Titans D Yet to See a Runner Like Jackson

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Titans faced some of the NFL’s best running quarterbacks during the regular season.

They haven’t seen the best. That happens Saturday when the Titans face the Baltimore Ravens in an AFC divisional contest at M&T Bank Stadium.

The belief in Baltimore is that it is one thing to watch quarterback Lamar Jackson on film, but until a defense witnesses him up-close and personal, there is no way to truly understand or adjust to the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner’s speed and athleticism. There are numbers that support that philosophy as well. The Ravens led the NFL in first-quarter scoring (128 points) and possession share (59 percent of the time).

For their part, the Titans are not inclined to dispute that notion.

“My guess is that that speed looks a lot different during the game than what it did in practice,” coach Mike Vrabel said Wednesday. “So, hopefully we can get that speed and get that look as close to what we are going see in the game. It won't be the same, but it's going to be, I think, pretty good with what [scout team quarterback] Marcus [Mariota] can do and hopefully the look that we can give our guys.”

Among the other five AFC playoff teams, Tennessee was the only one that did not face the Ravens and Jackson during the 2019 regular season.

Kansas City limited him to 25 rushing yards and 46 (with one touchdown) for the game. Against New England, Jackson ran for 37 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter and 61 yards and two touchdowns by game’s end. He ran for 79 yards (10 in the first quarter) against Houston and 40 yards (27 in the first quarter) against Buffalo.

Other clubs fared much worse. Jackson had five 100-yard games en route to 1,206 rushing yards for the season, an NFL record for quarterbacks, and two were against NFC playoff teams, Seattle (116 yards) and San Francisco (101 yards).

“He’s hard enough to tackle, even if we know where he is and where he’s going to be,” Tennessee defensive coordinator Dean Pees said. “I’ve seen guys have him defended absolutely perfect and he makes them miss. That’s just athlete on athlete, and he did a better job than the guy trying to tackle him.”

The Titans did face three of the NFL’s top five running quarterbacks in their 16 regular season games. None of the three, Buffalo’s Josh Allen, Houston’s Deshaun Watson and Jacksonville’s Gardner Minshew, ran for more than 32 yards against them. None scored a touchdown.

A rundown of the NFL’s top rushing quarterbacks in 2019 and how they did against the Tennessee Titans:

Player, team	Carries	Yards	TDs	vs. Titans
Lamar Jackson, Baltimore	176	1,206	7	DNP
Kyler Murray, Arizona	93	544	4	DNP
Josh Allen, Buffalo	109	510	9	10-27 0 TD
Deshaun Watson, Houston	82	413	7	7-32 0 TD
Gardner Minshew, Jacksonville	67	344	0	4-18 0 TD

The first time Jackson runs the ball against the Titans on Saturday won’t be the first time he run it against them, though.

In last season’s 21-0 loss to the Ravens, the Titans saw Jackson, then a backup to Joe Flacco, on two snaps with the Baltimore offense. He carried the ball once and went around the left end for 22 yards, which was the longest rushing play for either side in that contest and led to a Baltimore touchdown on the next snap.

Who knows? Maybe that’s all they need to know to properly understand the challenge that awaits.

“I think he’s kind of in a class by himself,” Pees said. “Running-wise, he’s a phenomenal runner. He’s a different type of runner than Watson and all of those guys. … I see just a lot more moves and spins and things that he does that – Michael Vick could do some of those things – but he’s just a phenomenal player.”