Waiting game
Titans work to shed label of slow starters
NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans have shown a great knack for finishing through the first six weeks of this season.
Moving the ball early in games is their big problem.
The Titans have scored only 20 first-quarter points all season and have been shut out in that period in two games. They’ve scored only once on an opening possession — and that was a field goal against the New York Jets, who came to beat them in overtime — with a trio of three-andout series.
“We do have to get off to better starts and try to help ourselves early in the game,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said this past week.
Workhorse running back Derrick Henry got Tennessee’s offense going this past Monday night against the Buffalo Bills with a 76-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
“We have a great offense and guys that go out and make plays, but we just have to put drives together early. We are stalling. That is all on us,“Henry said Thursday before ticking off a list of things that need to happen.
“Just going out there, putting a drive together, get a rhythm, getting downfield, getting points — but have just been stalling a lot early.”
The Titans (4-2) have won twice when starting a game with a three-and-out series, winning on the road against the Seattle Seahawks in overtime and beating the Indianapolis Colts in Nashville. They also rallied to beat Buffalo on Monday night despite trailing 6-0 after the first quarter. They can’t afford another slow start Sunday against Kansas City (3-3) which has averaged 30.8 points a game this season.
“We don’t want to have that to keep occurring week after week,” Henry said.
Scoring isn’t a big problem for Tennessee — the Titans rank eighth in the NFL this season, having averged 27.8 points a game while topping 33 three times — but they’ve been at their best in the fourth quarter, where they have outscored opponents a combined 56-29. They scored the final 10 points of the game in that period to beat Buffalo 34-31 — Tennessee’s league-leading 13th victory when trailing in the fourth quarter or overtime since 2018 under Vrabel.
First-year offensive coordinator Todd Downing, who took over after Arthur Smith moved on to become head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, doesn’t have a set number of scripted plays going into games; he focuses more on situations the Titans might face in the first 10 to 15 plays. He noted the offense has created its own challenges with penalties and missed opportunities.
“We’ve all just got to focus on doing our individual job and get the thing going a little bit smoother right out of the gate,” Downing said.
Ryan Tannehill was just 2-of-8 passing for 16 yards in the first quarter against Buffalo. The veteran quarterback said it’s tough to say why the offense has struggled in the first quarter so far this season.
“Sometimes things just aren’t going your way,” Tannehill said. “I think we had some opportunities early in this past game, and as a group we didn’t make the plays. It is definitely something we want to improve on.”
Tannehill was almost perfect in the second half (14-for-17 passing for 145 yards). He completed every pass in the fourth quarter, going 9-of-9 with a penalty wiping out a 10th completion.
Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said the Chiefs — among the league’s worst defenses — have talked about being as concerned about Tannehill as they are Henry, who led the NFL in rushing the past two seasons and is doing so again with 783 yards on 162 carries (4.8 average).
“All the focus goes on 22 because of who he is and what he does,” Spagnuolo said of Henry, “and yet you can’t lose focus of what you all have been talking about, the two wideouts they’ve got out there, the quarterback will tuck and run with it.”
The 6-foot-3, 247-pound Henry, in his sixth NFL season, has a career-best five straight 100yard rushing games and leads the league with 10 touchdown runs. Henry has run for three touchdowns in each of the past two games, the league’s first player to do that and run for at least 100 yards in each game since LaDainian Tomlinson for the San Diego Chargers in 2006.
The Chiefs have allowed an average of 133.2 rushing yards per game this season, 27th in the NFL but they may get defensive end Chris Jones back after a wrist injury kept him out of the past two games.
Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who has had the luxury of watching Henry up close without having to worry about tackling him — or avoiding his vicious stiff arm — called him one of the best running backs of all time.
“The way he’s able to run the football, to get 20 to 30, whatever, 40 carries it is, and then he comes back the next week and he seems like he’s just as fresh as the week before,” Mahomes said. “He’s a special talent who works his tail off to be who he is, and so we understand it’s going to be a great challenge for any defense to stop him.”
These teams will meet for the first time since the Titans lost in Kansas City in January 2020 as the Chiefs won their first of backto-back AFC championships and ended a surprising wild-card run by Tennessee in those playoffs. The Chiefs went on to win the Super Bowl that year.
“When you have a chance to go to the big one and get a ring, not being able to do that hurts,” Tannehill said. “But at the same time, that was two years ago, and we are not going to get hung up on what happened two years ago.”
The Titans have won four of their past five games, and their victory this past Monday ended a four-game winning streak for the Bills.
“We’re not really concerned about measuring ourselves or trying to beat two explosive teams back-to-back,” Titans safety Kevin Byard said. “It’s more about trying to get a ‘W’ this week and finding any type of way to get a win.”