Titans Forced to Play Long Game on Offense

With Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown sidelined by injury, big plays have been in short supply.

But the Tennessee Titans have put together some long drives.

In Sunday’s 19-13 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Titans went 64 yards in 19 plays before they settled for a field goal in the final minute of the first half. The march took 10:17 off the clock and was Tennessee’s longest of the season in terms of the number of plays and elapsed time.

Quarterback Ryan Tannehill and the rest now have held the ball for more than eight minutes on a single possession four times this season. All four have been in the last three games. Not coincidentally, Brown has been on injured reserve for those same three contests due to a chest injury. Henry has been out since the start of November.

Remarkably, only one of those drives ended with a touchdown.

A rundown of the Tennessee Titans’ longest drives of 2021, based on time of possession (source: TruMedia):

Opponent	Date	Time	Details	Result
Pittsburgh	Dec. 19	10:17	19 plays, 64 yards	Field goal
New England	Nov. 28	8:09	14 plays, 74 yards	Touchdown
Jacksonville	Dec. 19	8:04	15 plays, 62 yards	Field goal
New England	Dec. 12	8:02	14 plays, 73 yards	Interception

The longest one against the Steelers was not the only one that failed to go the distance, which is a big reason the Titans came up short on the scoreboard. The offense also had an 11-play drive against the Steelers that ended with a field goal, and the final possession consisted of 13 snaps before Nick Westbrook-Ikhine was stopped just short of a fourth-down conversion with 27 seconds to play.

“To have a shot there at the end and to be moving the ball, with the ton of confidence that we had in the huddle, that we were going to walk away with the win, find a way to score at the end,” Tannehill said. “Felt confident moving the ball down the field. You know, we had some big runs, good pass completions to keep us going there. But unfortunately, just came up whatever it was, a few inches short.”

The Titans’ longest gain against the Steelers was a 20-yard D’Onta Foreman run in the fourth quarter. As a result, they averaged 3.8 yards on 69 plays, just the third time the offense has been held below 4.0 yards per snap.

The long drive consisted of seven runs, four of them for two yards or fewer and the longest for nine yards and 11 pass attempts – seven completions, three incompletions and a sack. There were three third-down conversions along the way and six first downs in all. The long gain was an 18-yard reception by Foreman.

Randy Bullock’s 32-yard field goal counted as play No. 19.

“It’s always disappointing losing a game,” Foreman said. “I mean, I think we all fought hard. We gave it our best shot. Everybody, I feel like, played together and just tried to find a way to win the game. Obviously, we came up short.”

The ability to stay on the field has its merits.

For example, it limits the opportunities for opposing offenses. Tennessee has won time of possession in each of the last three games and the 39:08 against the Steelers was a season-high for a contest that did not go to overtime. In fact, Pittsburgh’s total possession time was barely more than twice that drive that ate up most of the second quarter.

It also keeps the score down, though. The Titans have scored 20 or fewer points in four straight games, a first under coach Mike Vrabel and the first such stretch since Weeks 1-4 of the 2016 season.

It follows that fewer points also reduce the chances of victory. Tennessee is 1-2 since Brown went on injured reserve and has lost three of its last four in all. In the nine games Henry played, the Titans averaged 25.2 points per game. In the six he has missed they have not scored more than 23.

“We don’t have front-runners,” coach Mike Vrabel said. “We don’t have guys that are going to complain. They compete, and I appreciate that out of them. And I enjoy coaching them and know that we’re always going to have a shot.

“It may not be very pretty, but there’s guys out there competing, working and fighting for each other.”

On offense these days, they’re doing so for extended periods.

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