News » On the Titans defense winning day 1 of training camp

Yesterday all of the reports out of St. Thomas Sports Park were about how the defense won the day. I am sure you saw the video 1 Youth Marcus Mariota Jersey ,000 times, where Maclolm Butler jumps the route against Corey Davis, picks the ball off, and punts it in the air (of course remember that Davis got Butler for 2 touchdowns in the playoffs last year). There were also interceptions by Logan Ryan and Dane Cruikshank.There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind:The Titans’ defensive scheme this year is much more similar to the Titans’ defensive scheme last year than this year’s offensive scheme vs. last year’s offensive scheme. That’s a good thing because the Titans defense was pretty good last year and the offense was, well the offense was led by Terry Robiskie.With that being the case, it makes sense that the defense would be ahead of the offense. It is also a pretty normal thing around the NFL for the defense to win early in camp. I bet if you toured around the other 31 NFL SB Nation blogs, you would read a lot of posts about the defense winning the first day of training camp.This offense is new to pretty much everyone on that side of the ball. You have the offensive line switching from power-blocking scheme to a zone-blocking scheme (not to mention missing their formal All-Pro right tackle and practicing yesterday in the team periods without their Pro Bowl left tackle). In addition to that Youth Rashaan Evans Jersey , if you have listened to Dan Orlovsky* at all, he has said that things will look bad for the offense early in camp. They break everything down to build it up, but he said there will be a day where it clicks and then you will see it take off. That probably won’t come until sometime in the middle of the preseason.So all of that to say, keep the faith! Anyone who has watched Marcus Mariota play over the first 3 years of his career know that the sky is the limit for him. He just needs to be in a system that plays to his strengths. He finally has that, and it is going to be really fun to watch!*You really should be listening to Orlovsky (You can follow him here). He is a rising star in the analyst field, and was with Matt LaFleur with the Rams last summer in training camp. You aren’t going to find anyone that knows more about this offense in the media than Dan. The Titans offensive line is trash. Let’s get that out there right up front. There really isn’t a guy on that line playing well, and that makes it really hard to call an offense. I get that http://www.titansfootballauthentics.com/dion-lewis-jersey-authentic , but there is a way to do it better than Matt LaFleur, who we all thought was going to be the savior, did it last night.Let’s start with the 4th and 1 play last night. I love the call to go for it there. It was pretty obvious the Titans were going to need touchdowns to win that game last night. With that being said, giving the ball to Luke Stocker there is an almost fire-able offense. That just feels like a play caller who is trying to prove you are the smartest guy in the room. Mike Vrabel said after the game they had seen teams run that play on film and have success against the Texans. Well, I guarantee you that AT LEAST 100% of the guys who had success on that play are better running backs than Stocker (and that’s no offense to Stocker BECAUSE HE ISN’T A RUNNING BACK).Fast forward to 2:00 left in the 3rd quarter. The score is 27-10. The Titans defense finally gets a stop and the Texans punt. The game is not over at this point, but you need to get points and get them quickly. What do the Titans do? They come out in the wildcat on the first snap and get 1 yard. Yes, they have been successful with the wildcat against the Texans this season Youth Austin Johnson Jersey , but it has been to the tune of 5 or 6 yards per play. You don’t have time for that at this point...but hey, that’s just one play. They threw it on second down, right? NOPE. They turned around and handed it to Henry again. He got 7 yards on that one, which is nice, but again, time is not your friend at this point. After a false start on 3rd and 1, Marcus Mariota finds Corey Davis for a touchdown. HEY Authentic Logan Ryan Jersey , look what happens when you throw the football!The Titans defense gets another stop on the ensuing drive so now it is 27-17 with 13:44 left in the game. Somehow the Titans are still in the game, but they are still down 2 scores. Again, you need points quickly. What do the Titans do on first down? Yep, you guessed it, hand the ball to Derrick Henry. Let me take a pause quickly here and say that it would be one thing if they were having success running the ball, but that wasn’t the case last night. The running backs carried the ball 15 times for 38(!) yards. That’s terrible. So when you give the ball to Henry on first down there you are just giving away a down. You can’t really ever afford to give up a down in the NFL, but you especially can’t when you are down 2 scores in the 4th quarter. That’s just common sense. I don’t understand why LaFleur can’t get it.And now we get to the best one of all. The Texans score to go up 34-17. The Titans get the ball back with 8:15 left to go in the game. During the timeout after the extra point I tweeted this:I was 100% joking. There was no way they were going to run the ball there Womens DaQuan Jones Jersey , right??? Not so fast, my friend. They gave the ball to Dion Lewis and he got a solid 3-yard gain. I would say they were just giving up at that point, but if we draw that conclusion from that play call, then we need to say they gave up at the end of the third quarter.Does it feel to anyone else like LaFleur has the game plan drawn up before the game starts and sticks with it regardless of what is going on during the game? I guess that speaks to his inability to make in-game adjustments. There just isn’t another reason you are coming out in the wildcat down 10 late in the 3rd quarter.And in all of this we haven’t mentioned the fact that Mariota was playing really well and didn’t throw an incomplete pass until the 4th quarter. No reason to put the ball in that guy’s hands....Like I said at the top, it isn’t time to talk about firing LaFleur at this point, but the game last night has me really concerned about his ability to be a successful NFL play caller? Am I way off base here?