The Tennessee Titans dropped another game on the road in Week 11, this time to the Jacksonville Jaguars by a score of 34-14.
After dominating the division rivalry for several years, the Titans have now lost three straight games to the Jags, two of which were by double digits.
Tennessee truly is a bad, boring and uninspiring team to watch right now. To make matters worse, the Titans are making it nearly impossible to adequately evaluate their rookie quarterback because his surroundings are so poor.
There are very few positives going on right now. The biggest may be the fact that Tennessee is inching toward a top-five pick in next year’s draft that has several intriguing prospects at positions of need.
But for now, all we can do is analyze what the Titans currently have on their roster. Let’s see how we graded each position group after Tennessee’s fifth loss in six games.
Quarterback: C
Will Levis ended the day by completing 76 percent of his passes (13-of-17) for 158 yards and two touchdowns, but one of those scores cam in garbage time. Levis did throw a beautiful pass for the other score, though.
This team has much bigger problems around the young quarterback, but I can’t give him anything higher than a “C” after what we saw in Week 11.
Running backs: D
The Titans’ ground game had been one of the few even somewhat reliable aspects of the offense for most of the season. Sadly, even that has disappeared as of late.
The poor run-blocking certainly has something to do with it, which is why I won’t give a failing grade here, but totaling 52 rushing yards between Derrick Henry and Tyjae Spears isn’t good enough.
Wide receivers: D
Outside of DeAndre Hopkins, the Titans’ wide receiver corps. is filled with players who probably should be buried on a team’s depth chart.
Instead, Tennessee is forced to rely on the likes of Chris Moore, Kyle Philips, and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. The three of them combined for only 66 receiving yards, most of which came in garbage time.
The Titans desperately need to find a way to reload the receiver room this offseason. Until then, opposing defenses are going to continue blanketing DHop in order to force someone else to beat them.
Tight ends: F
Chig Okonkwo and Josh Whyle combined for just 13 yards on two catches. I’ll have to watch the All-22 to see how they did in run-blocking, but judging by the run game’s results, I’m going to assume it was average, at best.
Regardless, for two tight ends who were considered pass-catching threats, you definitely want to see more out of them.
Offensive line: F
Same story, different day.
While it wasn’t as poor as a week ago, this group is still struggling to get anything positive going, both in run-blocking and pass protection.
More than anything else, this unit has a talent deficiency. The Titans arguably have four backup-caliber linemen starting, and the other is a rookie. Until that changes, this offense is destined for poor play.
Defensive line: F
This unit has been such a letdown all season long, and that continued on Sunday. The Jags recorded nearly 130 yards on the ground while Trevor Lawrence comfortably picked apart the secondary thanks to no pressure.
Right now, this group is littered with a bunch of overpaid players who aren’t making nearly enough of an impact as their game check dictates they should.
Outside linebackers: F
You can add this group to the overpaid and underperforming category.
Harold Landry and Arden Key aren’t doing nearly a good enough job. Landry is at least producing decent numbers statistically, recording four sacks over his last five games, but none of those occurred on Sunday.
The Titans need better and more consistent play from this group, and that’s especially true for someone they gave an $87.5 million contract to.
Inside linebackers: D+
I’ll have to rewatch from the All-22 angle, but at first glance, I thought Azeez Al-Shaair played a solid game. He’s sneaky good in coverage and relentless in just about everything else he does.
The rest of the room isn’t ideal, but at least the guy atop the depth chart is doing okay, which is more than a lot of this roster can say.
Cornerbacks: F
With Sean Murphy-Bunting out with a thumb injury, this group is struggling even more so than it did before.
Kristian Fulton is back to being a liability and played a horrendous game in practically every possible way. On top of that Roger McCreary has played worse since moving to the boundary to replace SMB.
Fulton’s worst moment came on a third down when he left his zone to chase Lawrence instead of trusting the defenders in front of him to make the stop. This subsequently led to an easy pitch and catch to put the Jags in scoring position.
The pass defense in general is ridiculously bad right now, and their weekly grades continue to reflect that.
Safeties: D
The Titans are struggling all along the back end of the defense, and the safety position is no different. Terrell Edmunds did record the team’s only sack, so I’ll at least give this group a passing grade.
Specialists: B-
Nick Folk didn’t make an appearance outside of kickoffs and a few extra points, but Ryan Stonehouse had one of the few poor punts of his season, along with a touchback.
But Folk’s lack of chances isn’t his fault and Stonehouse continues to pound balls for over 50 yards on the regular, so I’ll at least give the unit an above-average grade.
