Tennessee Titans Week 9 Snap Report

Written by Tom Gower on .

The NFL this year is keeping track of player participation information and releasing it to the media. Here's how the Titans lined up in Week 9's loss to the Bears.

Offense (57 total)
QB: Matt Hasselbeck 57
RB/FB: Chris Johnson 52, Quinn Johnson 16, Darius Reynaud 3, Jamie Harper 2
TE: Jared Cook 35, Craig Stevens 28, Taylor Thompson 10
WR: Nate Washington 45, Kenny Britt 43, Kendall Wright 26, Damian Williams 25
OL: Steve Hutchinson 57, Deuce Lutui 57, Michael Roos 57, David Stewart 57, Fernando Velasco 57

Defense (69 total)
DE: Kamerion Wimbley 60, Derrick Morgan 58, Scott Solomon 11, Pannel Egboh 10
DT: Jurrell Casey 66, Sen'Derrick Marks 59, Mike Martin 8, Karl Klug 4
LB: Zach Brown 67, Colin McCarthy 56, Akeem Ayers 41, Tim Shaw 13
CB: Jason McCourty 69, Alterraun Verner 59, Coty Sensabaugh 31, Ryan Mouton 8
S: Michael Griffin 69, Al Afalava 36, Jordan Babineaux 33, Robert Johnson 1

Xavier Adibi, Beau Brinkley, Tommie Campbell, Kevin Matthews, and Tracy Wilson each only appeared on special teams. Mike Otto and Rusty Smith dressed but did not play.

Analysis:

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Turnovers, special teams lead Bears to blowout over Titans

Written by Tom Gower on .

It started ugly, with a fumble by Kenny Britt on the first play. It got a little bit better, as the Bears became the first team not to score against the Titans on their first and second possessions. Then, the Titans had the ball again. Brett Kern had his punt blocked and returned for a score. The Titans got a safety the next possession, but were forced to punt, a punt Devin Hester returned inside the 10. 14-2. Matt Hasselbeck was intercepted by Brian Urlacher, who went to the end zone. 21-2. Chris Johnson fumbled the first play the next drive. Three plays later, 28-2. Then, the first quarter ended.

The 28 first quarter points was the most the Titans had ever allowed at home, though of course they've only been playing games since 1960. It would be 31-5 at half and 37-12 at the end of the third quarter before Jay Cutler tacked on two touchdown passes to Brandon Marshall and Chris Johnson actually made a safety miss on an 80-yard touchdown to produce the final score of 51-20.

There were probably a couple positives from this game (CJ did better than I expected, even before his late run), but frankly right now I don't really care. The Titans were a bit unfortunate to get down quite as much as they did quite as quickly, but on the whole this looked like a very good team (Chicago) taking a very bad team (Tennessee) to the woodshed and beating them like a red-headed stepchild. Sanity later.

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Titans-Bears inactives, gameday thread

Written by Tom Gower on .

The inactives are out for today's game at LP Field between the Titans and the Bears, and here they are.

CHICAGO BEARS: TE Brody Eldridge, WR Alshon Jeffery, DT Amobi Okoye, DE Chet Ozougwu, WR Dane Sanzenbacher, DT Matt Toeaina, OL Edwin Williams

TENNESSEE TITANS: LB Patrick Bailey, DT DaJohn Harris, G Leroy Harris, WR Lavelle Hawkins, QB Jake Locker, OT Byron Stingily, LB Will Witherspoon

For the Titans, David Stewart is active and in the starting lineup. Safety Tracy Wilson, added back to the active roster yesterday, is also active. Will Witherspoon is out after being listed as questionable, while Tommie Campbell, also questionable, makes his return to the lineup after missing the past two games. There were no surprises for the Bears.

Feel free to leave your comments here during today's game. I'll be chiming in on Twitter, so follow and yap at me there. I'm back home this week, so the customary recap will be up shortly after the game ends.

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Enemy Intelligence: Chicago Bears

Written by Tom Gower on .

 

The Chicago Bears are coming off a 23-22 home win over the Carolina Panthers that improved their record to 6-1 on the season. The Bears trailed 19-7 at the start of the fourth quarter, but scored 16 points in the final seven minutes, including a 41-yard field goal at the gun by kicker Robbie Gould, to pull out the win. Lest that scoreline inspire much confidence, I should also note the Bears went to Jacksonville and knocked off the Jaguars, 41-3, in a game that was only slightly more competitive than the final score would indicate.
 
After the jump, what I saw of the Bears last week, and the others of their games I've seen.
 
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Midway Illustrated answers Total Titans' questions about the Bears

Written by Tom Gower on .

I'm glad to be joined for this week's Q&A by Brett Solesky of Bloguin's fine Bears site, Midway Illustrated. Check them out for more Bears coverage, and for my answers to Brett's questions.

 

Total Titans: The last time the Titans faced the Bears in the regular season was back in 2008, the year before the Bears traded for Jay Cutler. In his fourth season with the Bears, what's the verdict on the trade? How good is Cutler, and is he good enough for what the Bears need him to be?
 
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The Titans and success rate at midseason

Written by Tom Gower on .

One of my favorite simple measures for getting a perspective on how well the Titans performed on offense and defense in a given game is success rate. I've mentioned success rate before, typically in the context of evaluating running backs, but here's a brief overview.

A play is considered a success if it gains 40% of the needed yardage on first down, 60% on second down, and 100% on third or fourth down, with adjustments for leading in the fourth quarter (lower baseline on first and second downs) or trailing by 8 or more in the fourth quarter (higher baselines on first and second down). A successful play gets a 1, while an unsuccessful play gets a 0. This method has a number of limitations, which I'll get to later in the post, but it's a good initial gloss.

Here's what the success rate has looked like for the Titans and their opponents in each game this season:

Game Titans Opponent
1-vs Patriots 39% 61%
2-at Chargers 36% 51%
3-vs Lions 40% 60%
4-at Texans 43% 57%
5-at Vikings 41% 49%
6-vs Steelers 44% 37%
7-at Bills 48% 59%
8-vs Colts 44% 60%

Now, let's caveat the heck out of those numbers:

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Titans fans, what questions do you have about the Bears?

Written by Tom Gower on .

The Titans square off against the Chicago Bears this week for the first time since 2008, and for the first time at LP Field since the last NFL overtime game decided by a safety. To better know the 2012 Chicago Bears, we'll be doing our nomal Q&A with Bloguin's Bears blog, Midway Illustrated. If you have any questions about the Bears you'd like answered, post them below and I'll pass them along.

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