As we’ve been doing for several years now, we’ll break down the Pittsburgh Steelers’ opponent each week, telling you what to expect from a scheme and individual standpoint. Like last year, Josh Carney and I will cover the opposing team’s offense. I will focus on the scheme, Josh on the players.
Today, our report on the Tennessee Titans’ offense.
ALEX’S SCHEME REPORT
TITANS’ RUN GAME
Not moved at the deadline, RB Derrick Henry will remain the Titans’ lead back the rest of the season. He leads the way with 120 carries and averaging 4.4 yards per carry and three touchdowns. He’s logging 57 percent of the offense’s snaps. Backup Tyjae spears has 34 carries and an impressive 5.8 yards per carry. Overall, the Titans are averaging 4.5 yards per carry, tied-7th best in the NFL.
They have 20 runs of 10-plus yards, tied for 16th in the NFL. Overall, they will be a heavy personnel type of team with extra tight ends that wants to establish the run early. As I wrote above, the Titans like to “FIB.” Meaning, Formation In Boundary. Most offenses align the strength of their offense to the field, the wide side, because there’s more room to work with. But the Titans will often align the strength of the formation into the boundary. To put the tight end there and set that as they strength, though they often balance that out with 2×2 Twin WR sets to put the defense in some conflict to where they’re going to align to.
Here’s an example.
Their run game is varied. Crack toss, inside zone, man/duo (mostly out of pistol with more direct downhill action). Henry is obviously a load to bring down but he has good vision and burst and speed. With Ryan Tannehill out, Will Levis will be their starter but they did mix in second-year QB Malik Willis in certain packages last week, logging a pair of first half snaps. The first was a mess, a fumble they turned over, but they used him on 1st and 20 at the Falcons’ 20 to run a BASH concepts (Back Away, QB Power). They’ll use split backs and diamond formations here.
There is no true FB but TE Chig Okonkwo will align in the backfield, usually in a Strong I formation. The Titans will still use tendency breakers and run weakside. They’ll also use split backs to run split zone to make the Y blocking the EMOL less obvious as it would if he’s Y-Off like you traditionally see.
Some other offensive stats. They’re averaging 18.9 points per game, tied for 22nd in the NFL. They’ve scored more than 17 points in just three games this season, though they just put up 28 in Week Eight’s win over Atlanta. Situationally, they’ve been poor with the 27th-ranked third down of offense (33.7 percent) and an even worse 30th-ranked red zone offense (36.4 percent). They’ve only turned the ball over eight times this season but have a -2 turnover differential, a below-average mark, mainly because their defense doesn’t make impact plays.
Titans Passing Game
It’ll be second round pick Will Levis making his second start while Tannehill remains out with a high ankle sprain. Levis dazzled statistically in his debut last weekend, becoming only the second QB in NFL history with four touchdowns in his debut, joining fellow Titans’ QB Marcus Mariota who did it first in 2015. Overall, Levis finished the day 19-for-28 for those four touchdowns. Eight of his completions went to wide receivers, seven went to running backs, and four went to tight ends (all to Okonkwo). Hopkins was peppered with targets and caught three of Levis’ four touchdowns while WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine caught the other.
On the year, Hopkins has predictably been the team’s primary target with 51 targets and 31 receptions. He’s averaging more than 16 yards per grab, which would be a career-high in his age-31 season, with three touchdowns (all from Levis last week, wildly enough). Okonkwo is the other primary target with 21 catches but he’s an underneath/quick game guy averaging under seven yards per catch. Westbrook-Ikhine is the only other wide receiver or tight end with more than seven grabs, though Spears and Henry have combined to catch 29 passes. The pass game really runs through Hopkins and a bit of NWI downfield and Okonkwo and the backs underneath. Pretty cut and dry.
Though the overall stats matter less with the QB change, the Titans have 21 completions of 20 or more yards. That’s tied for 20th in the league. So not a big play type of group. They prefer ball control (11th in time of possession per drive) and a healthy dose of the run game.
Watch out for some trickery. Henry has thrown two passes and one touchdown this season. The TD came on third and goal from the two at the end of the first half against the Indianapolis Colts. The other came on 1st and 10 from the +13 late in the first quarter, which fell incomplete. They ran a fake punt with the upback Amani Hooker on 4th and 1 last week and then took a playaction shot the next offensive play to try to take advantage of a rattled defense suddenly back on the field.
Watching the Falcons game, the Titans came out really conservative. Runs and quick game. Swings, power shovels, and a lot of handing it off. They used playaction to take some shots and while they really didn’t ask Levis to do much else, they got comfortable with him. Playaction includes a ton of overs and crossers to Hopkins and Okonkwo.
On third down, alert bunch sets and level concepts. Hit a TD to Hopkins with it.
And they throw screens, TE, RB, and WR tunnels, against blitz looks.
Josh’s Individual Report
It’s Titans week, Steelers fans!
It’s a short week after a tough loss at home for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who now welcome in the 3-4 Tennessee Titans, who are flying high after a thrilling 28-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons that saw rookie second-year quarterback Will Levis burst onto the scene with four touchdown passes in the win.
Though Levis is stealing the headlines right now, this is still the same Titans team under head coach Mike Vrabel: physical, power rushing attack, play-action based passing attack and an offense that won’t beat itself with mistakes.
That’s a tough recipe on a short week.
Levis is going to start for the second straight game, and he showed some real promise against a Falcons team that was top 10 defensively in the NFL entering Week Eight. Levis has a big, strong arm and has never seen a throw he didn’t like, especially down the field.
In his debut, Levis had touchdowns of 16, 33, 47 and 61 yards. He cut it loose often. There’s a lot of boom or bust there with Levis though. In his debut, half the time he was throwing it 20+ yards down the field, or throwing it behind the line of scrimmage. Not much in between.
When you have the arm talent that he does though, you let it rip.
Incredible throw here on the 33-yard touchdown to wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine on the over route to ice the game against the Falcons.
No panic whatsoever, great touch and accuracy from the hashmark to the far numbers. Crazy good arm talent.
Having that type of arm talent under center unlocked some double moves and deep shots from the Titans in Week Eight, too. Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins shook loose for three touchdowns on the day and cooked the Falcons’ secondary on this 61-yard touchdown on a subtle double move that caused the safety to bite, leading to the easy touchdown.
Levis just flicks that ball and it travels from his own 32-yard line to the opponent’s 18-yard line. Great throw.
Levis certainly played well in his debut and it will be interesting to see how the Titans utilize him in his second start against a strong Steelers defense.
But make no mistake about it: this is still a power rushing attack led by future Hall of Fame running back Derrick Henry and promising rookie backup Tyjae Spears.
The Titans have been creative with their running backs this season, utilizing the Wildcat at times, while working in reverses and jet sweeps in the run game. Here in London, Henry takes the Wildcat snap, fakes the reverse and then hits the seam, ripping off the explosive run.
He doesn’t look like he’s moving all that fast, but the guy is absolutely flying. He makes it all look so easy.
His vision, patience and ability to set up blocks are very impressive, too.
And again, he might be 30 years old, but he’s not showing any signs of slowing down. He can still turn corners at the second level and find the pylon, like he does here against the Ravens in London.
The Titans’ offensive line is playing rather well in the run game, too, even with some moving parts up front.
Giant hole here for Henry, and giving that man a head of steam into the secondary is a scary sight to see. Fortunately for the Falcons, Henry got tripped up just enough, bringing him to the turf. This would have been a house call if not.
With Spears, he’s the perfect change of pace guy behind Henry, and he’s ripped off explosive plays with ease.
Explosive player overall that glides with the football. He’s never in a hurry, but he covers so much ground quickly. Dangerous weapon for the Titans, and they’ve figured out how to work him in with Henry.
Very good 1-2 punch in the backfield.
Outside of Hopkins at receiver, the Titans leave a bit to be desired there, especially for a young QB in Levis down the stretch.
Westbrook-Ikhine is a good role player. Physical blocker, solid hands, but he’s not going to produce much through the air.
Second-year pro Treylon Burks, drafted with the first-round pick acquired from the Eagles for A.J. Brown, hasn’t put it together yet and is largely a disappointment, though Levis targeted him deep a few times Sunday but was just off the mark.
He’s a big height/weight/speed guy that is dangerous; he just needs to figure it out.
Kyle Phillips and Chris Moore are the shifty slot guys, but their opportunities in the passing game are few and far between.
I am a big, big fan of tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo. I first watched him ahead of the East-West Shrine Bowl two years ago in Las Vegas and then saw him in person there. He’s a tremendous athlete with great hands, is dynamic after the catch and is an ideal new-age move TE.
Levis looked his way for some big downfield shots on Sunday. We will see more of that Thursday night, I’d bet. Trevon Wesco is the Titans’ No. 2 TE and a good blocker in the run game. He is able to handle the in-line role in the run game, which allows Okonkwo to play the H-back role and serve as a lead blocker.
Josh Whyle and former Steeler Kevin Rader round out the TE room, though those two are primarily special teams guys.
Up front, there’s been a lot of mixing and matching due to injuries and poor play. Here’s how I expect them to line up on Thursday night, left to right:
LT — Andre Dillard
LG — Peter Skoronski
C — Aaron Brewer
RG — Daniel Brunskill
RT — Nicholas Petit-Frere
Dillard was previously benched for Petit-Frere, but with veteran Chris Hubbard out Thursday, Petit-Frere will slide in at right tackle like he did Sunday against the Falcons after Hubbard’s injury, which put Dillard back on the field.
Dillard has been a mess in pass protection, which led to the benching.
Skoronski has played three straight games after returning from an early-season injury. He’s performed well in pass protection by most metrics, but he has allowed eight pressures in his last two games. He’ll see Cameron Heyward Thursday night with the Steelers captain returning to the lineup.
Brewer has had issues snapping the ball, but he has looked good in the run game, as has Brunskill, who is quite the find for the Titans. Brunskill was undrafted out of San Diego State in 2017, stuck with the Falcons for a bit, then played in the now-defunct AAF with the San Diego Fleet, spent some time with the 49ers and then signed a two-year, $5.5m deal with the Titans and has grabbed ahold of the starting RG role.
Cool story.
Special teams is pretty solid for the Titans, led by the kicker/punter tandem of Nick Folk and Ryan Stonehouse.
Stonehouse might be the best punter in football, truly. He has a monster leg that can completely flip the field. Absolute weapon. He’s averaging 51.8 yards per punt this season on 31 punts and has dropped 15 of his punts inside the 20-yard line.
Those numbers are absurd.
Folk is 16-for-16 on the year on field goals and is money from 50 yards and in, thanks to his big leg.
The return game is a question. The Titans benched Phillips after muffing a punt in London, leading to practice squad callup Eric Garror handling punt return duties. He’s steady back there, which is all Tennessee is looking for.
Spears will handle kick returns. Much like he is on offense, he’s dangerous on kick returns. Have to be careful with him.
