New York Giants vs. Tennessee Titans: Full Report Card Grades for Tennessee
The Tennessee Titans had what may have been their worst performance of the season against the New York Giants on Sunday.
The only points the Titans scored came from a pick-six. The Giants had both a rusher and a receiver with over 100 yards, while the Titans totaled a mere 207 yards for the entire game—with much of that coming in the fourth quarter against a prevent defense.
The only other time the Titans came close to scoring was on a field-goal attempt that was missed from 42 yards.
The pass rush, which had been one of the better pass rushes in the NFL, didn't even make a dent. Eli Manning was not even sacked once.
With that in mind, here are grades for the Titans from their Week 14 matchup.
Quarterback
1 of 9
Zach Mettenberger was in a tough spot from the get-go against the Giants. Without Kendall Wright or Justin Hunter, he had very few reliable options to pass to.
Without Taylor Lewan, he didn't have anyone to adequately protect his blindside.
Mettenberger was sacked five times and pressured many more. He ended the day 14-of-24 for 125 yards and an interception.
Jake Locker wasn't any better. He ended up with an interception, but he was more accurate and completed nine of 11 passes for 81 yards.
The biggest problem was, yet again, the inability to sustain drives. Nearly all of Tennessee's offensive possessions ended in three-and-outs.
Adding injury to insult, Mettenberger left the game early after re-injuring his shoulder.
Grade: D
Running Backs
2 of 9
Again, there's not much to say for the running backs. Tennessee spends so much time behind by multiple touchdowns that it can't afford to run the ball very much.
Bishop Sankey was once again the leading rusher among the group with a mere 25 yards. He saw most of his carries early in the game. He also caught two passes for two yards.
The only other running back to get any carries was Leon Washington, who had two carries for nine yards.
Dexter McCluster didn't run, but he was a part of the passing game with two catches for 10 yards.
Grade: D+
Receivers and Tight Ends
3 of 9
The Titans' receivers were already starting in the hole. Without Hunter or Wright, the only regular targets on the field were Nate Washington and tight end Delanie Walker.
The group didn't make Mettenberger's job any easier with multiple drops. The most productive receiver ended up being Derek Hagan, who caught six passes for 62 yards.
Nate Washington was second, with most of his 56 yards coming from a 30-yard bomb from Mettenberger.
Walker was targeted 10 times, but he only caught four passes for 27 yards.
Grade: D+
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Offensive Line
4 of 9
The offensive line allowed eight sacks and 10 tackles for loss against the Giants. Mettenberger had no time in the pocket and was constantly under pressure by the Giants' pass-rushers.
Of course, it's hard to expect much better out of the Titans' offensive line. Byron Stingily had to exit the game with an injury, setting up undrafted rookie Terren Jones as the sixth player to start at tackle for the Titans this season.
The left tackle spot is also being worked by a third stringer, and the only original starter still playing on the line is left guard Andy Levitre.
The Titans' offensive line is bad. Very bad. And it's not likely to get better this season unless Lewan gets healthy.
Grade: F
Defensive Line
5 of 9
There's plenty of blame to go around on the Titans defense. Tennessee isn't the only team with a struggling offensive line. New York has 20 players on injured reserve right now—the most in the NFL—and it has had a lot of problems with its offensive line for that reason.
Even with the Giants' poor offensive line, the Titans didn't manage a sack.
Jurrell Casey had a couple of pressures, but that was it. The Titans' front seven should have dominated the Giants, but that wasn't the case. Manning had a clean pocket nearly the entire game.
Grade: F
Linebackers
6 of 9
The linebackers weren't any better than the defensive line. Missed tackles were a big problem. And, of course, the complete lack of pressure on Manning is the fault of the linebackers as much as it is the fault of the defensive line.
Derrick Morgan was the only linebacker to get any real pressure on Manning, and that was sparse.
Wesley Woodyard led the unit in tackles with eight.
In their defense, there were way too many plays where the outside linebackers dropped into coverage instead of blitzing, which was puzzling.
Grade: F
Defensive Backs
7 of 9
The defensive backs made up the best defensive unit, but that was only by default. Jason McCourty was regularly torched by Odell Beckham Jr., largely due to the huge cushion that McCourty kept giving him.
Michael Griffin had a typical performance: missing a lot of tackles. The two led the team with 10 tackles each, but this was not a good game for either of them.
Brandon Harris had a surprisingly good game with two beautiful pass breakups—one against Beckham.
Marqueston Huff grabbed a pick-six off a Manning pass, which was the only turnover by the defense on the day and led to the only points scored by the Titans.
Grade: D
Special Teams
8 of 9
With as bad as every other unit was, you'd hope the Titans would at least play well on special teams. That was not the case.
The Titans averaged fewer than 20 yards per kick return, and they returned one punt for a mere four yards. Also, the only field goal that was attempted was a miss.
On the other side, the Giants returned four punts for 49 total yards and made all five field-goal attempts.
The only aspect that wasn't horrible was Brett Kern's punting, but he still had a below-average day by his standards.
There were also a couple of penalties that the Titans earned on special teams that made things even worse.
Grade: D-
Coaching
9 of 9
After this game, it would be a shocker if Ken Whisenhunt wasn't on the hot seat. Yes, a huge number of his players were injured. And yes, no one expected the Titans to win with all their playmakers injured and a piecemeal offensive line.
But with that said, there's a difference between bad and what the Titans are. The Titans aren't even competitive. They look like a team with no future, even if they secure the top pick in the draft.
The Titans are last in the NFL on third-down conversions, points allowed, time of possession, rushing yards allowed, forced fumbles and first downs allowed. They are also second-to-last in total first downs.
The Titans have struggled all season to find a way to fix their problems, but most of them (rushing defense, any consistent offense, etc.) have been problems since Week 2. And they have yet to be resolved—or even improved upon.
Being that bad on both sides of the ball is a big problem. And it's not the kind of problem that gets fixed by one draft.
Grade: F
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