All-22: Titans-Bills (1st Half Notes)

[cenj]

I went back and re-watched the 1st half of the All-22 game film for the Titans-Bills game. At some point I'll learn how to make gifs and upload them, but for now I'll just talk generally about a few main points.

 

1. The defense got gashed early on a number of legal and illegal pick plays. Buffalo was keeping it super simple, running a lot of crossing routes. It worked a few times early, but on the TD they adjusted and shut it down. Unfortunately, Allen made a good scramble and a few players embarrassed themselves tackling. It should have been a FG, but that's how this day went -- a lot of individual bad plays in key moments.
2. The middle of our defense got manhandled, including Casey. Everyone on the DL made plays -- Logan, AJ,  and obviously Casey were all disruptive at times. But on too many running plays, they were getting blown off the ball. Now, often there was a LB unblocked to come down and fill the gap, but our LBs (and at times new safety K. Lewis), didn’t do their job. Brown made some excellent plays, but missed some gaps early. Evans shouldn’t be on the field right now. He's a major liability.
3. I'm less irritated with the playcalling, at least early on. I still think we could have threatened deep more and it would have reduced pressure up front, but it's not like the playcalling wasn't moving the chains. We were actually moving the ball fine, but turnovers and poor individual effort stopped drives.
4. Our little screens were more effective than I remembered as the CBs were playing more off than I thought. Players didn't always make the best runs (Corey Davis ran right into defenders on one screen). On the quick throw to Henry, I have to believe Henry should have stayed wide and not slanted inside (that's where Mariota threw to and the CB was giving him a lot of space, while there was another DB inside following the slot receiver). On the 3rd down pass to Corey Davis (where he slipped), Mariota was staring left towards Sharpe, then pulled away and threw to Davis -- he looked like he was going to Davis no matter what and was simply looking off the Safety. The problem was, Sharpe had a good chance on a deeper throw to the sideline and Mariota should have taken it. Mariota came back though and kept moving us along, but then Lewis fumbled. The point is, the playcalls were definitely creating room and getting Buffalo to run laterally -- on several plays, we were a blown block away from a huge run. I think had everyone been more on their game, Henry could have had a huge day. Which leads me to the next point…
5. Certain players -- especially the receivers/TEs -- were horrible. I'll give an example of this later.
6. Jonnu Smith is even worse than I thought. He's getting destroyed in both the run game and in pass protection. Destroyed.

 

Here's an example of player failing on offense:

1st Quarter, down 7, we're in the redzone and moving up the field with ease. It's 2nd and 4. We right run up the middle with Dion Lewis. It's a great call and should be an easy first down, potentially a TD with a good run. Unfortunately, Lorenzo Alexander (#57) sneaks down and gets inside leverage on Jonnu Smith and single-handedly ruins the play.

 

 

On the very next play, we have condensed trips to the right with Davis, Taylor, and he who shall not be named. The protection holds up and there's a huge space in the center of the defense. Unfortunately, T. Taylor and Corey Davis run to the exact same spot. I don't know who screwed up, but Mariota was looking left at Dion Lewis for a quick pass to the flat, and then came back to his right and looked exactly where Davis and Taylor were, but there was no chance for success.

 

I'll also criticize Mariota a bit here, because this is where I'd like to see him use his athleticism to shake off the DE. He probably could have stepped up (only needed 4 yards), but instead he drifted backwards on his heels, which is something he does way too often. I assume he was trying to buy enough time for one of the WRs to peel off, but it was almost another disaster. This is how players turn a 2nd and 4 in the redzone into a measly FG.

 

Edited October 10, 2018 by cenj

[tgo]

26 minutes ago, cenj said:

 

 2) The middle of our defense got manhandled, including Casey. Everyone on the DL made plays -- Logan, AJ,  and obviously Casey were all disruptive at times. But on too many running plays, they were getting blown off the ball. Now, often there was a LB unblocked to come down and fill the gap, but our LBs (and at times new safety K. Lewis), didn’t do their job. Brown made some excellent plays, but missed some gaps early. Evans shouldn’t be on the field right now. He's a major liability.

 

 

This. I'm hoping that Spillane will take a good portion of his snaps. 

 

I'm all for getting him snaps so that he can learn, but not at the expense of costing us wins. 

[tgo]

 

[Divine]

Number 5 is what I figured. That’s why they promoted the TE off the practice squad.

[Divine]

2 minutes ago, tgo said:

 

Self-entitled?

[big2033]

12 minutes ago, tgo said:

 

 

9 minutes ago, Divine said:

Self-entitled?

I mean ... why would you guys expect him to be discouraged and devastated after a couple of weeks? 

 

He's probably trying to keep things in perspective. We should do the same.

[TitanicoNFLriotFAN]

6 minutes ago, big2033 said:

 

 

 

He's probably trying to keep things in perspective. We should do the same.

Ok, lets see...got to ask. What perspective and what perspective you need to be shown up?

[Divine]

7 minutes ago, big2033 said:

 

I mean ... why would you guys expect him to be discouraged and devastated after a couple of weeks? 

 

He's probably trying to keep things in perspective. We should do the same.

He just looked slow with no agility. I’m hoping it’s just the hamstring after effects.

[tgo]

27 minutes ago, Divine said:

Self-entitled?

I've thought this before about him. I've watched all of his interviews since he was drafted and I think he has accountability issues but maybe I'm just reading too much into it and he's just trying to stay positive while improving?

[tgo]

He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that's going to raise his hand and say "that one was on me, I'm sorry guys, I'll give it my everything to make up for it."

 

Henry, for all his faults, at least is accountable for his poor play. And Nick Williams too - "That was on me 100%."

 

Evans: "Well I'm actually not even an inside guy."

 

"I think I've played pretty well"

 

I guess we have to be patient and see how it plays out. 

[Divine]

Just now, tgo said:

I've thought this before about him. I've watched all of his interviews since he was drafted and I think he has accountability issues but maybe I'm just reading too much into it and he's just trying to stay positive while improving?

It makes sense, he came from a college where you really don’t have adversity, and he was better than most of his competition. Now it’s like damn everyone is good at this level. I think he is struggling because of the time he missed and he probably has the hammy injury on his mind. He does not look like a first round draft pick,  he looks like a less polished version of Williamson, which I get it, we didn’t want to pay the money Williamson wanted. I’ll wait till next year before passing judgement. But so far it doesn’t look super promising. 

[Divine]

1 minute ago, Soxcat said:

My biggest issue is he plays a position that usually translates fairly early from college.  Sure he might miss an occasional assignment but typically a good ILB is aggressive and has instincts.  If he made a decent play for every crappy one I'd be fine with it but he makes virtually no plays.  The coaching staff sees that.  We would be better off putting Trawick at LB right now.  Correa might even be an option.  The kid is light years behind Compton right now.  I can't even see him being decent on STs. 

How has the kid that Chicago took 1st round been? I don’t follow them much, but didn’t he get hurt preseason too. It would be a good base line to measure Evans perhaps.

[TerryBoats]

1 hour ago, Divine said:

He just looked slow with no agility. I’m hoping it’s just the hamstring after effects.

Davis looked pretty awful after returning from his hamstring injury last year.  Slow, timid, like he was in a different planet.  Athletic ability is the last of Evans' problems.

39 minutes ago, Soxcat said:

He is coming alone.  Held out early.  Light years ahead of Evans but who isn't?

The kid for the Bills has been lights out.  Vander Esch has been pretty good. 

Edmunds has been nearly as bad as Evans.  50 grade on PFF.  68 for Smith.  No need to panic yet.

[tgo]

Great post btw

[Highpockets84]

This is a good post. Nice work. TE is a big problem for this team.