PFF Grades: Secondary, O-Line Earn High Marks

Position groups that have underperformed for most of 2021 stood out in a good way during Sunday's victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Tennessee Titans’ offensive line and secondary haven’t received a ton of praise this year. The former has surrendered 20 sacks and the latter has allowed too many big pass plays.

But players at both position groups produced stronger efforts in Sunday’s 37-19 win in Jacksonville, and their performances were recognized by Pro Football Focus’ grades.

Here’s a sampling of some of the highlights and lowlights of PFF’s grades for the Titans in the victory:

• Top Five Offensive Grades (at least 15 snaps) – T David Quessenberry (89.8), T Taylor Lewan (86.9), G Nate Davis (85.3), C Ben Jones (85.1), WR Marcus Johnson (76.9).

• Top Five Defensive Grades (at least 15 snaps) – CB Elijah Molden (92.6), S Kevin Byard (90.0), CB Jackrabbit Jenkins (87.0), CB Kristian Fulton (72.3), CB Chris Jackson (71.4).

• Pressuring the Quarterback – The Titans produced 16 pressures of Trevor Lawrence, with defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons and outside linebacker Harold Landry combining for 12 of those. Simmons posted five hurries and two hits for a total of seven pressures, while Landry totaled two sacks, two hurries and one hit for a total of five pressures.

• Pass Coverage – Molden did allow three completions on three targets, but surrendered a total of just 13 yards – with no completion going for more than five yards. Rookie Caleb Farley allowed two completions on four targets for just 13 yards, breaking up one pass attempt. On the downside, linebacker David Long gave up six completions on six targets for 101 yards, with Dane Cruikshank allowing four completions on four targets for 60 yards.

• Yards after Contact – Running back Derrick Henry was his usual punishing self against the Jaguars, collecting 96 of his 130 yards after contact, an average of 3.31 yards per contact on his 29 carries. Henry had four runs of 10 or more yards and produced eight first downs.

• Sacks Allowed – The Titans allowed three sacks overall, but PFF only attributed two of them to the offensive line – one to Davis and one to Quessenberry. Presumably, that means there was no clear culprit on the other sack.

• Passing Game – The Titans in recent years have been one of the league’s best play-action teams, but that wasn’t the case Sunday. On play-action dropbacks, Ryan Tannehill was 4-for-9 for 66 yards. He had two passes batted down and posted a 69.7 quarterback rating. On dropbacks that didn’t involve play-action, Tannehill was 10-for-13 for 131 yards and a touchdown, posting a 133.8 quarterback rating. He was also sacked three times and forced to scramble on another occasion.