Tennessee Titans vs. Indianapolis Colts: Full Report Card Grades for Tennessee
It was another bad loss for the Tennessee Titans. After three straight losses, the Titans who dominated the Kansas City Chiefs seem to have disappeared, leaving behind a team that looks poised to nab one of the first few picks in the 2015 draft.
Mistakes were made in every aspect of the game. The defense played well for stretches but was abysmal in others. The offense didn't help matters by giving the Indianapolis Colts short fields so often.
Even special teams made some pretty bad mistakes. Nothing seemed to go right for Tennessee.
With that in mind, here are report card-style grades for each unit of the Titans for Week 4.
Quarterback
1 of 9
Charlie Whitehurst wasn't as bad as I expected him to be. After all, he's a career backup for a reason, but all things considered, Whitehurst was fair.
He had some bad throws, and he wasn't super accurate either, completing only 12 of his 23 pass attempts, but he didn't single-handedly lose the game. He also had several sharp throws and a few good scrambles for first downs.
His biggest problem looked to be pocket awareness. He took some sacks that could have been avoided if he'd just thrown the ball away.
But like I said, he played to expectations.
Grade: D+
Running Backs
2 of 9
The Colts took an early two-touchdown lead, so the Titans didn't have much of a chance to run the ball. Whitehurst ended up being the lead rusher, but Bishop Sankey looked very good in the limited time he spent playing.
Sankey was responsible for the Titans' only rushing touchdown and averaged 5.7 yards per carry.
I have no idea why Ken Whisenhunt won't play him earlier or more often, but he seems set on keeping Sankey off the field.
Shonn Greene had a few carries as well, none of which were eventful. The same goes for Dexter McCluster.
Grade: B+
Receivers and Tight Ends
3 of 9
It was a rare bad day for the Titans receivers. Kendall Wright had a fumble early on while trying to scramble forward for a first down, Justin Hunter dropped some catches he should have made and Nate Washington only caught one pass.
Those mistakes removed, Wright was solid. He caught five passes (of eight targets) for 55 yards.
Delanie Walker was, again, the most productive receiver, catching five passes for 84 yards and a touchdown. He just looks better and better the more I watch him, and he causes a lot of matchup problems for defenses.
Washington's only catch was a deep pass of 20 yards, but when there are only 176 passing yards in a game, there's not going to be much to go around.
Grade: C
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Offensive Line
4 of 9
The offensive line didn't have a great day. Charlie Whitehurst was under pressure a lot, but a lot of the Colts defenders who got into the backfield were unblocked, not because of missed assignments, but because there were simply more blitzers than blockers.
That said, the Colts' defensive line won more often than it should have in the trenches and not just against the pass. Run blocking was better than pass blocking, but there were still some issues.
Penalties at least weren't a big problem, but the offensive line, despite being one of the highest-paid units, only had an average day.
Grade: C
Defensive Line
5 of 9
The defensive line was probably the best defensive unit against the Colts. Andrew Luck had pressure pretty much the entire game and took a lot of hits despite not getting sacked.
Jurrell Casey was predictably a beast, with four tackles and two near-sacks on Luck. He was constantly making Luck throw the ball quickly, which normally would help.
Sammie Hill had some good stops, and he also recorded a tackle for loss and a defended pass. Mike Martin, starting for Ropati Pitoitua, was also a regular presence in the backfield.
There were some missed tackles, but most of the problems with tackling came from other units.
Grade: B
Linebackers
6 of 9
It was impossible to keep count of how many missed tackles there were, but it was a lot. Wesley Woodyard had an interception, which put the Titans back in the game for a stretch, but that's almost the only good thing to say about the linebackers.
Derrick Morgan dropped what should have been an easy interception early in the game, and like I said, missed tackles were abundant. Not all came from linebackers, but it seemed like a good chunk did.
You wouldn't think, with the Colts' meager rushing numbers, that it was as big a problem as it was, but there were only a handful of times that Trent Richardson or Ahmad Bradshaw went down because of the initial tackler.
There were also a lot of catches made by receivers who were being covered by linebackers.
Grade: D+
Defensive Backs
7 of 9
I have to assume Jason McCourty still has some lingering issues from his groin injury because he's normally an excellent player, but against the Colts, he was terrible.
The Colts had two receivers with over 100 yards: 35-year-old Reggie Wayne and the 5'9" T.Y. Hilton. That doesn't say a lot of good about your defensive backs.
There was the missed-tackle problem that the linebackers also had, but worse was that Andrew Luck threw for nearly 400 yards despite being constantly under pressure. If the defensive backs can't cover opposing receivers for just the few seconds that it takes pass-rushers to get to the quarterback, then there's a serious problem.
That happened way too often against the Colts.
Now, there were stretches where the defensive backs played very well, broke up passes and kept their receivers locked up, but most of those were later in the game, and it was too little, too late.
Grade: F
Special Teams
8 of 9
Even the special teams were bad against Indianapolis. Ryan Succop partially made up for his abysmal performance in Cincinnati by nailing every kick, but he had a couple kickoffs returned, and those returns gave the Colts good field position.
Of course, the biggest special teams mistake was losing an onside kick to the Colts in the first quarter. Had the Titans not been caught off guard and caught the kick, which went more than 10 yards before hitting the ground, then the Colts wouldn't have gotten such a large lead so quickly.
It was only one big mistake, but it was a huge one, and it may have completely derailed the Titans' game plan right from the get-go.
At least Brett Kern did well.
Grade: D+
Coaching
9 of 9
There were some coaching decisions I didn't get. First, there was the lack of Bishop Sankey early on and the lack of a running game throughout.
Sankey looked like the best running back against the Cincinnati Bengals, so I assumed he'd get most of the carries and get them quickly. Instead, Sankey didn't see the field until pretty late in the game, and the Titans only had a handful of rushes.
I understand that when you have a big deficit, you have to pass the ball to catch up, but with a backup quarterback in and a pretty effective running game, it seems to me it would have been better for the Titans to keep running the ball anyway.
The Titans have a defense that can be very good, but if it can't rest because the offense can't stay on the field, then it's going to continue to make mistakes, and that cannot continue to happen.
Grade: D
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