New York Jets vs. Tennessee Titans: Full Report Card Grades for Tennessee
Well, it was close, but the Tennessee Titans let another win slip away. This time, it was actually a good thing that they lost, since winning any more games would take them out of competition for the No. 1 pick.
The Titans also made certain with the loss to New York that they'd end the season at least as badly as their previous worst season since the move to Tennessee. Even if they win against both the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Indianapolis Colts, they'll only nab four wins.
The Titans will need as high a pick as they can get if they want to secure one of the two premier quarterbacks coming out this year. Anything could change by May, but right now, Marcus Mariota is the favorite for the first overall pick.
With that in mind, here are the grades for the Titans in their Week 15 loss to the New York Jets.
Quarterbacks
1 of 9
Neither Jake Locker nor Charlie Whitehurst were able to lead the Titans to a touchdown, but on the bright side, neither of them had any turnovers either.
Locker was slightly better than Whitehurst, but neither had a particularly impressive stat line. Locker completed six of his 11 attempts for 52 yards but scrambled for another seven.
Whitehurst completed 10 of 24 passes for 203 yards and ran for nine more.
The depleted wide receiver group didn't help matters, nor did the poor offensive line play, but Locker was never actually sacked because he avoided the it effectively. Both quarterbacks got the ball out quickly.
Even with little help, a touchdown against the Jets shouldn't have been hard to get, but Locker had little time on the field, and Whitehurst is a backup for a reason.
Grade: D+
Running Backs
2 of 9
It's hard to understand coach Ken Whisenhunt's approach to running the ball. Bishop Sankey has been the best back on the Titans roster for a while now, but he still gets passed over for Shonn Greene and Dexter McCluster.
Greene had 16 carries for 50 yards and one catch for 13, and McCluster had five carries for 15 yards and a couple of catches for eight more.
Sankey only had three carries for eight yards, but his lone catch was good for 18, most of which came after the catch.
It's difficult to comprehend what Whisenhunt is doing.
Grade: C-
Wide Receivers and Tight Ends
3 of 9
Dropped passes weren't nearly the problem they were a week ago against the New York Giants, which is surprising, since the Titans only had three active wide receivers, and the highest in the depth chart was Nate Washington.
Washington had a big day, with six catches for 102 yards. With Kendall Wright and Justin Hunter gone, he's the best receiver by a substantial margin, so it's not surprising to see him get most of the targets.
Delanie Walker was quiet most of the game, but came up big in the end. He ended up with only four catches but 93 total yards.
Outside of those two and the running backs, there's not much to talk about. Derek Hagan was targeted five times, but he never caught a pass, while Kris Durham caught one pass for 14 yards.
Grade: C
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Offensive Line
4 of 9
I'll give credit where credit is due. The offensive line was better than it was last week. It only surrendered one sack, so that's good.
There was still a lot of pressure from the New York pass-rushers, but the line kept defenders off of the quarterbacks long enough to get the ball out.
Run blocking was a little better as well but not enough to have a good ground game.
Either way, it's improvement. There were some mistakes made by the unit, like holds and a bad snap, but with such a piecemeal group, you cannot expect a good performance, and anything short of horrible is a good result.
Grade: D
Defensive Line
5 of 9
This is what the defensive line is supposed to look like.
Jurrell Casey picked up a dumb penalty for punching Geno Smith (and several other players afterward), but other than that incident, which he's sure to get fined for, the group played well.
Casey was a constant problem for the Jets backfield, with two quarterback hits, a deflected pass and a tackle for loss. Karl Klug had a tackle for loss and effectively had a sack by getting a hand on Smith as he was falling.
Al Woods got his first sack of the season as well to go along with a tackle for loss.
Ropati Pitoitua doesn't show up in the stats, but he provided a good deal of pressure on Smith as well.
Grade: B+
Linebackers
6 of 9
Well, the Titans stopped the run much more effectively than they had previously, but they still let Chris Johnson rattle off a 37-yarder.
Outside of that one run though, the Jets only had 77 rushing yards. The defensive line helped on that front, too, but the biggest problem that the linebackers have had this season has been missed tackles, and that wasn't a big problem for them against New York.
Derrick Morgan had a strong game as well, with constant pressure on Smith, a sack, a tackle for loss and five total tackles on the day.
Avery Williamson had four solo tackles but not much else. He was a standout player for a long time but has disappeared lately.
Wesley Woodyard had three tackles and picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that kept the Jets' game-winning drive alive, so it wasn't his best game.
Grade: C+
Defensive Backs
7 of 9
The defensive backs didn't have the best game. Against the league's worst passing offense, they should have had a field day, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
Jason McCourty bounced back from one of the worst games of his career last week to have a decent game. McCourty was on Percy Harvin for most of the game, and Harvin didn't make a catch.
Coty Sensabaugh struggled, as he was paired up with a much bigger receiver in Eric Decker. Sensabaugh covered him relatively effectively, but he had trouble with tackling and being pushed around.
Sensabaugh still ended the day with five tackles and a defended pass though.
Michael Griffin continued to look slow, but he played well against the run. He just got beaten a lot in pass coverage.
George Wilson led the team in tackles and also picked up a sack.
Grade: C
Special Teams
8 of 9
The special teams had an up-and-down performance yet again. There was more good than bad though, as Leon Washington had an outstanding 46-yard kick return, Ryan Succop made his first 50-yarder of the season, and Brett Kern had another good day with punts.
Still, Washington fumbled a kickoff right after the Titans recorded a safety, and the Jets recovered, taking away the Titans' momentum.
The Jets didn't score on that drive, but it was still a mistake that could have been very costly.
Still, it's more good than bad.
Grade: C+
Coaching
9 of 9
I still have no idea what Whisenhunt is doing with this team. Not giving the bulk of the carries to your best running back, especially in a game in which you're once again stuck with a quarterback you didn't want to start—and working with a piecemeal offensive line—is just a bad decision.
Other than that, which is a pretty big part of the game, there wasn't much to say about the coaching in this matchup. Neither offense did much, which isn't surprising.
In the end, the Jets just benefited from busted coverages and other mistakes slightly more than the Titans did, and they won the game.
Whisenhunt won't be fired at the end of the season, especially with how the injuries have played out for the Titans, but he certainly hasn't shown much of a reason to want him to stick around much longer.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
