have a question for Daniel, please leave them in comments and I'll pass them along to him.

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