Titans' Review: Pass-Game Timing, Return-Game Success and More

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Preseason wins don’t matter. 

Brian Callahan said as much after the Titans beat the 49ers 17-13 at Nissan Stadium Saturday evening in Week One of the NFL’s exhibition season.

But he’s a new coach with a new staff and roster and a great deal of new players.

Will Levis
  Will Levis celebrates/ Angie Flatt

In that regard, the coach and his quarterback took meaning in the result.

“There are habits in winning,” Brian Callahan said. “…I do think in the moment, these things matter. I think you're trying to build a winning team and a winning culture. It validates the work you put in, and so that helps..”

“We’ve got to get used to winning,” Will Levis said. “Winning’s fun and there is a certain responsibility that comes with it. So hopefully we do our best in all these games, get a feel for that winning atmosphere and just keep rolling.”

Here are some thoughts on several of the ingredients that pushed the Titans to a good result, that would have been in place even if the 49ers last possession ended with a losing TD rather than a Chance Campbell pick of Josh Dobbs on fourth-and-6 from the Tennessee 36-yard-line:

Timing: I thought there was a lot of good passing-game timing for the offense, especially for the units that mattered the most. 

Levis found Calvin Ridley in sync over the middle on a third-and-10 that Ridley ran with to turn into a 22-yard play. 

“You see how explosive he can be with the ball in his hands,” Callahan said.

Several other plays, including an 18-yard Mason Rudolph to David Martin-Robinson connection up the right side seemed to time up just as the Titans wanted.

It also worked hand-in-hand with keeping Levis and Rudolph clean – in 24 combined dropbacks neither was sacked.

“I think timing-wise it’s been good,” Callahan said. “I was intentional about trying to keep the quarterbacks out of harm’s way to some degree so the ball was coming out pretty quick. Some of those ply-action passes were really efficient for us, they popped open. I think our timing in the passing game is coming along really well.

“A couple more weeks of this and a couple more games and I think I’ll feel really good about where we’re at in entering the regular season. But it was good to see tonight that we could be on time and play on time and operate together.”

Malik Willis took the only 49ers sack of the game early in the fourth quarter. The right side of the third offensive line had some problems but he looked primed to escape before he was taken down low by Kalia Davis for a 1-yard loss.

The Titans gave up an average of four sacks a game in the preseason last year.

Returns: The Titans' new special teams got off to a big start.

Kearis Jackson returned the first 49ers kickoff for 63 yards with return during which he spun out of potential trouble twice, setting the Titans up for a 15-yard touchdown drive. And Jha’Quan Jackson took the first punt the Titans fielded in the preseason 26 yards, showing a nice burst.

Those both set up touchdowns. Kearis Jackson had a second, 18-yard kickoff return.

Consider this: In the 2023 preseason, the Titans returned seven kickoffs for 167 yards with a long of 33, and 10 punts for 97 yards with a long of 17.

Here’s rookie Jha’Quan describing second-year man Kearis’ work: 

“When he caught it, I knew it was going to be a good return because all week we schemed up and knew what we were going to do and we trusted in our training. Seeing that he hit one spin move and then I hit a block, then everybody else was blocking, then he hit another spin move, I said, ‘Ooh, he’s out of the gate!’ We feed off of that. The whole team feeds off of that.”

Big shot: Will Levis tried to get into the end zone on third-and-goal from the 3-yard line after the Titans’ first possession, but was met with a big hit from Dee Winters.

He said he needed to be smarter, but Callahan was fine with it.

“I think there is something to that, a guy just taking a good shot early on, feeling like he’s ready to play,” he said. “All quarterbacks will tell you they like to get that first hit out of the way, so we got it out of the way early. Hopefully, we don’t take many more of them. I didn’t mind what he did, it wasn’t really egregious, put himself in harm’s way. The less hits the better obviously.”

San Francisco got called for defensive holding and Levis dug under the pile for a 1-yard TD on the next play.

Sack, pick and more: Chance Campbell played as a second-team inside linebacker and ended the 49ers' last drive before the half with a hard sack of backup quarterback Brandon Allen on a third-and-six, bursting through the middle and dropping him for a 10-yard loss. Caleb Murphy was right there with him on a well-designed rush.  

Thomas Rush missed a great sack chance against Joshua Dobbs as Dobbs took off for a 6-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that made it 17-13 Titans. 

Campbell was the defensive player of the game, as he also had the previously mentioned game-sealing interception, and matched the 49ers’ Tatum Bethune with a game-high nine tackles. 

A sixth-rounder in 2022, Campbell missed his rookie season with an injury and only played in four games last year.

Healthy, he could thrive in the new defense as his position is being treated differently.

"He made plays kind of all night long, and I think he made a bunch of tackles," Callahan said. "He made some hits on the quarterback. ...Just to see him come alive a little bit was great because we're looking for guys to keep coming in that room for depth purposes." 

Endurance: The first drive engineered by Rudolph and the second team offense went 17 plays and 8:43 covering 78 yards before the Titans turned the ball over on downs at the 49ers’ 2-yard line.

“That’s a lot, that’s a long drive for guys to go out there and play,” Callahan said. “I think it was good for everybody to go out there and feel what that felt like and see where we are conditioning-wise after 17 plays. I thought we looked pretty good. I didn’t think we looked tired at any point. I thought we looked fresh. So that was good to see.”

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