Titans vs. Jets: What's the Game Plan for Tennessee?

Crashing playoff parties for their opponents is what the Tennessee Titans must do over the remainder of their season, and it starts this week against the New York Jets. 

The Jets are currently one of the AFC wild-card teams with a 7-5 record. Much of their success has been thanks to a stout defense and the resurgence of Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback. 

Fitzpatrick was in a Houston Texans uniform when he lit up the Titans for 358 passing yards in Week 13 of last season. 

The Titans are up for a steep challenge on both offense and defense. There's a reason why the Jets are right in the thick of the playoff hunt—they're a balanced football team. 

For the Titans to pull off an upset and achieve their first two-game winning streak since 2013, the margin for error will be thin. 

Offensive Game Plan

You can kiss the hopes goodbye of the Titans running up the scoreboard for a second week in a row. The Titans will be lucky to score half the points they managed in last week's 42-39 win over the Jaguars.

The Titans' chances of putting up a lot of points were already low even with Kendall Wright. That tall order gets even taller, as Wright will miss this game due to a rib injury suffered in the win over the Jaguars, per Jason Wolf of the Tennessean:

This untimely injury will once again put all of the pressure on Dorial Green-Beckham, and he'll probably be covered by one of the NFL's best in Darrelle Revis. 

Green-Beckham has had an inconsistent rookie campaign, but he's definitely showing steady progress on a roster that's already limited at the position. It's forcing him to develop quicker than a rookie wide receiver would have to on a team with a couple of veterans. 

Interim head coach Mike Mularkey commented on the situation facing Green-Beckham this week. "He puts a lot of pressure on himself already," Mularkey said, per Wolf. "He’s trying to really do it the right away. Obviously he’s going to get more snaps than he’s had in the past."

The Titans will have no choice but to try to go at the teeth of the Jets defense with their running game. They can't come out and start testing Revis early in the game. 

Antonio Andrews and his offensive line will need to set the tone early and hopefully gain enough positive yardage on early downs to create short third-down conversions.

There's no doubting how good the Jets are at stopping the run, but they haven't really been tested by too many formidable running games in recent weeks. Challenging them early on is how the Titans should approach this matchup.

Mariota also plays a role in this rushing attack, and the Titans will have to lean on it to be effective. Designed run plays for him are necessary for this offense that's vertically challenged. 

Mularkey talked about the threat that a running quarterback like Mariota poses to defenses. “I think it helps our whole offense…because as soon as the quarterback can run, the playing surface is even,” he said, per Wolf.

The last loss that the Jets suffered was to the Texans back in Week 11, and the recipe to success for Houston in that win was a relentless rushing attack that ran the ball 37 times. That's how Tennessee should attack the Jets, rather than pressing their luck with a strategy that hasn't worked for them at a high rate. 

Throwing to the perimeter will be a losing battle against the likes of Revis and fellow cornerback Antonio Cromartie. This is one of the reasons why a top priority in the offseason needs to be adding more talent to the receiving corps through free agency and the draft. 

When the Titans do throw, you can expect plenty of targets to go to tight ends Delanie Walker and Anthony Fasano. This is where the Titans have found the most reliability. Setting up play action from the run game is how the Titans can offset the Jets' strengths at cornerback. 

Wideout Dexter McCluster is in line to make a return to the lineup this week. He will have to help fill the void of Wright's absence, per Terry McCormick of TitansInsider.com:

McCluster will be an important part to the game plan and see plenty of time in the slot to create easy completions for Mariota. 

Defensive Game Plan

There's no arguing the fact that the Titans have made great strides on defense, after what we saw from them last season. Without the productivity of the defense, there's a good chance that many of the heartbreaking losses would have been blowouts. 

A lot of credit is owed to Dick LeBeau and how he's overseen the defense and provided assistance to defensive coordinator Ray Horton. The pride of being a top-10 defense is important to this team, and they want to finish the season that way.

The desire of holding on to that high defensive ranking was expressed by linebacker Wesley Woodyard, per Jim Wyatt of TitansOnline.com:  “We pride ourselves in being a Top 10 defense and [it] wasn’t our best day, but we were able to win because our offense made some big plays.”

The one eye-popping issue on defense all season long has been at cornerback. Perrish Cox has been the best of the bunch, but even he admitted he had a bad game last week, per Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com.

His assignment will be much more difficult as he's up against Brandon Marshall, who presents a physical nightmare with his large frame at 6'4". They also can't forget about Eric Decker on the other side of the field, who is a great complement to Marshall. 

A consistent amount of pressure will have to be the main ingredient to keep Fitzpatrick from connecting with Marshall and Decker on a regular basis. He can't be afforded a lot of time to throw or break containment for long scrambles. He's fully capable of doing both, even at age 33. 

Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery/Getty Images

As good as Fitzpatrick has been this season, he's still prone to throwing interceptions. It's been a regular occurrence for his entire career, including 11 interceptions this season. If the Tennessee defense puts relentless pressure on Fitzpatrick, then it might bail out the weaknesses of the secondary.  

Fitzpatrick is good for about one long scramble per game, and it usually extends a scoring drive. The Titans can't overpursue Fitzpatrick and allow him to break up the middle or dump it off to a running back.

The Titans need to show serious improvement in getting off the field on third down. It was almost a back-breaker last week as they allowed the Jaguars to convert 10 of 14 third downs. However, the defense did clamp down and make the necessary stops toward the end to hold on to the win. 

A defensive effort similar to what the Titans brought against the Buffalo Bills in the early portion of the regular season will give them a chance to grind out an upset. That's the task at hand for this defense, and it has proven that it can be done in the past. 

Prediction

The matchups are too lopsided for the Titans in this game, and some critical injuries aren't helping those odds.

Don't be surprised if Tennessee keeps this game close going into halftime, but the balance of the Jets on both sides of the ball will eventually wear out the young Titans.

The Jets have two stud receivers, a respectable running game, a top-notch rush defense and two excellent corners. 

This will be another test for Mariota on how he's developing when he has to play elite defenses. The unfortunate truth is that he has limited resources around him to be able to contend with a defense like the Jets have.

In return, the Tennessee defense will keep this game close enough to make it somewhat competitive, but the game will never be in doubt for New York. It will win this game in relatively comfortable fashion and further solidify its chances of making the playoffs.

As for the Titans, their odds of a No. 1 overall draft pick will grow.  

Prediction: Jets 27, Titans 13