The Titans Show Resilience, Promise in Win over Texans

The Tennessee Titans called some gutsy plays and showed some promise in head coach Mike Vrabel’s first NFL win as the Titans improved to 1-1.

Week one was a roller coaster of emotions for Tennessee Titans fans. A roller coaster that mostly went down, and rarely ever did it go up. After a weird seven-hour loss to the Miami Dolphins in week one, which involved Marcus Mariota, Taylor Lewan, and Delanie Walker going down with injuries, Tennessee Titans fans were pretty much done with the season – already.

NFL analysts started to call the Titans off. Most, if not all, of them chose the Houston Texans as easy favorites over the Titans in week two. Some called it off as a blowout, not even giving the Titans a chance to win.

However, the Titans did the unthinkable: they won! The game opened up when gutsy Mike Vrabel called a fake punt, which had free safety Kevin Byard throw a 66-yard touchdown pass to safety Dane Cruikshank.

The safety-to-safety connection gave the Titans an early seven-point lead, and the Titans had momentum which helped them take a 14 point lead after Blaine Gabbert threw a touchdown pass to Taywan Taylor. 

The momentum stalled after that, and mildly shifted over to the Texans. The Texans scored 17 unanswered points to take a 17-14 lead, but the Titans responded with two field goals to tie and win the game 20-17.

Takeaways

This game showed us a lot. It showed us that the Titans are resilient and can win games without three key players. Blaine Gabbert played the game manager role really well. He delivered big throws when he needed to, but did not turn the ball over – which is key.

Adoree Jackson got his first interception in a fierce way by snagging the ball over talented WR DeAndre Hopkins. Rookie linebacker Rashaan Evans looked great on defense by consistently stuffing the run. His most notable play was forcing Deshaun Watson into Jurrell Casey, which almost ended up as a turnover for the Titans defense.

As a whole, the defense looked far greater than the one that was routed 57-14 last season to the same team.

This year’s coaching staff seems more likely to make decisions that can change a game. For example, Mike Vrabel’s call to go for it on 4th & inches when previous coaching staffs would have punted to play it safe.

Also, Vrabel’s decision to do a fake punt early. Those decisions all help in swaying momentum. If they go well, your team has momentum. As you saw after the fake punt touchdown, the Titans had momentum for most of the first half afterwards. However, if they go wrong, it can hurt a team.

That is the risk-reward type play-calling that the Titans have needed for a long time. The offensive play-calling is not conservative this season. The Titans seem to be taking more shots to get first downs on earlier downs rather than later ones. Also, five wildcat formations in a row? That is interesting.

The offense looks more alive this season so far, although it did look a bit stale for a bit yesterday mostly due to the absence of Mariota. The defense is finding their groove. If this continues, the Titans could be in for an interesting season.