One of the many gripes with former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing was his propensity to run the football after the team gained little or no yardage on first downs, whether that be via pass or run.
That approach led to difficult third-down situations that Tennessee’s putrid passing attack simply wasn’t able to overcome.
Football analyst Warren Sharp crunched the numbers and showed that the Titans were near the bottom of the NFL in pass rate on second-and-10 scenarios following an incomplete pass on first down.
The Titans only threw the ball 42 percent of the time after a first-down incompletion, which ranked bottom five in the NFL.
The teams with a lower pass rate were the Cleveland Browns, Washington Commanders, New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears.
pass rate on 2nd & 10 after an incompletion:
92% – CIN
88% – MIA
78% – ARI
77% – PHI
75% – NYG
74% – KC
72% – BUF
72% – LAC
71% – TB
66% – LAR
65% – SEA
65% – GB
64% – LV
64% – JAX
64% – IND
63% – CAR
58% – MIN
57% – NYJ
57% – BAL
56% – HOU
56% – NE
52% – DEN
52% – ATL
51% – DAL…— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) April 19, 2023
Of course, some of that can be blamed on the fact that the Titans’ best avenue to move the ball was on the ground thanks to injuries and overall ineptitude in the receivers room. But, even considering that, this is still unacceptable.
Thankfully, Downing’s ineptitude as a play-caller will no longer haunt the Titans after the team fired him earlier this offseason and replaced him with Tim Kelly, who has nowhere to go but up from here.
