Titans Lose Preseason Opener to Saints 19-16

I thought Brown did pretty good last night.

What concerned me most was when he came out after his 8th run and he was winded and looked hurt again.
He wasn't hurt, and did manage to return, but questions of his durability still exist.

 

I actually found myself thinking last night that Henry really does have his fire back. I'm going to count as 4, that Henry complemented Brown well. I would actually like to see a longer period where Henry goes against first team. Part of the issue is getting into that rhythm. Lendale is the X factor. Depending how he plays, he could make one of these guys expendable, for all we know.

Brown looked a little slow footed at first. Henry, and especially Payton, looked quicker. You can tell the added flexibility is helping Payton. I'm pretty sure he's not in danger. You never know, but he looks like he's perfectly fine as a 3rd RB. Not sure if Ganther can catch him. Ganther looked decent at first -- against trash. We'll see more of him.

And Fleming is going to have to return with some fire of his own.

 

There was alot to like in the game last night, but I was still concerned with alot of the dink and dunk type play calls. Lots of short timing-type passes. I like that a couple longer balls were thrown in and we had opportunity to gash the defense (but we didn't). Last year our offense was plagued with short gaining plays when we needed bigger plays, and it seems there's a lot of dink and dunk still on the menu. I also don't think Volek is particularly good at those types of short pass plays.

Agree that Reynaldo was getting picked on. Keon Raymond didn't show up well (at least I think he was getting beat several times including the TD).\

Special teams looked real good. I like that they had Pac back on punts. BTW, is it me or does he sortof have a tendency to trip up himself on kick/punt returns? He tripped himself up last night, and I recall some of that last year too.

 

agree. Brown seemed hesitant initially. I couldn't tell if he was waiting for blocks to develop or just hesitant though.

 

I also wanted to mention that I noticed Jacob Bell with some key block on some of Brown's runs over the right. On Browns longest one he pulled around the right side and sealed off the alleyway. On another of the longer runs unless I was mistaken he was out in front of the play running interference.

 

Seems that way.

I think he'll have a much better year.

 

I think Payton is in a lot of danger, but he may have done enough last year and may do enough in preseason that if he ends up the odd man out here, he will get a look elsewhere.

Payton was on the bubble last year, and with the addition of White behind Brown and Henry this year, it makes it harder for him to stick again.

I'm among those who believe it when the Titans say they are not actively seeking to rid themselves of any of the top three (Brown/Henry/White). Too many different questions about each of them to feel confident in picking just two to go with, IMO.

Injuries between now and September may change things, but I'll be pretty surprised (though not entirely shocked) if Payton manages to keep his spot.

 

I agree at this point there appears to be plenty of carries for an oft injured 3rd down back (CB), an ex-probowler pot head (TH) and a spittin' mad rookie (LW)

seriously I agree plenty of reasons to keep all three and see were they all land going forward

 

Brown looked like he usually does- patient, bouncing to the outside looking for a lane to burst through. He found a couple.

Props to Henry. He looked REALLY solid on his runs. He mostly got up the middle calls- with 7-8 in the box. He earned his yardage and he was laying wood. MUCH stronger. He did break a nice one. Kept the handle on the ball also.

Woolfolk, Hill and Raymond had disappointing "coverage" games. Woolfold had 1 meaningless "hail mary" INT and had one that would have ended a scoring drive bounce off his stomach later in the game Bush put grass stains on his jock gettting outside. He did make a few solid tackles.

I thought overall, our first teams put in a reassuring, solid performance. Hope, Givens, Thornton and Mawae all looked good. There is a BIG drop, however, in the quality of our 2nd string defense. Hopefully, we won't have too many injuries.

 

After the hard two weeks of practice it appeared to me that some of the guys looked a little sluggish. Both Brown and Henry didn't appear quite as explosive as I thought they would be. Still, both runners were effective against the first team defense despite our OL not being 100%.

I was most upset with Woolfolk's missed int. He made a nice play to get to the ball and should have made the catch, especially concidering he is a fromer WR. Although Woolfolk didn't have a great game he played well enough that I could see him getting some reps over Hill if Hill doesn't improve. Hill was also one of those guys who looked a little sluggish. Maybe some of these guys will ge a little more fresh for the next game.

Pacman was definately a man out there. They hardly threw to his side and when they did he was in postion every time. The only reason he will not get a bunch of picks this year IMO is because teams will stay away from him.