The Tennessee Titans continued their winning ways in Week 11 with a 27-17 victory over the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. But unlike all of their previous six wins, this one actually looked good.
Tennessee’s offense had its best showing through the air in Week 11, Todd Downing was good overall in terms of play-calling, and everything we’ve been wanting to see from this offense happened on Thursday night.
As you’d expect, most of the Titans’ takeaways from Week 11 have to do with the offense, but there was one aspect of the defense in particular that deserved a shoutout after an excellent showing.
Ryan Tannehill, offense heating up
In just two weeks time, the Titans’ offense has gone from hopeless, to having hope, to having a lot of optimism moving forward following the win over Green Bay.
After what was one of its better passing performances of the season in Week 10, Tennessee’s passing attack followed that up with its best showing through the air hands down in Week 11.
Ryan Tannehill looked as sharp as he has all season long, pass-catchers were making plays, and offensive coordinator Todd Downing pushed almost all of the right buttons on Thursday night.
We saw Treylon Burks have a breakout performance, Austin Hooper continue to stay hot, Robert Woods show signs of life, and Chig Okonkwo rip off yet another explosive play.
The only thing we didn’t see was a great showing in the run game, but the Titans didn’t need it on Thursday night.
I’m certainly not ready to proclaim this pass game fixed by any means, but this was another encouraging outing to say the least. Keep stringing these together and I’ll really be a believer.
Treylon Burks has arrived
It took 10 games, but we finally got a big dose of what we all expected Burks to be upon the Titans drafting him earlier this year.
Burks not only reeled-in a pair of deep balls, one of which came on a scoring drive, he also had some key grabs on shorter completions, including a six-yard catch on a third-and-3 that preceded Derrick Henry’s rushing score.
In all, Burks had career-highs with seven receptions for 111 yards, and he served up one order of roasted Jaire Alexander in the process.
— Mike (@micheladamikey) November 18, 2022
Hopefully this is just the start of Burks really taking a stranglehold on the role as the team’s alpha receiver the rest of the way. If he can do that, Tennessee’s offense will really be in business.
Offensive line quietly improving
With all the attention on Downing and the receivers, the offensive line has quietly rounded into form as the season has progressed — and that’s without its starting left tackle.
The Titans didn’t have their starting center on Thursday night, either, yet still managed to thrive in pass protection, which allowed the passing attack to make the big plays it did. After all, it all starts upfront.
Aaron Brewer did a good job filling in for Ben Jones, and check out this heads-up block from Dillon Radunz, who started at left guard. It’s enough to make me cry tears of joy considering how down and out Radunz was.
.@Titans @DillonRadunz with a “ heads up “ play to take a hit off his QB! Not all left guards will have the instinct to do this. Bravo! #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/WMG1v0luPH
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) November 18, 2022
Granted, it wasn’t all perfect and the rushing attack wasn’t able to get much going, but this group come a long way from where it was in terms of pass protection, and even at less than full strength.
The King reigns supreme in multiple ways
There is nothing Derrick Henry can’t do — literally.
The Alabama product had a quiet night on the ground but still posted 87 yards and a touchdown, his 42-yard reception helped setup another score, and he threw his third-career touchdown pass (including playoffs) to Austin Hooper.
The King is now over 1,000 rushing yards for the season and “DHenber” is rapidly approaching. Henry is destroying every negative narrative about him going into 2022, and he might just win another rushing crown on the way.
A great performance from the secondary
The Titans’ run defense, pass-rush and front-seven as a whole have been as consistent as they come this season and has really been the driving force behind the Titans’ elite defense in 2022.
The secondary has no doubt had its moments, but that’s the one area that has been any semblance of a weakness.
That wasn’t the case on Thursday night, though. Despite some miscues, Tennessee’s group was very good on the back-end in coverage on a night when the pass-rush wasn’t providing much support.
Hell, even the Titans’ lone sack was of the coverage variety, and the defensive backs chipped-in to stop the run for good measure.
All this and the Titans didn’t have Elijah Molden, Amani Hooker and, later in the game, Kristian Fulton, who we’ll need to keep an eye on ahead of Week 12.
Football gods willing this defense ever gets healthy, because it might be even better than it is now.
Titans appear to have avoided disaster with Denico Autry
The scariest moment of Week 11 was Denico Autry going down to a knee injury that knocked him out of the game. Autry looked visibly upset on the sidelines, which gave us even more concern.
However, it appears Autry’s injury isn’t season-ending, according to Titans beat writer Paul Kuharsky. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler also reports Autry is doing “good” and the injury isn’t believed to be major.
Denico Autry's knee injury is not a season-ender. #Titans
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) November 18, 2022
#Titans OLB Denico Autry (knee) will get an MRI today. Source said he’s doing ‘good,’ not believed to be major injury but tests will determine full scope.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) November 18, 2022
I don’t need to sit here and explain to you why Autry is so vital to this defense, which will make his status one of the biggest storylines moving forward.
The good news is it looks like they’ll get him back at some point, and this is a Titans team that has an uncanny ability to plug-and-play guys when injuries take place. Tennessee will be fine as long as Autry is back when it matters most.
