It was a disappointing day all around for the Tennessee Titans, who couldn’t get out of their own way for the most part en route to a 16-15 loss to the New Orleans Saints.
Offensively, there weren’t too many things to get excited about outside of Derrick Henry and occasionally DeAndre Hopkins.
Buy Titans TicketsOther than that, the quarterback play was horrendous, the receivers struggled to get open and make routine catches, and the offensive line was inconsistent.
As for the defense, it was a borderline phenomenal performance.
Despite the offense’s frequent turnovers and a blocked punt, the unit still held the Saints’ offense to 16 points while recording four sacks and an interception on top of that.
Truth be told, it really should’ve been five sacks had the officials not blown a call on what was very clearly a fumble in the red zone that should’ve resulted in the Titans gaining possession at the very least.
The only touchdown Tennessee’s defense allowed came after a Ryan Tannehill interception gave New Orleans a short field to work with.
Unfortunately, cornerback Kristian Fulton was injured in this one early on and that allowed Chris Olave to feast for over 100 receiving yards.
The defense also failed to stop the Saints from picking up crucial first downs on the final drive, but it’s hard to place any real blame on the group outside of that.
Arden Key was awesome in this one, tallying 1.5 sacks (it should’ve been 2.5) while also finishing with an incredible 2.91 average yards of distance from the quarterback, which was easily the best average for either team, according to Next Gen Stats.
As for everything else, let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest takeaways from Next Gen Stats data following the Titans’ disappointing season-opener.
Game leaders
Passing chart
Rushing numbers
Average receiver separation
Average distance from QB on pass-rushes
Ryan Tannehill’s passing grid
Derrick Henry’s rushing grid
DeAndre Hopkins' receiving grid
