The Tennessee Titans are massive underdogs ahead of their Week 14 game against the Miami Dolphins — and for good reason.
This is a terrible matchup for the Titans, whose biggest weakness on defense is defending the pass. Of course, Miami’s passing attack is the league’s best and the unit is capable of scoring from anywhere on the field.
While it’s very likely the Titans get crushed on Monday night, there is a silver lining: the loss will keep Tennessee in the top six in the 2024 NFL draft, and could quite possibly move them up into the top five going into Week 15.
If the Titans want to pull off one of the biggest upsets of the 2023 campaign, they’ll have to do all or at least the majority of the things we have listed below.
Keep Will Levis upright
The Titans’ offensive line will catch a bit of a break, as the Dolphins won’t have budding star pass-rusher Jaelan Phillips after he suffered a season-ending injury a few weeks back.
Even still, the Dolphins have four other players with at least four sacks, and they rank sixth in the NFL in that category. And, as we know, the Titans’ group upfront can make even the most lackluster pass-rush look good.
If the Titans want to win this game, they’re going to have to score points, but that will be impossible if Levis is pressured and getting sacked all night long.
Keep an eye on both tackle spots, where the Titans are most vulnerable, and how Tennessee handles the blitz, something it hasn’t been good at all season long.
Use more motion
One of the big topics of conversation this week has been how Levis posts better numbers when the Titans use motion. Included in that conversation is how the Titans don’t use enough of it.
According to CBS Sports’ Jordan Dajani, Levis leads the NFL in completion percentage with motion, but ranks last without it. Unfortunately, the Titans are only using motion 36 percent of the time, which is below the league average of 47 percent.
Earlier this week I wrote about Will Levis's 2nd Half woes. Here's a way #Titans can help him: USE MOTION
19 dropbacks using motion in the second half w/ Levis under center (18.6% of 2nd Half DBs)
13/19, 149 yds, 1 TD, 0 INT, 0 sacks, 6 other pressures, +0.078 EPA
Do it more. https://t.co/rTaErwVedM
— Football & Other F Words (@FWordsPod) December 9, 2023
The Titans need to take these number seriously and try to help their young signal-caller out. Using more motion will also help create separation for the receivers, something that has also been an issue in 2023.
Control the clock
The Titans must control the clock in this game in order to keep the Dolphins’ high-powered offense off the field. The best way to do that is to get the rushing attack going.
Fortunately for Tennessee, there’s some hope it can do that after what was one of the best performances of the 2023 campaign for the offensive line in terms of run-blocking in Week 13.
However, the Dolphins sport the No. 8 run defense in the NFL going into this game, so Tennessee’s group upfront will have its work cut out for it.
Pile up the sacks
The only prayer the Titans have at not getting embarrassed defensively in this game is to get relentless pressure on Tua Tagovailoa, but the pass-rush must get home and pile up the sacks, also.
As we have seen time and time again — and even against lesser passing attacks — the secondary gets burnt when the pass-rush doesn’t show up.
It’s going to get especially ugly if Tua has time in the pocket to find guys like Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, both of whom should have no issue getting open.
Unfortunately for the Titans, their pass-rush will be shorthanded after Jeffery Simmons was ruled out for this game. Even with Simmons in the lineup this season, the pass-rush has been inconsistent, at best.
