Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Season Review by the Numbers - Statistical Review of Offense, Defense & Special Teams

Episode Date: January 22, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. Throughout the playoffs, we took a statistical deep dive into the playoff opponent each week to try to get an idea of who they were based on what they did in the regular season. Well, now that the Titans season has come to an unfortunate end, I thought it might be a good idea to do that for ourselves. Remember, the most important scouting is self-scouting. So if we take a look back at where the Titans stacked up against their

competition statistically with some key stats that I want to point out and give you some analysis on, then that can help us get a good idea of where the team was so we know exactly where the Titans need to go moving forward to take that next step and reach the Super Bowl. We are going to dive into everything now. Let's get it. Let's talk a little Titanalytics, I guess, and do our statistical review of the Titans offense. So obviously the offense was completely changed when Ryan Tannehill took over in week seven, but there are some numbers in here that were consistent no matter who the quarterback was that the Titans need to learn and improve from, and we can take a look at and make sure that the

offseason moves line up with the improvements that need to be made here. So we will start with some of the more raw counting numbers. Of course, this Titans offense, despite scoring seven points against the Jaguars, seven points against the Buffalo Bills, zero points against the Denver Broncos, ended up as a top 10 scoring offense with 25.1 points per game that's pretty incredible and it shows that the Titans obviously were going above and beyond on the scoreboard and we saw that out on the field it was fantastic for that late run where the Titans went seven and three and obviously that's something that needs to be duplicated. The yards per game, it's crazy that they were able to get as high up as they got, 362.8, 12th best in the NFL.

You would hope that if the Titans do get a full season of Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry together, that that would be able to go up as well and improve, not only stay where it is. The rushing yards, I'm not sure that can improve much more, 138.9 rushing yards per I'm not sure that can improve much more. 138.9 rushing yards per game, third best in the NFL. They threw the ball for only 223.9 yards per game. That was 21st in the NFL, but obviously the performance at the beginning of the season may have skewed some of that. The Titans leaned heavily on the run game early on, so that wouldn't be much

of a change. One thing that was very impressive and you hope can carry over because it tends to be a little fluky from year to year is the turnovers. The seventh fewest turnovers in the NFL, 17, so you gotta hope that that continues, but like I said, turnovers can be a little fluky, and with the aggressive throws that Ryan Tannehill makes and the amount that he was getting hit in the pocket and fumbling the ball, you have to worry about that. That's got to be something that gets focused on throughout the offseason to make sure that this kind of success and not turning over the ball continues.

This Titans offense isn't necessarily built to deal with a lot of turnovers. Not many offenses are, so hopefully that keeps up. The biggest pain point for this offense, period, is the pressure on the quarterback. They allowed 56 sacks, third most in the NFL, and quite frankly, you can't pinpoint that on quarterback play. Both quarterbacks do hold the ball a little bit longer than is the NFL average, but both of them took tons of sacks, and you can't just blame the quarterbacks at that point either. So that's something that this offensive line will have to improve on, and there could be changes on the offensive line. Dennis Kelly is a free agent. Jack Conklin is a free agent. We'll talk more about those things going

forward into the offseason, but no matter who is playing at tackle or guard or center, the Titans will have to make sure they don't allow as many sacks next season. They allowed 11.1% of their plays to be a sack. That's the most in the NFL, and by a lot, the next closest team was at 9.5% of their plays ended up as a sack. So the Titans are in double digits, more than double digits at 11.1. That's so, so bad. Whether it be continuity on the offensive line, whatever combination they need, if they have to start in training camp together, then so be it because no matter what, that has to improve. And it didn't improve in the back half of the season when the running game really started to

kick in. It's not something that they all of a sudden got better at. They had a few games there. The Raiders, they gave up zero sacks. They did have a few good performances, but it wasn't consistent enough. And when they faced a good pass rush, they just got demolished a lot of the time. So they're going to have to do a lot better in that department next year. On third down, this offense could have done a lot better. That's something else they'll have to improve on. Missing Adam Humphreys for a good chunk of the season doesn't help there. As they get more confident in the passing game, that should help as well. But 37.8% of their opportunities, they were able to convert.

On third down, they were even worse. On fourth down, third worst in the NFL. As a matter of fact, converting fourth downs 28.6% of the time. They only had 14 tries on fourth down, but only converted four. So Arthur Smith is going to have to look into his situational plays and make sure that those improve as well. Now, it's hard to complain about the red zone offense. 75.6% of the time, they were able to get a touchdown when

in the red area first in the NFL incredible just an incredible stat and they were getting down into the red zone and scoring touchdowns and that made this offense what it was in the back half of the year you have to hope that that can continue it will have to that's kind of something that this offense is built on and with the issues in the kicking game they had to be that way so something that really worked out for the Titans from next gen stats I thought this was something that was very interesting the Titans were the third best team in the NFL at getting explosive plays in the passing game in the run game 12% of their plays were explosive and by explosive you're looking at a 20 yard pass play or a 15 yard rushing play so pretty incredible there that the Titans offense was able to get

so many chunk plays and it helped their ability to score because they were getting down so quickly had a lot of plays available to them and they were taking advantage on offense and you love to see that it seems like it's the first good offense this team has had since the early 2000s and offense has played so much differently now that it was quite a sight for sore eyes now there are a lot of changes on the horizon a lot of decisions to be made but a lot of these statistics we can learn a lot from and say this needs to continue or this has to improve so I wanted to make sure that we had a good idea of where the Titans finished out the year and where they stacked up amongst the NFL before we move on into talking about some

of these changes. Now, of course, there are more sides to the football than just offense. In our second segment, we are going to talk about the defense. What are some successes that need to continue and what things need to improve in a hurry? And don't for a second think that I would forget about special teams. In our final segment of the show, we are going to wrap up by talking about this special teams unit, which has a lot of big questions ahead of itself as well. Fellas, let's talk about the bedroom.

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the season, it looked like the defense had the opportunity to be what carries this football team. It's crazy how things swung in the middle of the season. It wasn't just the offense picking things up. It was all the injuries on defense. Rashawn Evans had some injuries. Jayon Brown missed some time. And then, of course, in the secondary, Adory Jackson missing a lot of time. You had Malcolm Butler go down, go on IR. A lot of cornerbacks in and out from the practice squad.

Ty Smith, Kareem Orr, Rashawn Sims had some injuries to deal with as well. So a lot of different things happened before the Titans brought in Tremaine Brock and he kind of steadied the ship after a few games until we saw what happened to him against the Chiefs. So obviously there is a lot of area for improvement with this defense but let's jump right into the numbers and one of the things that they did well right off the bat was limit opponent scoring and a lot of that had to do with the offense not turning over the ball quite as much and some of the things we'll get into when we talk about the special teams but the Titans only allowed 20.7 points per game on defense 12th best in the NFL now the yards they

did give up quite a bit of yards I mean they're in the middle of the pack in the NFL. 21st, 359.5 yards allowed per game. Most of that was in the passing game due to the issues in the secondary that I discussed in the back half of the season. 24th in the NFL, 255 passing yards allowed per game. Now, the run defense was pretty stout and the addition of Jeffrey Simmons had to have helped that out obviously in the middle of the season so that's something that I'll look for the Titans defense to maybe be even better at next year 104.5 yards

allowed per game on the ground 12th best in the NFL and one of the big areas of opportunity and I think the biggest area of opportunity for not only this defense but the Tennessee Titans as a team is their ability to get pressure on the opposing quarterback while the sack numbers aren't terribly bad 43 sacks on the year that's 13th in the NFL the pressure rate is despicable eighth worst the NFL, only pressuring quarterbacks 21.1% of snaps. It's just really difficult to consistently get off the field on third down and create even more turnovers when you're not putting enough pressure on the quarterback consistently.

So the Titans had a lot of cracks at getting sacks and helped them be league average, but when you look at something like their pressure rate, that's just going to get it done and it's something that the Titans have to improve upon and they have to take it very seriously whether it be a decently pricey veteran to add in free agency or a first round draft pick the Titans are going to have to address the edge rushing ability of this roster and address it very quickly and if they are able to address that issue properly in free agency or in the draft that's only going to help them get more turnovers the titans were able to get 14 interceptions on the season that's 11th best in the nfl and they were able to take away nine fumbles that was 14th best in the NFL. So they're kind of average, middle of the pack,

upper middle pack in the NFL when it comes to force and turnovers. Putting more pressure on the quarterback is most certainly going to help that out. And if you have somebody who's talented enough to get to the quarterback, they'll probably be able to force a couple fumbles themselves on some strip sacks and things of that nature. So you're going to have to get somebody to help Harold Landry to help Drell Casey as he starts to slow down. you're going to have to get somebody to help Harold Landry to help Jarrell Casey as he starts to slow down. They're going to have to restock the defensive line with pass rushers, and that's something that we're going to talk about, obviously, as we continue forward in the offseason on the Locked on Titans podcast.

Looking at completion percentage with quarterbacks, the Titans defense did a pretty good job there. They were the 23rd lowest completion percentage, 64.5%. On third down, they were actually pretty good as well. 36.3% of the opportunities that the opponents had, they were able to convert on third down. That is eighth best in the NFL. So that is something they can take and hope to improve upon. But where they really, really struggled was in the red zone they

were the second worst team in the NFL only to the Houston Texans they were absolutely terrible allowing touchdowns in the red zone 68.1 percent of opponents possessions in the red area resulted in a touchdown and it wasn't like they just were going to the red zone all the time and had tons of opportunities they only allowed a red zone possession 47 times on the season that's the 10th least so every time they were getting down there they were just letting opponents score and that's something that has to be improved upon quickly with a new defensive coordinator whoever that happens to be on fourth down they struggled as well 40 percent conversion rate by their opponents on fourth down that is 25th in the NFL and it was on a lot of opportunities

too for some reason this Titans defense faced a lot of fourth down attempts 25 times they had opponents go for it on fourth down that was the fifth most in the NFL so some good some bad from the defense a lot to take away a lot that they were good at that they need to improve on but a lot that was not so good that needs to be improved on in a hurry and I think just from looking at the numbers it is obvious that this team needs a little bit more pass rushing talent and a little bit more help in the secondary so we are going to move forward to our final segment, wrap the show up with a quick conversation about the special teams unit and how they were probably one of the best special teams units in the entire NFL.

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or visit locked on podcast.com slash advertising. We look forward to hearing from you. One of the most amazing things about the Titans special teams unit is that it was so fantastic with the exception of the kicker. It's hard to fathom how the season went off the rails quite the way that it did. The Titans, like I said, they have a great special teams unit. They have a great core of special teams players that they use on their special teams formations. They have a great punter. They have decent coverage units. It's just insane that the kicking was so historically bad for the Titans this year.

Have to start off talking about that. 8 for 18 combined as a team, 44.4% make rate. That was last in the NFL, obviously, and by quite the margin. They were 23 percentage points lower than the second worst team, which was the New York Jets. So pretty incredible how bad the Titans were at kicking field goals, but yet they were still able to make that run, score touchdowns, and make it to the playoffs. The kickers kicked extra points pretty well, 50 of 52. That's, you know, middle of the road in the NFL just because it's extra points,

but really can't complain about that. It's not even just kicking the ball through the uprights. It's touchbacks. The Titans were terrible on touchbacks. They had the seventh fewest touchbacks in the NFL. Only 50% of the time were they able to get a touchback. 39 of 78 attempts. That's why a lot of reporters badgered Mike Vrabel in his press conferences

about the kickers and about touchbacks because the Titans were one of the worst teams in the NFL. So kicking problems all the way around, whether it's Cairo Santos, whether it's Cody Parkey, whether it's Ryan Suckup, whether it's Greg Joseph, whether it's Ryan Santoso, who couldn't do his job either. It's just incredible how bad the kicking was when the rest of the unit, either. It's just incredible how bad the kicking was when the rest of the unit, which we are going to get to now, was fantastic. We know about Brett Kern, the best punter in the NFL, the weapon, the first team all pro. He kicked for the third most punt yards, 3,672. He had the sixth most punts, which isn't necessarily a great statistic to have for the Titans as a team. But for Brett Kern, he did a lot of things for this team that they needed in a lot of situations. He was asked to punt quite a bit, 78 punts, like I said, the sixth most in the NFL.

And when he got his opportunity, he booted the ball 47.1 yards per punt. That was second best in the NFL. So Brett Kern, the statistics are there. The eye test is there. Clearly one of the best players on the team and he was an all pro for a reason. And it's not just kicking the ball either. We talked about kicking it through the uprights. We talked about touchbacks and we talked about punts, but the Titans coverage team was pretty solid as well. Their opponents had an average start position of 27.8 yard line, so we'll call that the 28 yard line. That was the 11th best in the league, so you got to give a lot of credit to

Craig Aukerman, and it's not just these statistics too. A lot of the plays that the special teams unit was able to make are just obvious. The blocked field goals for a touchdown, blocked kicks to set up a comeback against Kansas City. They had good returns from Kalief Raymond throughout the back half of the season. I mentioned how they were able to cover, and you look at the core special teamers, Darren Bates, Dane Cruikshank, Amani Hooker, Kamalei Correa. Kevin Byard plays a lot of special teams as well. Joshua Kalou, Ty Smith, a lot of these guys had a huge role in this team's success,

even if they aren't a starter on offense or defense. And that's why I'm going to give a lot of credit to the special teams coach, Craig Aukerman here, but also Mike Vrabel for putting an emphasis on that. And John Robinson for putting an emphasis on core special teams players. Since he got here, we look at Brendan Trawick and Darren Bates. They were brought in early to help establish an actual core of special teams players that are on the team to play special teams. And you're seeing that now with Dan Cruikshank, Ty Smith, Joshua Kalou, Darren Bates.

And hopefully you see somebody like Wesley Woodyard, who started to transition into that role as well, continue to do that for this team if he is brought back. So a lot of questions for the special teams unit as well, but a good year for the Titans special teams unit overall, even with all the issues in the kicking game. So that is going to wrap up our show today. We are going to take everything that we learned from the regular season here

and use it as we begin to jump forward into the offseason. Tomorrow's show, we are going to go over some important offseason dates. We are going to talk about which ones matter most to the Titans so you have a good idea of what the offseason schedule is as we prepare to get into all the conversations that go along with the changes that are ahead of the Tennessee Titans. So as always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.