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http://www.tennessean.com/story/spo...ful-offense-jared-goff-todd-gurley/963575001/
Can Titans fix communication issues on defense, stop Rams' powerful offense?
Jason Wolf, USA TODAY NETWORK
Photo: George Walker IV / Tennessean.com
Titans safety Kevin Byard attributed the last-second,
crushing loss to the 49ers on Sunday to the worst communication on defense all season.
Numerous teammates agreed.
But why that’d be the case in Week 15, coming off another difficult loss to the Cardinals, with their playoff hopes on the line, after spending a full week practicing together in Arizona, a trip that was billed in part as a way to bring the team closer together, remains unclear.
“Are you married? Do you have anybody?” Titans cornerback Brice McCain said. “If you don’t communicate with (your spouse), what’s going to happen? You have a bad day. So communicating, it’s the same thing in life, man. Communicate with your other, or you’re not going to be on the same page. That’s what happened.”
Niners quarterback
Jimmy Garoppolo, making his third start of the season, diced the Titans' secondary, completing 31 of 43 passes for a 381 yards, a touchdown and a 106.8 passer rating. He also moved the 49ers into position for six field goals, the final dagger a game-winning 45-yard boot as time expired, after he drove the team 48 yards in seven plays and 1:07.
Garoppolo became the third quarterback to set a career-high in passing yards against the Titans this season.
“I mean, he’s a good player. He’s a hell of a player,” Byard said after the game. “I think the 49ers got them a quarterback. But we gave them a lot of plays. A whole lot of plays.”
The Titans (8-6) will need to correct their communication issues on defense to have a chance against the Rams (10-4) in a
must-win game Sunday (noon CT, Fox) at Nissan Stadium. And they may be shorthanded. Cornerback Logan Ryan has yet to practice this week because of an ankle injury, and cornerback LeShaun Sims left practice Wednesday with a hamstring injury.
Rams quarterback Jared Goff has thrown for 3,503 yards, 24 touchdowns and only seven interceptions, and Los Angeles is averaging more than 31 points per game, tied for the highest total in the NFL.
Titans coach Mike Mularkey agreed that Ryan leaving the game with an ankle injury in the second quarter contributed to the team's communication issues. But Ryan was on the field when the Niners put together an exhausting 17-play, 85-yard drive that resulted in their lone touchdown and a 13-3 lead.
Mularkey also said the Titans used “coverages that we’ve run all year – it wasn’t like it’s something that we just installed.”
“It's the young guys, again, to me that are learning a tough lesson, a tough experience, especially some of those young guys in the secondary,” Mularkey said. “We've got a young group back there. You think about it, who we've got on the back end, we have new faces; we have rookies; we have second-year guys that have a lot of communication going on. They've been really good since that Houston game. (Against the 49ers) we weren't as good. Tough lesson.”
Mularkey was citing the Titans’ 57-14 loss at Houston on Oct. 1, when quarterback Deshaun Watson threw for 283 yards and four touchdowns. But other quarterbacks have put up big numbers against the Titans’ defense this season.
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson threw for a career-high 373 yards and four touchdowns against the Titans on Sept. 24, the week preceding their loss at Houston.
Texans backup quarterback Tom Savage threw for a career-high 365 yards and a touchdown against the Titans on Dec. 3, the week before this recent road trip.
But the Titans won both of those games, allowing them to dismiss the hefty passing stats as “garbage” yards.
Garoppolo’s 381 passing yards were the most the Titans have allowed to a quarterback all season.
“It seemed like everything was timing,” Titans linebacker Erik Walden said, “so it was just kind of that Tom Brady formula of getting the ball out quick, a lot of short passes, dink and dunk down the field. They were able to do that and have a little success with it. Got one touchdown, but for the most part they were just getting field goals.
“It just happens sometimes,” Walden said about the team’s communication issues on defense. “I’ve been around a long time. It just happens. We’ve just got to get that (expletive) fixed and come back strong and ready to go this week. We can’t let this dwell into the next week and into the next week. We’re already in playoff mode, basically.”
https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-nfl-week-16-preview-rams-at-titans
NFL Week 16 Preview: Rams at Titans
BY PFF ANALYSIS TEAM
Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
PFFELO Ranking: 7
Coverage by: Mike Cahill
MATCHUP: LOS ANGELES RAMS OFFENSE VS. TENNESSEE TITANS DEFENSE
RB Todd Gurley vs. Titans run defense – Sunday marked the fifth time this season Gurley has had 20 or more carries in a game. It also marked the fifth win in such games. In those games, Gurley has 608 yards, 320 yards after contact,
2.70 yards after contact per attempt (2.70), and six touchdowns.
Week 16, Gurley will face a Titans defense that boasts inside linebackers
Avery Williamson and
Wesley Woodyard. Both linebackers are tied for seventh among their position in
run-defense grade with grades of 88.6 and they have combined for
55 run stops, with Woodyard second among inside linebackers in
run-stop percentage at 10.8.
While Woodyard makes big plays, he has also missed
three missed tackles in the run game, and Gurley just made Bobby Wagner miss his first tackle of the season in Week 15 on his way to
seven missed tackles forced total for the game.
WR Robert Woods vs. CB Adoree’ Jackson – Woods’ return in Week 15 was quiet, but he caught all six of his targets, four of them for first downs. With that,
Woods brought his wide receiver rating (passer rating when targeted) up to 128.1 on the season. That is fourth-highest among receivers with at least 40 targets. Of his 73 targets on the season, 45.5 percent of them have gone for either a first down or a touchdown (the 11th-highest rate among receivers).
His counterpart in Jackson has stepped his play up after giving up three touchdowns in his first four games of his rookie season. Though he hasn’t given up a touchdown over his last four games, Jackson is allowing the
23rd-highest passer rating (98.3) into his coverage while also allowing an average of 1.24 yards per coverage snap (third most).
T Andrew Whitworth vs. Edge Brian Orakpo – In his 14th game in Los Angeles, Whitworth allowed his sixth quarterback sack of the season, resulting in a fumble. This ties his career high which came in 2006, his rookie year. Since the bye,
Whitworth is tied for 22nd in pressures allowed among left tackles while his pass-blocking efficiency of 95.7 also ranks 22nd.
Week 16 brings him a matchup with Orakpo, who has
seven sacks and 52 total pressures from the right side this season. His
11.0 pass-rush productivity from the right side is tied with Von Miller for 17th-highest among edge defenders.
PFFELO Ranking: 17
Coverage by: Sam McGaw
MATCHUP: TENNESSEE TITANS OFFENSE VS. LOS ANGELES RAMS DEFENSE
QB Marcus Mariota vs. Rams pass-rush – When Mariota has faced pressure this season, he’s completed 48-of-87 passes for 628 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions.
His 87.7 passer rating when under pressure ranks second in the league. Conversely, his
77.5 passer rating when kept clean ranks 35th out of 38 qualified quarterbacks.
The Rams have forced pressure on 38 percent of pass plays, which is tied for the fifth-highest rate. They’ve converted eight percent of their pressures into sacks. Rams interior defensive lineman
Aaron Donald leads his position group with a
pass-rushing productivity of 15.4.
RB DeMarco Murray vs. LB Mark Barron – Murray ranks 39th among running backs with a run grade of 69.0. He possesses an
elusive rating of 32.5 and he averages 2.08 yards after contact per rushing attempt. Only 21.1 percent of his runs have been held to zero yards or less, which is slightly better than the league average of 23.2 percent. Barron’s
10.5 run-stop percentage is tied for fourth among linebackers. However, his
run-defense grade of 43.2 ranks 72nd.
WR Rishard Matthews vs. CB Trumaine Johnson – Matthews approaches Week 16 averaging
1.89 receiving yards per route run, which is tied for 17th among wide receivers. When lined up outside to the right, he’s caught 19 of 24 targets for 314 yards and two touchdowns. In addition, he boasts a wide receiver rating of 146.5 when he runs his routes from that position.
Johnson has allowed an average of
1.34 receiving yards per coverage snap. When he’s lined up as the left cornerback, he’s given up 25 catches on 48 passes into his coverage for 371 yards, one touchdown and has also secured one interception. Quarterbacks targeting a player in his coverage average a
passer rating of 78.0.
