The Tennessee Titans won an exhilarating overtime game in their home-opener against the Los Angeles Chargers, 27-24.
This was an all-around impressive Week 2 performance where the team found a way to win despite getting punched in the mouth early on.
Buy Titans TicketsThe Chargers got out to an early 11-0 lead, and it honestly felt like this was going to be another horrendous showing on the offensive side of the ball.
Instead, the team started to punch back, eventually fighting its way to a much-needed victory in front of a raucous home crowd.
Naturally, this led to many fans being excited about the fact that the Titans finally looked like the team we all knew they could be his year. But there were also some overreactions from the fans and media members.
This article is going to discuss two narratives that are simply overreactions as of right now, while also pointing out two narratives that are closer to being facts rather than opinions.
Overreaction: Ryan Tannehill is back
There’s no denying that Ryan Tannehill mostly played awesome today, but it’s still just one game. As horrible as the Texas A&M product was a week ago, it made no sense to start calling for his benching after just one week.
On the flip side, we cannot overreact and assume that he’s going to be the Pro Bowl-caliber player that he was from 2019 through 2020 just because he played like it today.
Ryan Tannehill was productive using play action in the Titans Week 2 victory, completing 7 of 9 passes for 168 yards.
Tannehill has averaged 11.8 yards per attempt using play action since 2022, 1.6 yards more than any other QB.#LACvsTEN | #Titans pic.twitter.com/UZRJEFKZ8d
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 17, 2023
Nonetheless, this was undeniably an awesome bounce-back effort after what happened last week, and we can definitely start to talk about him being all the way back if he continues to stack positive games like this going forward.
The thing that really stood out about Tannehill is he seemed to have his swagger back. He confidently connected on big throws, he attacked the open areas, and we even got to see his trademark finger roll after a touchdown, something we haven’t seen in what felt like ages.
Tannehill finished the day by completing 83.3 percent of his passes (20-of-24) for 246 yards, with one touchdown through the air and another on the ground.
Truth: Titans may have saved their season
With a win on Sunday, the Titans’ chances of making the playoffs are now at a respectable 41.8 percent.
That might not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but had they lost in Week 2, Tennessee’s chances would’ve dropped all the way down to 11.5 percent.
Chances of making the playoffs since 1990:
2-0: 63.8%
1-1: 41.8%
0-2: 11.5%— Underdog NFL (@Underdog__NFL) September 17, 2023
Obviously, it’s way too early to be talking about the playoffs, but this was a game Tennessee needed to win to start establishing some positive momentum inside the building since the team hadn’t won a single game since last November.
Overreaction: The offensive line stinks
Tennessee was hit with a crushing blow before the game even began when it was announced that rookie offensive lineman Peter Skoronski would miss Sunday after having an appendectomy.
This led to Xavier Newman starting in his place, and to say he was a disaster would be putting it nicely. He was replaced by Dillon Radunz in the second quarter, and while Radunz was solid, he was far too inconsistent.
He had a couple of inexcusable penalties, which is obviously a downgrade from the guy he replaced in Skoronski, who didn’t receive a single penalty the week before despite being in a hostile environment. The North Dakota State product also got beat by Morgan Fox for a sack.
Unfortunately, the struggles in pass protection were a universal problem on Sunday for the Titans’ offensive line, but it was also a tough matchup with the Chargers sporting Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa, who still managed to wreak havoc despite playing mostly on obvious passing situations.
joey gets another one.
📺 | @nfloncbs pic.twitter.com/jAHyi2Nd4v
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) September 17, 2023
On the bright side, the offensive line did enough to enable Tannehill to have a bounce-back game, and he was even able to get the time necessary to connect on some deep balls that were key to two Tennessee touchdown drives.
While things were ugly for the group upfront on Sunday en route to five sacks and countless pressures allowed, it’s important not to forget that Tennessee’s offensive line was without arguably its best player.
All that said, there’s no question the offensive line has to get better and more consistent moving forward, both in run-blocking and pass protection.
Truth: The defense has to eliminate big plays
After a week in which they allowed 160 yards off five plays alone, the Titans followed it up by allowing 115 of the 305 passing yards given up off just four plays on Sunday.
Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Gerald Everett and Stone Smartt all produced at least one catch of 20 or more yards on the day.
Herbert finds a wide open Keenan Allen down the sideline
📺: #LACvsTEN on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/FhXtx7w3wW pic.twitter.com/CKRveIduK2— NFL (@NFL) September 17, 2023
The Smartt play in particular stood out because he was open almost immediately. Had the coverage on the back end been at least a little better, a streaking Jeffery Simmons undoubtedly gets his second sack of the game.
Instead, the ball was out almost right away and turned into a big play for the Chargers.
To be fair, things did get better as the game went on, but for how good this Titans defense is, it cannot afford to let these back-breaking big plays continue to happen or it’ll erase all the goods things the front does.
In order for the defense to reach its full potential, the Titans must clean up the play on the backend. Things will get better once Kristian Fulton returns — that is, if he can stay healthy after he gets back.
