So, how'd Jake Locker play against the Saints? There's been a great deal of optimism around Titans' fandom the past couple of days about Locker's work in his relief appearance on Sunday, so I thought I'd do a play-by-play breakdown of how he fared.
The normal caveats apply: I'm doing this off TV footage, not all-22 film, and without exact knowledge of what play was called or what the progressions and reads were. Consider these analyses educated best guesses, not definitive declarations. Oh, and to provide a basis for comparison, I returned to my old QB grading scale, with an addition of (BA) for passes batted at the line.
So, what'd I see?
no comments
The normal caveats apply: I'm doing this off TV footage, not all-22 film, and without exact knowledge of what play was called or what the progressions and reads were. Consider these analyses educated best guesses, not definitive declarations. Oh, and to provide a basis for comparison, I returned to my old QB grading scale, with an addition of (BA) for passes batted at the line.
So, what'd I see?
no comments
Jake Locker post will be forthcoming tomorrow.
For this coming Sunday's game against the Colts, we'll be doing our normal question and answer exchange with Nate Dunlevy of the great Colts blog 18 to 88. If there are any questions you'd like me to ask Nate, please post them with the comments and I'll include them. no comments
For this coming Sunday's game against the Colts, we'll be doing our normal question and answer exchange with Nate Dunlevy of the great Colts blog 18 to 88. If there are any questions you'd like me to ask Nate, please post them with the comments and I'll include them. no comments
In a game that was much closer than I anticipated but still had the same result, the Tennessee Titans held the New Orleans Saints' offense in check early but failed to take advantage of their opportunities early and late and fell 22-17.
It looked like the Saints might roll like I thought they would, as methodically moved down the field before stalling out inside the 10 for a field goal, then Darren Sproles took a punt 82 yards to the end zone after the Titans went four-and-out. Sproles' punt would be negated by a holding call, though, as we entered the flagfest portion of the game. There would be fourteen more penalties between the two teams before halftime and the Titans first a first-and-thirty-five their next possession.
The big news that drive was Matt Hasselbeck would leave the game with what was later identified as a left calf injury sustained without contact and Jake Locker would come in. Locker had a nice touch pass to Craig Stevens to set up a field goal to tie the game at 3.
The bad news was the Saints' offense started working late in the first half. Lance Moore dropped a TD pass, but they still went up 6-3 at halftime. After the Titans punted to start the second half, Jimmy Graham failed to catch a TD pass (a controversial but correct call that stood up to review) but the field goal put them up 9-3. The next drive, Brees hit Colston in the end zone for a 16-10 lead, and then Colston again for a 22-10 lead. The Titans would stuff the Saints on third down the next two drives, thanks to a sack by Karl Klug and nice pass breakup by Jurrell Casey(!) in coverage(!), though, and give themselves a chance to win.
Of course, beyond that defense, the Titans had to score some points. A Jake Locker scramble and then a 54-yard pass to Damian Williams on a broken tackle against a cover-0 blitz, then Locker's dive into the end zone gave the Titans an improbable lead at 10-9 late in the third quarter. After the Saints took their 22-10 lead, Locker hit Williams for 8, then scrambled for 17 before finding Nate Washington over the top for a touchdown. Locker would be shaken up the next drive, leave the game with an injury, then ruled to have been stopped short on a sneak on fourth down. After the Casey pass breakup, he'd get a final shot. The Titans would make it down to the 5 before his final two passes fell incomplete and the Saints came away with the win. And with the Texans' win today, the Titans can't win the division, so it's wild card or bust.
I'll be writing in depth about Locker's play this week. After the jump, the normal other player notes and the like.
no comments
It looked like the Saints might roll like I thought they would, as methodically moved down the field before stalling out inside the 10 for a field goal, then Darren Sproles took a punt 82 yards to the end zone after the Titans went four-and-out. Sproles' punt would be negated by a holding call, though, as we entered the flagfest portion of the game. There would be fourteen more penalties between the two teams before halftime and the Titans first a first-and-thirty-five their next possession.
The big news that drive was Matt Hasselbeck would leave the game with what was later identified as a left calf injury sustained without contact and Jake Locker would come in. Locker had a nice touch pass to Craig Stevens to set up a field goal to tie the game at 3.
The bad news was the Saints' offense started working late in the first half. Lance Moore dropped a TD pass, but they still went up 6-3 at halftime. After the Titans punted to start the second half, Jimmy Graham failed to catch a TD pass (a controversial but correct call that stood up to review) but the field goal put them up 9-3. The next drive, Brees hit Colston in the end zone for a 16-10 lead, and then Colston again for a 22-10 lead. The Titans would stuff the Saints on third down the next two drives, thanks to a sack by Karl Klug and nice pass breakup by Jurrell Casey(!) in coverage(!), though, and give themselves a chance to win.
Of course, beyond that defense, the Titans had to score some points. A Jake Locker scramble and then a 54-yard pass to Damian Williams on a broken tackle against a cover-0 blitz, then Locker's dive into the end zone gave the Titans an improbable lead at 10-9 late in the third quarter. After the Saints took their 22-10 lead, Locker hit Williams for 8, then scrambled for 17 before finding Nate Washington over the top for a touchdown. Locker would be shaken up the next drive, leave the game with an injury, then ruled to have been stopped short on a sneak on fourth down. After the Casey pass breakup, he'd get a final shot. The Titans would make it down to the 5 before his final two passes fell incomplete and the Saints came away with the win. And with the Texans' win today, the Titans can't win the division, so it's wild card or bust.
I'll be writing in depth about Locker's play this week. After the jump, the normal other player notes and the like.
no comments
The inactives are out for today's game at LP Field between the Titans and the Saints, and here they are:
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS: WR Adrian Arrington, DE Turk McBride, LB Jonathan Casillas, DT Sedrick Ellis, RB Mark Ingram, OT Will Robinson, DB Leigh Torrence
TENNESSEE TITANS: LB Patrick Bailey, DT Zach Clayton, C Kevin Matthews, CB Jason McCourty, LB Barrett Ruud, QB Rusty Smith, OT Byron Stingily
A bit of good news, bad news for the Titans. The good news is Nate Washington is active after being listed as questionable with an ankle injury. The bad news is Bailey's hamstring and McCourty's concussion leave them out of today's game after being listed with the same status. I've been skeptical for a while the Titans have enough quality depth at cornerback to sustain an injury, and today would be a tough enough test for the secondary with McCourty. Tommie Campbell does return after missing last week's game, so the impact of Bailey's injury will be somewhat limited. I don't expect him to make a difference on defense, though, as he's behind Hawkins.
Feel free to leave your comments here during today's game. I'll mostly be chiming in on twitter, so follow and yap at me there, and of course there'll be a recap up when the game's over. no comments
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS: WR Adrian Arrington, DE Turk McBride, LB Jonathan Casillas, DT Sedrick Ellis, RB Mark Ingram, OT Will Robinson, DB Leigh Torrence
TENNESSEE TITANS: LB Patrick Bailey, DT Zach Clayton, C Kevin Matthews, CB Jason McCourty, LB Barrett Ruud, QB Rusty Smith, OT Byron Stingily
A bit of good news, bad news for the Titans. The good news is Nate Washington is active after being listed as questionable with an ankle injury. The bad news is Bailey's hamstring and McCourty's concussion leave them out of today's game after being listed with the same status. I've been skeptical for a while the Titans have enough quality depth at cornerback to sustain an injury, and today would be a tough enough test for the secondary with McCourty. Tommie Campbell does return after missing last week's game, so the impact of Bailey's injury will be somewhat limited. I don't expect him to make a difference on defense, though, as he's behind Hawkins.
Feel free to leave your comments here during today's game. I'll mostly be chiming in on twitter, so follow and yap at me there, and of course there'll be a recap up when the game's over. no comments
Thanks to Andrew Juge of Saints Nation for joining us for this week's question and answer exchange. You can find my answers to Andrew's questions over on Saints Nation. Andrew's answers to my questions follow after the jump.
no comments
no comments
The New Orleans Saints are coming off a 31-17 home win against the Detroit Lions. They jumped out to an early 24-7 lead before the Lions cut the deficit to 24-17 early in the fourth quarter before a Drew Brees to Darren Sproles touchdown pass extended the lead to fourteen points.
As I've seen some or all of something like nine games the Saints have played this year, my observations will be based on everything I've seen, not just last Sunday's game against Detroit. After the jump, my thoughts on the Saints.
no comments
As I've seen some or all of something like nine games the Saints have played this year, my observations will be based on everything I've seen, not just last Sunday's game against Detroit. After the jump, my thoughts on the Saints.
no comments
We'll be having our normal question and answer exchange this week with Bloguin's New Orleans Saints blog, Saints Nation. If there are any questions you'd like us to ask Saints Nation, please post them in the comments section and we'll include them.
no comments
I've been concentrating on how the Titans' offense has done in my look at field position, so this week it's time to look at the other side of the ball.
Remember how the Titans are having trouble turning possessions that start in opposing territory into points? Titans' opponents are not having the same problem at all, no siree, absolutely not. They're not starting many possessions there, only two-thirds as often as the Titans start there, but they're averaging 4.17 points per possession, over double what the Titans were doing before Sunday and even better than the Titans did in the second half of 2009 or either half of 2010.
The good news is, the Titans (through Week 12) are more productive in drives starting in every other area of the field than their opponents. Between the 21 and 49, Titans opponents are averaging 1.76 points per possession to the Titans' 1.89. Drives from the 20 are particularly unproductive, as opponents are only averaging 1.08 points per possession even after the Bills scored 17 points on drives from there. The numbers are of course, flexible, and not particularly meaningful; like the Titans, their opponents are averaging more points on drives starting inside the 20 than they are on drives at the 20.
If there's any sort of lesson here, it's probably that the Titans should concentrate on not letting their opponents get particularly good field position. There hasn't been a single cause that's let team get good field position, but rather it's come split almost equally between kickoffs, punts, fumbles, and interceptions.
One cautionary note, though: I'm taking raw number of drives here, and the number of possessions is dependent on the offense the Titans are playing. Thus, you're getting 14 or 15 drives worth of Carolina or Indianapolis, two teams that struggled against the Titans, and 7 or 8 of Atlanta and Houston, teams that were much more successful. I haven't worried about this in doing the offensive numbers, since it's always the same offense and I don't think opponent adjustments really need to be that strong, but they're a bigger factor here and I'm intentionally completely ignoring them. no comments
Remember how the Titans are having trouble turning possessions that start in opposing territory into points? Titans' opponents are not having the same problem at all, no siree, absolutely not. They're not starting many possessions there, only two-thirds as often as the Titans start there, but they're averaging 4.17 points per possession, over double what the Titans were doing before Sunday and even better than the Titans did in the second half of 2009 or either half of 2010.
The good news is, the Titans (through Week 12) are more productive in drives starting in every other area of the field than their opponents. Between the 21 and 49, Titans opponents are averaging 1.76 points per possession to the Titans' 1.89. Drives from the 20 are particularly unproductive, as opponents are only averaging 1.08 points per possession even after the Bills scored 17 points on drives from there. The numbers are of course, flexible, and not particularly meaningful; like the Titans, their opponents are averaging more points on drives starting inside the 20 than they are on drives at the 20.
If there's any sort of lesson here, it's probably that the Titans should concentrate on not letting their opponents get particularly good field position. There hasn't been a single cause that's let team get good field position, but rather it's come split almost equally between kickoffs, punts, fumbles, and interceptions.
One cautionary note, though: I'm taking raw number of drives here, and the number of possessions is dependent on the offense the Titans are playing. Thus, you're getting 14 or 15 drives worth of Carolina or Indianapolis, two teams that struggled against the Titans, and 7 or 8 of Atlanta and Houston, teams that were much more successful. I haven't worried about this in doing the offensive numbers, since it's always the same offense and I don't think opponent adjustments really need to be that strong, but they're a bigger factor here and I'm intentionally completely ignoring them. no comments
Behind the productive running of Chris Johnson, the Tennessee Titans today took a first-half lead and held on defeat the Buffalo Bills, 23-17.
The Titans opened to scoring on their first possession, after a Buffalo three-and-out and a long Marc Mariani punt return gave them the ball in Bills territory. They then actually managed to move the ball 14 yards before Rob Bironas hit from 48 yards. The Bills answered with a score, albeit in slightly unusual fashion. After a couple third down conversions, C.J. Spiller broke free down the sideline for a big gain, but Michael Griffin poked the ball forward into the end zone and it looked like Spiller failed to recover the ball before it went out of the end zone. Chan Gailey challenged, though, and the Bills were awarded a touchdown on a reversal of what I thought was a close call.
The Titans answered quickly, though: Chris Johnson for 11 yards, Damian Williams for 16, and then CJ looked like CJ2k in taking a draw play 48 yards for a 10-7 lead. It looked like the Bills retook the lead after Spiller went around left end again for a 41-yard touchdown, but it was negated for holding on Cortland Finnegan, and the Bills would fail on fourth-and-three from the Titans 34. CJ would make it to the end zone again the next drive, this time from four yards out, and also had the drive's biggest play, a 19-yard run. Titans lead, 17-7.
The Bills would cut the deficit to 17-10 the next drive, with the key play being a well-blocked and nice run by Spiller up the middle for 25 yards. The Titans extended their advantage to 20-10 in the third quarter, on a drive that included a 21-yard pass to Daniel Graham(!) and a fourth-down conversion inside the red zone, and took their lead to 23-10 in the fourth quarter on a drive that included their first third-down conversions of the game. The Bills cut the deficit to 23-17 on their own clock-burning possession that included two fourth-down conversions, and would get a final chance to win if they could drive 85 yards in 62 seconds but failed to make it to midfield, and the Titans came away with a 23-17 win.
Aside from perhaps CJ, this isn't a game that will win many awards for effectiveness. In many ways it felt like a Jeff Fisher win, kind of ugly, kind of uncomfortable, not much efficiency, just enough passing, but a win nonetheless. Whatever it was, though, it was a win, and the Titans are now 7-5 and in the AFC wild card race.
After the jump, the normal player notes:
no comments
The Titans opened to scoring on their first possession, after a Buffalo three-and-out and a long Marc Mariani punt return gave them the ball in Bills territory. They then actually managed to move the ball 14 yards before Rob Bironas hit from 48 yards. The Bills answered with a score, albeit in slightly unusual fashion. After a couple third down conversions, C.J. Spiller broke free down the sideline for a big gain, but Michael Griffin poked the ball forward into the end zone and it looked like Spiller failed to recover the ball before it went out of the end zone. Chan Gailey challenged, though, and the Bills were awarded a touchdown on a reversal of what I thought was a close call.
The Titans answered quickly, though: Chris Johnson for 11 yards, Damian Williams for 16, and then CJ looked like CJ2k in taking a draw play 48 yards for a 10-7 lead. It looked like the Bills retook the lead after Spiller went around left end again for a 41-yard touchdown, but it was negated for holding on Cortland Finnegan, and the Bills would fail on fourth-and-three from the Titans 34. CJ would make it to the end zone again the next drive, this time from four yards out, and also had the drive's biggest play, a 19-yard run. Titans lead, 17-7.
The Bills would cut the deficit to 17-10 the next drive, with the key play being a well-blocked and nice run by Spiller up the middle for 25 yards. The Titans extended their advantage to 20-10 in the third quarter, on a drive that included a 21-yard pass to Daniel Graham(!) and a fourth-down conversion inside the red zone, and took their lead to 23-10 in the fourth quarter on a drive that included their first third-down conversions of the game. The Bills cut the deficit to 23-17 on their own clock-burning possession that included two fourth-down conversions, and would get a final chance to win if they could drive 85 yards in 62 seconds but failed to make it to midfield, and the Titans came away with a 23-17 win.
Aside from perhaps CJ, this isn't a game that will win many awards for effectiveness. In many ways it felt like a Jeff Fisher win, kind of ugly, kind of uncomfortable, not much efficiency, just enough passing, but a win nonetheless. Whatever it was, though, it was a win, and the Titans are now 7-5 and in the AFC wild card race.
After the jump, the normal player notes:
no comments
The inactives are out for today's game in New York between the Titans and the Bills, and here they are:
BUFFALO BILLS: WR Kamar Aiken, LB Antonio Coleman, WR Derek Hagan, K Rian Lindell, DE Kyle Moore, S George Wilson, OT Sam Young
TENNESSEE TITANS: WR Donnie Avery, CB Tommie Campbell, DT Zach Clayton, C Kevin Matthews, LB Barrett Ruud, QB Rusty Smith, OT Byron Stingily
One mild surprise for the Titans, as Tommie Campbell's shoulder injury that had him listed as questionable leads them to sit him down this week. RT David Stewart was also questionable, and returns to the starting lineup after missing last week's game. Chris Hawkins is dressed with Campbell's injury, while Stewart's return sends Stingily back to the bench. The Bills officially had two lineup changes, with Brad Smith starting at wide receiver and Chris Hairston starting at left tackle.
Feel free to leave your comments here during today's game, and I'll mostly be chiming in on twitter. You'll also be able to read my emails from today's game in tomorrow's Audibles at the Line on Football Outsiders, though the recap of today's game will hit most of the same points. no comments
BUFFALO BILLS: WR Kamar Aiken, LB Antonio Coleman, WR Derek Hagan, K Rian Lindell, DE Kyle Moore, S George Wilson, OT Sam Young
TENNESSEE TITANS: WR Donnie Avery, CB Tommie Campbell, DT Zach Clayton, C Kevin Matthews, LB Barrett Ruud, QB Rusty Smith, OT Byron Stingily
One mild surprise for the Titans, as Tommie Campbell's shoulder injury that had him listed as questionable leads them to sit him down this week. RT David Stewart was also questionable, and returns to the starting lineup after missing last week's game. Chris Hawkins is dressed with Campbell's injury, while Stewart's return sends Stingily back to the bench. The Bills officially had two lineup changes, with Brad Smith starting at wide receiver and Chris Hairston starting at left tackle.
Feel free to leave your comments here during today's game, and I'll mostly be chiming in on twitter. You'll also be able to read my emails from today's game in tomorrow's Audibles at the Line on Football Outsiders, though the recap of today's game will hit most of the same points. no comments
