Whether they would care to admit it or not, the Tennessee Titans have missed defensive tackle Teair Tart’s presence.
The 26-year-old has been sidelined for the last two games with a toe injury and it’s no coincidence that the Titans have been gashed in the run game.
Against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 5, Zack Moss, not Jonathan Taylor, rushed for 165 yards and two scores. Last week, the trio of Lamar Jackson, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill combined for 138 yards on the ground in the Titans’ 24-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
As a group, the Titans’ run defense sits in the middle of the pack in the National Football League, allowing 102.0 yards per game on the ground, good for the 13th-fewest in the league in that department.
However, that number has been inflated after the last two weeks, as the Titans were ranked fourth in the NFL prior to that.
According to Titans’ defensive line coach, Terrell Williams, the team will use the bye week to assess the first six games and make the necessary adjustments out of the break.
“When you lose a couple of games, just look at it. We’ll watch the film and make the corrections we need to make to start putting things together,” Williams said, via A to Z Sports Nashville. “Normally, after a game, you just look at the last game and make the corrections, but now we got six games to put it all together and figure out what we did well and what we need to fix.”
After missing the first two days of practice last week, Tart returned as a limited participant on Friday in advance of the Titans’ game in London. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for him to suit up.
But with an extra week of rest thanks to the bye, the hope is that he will be ready to go when the Titans return home in Week 8 against the Atlanta Falcons.
When healthy, Tart has developed into one of the most disruptive defensive tackles in the game. Through four games this season, he accumulated ten tackles, including three tackles for loss and three quarterback hits.
When asked about his absence having an impact on the run game of late, Williams said it’s more than just about not having Tart.
“We’ve missed him because he’s been a starter for us,” Williams said of Tart’s absence. “I think everybody looks at the last two games, which he didn’t play, and says, ‘well, that’s why we gave up rushing yards.’ But I remember vividly the New York Giants running for 250 yards against us in the opener last year and Buffalo running for another 100-plus yards. So, it’s more about us just doing what we need to do, not necessarily who’s in there.”
Sure, it takes all 11 players on defense to commit to stopping the run. However, when you have a player absent from your defensive line who can free up the other playmakers on the field, that loss is felt across the board.
The Titans could definitely use Tart for their upcoming matchup in Week 8, with the Falcons sporting the 11th-best rushing offense in the league, led by rookie running back Bijan Robinson.
