Marcus Mariota might have saved the Titans’ season

The Tennessee Titans were in pretty dire straits heading into Week 6. They got off to a sluggish 2-3 start after dropping two straight games. Worse yet, their franchise quarterback, Marcus Mariota, was injured once again, having missed Week 5 and most of Week 4 with a hamstring injury. Not coincidentally, the Titans lost both games.

So with their season entering a crossroads, the Titans badly needed Mariota against the Indianapolis Colts, because Matt Cassel will never get it done. It was touch-and-go for most of the week, but in the end, Mariota got the start and did well enough to help the Titans get a 36-22 win.

It didn’t look that way at first.

Mariota was slow and stiff, clearly favoring his bad leg for most of the night. When he was sailing passes and taking hits early on, it looked like we were in for a repeat of last week’s Sam Bradford debacle. When he threw a pick-six in the third quarter that extended the Colts’ lead to 19-9, it would’ve been reasonable to write off the Titans at that point.

Yet Mariota fought back — with the Colts stagnating, the Titans chipped away at the deficit throughout the second half. He turned the tables by moving the Titans on a 15-play, 87-yard drive that capped off with a DeMarco Murray touchdown, giving the Titans a 22-19 lead. The Colts tied it with a field goal, but Mariota came back with this beauty of a deep ball:

That’s exactly the kind of throw you want to see your franchise quarterback make in such a crucial spot. Mariota stands tall, steps up at just the right moment, and delivers a perfect dart to a wide-open Taywan Taylor. Mariota was money when it counted.

Thanks to that play, the result was mostly academic. The Colts’ comeback attempt sputtered and Derrick Henry sealed the deal with a 72-yard touchdown run, moving the Titans to 3-3 and saving them from a deep hole in the AFC South race. Mariota finished with 306 yards on 23-of-32 passing, making the important plays even when the injury took away his bootleg/scrambling ability.

Now tied with the Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars on top of the division, the Titans’ season is alive and well. They get the hapless Cleveland Browns next Sunday before a Week 8 bye, giving Mariota some much-needed time to rest that hamstring. If they fell to 2-4, the picture would be much grimmer, and that Week 4 boat-racing by the Texans would loom much larger. Getting back to .500 means everything in this critical juncture of the season.

Mariota clearly wasn’t 100 percent Monday, and there’s a fair debate as to whether the Titans even should’ve played him. But despite the flaws and concerning play early on, Mariota gutted it out and delivered the plays that Cassel would never make. As a result, the Titans avoided a bad home loss and get to recalibrate after their slow start, with all their hopes and goals still attainable. That’s the kind of luxury a team can afford when it has a true leader under center like Mariota.