NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A lot of Titans had a hand in a horrible protection night against the Jets, in which Tennessee allowed eight sacks and quarterback Alex Tanney took plenty of hits beyond that.
He got leveled on his first snap when blitzing, unblocked linebacker Julian Stanford raced in.
On the telecast it looked like Derrick Henry, who ran up the middle to the left and into his own blocker may have been at fault considering the wide open lane to his right.
But coach Mike Mularkey said Sunday the error was not Henry’s.
Another view of failed blitz pickup. Alex Tanney nearly killed by Julian Stanford. pic.twitter.com/4qimtIjbv1
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) August 13, 2017
“That was a protection breakdown,” Mularkey said. “Some of the sacks, where I’d like to address is the veterans. Our backs have got to do a better job in protections. That was not Derrick’s. That was Fowler’s.
“Where we had breakdowns that creates the sacks, we’ve practiced those things. We’ve practiced them, we’ve done them well, we have to take it from there and execute them in the game. And we’ve done that, we just didn’t do that (Saturday) night.”
When Henry ran into a crowd of teammates, the one directly in front of him was Fowler, who had taken the wrong course.
That’s a bad play for a fullback, who should be the best and most reliable blocker among all the backs.
It’s just one play.
If it had been with Marcus Mariota at quarterback and if he had gotten hurt on it, it could have been tragic.
Mularkey said after film review there were fewer mistakes by the offense than he thought.
“But they were critical,” he said. “Some of them catastrophic.”
Mularkey said the team could shuffle the second-team offensive line.
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