NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Titans get the entire bye week off after meeting an incentive Mike Mularkey laid out for them. The coach declined to share what that incentive was.
Injured players must remain in town, so DeMarco Murray (shoulder/hamstring) Delanie Walker (ankle bone bruise), Johnathan Cyprien (hamstring), Corey Davis (hamstring) and Quentin Spain (toe) headline that group.
It wasn’t clear if Marcus Mariota is on that list at this stage of his recovery from his hamstring issue.
You should have no issue with time off for this team, though even at 4-3 it has not played well.
Rest and time away can be part of the problem-solving. And perhaps it’s an acknowledgment by Mularkey that the team’s issues right now need to be solved as much in the coaches offices as anywhere.
They won’t get their time off until the end of the week.
They will look at all phases, successful or not, in a thorough self-scout. That will include red zone, third-down, short-yardage, goal line, 2:00.
“Anything that pertains to a difference-making situation in the game, we’re going to study on ourselves,” Mularkey said.
That will include some comparisons to last year in areas where there has been a significant drop-off, like red-zone TD production and third down.
“We look at every play and every player on every play and we decide, is it the scheme, it is the defense we’re going against, they had a better call than we had? A lot of things go into the play. We look at everybody. That’s what our coaches are doing right now.”
It’s clear the offense has issues, and some of them branch out of Mariota playing without his mobility the last two weeks.
But the Titans need to figure out some other stuff, and splash some additional stuff in.
We’ve not seen them jump into the no-huddle much this year outside of 2:00 drills, and that got them going at times last year. Eric Decker has been a solid red-zone weapon is his career and has not been used to enhance the options inside the 20. A week after a great receiver game with no mental errors, they backslide and Mularkey wouldn’t say how many they made.
I hope they don’t put too much on the Mariota limitations. The offensive inconsistencies are about more than that.
“Without the ability to have Marcus do some of the things that he’s capable of doing which I think it dynamic in this league, I think if he’s back to full-strength we can get back to our full game-planning and get back to what we are good at,” Mularkey said. “And that’s multiple things.
“Hopefully that’s the case, that’s the plan as we sit here.”
The full envelope with Mariota will be good. It's far from all the Titans need when they return to action on Nov. 5 against Baltimore.
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