Tennessee Titans vs. Cincinnati Bengals: Full Report Card Grades for Tennessee
The Tennessee Titans had another tough-to-watch game, this time against the Cincinnati Bengals. It isn't much consolation that the Bengals are looking like one of the best teams in the NFL right now, but it was something I considered in giving out grades.
Overall, the team looked better than they did against the Dallas Cowboys, at least in the first half. In the second half, the Bengals were absolutely dominant.
There were some bright spots, but they were few and far between, as is usually the case when a team gets routed.
Either way, here are report card grades for every Titans unit.
Quarterback
1 of 9
Jake Locker looked better against Cincinnati than he did against Dallas, but some of the problems he had against the Cowboys reared their heads again versus the Bengals.
Locker was inaccurate, often overthrowing or throwing behind his receivers. He made a couple of very dangerous throws, one of which resulted in an interception that ended up being the nail on the team's coffin.
That said, Locker had several great runs and was facing one of the NFL's toughest defenses. The pressure was relentless.
In the end, Locker completed half of his 34 throws for 185 yards and two interceptions, one of which wasn't his fault. He also had 50 yards on the ground on six carries and only took two sacks, so he wasn't terrible.
Grade: C-
Running Backs
2 of 9
One of the only constants for the Titans this season has been the running game. The running-back-by-committee approach has worked wonderfully so far.
Not counting Locker, the Titans rushed for 99 yards on 22 carries. Shonn Greene rattled off several impressive runs, but he was used as a battering ram for short yardage more than a couple of times, so his 3.3 yards per carry is a little misleading.
Bishop Sankey had a great performance, rushing for 61 yards on 10 carries. Up until this game, he hadn't looked particularly impressive, but he was great against the Bengals.
Jackie Battle and Dexter McCluster had one run each.
Grade: A-
Receivers and Tight Ends
3 of 9
When the quarterback has a bad day, so do the receivers.
That said, when Locker did manage to get the ball to his receivers, they did pretty well. Justin Hunter showed off his added weight by throwing defenders off for a big 19-yard run. He had three catches for 37 total yards.
Kendall Wright continued to show his ability to make something out of nothing, and Delanie Walker caused matchup problems again. They had five catches for 44 yards and four catches for 54 yards, respectively.
Between Hunter, Wright and Walker, if Locker could ever get the ball into their hands consistently, the Titans would have one of the most dangerous offenses in the NFL.
Craig Stevens also made an appearance. He's mostly a blocker, but he showed he can catch when he needs to, with two catches for 26 yards.
Grade: B+
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Offensive Line
4 of 9
There were more penalties than there should have been from the unit, and many of those seemed to come at the worst possible time, but other than that, there's not much to complain about from the offensive line.
Despite Cincinnati having one of the better defensive lines out there and getting relentless pressure on the quarterback, the Titans only surrendered two sacks and three tackles behind the line.
Pressure got to Locker pretty regularly, though, despite the few sacks.
Still, that's a pretty good overall performance and a definite improvement from last week.
Grade: B
Defensive Line
5 of 9
Jurrell Casey doesn't have the numbers to show for it (just three total tackles), but as usual, he caused problems for Andy Dalton all day. He had a particularly impressive tackle where he penetrated the offensive line, turned around, and chased the running back down from behind after a short gain.
Otherwise, the defensive line was stout but unspectacular. Sammie Hill batted one pass, but other than that, there wasn't much to say.
The game that the Bengals had on the ground showed that the defensive line still has some issues against the run.
Overall, though, the defense got some good penetration and kept Giovani Bernard mostly in check. Jeremy Hill was a lot tougher to contain.
Grade: C+
Linebackers
6 of 9
Against Dallas, the linebackers were the worst of the Titans' defensive units. They were much better against the Bengals, but the lack of a legitimate edge-rusher continues to be a problem.
Derrick Morgan had a better game against the run than in Week 2, but runs to the edge were still more effective than they should have been.
Kamerion Wimbley had a decent outing, with three tackles and some pressure.
Wesley Woodyard bounced back in a big way, with nine total tackles. Avery Williamson got some playing time and actually made a few good plays, including a big tackle for loss late in the game.
For a fifth-round rookie, he's showing some real promise as a long-term depth player. He had four total tackles for the day.
Grade: C+
Defensive Backs
7 of 9
The defensive backs were up and down. Jason McCourty got beaten a lot by A.J. Green early on, but he did a pretty good job of covering him up after that. He probably wasn't playing at 100 percent, so it was good to see him still play effectively.
Blidi Wreh-Wilson had a lot of great plays and was good in coverage, but he cost the Titans a lot of penalty yards. He had four penalties called against him, which gave the Bengals an additional 49 yards. That can't happen again.
Coty Sensabaugh had a solid game as well. He didn't make the plays that Wreh-Wilson did, but he didn't pick up any penalties either.
Three of the four leading tacklers on the team were defensive backs. Bernard Pollard and McCourty each had five, and Michael Griffin had four.
Pollard had a tackle for loss, and McCourty, Wreh-Wilson and George Wilson each had one defended pass.
Grade: C
Special Teams
8 of 9
Of course, kicking was bad. Ryan Succop missed both of his field-goal attempts: one from 40 yards and another from 44 yards.
There were also some pretty bad mistakes on special teams, the worst being when Brett Kern's punt landed within the 5-yard line, but the only player in coverage was Derek Hagan, who couldn't prevent the ball from rolling into the end zone because he'd stepped out of bounds.
That said, none of Kern's punts were returned, only one of Succop's kickoffs was returned and Leon Washington's two returns both came well past the 20-yard line, so it ends up being close to an average performance.
Grade: C-
Coaching
9 of 9
Locker is still having some of the same problems he showed against Dallas, and that's not good. There was also no answer for the Bengals' all-out blitz, which they used repeatedly.
No team should be without a quick play to use in those situations, especially a team with the receivers that the Titans have.
Defensively, the outside run is still a problem that needs fixing.
That said, A.J. Green didn't cause nearly as much havoc as Dez Bryant did, and he's a much better receiver. Also, the run wasn't as big of a problem as it was in Week 2, so they clearly made some effective adjustments.
Offensively, the Titans made better use of the running game, and some of the protection issues were improved as well.
I can't give the coaching an average grade because of how bad the loss was, but at the same time, there's not so much blame to go around as there is praise for the Bengals. They looked like a fantastic team and were simply a lot better than the Titans.
Grade: C-
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
