Mularkey wants Titans to be balanced, physical
NASHVILLE — Mike Mularkey wants to make something very clear. He didn’t coin the phrase “exotic smashmouth,” and that doesn’t mean running the ball exclusively.
Whether that will be how everyone describes the Tennessee Titans’ play this season remains to be seen. But their head coach knows this: Tennessee will be a physical team.
“A throw to a tight end for third-and-14 is five linemen going down and knocking the guys off the pile. A long run and receivers blocking 15-20 yards down the field. That to me, it’s physical football,” Mularkey said Wednesday. “It doesn’t have to be running the football. It’s a constant pounding regardless of what the situation is.”
Mularkey wants balance on offense. He credits Pittsburgh media for coming up with the exotic smashmouth description for the 2001 Steelers, who ran 140 trick plays with Mularkey as offensive coordinator.
No matter where the phrase originated or what its intent was, Mularkey and the Titans haven’t hidden their plans for turning around a franchise with one winning season in the past seven years. They traded for running back DeMarco Murray and drafted Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry out of the University of Alabama, and it’s time to turn them loose in Sunday’s season opener against Minnesota.
Mularkey said Murray, the 2014 NFL Offensive Player of the Year, will start, with Henry giving Murray a chance to rest when he needs or if the coach feels a change of pace is needed.
The 6-foot-1 Murray ran for only 702 yards with the Philadelphia Eagles last season, but he led the league with 1,845 yards in 2014 with the Dallas Cowboys. He has averaged 4.64 yards per carry over the past five seasons, which represents the second-highest average of any player with at least 1,000 carries over that stretch. Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is first in that category averaging 4.98 yards per attempt.
Peterson, who led the NFL with 1,485 yards rushing last season, sees his old University of Oklahoma teammate running as he did in Dallas.
“Now he’s in a place where he can actually be happy and that he wants to be,” Peterson said on a conference call. “It’s a perfect fit for him, so he seems to be in a way better place.”