Welcome to the cellar of the AFC South, Titans. Going into Monday night’s game, I didn’t think the Titans would win, but I thought they would cover the +10 point spread. Man was I wrong. The Titans got blasted out of Highmark Stadium, leaving little doubt the trajectories of each team. The high-flying Bills, led by Josh Allen and a dominant passing attack was slowed up a bit in the first half, scoring “only” 17 points, but in the second half, put away the game early.
The Titans lost Taylor Lewan early in the game and had to replace him with Dennis Daley, a noticeable downgrade. The injuries are really mounting for a team that was ravaged by injuries a year ago. Kristian Fulton was not available for the game, which left Roger McCreary and Caleb Farley as the top options at cornerback. Here’s the problem: they didn’t play well. When your top players go down, you need the guys behind them to step up.
Sometimes you have lesser players behind the starters and so there’s an explanation for the drop off in talent. For the Titans, the backups at CB and OL are high draft picks. The misses from Jon Robinson are mounting by the day. The Titans felt comfortable with Aaron Brewer at left guard and so far, he’s been getting wrecked on a regular basis. They signed Jamarco Jones on the first day of free agency and it looks like a pretty bad signing thus far. All in all, the goal to “be great around Ryan Tannehill” looks like a complete and utter failure at this point.
That brings us to the coaching staff. The defense looks very mortal, with injuries and then allowing guys like Tre Avery to be matched up with Stefon Diggs regularly. The offense is putrid. Todd Downing should be on the way out, Derrick Henry is not running well, the offensive line is wretched, and to top it off, Ryan Tannehill isn’t seeing ILBs anymore. Special Teams is an unmitigated disaster. The punt returners drop punts on the regular, Randy Bullock missed a fairly routine kick to win last week, and the return units are middling. Aukerman needs to go.
Other than that, everything is sunshine and rainbows. I can’t wait for the rest of this season! At the rate they are going, they will have a chance to draft C.J. Stroud or Bryce Young and finally get a franchise QB.
