How would you judge the season at the midway point?

[Former_Fan]

The Titans are an average team with no identity. The Cowboys and Eagles were impressive wins, the rest were ugly. The losses were awful. Buffalo and Ravens games were absolutely embarrassing. We should have beat the Chargers though. Considering new coaches, scheme, and the loss of several key players, 4-4 not bad, but we really should be 6-2. Hopefully the Titans have turned the corner after the BYE week.

[TitanDuckFan]

Midway?

Meh.  Making progress, but meh.

 

About what I expected.  Which is pretty good actually considering Rishard left and Delanie went down and the injuries to key players.

If those two were still on the active roster though, I'd be way more concerned about 4-4.

'Meh' would be "Uh-Oh."

[No1TitansFan]

2 hours ago, Face said:

I'll write some more later but one thing that MUST happen already is to start blitzing Evans for Crissakes. You reminded me of this when you brought up the bend but don't break, we're clearly playing NE style & I love it. But Evans best trait by far is his pass rush & they never send him. He's only blitzing 5% of pass plays. Why did they take him then? He needs to be a SAM that blitzes a ton, like Hightower. He's not a coverage LBer.

 

With how unproductive Orakpo is I'd even pay him at edge on 3rd down. But just send him already. Somehow.

Woodyard and Brown are playing well, and they may not trust him yet; but whatever the reason he didn't play a single down when they were in the nickle Monday night. That meant if the defense did well on first down, he was coming off the field then. They did send him once and he did get close.

[abenjami]

I see no point in judging this season, either right now at the half-way point, or even after it's over.

 

This team was a smoke and mirrors playoff team last season.  The front office made the ballsy decision to purge the coaching staff despite the playoff birth (and playoff win) in order to bring in people they thought were a better long term option.  I fully supported that decision and I understood from the get go we would inevitably suffer setbacks this season to get properly setup for the future.  Vrabel was going to need some time to get comfortable as a head coach, and LaFleur was going to need some time to install his offense.

 

I think this team can compete against most of the league as was shown against the Chargers in London.  But we are worse than our 4-4 record.  Three of our wins were by a field goal and two of those were at home.  The Eagles win was impressive at the time but it's now fairly obvious the Eagles are not the powerhouse everyone thought they were two months ago.  We lost games to some bad teams (Dolphins/Jags) and got shutout by the Ravens.  Last week's win was nice to see but the Cowboys are a bad team; and that game really changed when Sean Lee went out with an injury.

 

I hope we win more games and see more progress in the right direction.  That's all I hope to see this season.  I'd like to make the playoffs just to get some more playoff experience for Marcus and the other guys.  We'll likely be picking somewhere between 10-20 and that is fine with me.  If we end up at 20 and there's a guy we like in the 10-12 range, it's not that expensive to trade up and get him.

 

To me, the better discussion will come in about 6 months after the draft.  I'm very curious to see where JRob spends our draft capital and what he does in free agency.  I believe there are a lot of holes on this team on offense and I fear a repeat of the Mac years where this franchise wasted his prime by refusing to surround him with talent and play makers.

 

I like what I have seen from Vrabel.  He doesn't let his emotions get the better of him during the course of the game.  He's able to shake things off and stay focused.  He's also a player's coach, and I feel that's very important in this day and age of our society in which kids now grow up.  Players just don't respond to the old school coaching style anymore.  They need to believe their coach is one of them and not merely an authoritative figure.  I'm also very pleasantly surprised with how good our defense is.

 

JRob has spent a ton of capital upgrading the defensive side of the ball since he took over.  I really feel he needs to focus on offense this time around.  I think Mariota is good enough to win with and our offense is very limited due to current personnel.  Dion Lewis is a great supporting role player but he's not a guy we can give 20+ touches a game to.  I think everyone agrees our interior OL needs a big upgrade.  We need some talent at WR/TE and a true RB.

 

I watch a lot of non-Titans games around the league.  One of the biggest differences I see between Mariota and our offense and the good offenses like the Rams and Saints is not only talent surrounding the QB but that those offenses exploit match ups based upon pre-snap reads.  Our offense appears more scripted and pre-determined, which is why I believe a lot of posters harp on Marcus being a one-read QB.  The Rams are the perfect example.  They've just got so much talent around Goff.  Defenses have to account for Gurley every snap and that leaves good (but not great) receivers in favorable match ups.  You could put a guy like Cooks, Woods, or Cooper Kupp on our team and they'd be nothing special.  But these guys thrive on the same team in that offense because Cooks and Woods  are solid WR's who can beat single coverage many times a game, and Kupp is good enough to exploit a nickel corner or LB.  It's basically a derivative of the Patriots offense but with a stud RB added to the mix.  Davis isn't Randy Moss, he needs some other guys around him to thrive, as does Marcus.

[woolfolksunclesuncle]

Official judgement on our 4-4 record at the halfway mark:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[IsntLifeFunny]

@abenjami

 

good to have you back even if only for a moment. 

 

 

[TitanicoNFLriotFAN]

Season? A roller coaster

[OILERMAN]

Still unknown 

[oldschool]

A 2nd half run to get into the playoffs would be great but it's really about Mariota's development over the last 8 games. I'll gladly take an 8-8 season if Mariota turns the corner and becomes what we all hope he can be. 

[scine09]

Incomplete.  It's almost like the season is starting again if that makes sense.  It was a weird first half.  There's still time for a successful 2nd half, both with results and player performance.

[pat]

Would have loved a 1 year turn around, but the team has been good enough despite injuries to be pleased.

 

Like the way the team is coached.  Defense is great.  Offense is ok.  Hopefully we won't lose LaFleur before he has a chance to excel here.  Vrabel is great, playing smart aggressive and fair football.

 

Reasonably pleased.  Let's see this team go on a run!

[scine09]

People need to stop with the "we should be 6-2" crap.  They won 3 games by a field goal.  One of which was as smoke and mirrors as you'll ever see.  And the other one was to erase a 14 point deficit.  I think 4-4 is right where this team belongs.  They should have beaten Buffalo.  LA was a toss-up.  Jacksonville I think they played better than the 3 point result indicated.  But the Houston and Philly wins, just be glad that the Titans did win those games because those easily could have been losses.  And Miami and Baltimore outplayed the Titans and at no point should either of those have been wins.  Even if Mariota had not gotten hurt against Miami they were not winning that game.  Now if they played Miami today it might be a different story.  But they didn't.  They played the Dolphins at the absolute worst time.

[oldschool]

2 minutes ago, scine09 said:

People need to stop with the "we should be 6-2" crap.  They won 3 games by a field goal.  One of which was as smoke and mirrors as you'll ever see.  And the other one was to erase a 14 point deficit.  I think 4-4 is right where this team belongs.  They should have beaten Buffalo.  LA was a toss-up.  Jacksonville I think they played better than the 3 point result indicated.  But the Houston and Philly wins, just be glad that the Titans did win those games because those easily could have been losses.  And Miami and Baltimore outplayed the Titans and at no point should either of those have been wins.  Even if Mariota had not gotten hurt against Miami they were not winning that game.  Now if they played Miami today it might be a different story.  But they didn't.  They played the Dolphins at the absolute worst time.

I agree with most of this but it's crazy to say the Titans lose against the Dolphins with a healthy Mariota. He was moving the ball up and down the field before he got hurt.

[scine09]

Just now, oldschool said:

I agree with most of this but it's crazy to say the Titans lose against the Dolphins with a healthy Mariota. He was moving the ball up and down the field before he got hurt.

When I typed that I knew that you were going to quote me on it and say something like that.  It didn't take long.

 

Mariota was not playing well that day.  The Mariota we've seen the last 2 games is a better QB than what we saw that day,

[oldschool]

2 minutes ago, scine09 said:

When I typed that I knew that you were going to quote me on it and say something like that.  It didn't take long.

 

Mariota was not playing well that day.  The Mariota we've seen the last 2 games is a better QB than what we saw that day,

He was bad on the 2nd drive on the goalline but overall he was good for his first action in a new offense. The fact remains they were moving the ball before he went out.