OAKLAND, Calif. – When Mike Vrabel was kind enough to sit down and do a Periscope/Facebook Live with me on June 12, we joked a bit about the Titans’ generally conservative offense.
I gave him a hard time with him about my craving what many of us did: a more modern, open passing game.
Like the one we are seeing now with Ryan Tannehill putting up crazy numbers as part of an incredibly efficient and effective unit.
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Say what you will about that segment of conversation.
There it was on Sunday.
I’m perfectly willing to round up Tannehill’s 391 passing yards for the sake of what I’ve been asking. It was a 400-yard passing day. It wasn't desperation passing yards accumulated against prevent defense happy to sacrifice yards for time. 263 of them came by the half in a 21-21 game.
It was just as beautiful as I imagined it. We saw throws of 91 (TD), 42, 39, 24, 24, 23, 22, 17 (TD) and 16 (TD) yards. Tannehill averaged 14.5 yards per pass attempt, 18.6 yards per completion and the Titans averaged 9.4 yards per offensive play.
These are crazy high numbers, and watching them unfold was really something to behold.
Vrabel and the Titans and others of their conservative ilk seem to consider a 400-yard passing day to be a blazing star. In no way did Tannehill flying close to the sun burn the Titans. It showed they can go high if needed. And generally, they’ve been cruising at a high altitude with no threat of a crash.
The #Titans also finished with 9.4 yards per offensive play which is a new franchise record, breaking the old franchise record which was set two weeks ago against the Jaguars.
— Mike Herndon (@MikeMiracles) December 9, 2019
This offense is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥. https://t.co/lF5hpaHHsp
Arthur Smith has been putting the offense in great spots and the output has rewarded a certain continuity in the scheme and play calling.
“I think he's has a great relationship with the players on the team, that;'s part of the reason that I wanted to keep him here," Vrabel said. "I felt like he just wanted to serve the players and help them improve in that transition to the role as coordinator. I think you always realize what guys are comfortable doing and as the flow of the game goes he's strung together some good calls.
"Again, it’s not always the calls. Having a rhythm and getting into a rhythm and allowing the players to eventually go out there and make the play, they are the ones that make it work. But I feel like we haven’t tried to overload the players with a bunch of new scheme stuff. every single week stuff and change stuff. We've added a few wrinkles but there has been a lot of consistency.”
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