Quote:
Originally Posted by worstfaceoffmanever
They could still salvage a respectable mark, but they have to keep their defense off the field and sustain some drives. They need a good power back to complement CJ and give him more designed toss and sweep plays to get him outside and into the second level. That's when he was most effective today, and how he got 4.7 YPC.
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They have Jamie Harper who has played the role of Lendale White pretty well when they give him carries... but he's only got 10 carries all season.
Palmer's misuse of Harper is bad, his misuse of Jared Cook is criminal. I realize that Cook is the second leading receiver in both yards and receptions, but he should be the leader in receptions by a long shot. He's too strong of a weapon to not be the focus of the passing game.
I don't even know where to start with the defense. There's talent there, I figured the corners would be the weak spot heading into the season but they've been okay. The linebackers are very good when McCarthy is on the field, but when he was injured they struggled. The real area of concern is the d-line, they had some good pressure today with some sacks and passes knocked down, but most of the season they've been pretty bad.
And just like Palmer on offense, Jerry Gray makes some poor decisions. Today for example, in the final minutes the Titans punt and pin the Colts at the 5 yard line. It gets down to 3rd and 5, stop them there and you're looking at returning a punt from about the 40-50 and a good chance to throw a few moderate passes and be in good FG range... but on that 3rd and 5 play, the pass coverage was WAY off the ball, they allowed Avery to catch the ball ahead of the first down marker. Had they pressed the receivers at the line, they might stop him, but if you don't even cover the receiver until he's caught the ball, that's a first down all day... and then it led to the non-fumble call. Don't even put yourself in position for a bad call to affect the game like that.
Then the OT period. The objective is to STOP the other team from going down the field and scoring. Yet the Titans defense gives up 45 yards on 6 straight run plays to freaking Donald Brown? Are you serious? which sets up another weird call on the TD, his helmet hit the Pylon and the ball was on his chest as he was twisting away from the endzone, to me the ball never crossed the goal line, I don't know what they reviewed but it actually looked really clear to me that the ball didn't cross. I'm sure they would have scored anyway since the Titans run defense couldn't stop the short yardage situations all day.
They can finish respectable, but really 5 losses isn't going to get you into the playoffs. Lets get to the by week, get Locker healthy again and hopefully Munchak is re-evaluating his coordinators in the off-season.