Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel is loyal to a fault.
Which explains why Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing still has a job.
The Titans currently rank 27th in total offense (273 yards per game), 24th in passing offense (186.5 yards per game) and rushing offense (86.5 yards per game), and 28th in scoring offense (13.5 points per game). Tennessee has mustered just three offensive touchdowns in two games and is averaging just 4.9 yards per offensive play.
So surely Vrabel understands why #FireToddDowning has been trending on Twitter since Monday’s embarrassing 41-7 shellacking in Buffalo, right? Well, not exactly.
“If I felt like there was anybody that wasn't doing their job — we're just not going to [fire anyone],” Vrabel said. “That is not something that is going to happen right now. I have confidence in our staff. I have confidence in the guys that we put out there.
“We have to work to continue to coach and execute better," Vrabel continued. "That is just not where we are. I appreciate everybody's opinion. I have to make sure that everybody here, the players and coaches, are all aligned. I know that they are and that's how you get things fixed and you win a game.”
If you're looking for an explanation as to why the Titans are 0-2 heading into their Week 3 matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders, look no further than Downing’s play selection. He’s had issues both passing and rushing.
Despite Tennessee being ranked as one of the top 10 run-blocking units in the NFL by Pro Football Focus and having a run-block win rate of 72 percent according to ESPN Stats & Info, the team has just 173 combined rushing yards in its first two games — tied for seventh-fewest in the NFL — and Derrick Henry has accounted for 107 of those yards.
Henry’s also averaging 3.1 yards per carry — the lowest mark of his career. It’s difficult to tell if he’s back to vintage Derrick Henry since he hasn’t gotten to the second level of a defense much this year; he has just one run longer than 10 yards this season. It’s not known if he has lost of his speed or game-breaking ability because he has yet to hit a hole with a burst and try to take it up field.
Without the threat of a run game with equal vim and vigor of 2020 Derrick Henry, the Titans are left without their bread and butter: play-action passes. Tennessee averaged nearly 10 passes and 96.3 yards per game from play-action passes in Arthur Smith’s final year as OC in 2020. Under Downing, those numbers have dropped to 7.7 passes and 68.6 yards per game from play-action passes.
Beyond failing to use his run game to set up his pass game, Downing still has yet to figure out the proper offensive scheme to exploit the differing skill sets of his pass catchers. Rookie Treylon Burks has shown glimpses of potential, and he’s the only pass catcher on the team to average more than 7-and-a-half yards per target, but he’s caught just 63.6 percent of those targets. The rest of the receiver and tight end group hasn’t been much better.
Robert Woods has the top catch percentage on the team (71.4), but he’s been targeted only seven times, and Ryan Tannehill has a passer rating of 53 when throwing his way. Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Austin Hooper have caught just one-third of their targets, and Tannehill has a passer rating of 8.3 and 47.2, respectively, when targeting each player.
Speaking of Tannehill, his completion percentage has dipped to 58 percent, a far cry from the 67 percent he averaged in his first three years as the Titans’ starter. In addition to his completion percentage dropping, so has his percentage of on-target throws, which dropped from a 79 percent average from 2019-2021 to 70 percent this year.
But if there is a silver lining to be found in the mess the Titans currently find themselves in, it's that the Las Vegas Raiders, Tennessee’s opponent on Sunday, and the Washington Commanders, their opponent in two weeks, have two of the worst defenses in the NFL. The Raiders rank 22nd in total defense, and they allow the fourth-most passing yards per game (274.5).
If Downing can remedy the Titans offense through those two games, it could set Tennessee up nicely for a stretch run following the bye week on Oct. 16.
“This isn't all of a sudden the time for wholesale changes,” Vrabel said. “This is about getting back to the basics in what we believe in and in what we've had success in. It’s about making sure that everybody sees it the same way that I do. We're going to want to make sure that we're doing less, better. Instead of trying to do a whole bunch of other stuff, we're going to get back to doing things with fundamentals, technique and trying to make sure that everybody understands the details.”
The Titans will take on the Raiders Sunday at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Kickoff is at noon central, with Fox airing the game and Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma on the call.
Follow Michael Gallagher on Twitter @MGsports_
