I just finished re-watching the Bills-Titans game. Not pleasant. Some pretty ugly football, but somebody’s got to do it.
Marcus Mariota: First order of business was taking a look at Mariota’s scrambles. In the first three games, he carried only 5 times for 25 yards. In this one, he carried 5 times for 47 yards. So is that a sign that Mariota will now use his immense running ability? Or was this just an outlier. His first three runs, in the first half, all came on plays where he was back to seemingly pass and then took off. On the first two, the rushing got up and around him, creating the opportunity for him to squirt through. Then, in the fourth quarter, they set him loose on a couple of read-option plays – one for 22 yards and the other for 3. This reminded me of Russell Wilson. The Seahawks have that look, but they don’t use it all the time. It often shows up in the second half; they’ll try it as a different look and see how the defense reacts. I don’t think Mariota is up there with Newton-Wilson-Taylor as a runner, but he moved in the right direction on this Sunday.
As a passer, Mariota isn’t there. He created unrealistic expectations for himself with that great first game at Tampa Bay, throwing 4 TDs, but he’s just a so-so rookie as a passer. Too many poor decisions, and too many balls are off target. He missed Kendall Wright on what should have been an easy 53-yard touchdown in the first half.
Titans running backs: It was a committee deal from the start. Bishop Sankey, Dexter McCluster and Antonio Andrews all finished with 9-10 touches in this game. They all averaged under 3 yards per carry. McCluster is a third-down type guy; he’s really small. Sankey was the first running back drafted last year, but he looks very ordinary. Chris Polk played at the same school (Washington) and he looks just as good (if not better) than Sankey to me. Andrews is their bigger, power guy. He should score almost all of the short touchdowns (especially with Mariota not looking to run often). In this game, they got a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line and gave it to Andrews on both plays (first for no gain, then he punched it in). Andrews also caught 3 passes in this game, including a 23-yarder to convert a third-and-long.
Titans receivers: Kendall Wright and Harry Douglas are the starters, and Javon Hunter played almost as much in this game. Wright is the No. 1. Ordinary stats on this day, but if Mariota had thrown a better deep ball, he would have finished with 4 catches for 82 yards and a touchdown. They’ve been using Dorial Green-Beckham some as a red zone target in their recent games, but he definitely didn’t play as much as the other three in this one. I saw one ball thrown his way, and it was either thrown too early or (more likely) he turned his head too late, as the ball was flying over his helmet.
Delanie Walker: The Titans also use a couple of blocking tights (Fasano, Stevens) and those guys will catch play-action flips at the goal line once in a while. But Walker is their guy. He’s kind of half wide receiver and half tight end. Pretty ordinary stat line this time, with 4 catches for 36 yards, but he had 2 catches that put the ball on the 1 and the 3. With better luck, he might have scored on one of those.
Tyrod Taylor: He threw a couple of crappy balls in this one – the kind you might expect from a first-year starter. But he’s really good on the deep vertical strikes. He’s already completed more of those balls than Alex Smith has connected on in his entire. (Probably). He also might be the best running quarterback in the league. Had 26-, 22- and 24-yard runs in the fourth quarter to help pull this one out. Unfortunately, there’s some RG3 in his game in that he’s not particularly good at keeping himself out of harm’s way. Takes too many unnecessary shots. He could have slid, for example, on the 24-yarder but instead tried to get a few more yards, contributing to a guy rolling up on his leg. He was limping around for the rest of the game, and now he might not play in Week 6.
Bills running backs: LeSean McCoy and Karlos Williams were out. With it being Breast Cancer Awareness month, I was of the belief they would make Boobie Dixon their featured runner. But that was never in the cards. From the start he was splitting time with Boom Herron pretty evenly (even though Herron had been on the team for less than a week). They were also mixing in Cierre Woods almost as much as those guys, but he tore his ACL in the second quarter. If they’re again without their top 2 backs this week, I would expect Herron would outsnap Dixon by about a 60-40 margin.
Bills receivers: Percy Harvin had the nice game down in Miami, and I started kicking around the idea he might be pretty good when Sammy Watkins was out. That hasn’t been in the case. He’s been very ordinary the last two weeks. Roberts Woods also appears to be just a guy. Chris Hogan was Buffalo’s No. 4 receiver at the start of the year, but he’s actually finished with better overall numbers than Harvin or Woods three weeks in a row. On this Sunday, it was Hogan who got downfield for the key 46-yard reception in the fourth quarter. Inside the 10, they had Hogan complete a 4-yard pass to Taylor, then he caught the game-winning 2-yard touchdown pass. I suppose Hogan and Woods are probably sharing that No. 3 receiver job now (with Watkins coming back) and I wonder if they’ll just move Hogan into that role. He’s better. With his size (6-1, 220) Hogan might be easier to hit on those long balls that Taylor throws so well. When I last checked in with Hogan, he was catching a 38-yard touchdown in the second half of the Miami game.
Charles Clay: He wasn’t much of a factor in this game, catching 1 pass for 7 yards.