Inexcusable. Ridiculous. Asinine.
It took the Titans 3 weeks to make the worst play of the season
The Titans were two points away from tying the Colts and closing in on a chance to grab the top spot in the AFC South. Then they called the worst play possible.
Those words flashed through my head as I watched the Tennessee Titans’ failed two-point conversion attempt at the end of the game against the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday. A two-point conversion that would have tied the game with 47 seconds left on the clock. I couldn’t believe the bullshit I had just witnessed
But first, some context.
If you didn't watch the game, you might look at the final score, 35-33, and figure Colts quarterback Andrew Luck got his groove back, the Indy offense was firing on all cylinders and they likely held off some kind of furious, wacky comeback from a Titans team that was behind big for most of the game. After all, the Titans are starting the No. 2 pick in this spring's NFL draft, Marcus Mariota, some noob out of that goofy Oregon/Chip Kelly offense who couldn't have possibly been ready to outduel a stud like Luck [snark].
Ummm, that’s not exactly how it went down.
The Colts jumped out to a 14-point lead on the strength of running back Frank Gore as well as a pick-six from Colts safety Dwight Lowery who happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch the football. After the pick-six, the Titans rattled off 27 unanswered points in the second and third quarters to take a 13-point lead into the final period.
In that time Mariota threw a touchdown to both Kendall Wright and rookie monster-in-training Dorial Green-Beckham. Luck, on the other hand, threw two interceptions during that same span, both of which led to points for the Titans. Hell, it wasn't until more than halfway through the fourth quarter that Luck and the offense woke up and got the Colts on the board again with a 35-yard bomb to rookie first-round pick Phillip Dorsett, damn near the first time the pair has looked in sync in the first three games.
Dorsett’s touchdown pulled Indy to six points of the Titans with 6:58 left in the game. All of a sudden, the Colts seemed rejuvenated and Luck appeared ready to go Super Saiyan on that ass. At the same moment, Tennessee’s quarterback picked a pretty bad time to make a costly rookie mistake.
The Colts showed two deep safeties before the snap, and against Cover Two, the seams are usually a good place to throw the ball. After the snap, the Colts secondary went to a single high safety look, which makes completing seam routes a lot more dicey. That safety, Lowery, tracked Titans receiver Kendall Wright up the seam from the time the ball was snapped. Unfortunately for the Titans, Mariota seemed to have predetermined where he wanted to go with the pass before the ball was snapped because he assumed the Colts were going to be in some form of Cover Two.
The result of that bad decision was another Lowery interception, but this time he only took it back to the Titans 11-yard line. From there, it only took Luck one play to answer again as he hit Donte Moncrief with a perfectly thrown pass on a double move in the back of the end zone to flip the script and give Indy their first lead since 9:57 of the third quarter.
In life-comes-at-you-fast fashion, the Titans went three-and-out behind three Mariota incompletions, and the Colts marched right back down the field again in five plays and scored yet another touchdown. Gore did the honors, scoring from six yards out on third-and-1.
To recap: in a span of a little over three minutes on the clock, the Titans had gone from being up six points to being down eight points.
The big question at that point was would the rookie rise to the occasion after his mini-meltdown with his team down eight points and less than three minutes left on the clock?
Yes he would.
Well, after the first play of the next drive that is.
Mariota almost blew the game on that play. It looked like he lost the ball while being sacked by Colts outside linebacker Robert Mathis, but the video confirmed he was already down. After that, he hit on his next four passes and got a roughing the passer call that helped get the Titans down to the Indianapolis 21-yard line with 1:50 still left in the game.
On second-and-10 with 1:45 left in the game, Mariota used his feet to avoid the Colts blitz and then used his arm to hit Green-Beckham in stride on a crossing route which he took all the way down to the 2-yard line for a gain of 19 yards.
Now listen, put all this shit in perspective for a second. Here is the No. 2 pick in the draft this year, two yards and a two-point conversion away from bouncing back from his own late game mistakes and sending this game, against the consensus best young quarterback in the league, into OT and perhaps eventually sending Luck and the Colts to 0-3. Not only would that have landed the Titans in sole possession of first place in the AFC South for the first time in who knows how long, but it also would’ve put the presumptive AFC South champion in the basement of their division. Let’s be honest, if there was ever a year to knock the Colts off the top of the AFC South, it’s probably this year with the way they started the season.
Can you imagine the hype Mariota would've picked up for Rookie of the Year honors had the Titans pulled out that win on Sunday? And to think, after the Titans used an unbalanced line with the right tackle lined up on the left side, a defensive linemen at fullback and had their right guard pull to the left for a kick-out block to get Jalston Fowler into the end zone on a 1-yard run, all they had to do was dial up a decent two-point play and they would've had a good chance to make all that come true.
While we are on the subject, why wouldn’t the Titans have some boss ass two-point plays in their playbook? I mean, we all heard this offseason about the changes to the extra point play that were coming and that the league would use that to incentivize teams to go for two more often. Surely the Titans could come up with a play that at least gave them a chance, right? Something that was pretty hard to defend at least?
I should be fair here and point out that on their first two-point attempt, the Titans ran a decent play where Wright motioned across the formation from right to left, then ran a clear-out route from the left slot. That allowed Harry Douglas to run a quick slant underneath him, which was only broken up by obvious pass interference committed by Colts cornerback Jalil Brown.
That’s all fine and good.
What I cannot understand is how the Titans could go with a smart play like that on their first crack at a two-pointer only to try the same damn running play they used to score the touchdown after the penalty.
Are. You. Shitting. Me?!
Cool, you caught the Colts slipping with the tackle over and Karl Klug lined up at fullback and Jamon Meredith on the kick out block on Flower's touchdown, whoop de damn doo. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back for that, but how in the world did they think that shit would work a second time?
How, Sway?
As a reminder, the Titans had Green-Beckham and Justin Hunter who are 6'5 and 6'4, respectively, and are both pretty damn good at high pointing jump balls. They had Douglas and Wright who are both very good at the quick underneath routes to go along with a very mobile quarterback who also completed 61 percent of his passes and threw for 367 yards on the day. Instead, they chose to hand off to a rookie fullback who had carried the ball one time before the game on Sunday.
One. Time.
Seriously? No, Seriously?
THAT’S THE BEST SHIT YOU COULD COME UP WITH WHEN THE GAME IS ON THE LINE?!
How in the hell does that happen? Like, who in the fuck thought that was actually a good idea? Does that person still have a job? No really, I need answers!
I guess Titans gonna Titan like always, and looks like y’all will likely be stuck in the basement again this year in Tennessee. Titans fans can take solace in the fact that the next coaching staff will likely have a much better understanding of what to do with all that talent.
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