Titans : Tired Of Hearing Blame Put On Justin Hunter

By Randy Sharber | Oct 14, 2015

For Titans fans, if you listen to Frank Wycheck, Paul Kuharsky, and Mark Howard daily you will hear that Justin Hunter seems to be the cause for the Titans 3-17 record over the last 2 seasons.

I get so tired of hearing these guys bash the Titans wide out daily. Hunter has not lived up to a second round pick. I will grant you that much. I am a Tennessee Volunteer fan, so I am biased to an extent. I want that noted while writing this. But the bias toward the ex Vol receiver is ridiculous.

Here are Hunter’s stats this season. He has been targeted 12 times. He has caught 8 of those. He has 112 yards on those 8 catches. He has zero touchdowns. Not much to write home about, correct?

For his short 2 year and 4 game career he has 7 touchdowns. He has 54 receptions for 964 yards. Well now we know why this team and Coach Whisenhunt can’t win a game. It is all Hunter’s fault of course.

Last Sunday on the last offensive play of the game Marcus Mariota’s pass was intercepted. On the route there were two Tennessee Titans in the same vicinity. Hunter was supposed to run a post. He did not. He ran a go, or a nine, or a fly (whatever you want to call it) which kept the defensive back in the same area where Mariota was throwing the ball. It was a bad play on Hunter’s part.

But it is not why they lost the game. There are many more glaring holes on the Titan’s squad than Justin Hunter. The Titans secondary is a defensive sieve. The offensive line is an offensive sieve. The run game is absolutely non existent.

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I guarantee you that the dynamic trio mentioned above will blame that on Hunter. I can hear them now. “Well Hunter is not a threat so the safeties are supporting the run. Otherwise Bishop Sankey who was a great second round pick and the first running back taken in the 2014 draft would be thousand yard rusher. Hunter’s fault”.

Or this on the defensive side. “Well Blidi Wreh-Wilson practices daily against Justin Hunter. Wreh-Wilson sees only his moves daily so he gets confused in games when other receivers run differently. Hunter is just not getting it done for Titans defensive backs”.

Well stop it. Hunter has played with three different quarterbacks in three seasons. Look at how effective the first round pick Kendall Wright has been for the Titans. Oh right, he hasn’t been effective. That is probably Hunters fault for not taking the pressure off of him. Couldn’t be the scheme, or the offensive play calling could it? No, it’s Hunter.

Wright and Hunter are good receivers. They need this year to gel with Titan quarterback Marcus Mariota. The passing game is getting better. Mariota is the real deal. We all can see this. The offensive line is getting a little better at giving protection. The passing game will be fine. With Hunter.

The Titans need to worry about the running game and the defensive secondary. The running game by committee is not working. I mean, not at all. The secondary still gives up too many “splash” plays. The Browns beat the Titans with two splash plays. Otherwise it was a pretty even game.

The Bills had one splash play. A third and long from downtown Nashville to Bellevue saw the Titan defense take a play off. They watched Bill quarterback Tyrod Taylor take off through the road construction on I-40, and run to Fairview for the first down.

Justin Hunter should have tripped him from the sideline. That was obviously his fault. Other than this play the Titans were the better team all day long. They just did not finish “collectively”. Not individually.

These 3 radio guys are like Whisenhunt. They can’t put their finger on the problem. So pick someone and make him the scapegoat. Neither of these three are Vol fans, so let’s choose the Vol. He has to be the reason.

Here is what I hope for Justin Hunter, but hate to think about it as a Titan fan. I can see the Titans letting Hunter go at the end of the season. I can see the Colts picking him up. I can see two games per season when Andrew Luck throws the ball to Justin Hunter for 2oo yards per game. Both come against this Titan secondary.

Would you like to see what happens when Coty Sensabaugh or Blidi Wreh-Wilson covers Hunter? I don’t as a Titan fan. But would like to see it for Hunter’s sake. They we will see who they can blame next. I will say Dorial Green-Beckham. Seems like a big target.

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