Titans Win Again but Their Starters Show Too Little Against Seahawks Backups

Cam Ward and the Titans' starters struggled to generate much against Seattle's backups, while the defense surrendered two explosive plays in another uneven preseason win.

By PAUL KUHARSKY

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – If it’s good, it means a lot.

If it’s bad, the preseason means nothing.

That’s usually how NFL teams size up the preseason.

So the Titans have to be hoping Sunday night was mostly meaningless. They won a week ago in San Francisco but looked bad. Sunday night they won again – 19-16 this time -- and looked bad again. The defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks' backups took apart the Titans' starters on national TV.

The first-team offense and defense did very little against Seattle backups. Call it irrelevant exhibition football if that comforts you, but it’s appropriate to look for signs of improvement from a developing team. And the Titans’ execution against a fast and swarming defense composed of second-stringers was poor as the players in white generally arrived at the same moment Cam Ward’s passes targeted for players in the pretty new light blue did.

The Offense Still Isn't Making Enough Plays

The first team totals: 18 plays, 77 yards, 3 points, a turnover on downs.

Ward finished eight-of-12 for 69 yards and an 81.6 passer rating. He was better than the sped-up version we saw against the 49ers but he averaged 5.75 yards per pass attempt.

Yes, I’ll detail unmade plays that could have helped him, but it’s time for the team to start making some of those plays and he was part of the misses.

Carnell Tate dropped a pass on a second-and-5, but it was high. Gunnar Helm didn’t help him make some magic when he rolled out to extend a play and threw up the right sideline. Helm looked like he had a chance to get both feet in on what would have been a field-flipping gain, but didn’t do well enough and his second foot came down out of bounds. Elic Ayomanor may also have been shortchanged on a third-down play where he tried to come back to a pass and ran into a defender who was not called for pass interference, but a better throw would have gone over the DB not into him.

Ward also made an unnecessarily dangerous play for the second game in a row, running right under pressure, failing to feel Chazz Surratt closing on him and allowing the defender to slap the ball free for a 6-yard sack and a fumble that rolled out of bounds.

“We're still going out there and running our base, vanilla offense,” Saleh said. “We're barely motioning. We're normal spacing. We're not exactly making it very easy for our players to go execute. But at the same time, that's not what this is for. There'll be a time to game plan and scheme people open. But right now, it's just about going out executing the base fundamentals of what the scheme is supposed to be in all three phases. And when it gets time to game plan and get people the rock, we'll get them the rock.”

They didn’t execute the basic fundamentals very well.

The run-game strength wasn’t a feature as it was in Friday’s practice. Pollard and Tyjae Spears turned four carries into 14 yards.

Pollard did take a short throw 33 yards to spearhead the one first-team scoring drive. It produced a 55-yard Joey Slye field goal. The Titans converted two of eight third downs in the first half.

Outside of Pollard’s 33-yard pass play, Ward hit passes of 5, 3, 6, 1, 8, 4 and 9 yards.

I like what he said about the chances at bigger chunks.

“We only get a certain amount of shots that we get to take each and every game because the defense is so good,” he said. “So when we get to play downfield, myself and the receivers, we have to make the plays. I need to throw them catchable balls. They're going to do their job by attacking and making plays. I think that's what's left for us. And once we do that, we'll be a pretty solid offense.”

He and his targets did not make those happen against Seattle.

The Helm play is the sort where Ward can turn into a different guy.

“We should have never been in that situation,” Ward said. “Me and Gunner have to be on the same page as far as the playing on time. And then when we do play off-schedule, when I do turn the scramble drill, that's another ball I'm going to throw to Gunner Helm again. When it comes down to it, I'm going to put a little bit more inside for him, and he's going to be able to get both feet down. We're going to connect on it but you know we go through things.”

Titans' Starting Defense Struggles Against Backups

The Titans’ vaunted defense, particularly the run defense, was also poor.

It was gashed for a 69-yard run right up the middle by Jacardia Wright, a second-year undrafted out of Missouri State who is fifth on the depth chart when injured Zach Charbonnet is added to it.

And No. 3 tight end Elijah Arroyo caught a 36-yard touchdown pass against a busted coverage where both Alontae Taylor and Kevin Winston each broke short.

Saleh said it was a glass-half-full play, putting the two defensive backs in a position where the defense has a clear decision they’ll know how to make moving forward.

Just as with the offense, the concern isn't that these mistakes happened in August. It's that the starters were making them against Seattle backups. No Sam Darnold. No Jaxon Smith-Njigba. No Zach Charbonnet. No starting offensive line.

Three takeaways: Low-ranking cornerback Jalen McMurray worked as a second-string gunner on the punt cover team and did a nice job tracking Cody White, who muffed a punt. McMurray was all over it for a recovery, setting up a Joey Slye field goal.

Anthony Hill grabbed an opportunistic third-quarter interception when Jalen Milroe threw an ill-advised pass for Montorie Foster with Hill clearly in a dangerous spot. The resulting possession also turned into a field goal. He was flipping the ball in his hands when he spoke to reporters after the game and said it’d go in his trophy case.

The Titans went for it on a fourth-and-1 inside the Seattle 10 and came up short with 3:17 left in the game. That gave the Seahawks a chance for a field goal that could have given them a tie or a winning TD. But Derrick Canteen picked off Milroe on the very next play, a pass attempt for Emmanuel Henderson.