Identify one positive takeaway from today's game

[OzTitan]

2 hours ago, Carpy said:

Does week 1 matter?  I keep hearing that it is an outlier week and maybe that is truer than ever this year with virtually no pre-season action for teams.

 

I went back and looked over the last 4 seasons (2017-2020) and identified how many teams lost by double digits and scored less than 20 points (like we did today).

 

Not including this season, 20 teams have lost their week 1 game by double digits AND failed to score 20 points (so, not a shootout - just a beatdown).

Of those 20 teams, one had a winning record (2020 Browns).  The average record of the other 19 teams was about 5-11/6-10.  (i.e. teams that sucked)

 

In essence, not much to be hopeful about based on precedence.

 

Limiting this to week 1 is too arbitrary for me. I would be more interested in early season games that fit that criteria (say first 6 games) as opposed to late season (last 6 games). The Buccs were absolutely slaughtered 38-3 against the Saints last season in week 5 or whatever - the fact this didn't happen in week 1 of course means little, but the fact it didn't happen in week 16 probably does.

 

Typically good teams don't lose any games like this in a season so the majority of instances for this criteria is obviously bad teams, but when good teams do, I suspect they rarely do so towards the later end of the season where playoff momentum is being built. And by "good" here I mean good enough to win it all.

[Number9]

2 hours ago, unauthorizedcinnamon said:

Dude, AZ secondary is trash and yet we sucked!  If the Titans can't put together a decent performance against the awful Cardinals secondary... man we are in for a rough year.  AJB got his TD but even that should've been too except Tanny overthrew him when he was open in the end zone in the first half. Tannehill just didn't look good.

The Titans didn't play their starters together in a preseason game.  Lot of them weren't even active until this week.  Julio is a ??  He hardly did anything preseason, including practice.  IDK how they expect Julio and Tanny to have any kind of timing together.  Signals forget about it.

 

Lewan, gotta hope it's the same thing.  Davis got out of the tub first time Sunday morning.  I wasn't happy, but I know TL can do better.  The one I'm concerned about is Bud Dupree.  The few times I watched him he wasn't effective at all.  I hate to think the Titans are becoming the secret Studs burial grounds.

 

Tannehill ain't done, but the Cards were doing like everybody else.  They stacked the line to stop Henry. He has to beat stacked boxes even if he has to move around.  The pass Murray threw over his receiver in the EZ was a thing of beauty.  They need to add some deep throws on the regular, even if it's like the 99' and 00' Titans not even planning to complete them.  I counted nine Cardinals at the line one time with just two cbs out.  Tanny has to destroy any team that tries that, it's disrespectful.

[Oaken1]

9 hours ago, NFL2K5 said:

 

Problem with this assessment is the AFC has plenty of QBs who can move, and they are all playoff caliber teams. Mahommes, Josh Allen & even Baker Mayfield. And I'd argue Kyler Murray is the 4th best out of the 4 I just named. Then we got Russell Wilson next I believe.

I ain’t trying to sound like a homer here.... but the only Qb on your list who is a better passer than Kyler is Patrick Mahomes.... and Kyler runs better than all of those guys.  Josh Allen is a load to bring down but he is nowhere near the speed and elusiveness of Murray.... and I like Baker for his fire but come on man. 
Murray is Wilson 2.0 .... he just needs to keep learning to read defenses. But he is quicker and more accurate at this point in his career than Wilson was.

[reo]

13 hours ago, titansfan said:

Usually, win or loss, you shouldn't make any sweeping deductions of the upcoming season after week one. You usually do that after week three or four. I think this team clearly needs some more time to gel. It's a long season and we clearly can be better.

 

I'll start:

 

- The pass rush was actually not bad. Bud Dupree looks like he's going to be a good signing for us. Against 90% of the QBs in the league he probably gets about two sacks today.

 

Positive: I didn't have to watch the whole game.

[Stan]

NFL has always been how you finish. That’s never changed. As long as you can keep an above 500 or close to it record towards the middle to end that’s where you make your run, Tampa did it last year, many teams have done it and that’s all that matters. The Steelers faded after being 10-0, again I don’t put stock into this game because it’s “week one” the scary part is this is a song and dance we’ve seen from Vrabel and company of being out coached, out prepared for years now.  

[No1TitansFan]

11 hours ago, OILERMAN said:

The pass rush was better earlier in the game. Murray is just so able to escape pressure 

He's actually not very good from the pocket, the problem is I don't know if you can keep him in the pocket; they were actually playing really good contain on some downs, but he made some insane reverse of field moves to break free. He's really good at putting himself in the postion of making some easy lob throws.

[Oilertattoo]

10 hours ago, Titans_Win_Again said:

The announcers were surprisingly good 

I specifically enjoyed them saying "the loss of Ficken was huge"

 

But the real highlight was when commemorating Adele Harris for being the first black woman to work in the front office of an NFL team and who died in 2007....

 

"I hope she realizes all that she has done..."

 

I was hoping she realizes that she is dead.

[Callidus]

17 hours ago, oldschool said:

Corey Davis stat line. 5 catches on 7 targets, 97 yards and 2 TDs. Wait he's not a Titan anymore.

Jets still lost

[titansfan]

1 hour ago, Oilertattoo said:

I specifically enjoyed them saying "the loss of Ficken was huge"

 

But the real highlight was when commemorating Adele Harris for being the first black woman to work in the front office of an NFL team and who died in 2007....

 

"I hope she realizes all that she has done..."

 

I was hoping she realizes that she is dead.

 

Clearly you haven't seen Ghost 

[Bink]

15 hours ago, abenjami said:

 

I didn't think it sucked ass.  The offense left them in some terrible situations.  At times the defense held up.

 

I'm not saying we are suddenly the 85 Bears but there was noticeably better pressure and better coverage.  It just didn't result in much of anything tangible due to Murray being so elusive.

 

I agree. Our lack of depth showed, because Murray running around demoralized them. He made some miracle plays you just can't defend against. If the offense sustains more drives (sustains anything really) I think our pass rush looks better at the end. Our secondary got roasted too, but didn't look as vulnerable as the cripplingly bad unit we fielded last year. 

 

I am not as "the sky is falling" as others here. The offensive line and the play calling has got to get better, though, or we won't contend. The play action is not suited to being blown up like that and it seemed the Cardinals had figured that component of our offense out. We need to adapt, not run the same scheme people now have two years of tape on. 

 

It was an interesting day one. A lot of doom and gloom when Art Smith left--I don't fault him for doing it, but wow did the Falcons get their shit kicked in too. If that offense would have balled out I would have felt even worse. 

 

The thing is, though, as this game exposed us--I think it exposed the Cardinals as very legitimate too. The guys they have on both sides of the ball are legit--we are not going to face a Chandler Jones, Simmons, Collins every week. And thankfully we don't have to worry about Murray or Titan killer D-Hop again. 

 

I don't expect us to win next week, but after that we better have sorted this shit out. 

 

As for a positive take away? I started Kyler in my most important fantasy league and beat a rival and resident troll in chief. 

[No1TitansFan]

9 hours ago, Bink said:

 

I agree. Our lack of depth showed, because Murray running around demoralized them. He made some miracle plays you just can't defend against. If the offense sustains more drives (sustains anything really) I think our pass rush looks better at the end. Our secondary got roasted too, but didn't look as vulnerable as the cripplingly bad unit we fielded last year. 

 

I am not as "the sky is falling" as others here. The offensive line and the play calling has got to get better, though, or we won't contend. The play action is not suited to being blown up like that and it seemed the Cardinals had figured that component of our offense out. We need to adapt, not run the same scheme people now have two years of tape on. 

 

It was an interesting day one. A lot of doom and gloom when Art Smith left--I don't fault him for doing it, but wow did the Falcons get their shit kicked in too. If that offense would have balled out I would have felt even worse. 

 

The thing is, though, as this game exposed us--I think it exposed the Cardinals as very legitimate too. The guys they have on both sides of the ball are legit--we are not going to face a Chandler Jones, Simmons, Collins every week. And thankfully we don't have to worry about Murray or Titan killer D-Hop again. 

 

I don't expect us to win next week, but after that we better have sorted this shit out. 

 

As for a positive take away? I started Kyler in my most important fantasy league and beat a rival and resident troll in chief. 

Byron Murphy looked like the real deal out there too.

[bizzyeddie]

Maybe vrabel learned a little preseason action may actually be a good thing 

[Mythos27]

Kevin Byard has proven time and time again that he absolutely cannot cover anyone in man to man defense. We should never put him on that position again. He loses like 75% of those matchups. ALL he seems to be able to do is play deep center field.

[AussieTitanFan08]

Thought Landry and Fulton were the two biggest positives out of that disaster.

[AJClown]

12 hours ago, Mythos27 said:

Kevin Byard has proven time and time again that he absolutely cannot cover anyone in man to man defense.

No one in our defense can cover anyone one on one man. Fulton maybe, I need to see him play more before I can say that as well.