Titans must learn from the Bengals' mistake if they want a Super Bowl ring
2021 looked like it was going to be the Tennessee Titans' year. That is, until the Cincinnati Bengals came to town in late January. By the end of that Divisional Round matchup, Joe Burrow was sacked not one, not two, not three, not four – but nine times. It was ridiculous. I mean, Tennessee nearly […]
2021 looked like it was going to be the Tennessee Titans' year. That is, until the Cincinnati Bengals came to town in late January.
By the end of that Divisional Round matchup, Joe Burrow was sacked not one, not two, not three, not four – but nine times. It was ridiculous. I mean, Tennessee nearly broke an NFL record for the most sacks in a playoff game.
Yet, the Bengals still won the game.
That's not how life in the NFL works out, usually, but it worked out that night.
It didn't work in the Super Bowl, however.
The Los Angeles Rams -like the Titans- made Burrow's life hell on Sunday night by sacking him seven times. All 7.0 sacks took their toll, and it was Aaron Donald who ended the game with excellent pressure.
The final result of Super Bowl LVI isn't a surprise. Or surprising. The Bengals offensive line struggled all year after the team declined to address the front five in a serious manner. Per Football Outsiders, Cincy fielded the league's second-highest allowed adjusted sack rate and allowed opposing defenses to sack Burrow 55 times throughout the year.
And it cost the Bengals a Super Bowl at the end of the day.
Right now, the talk surrounding the Titans is whether or not Ryan Tannehill can bring a Super Bowl to Nashville. I think we can all agree that Tannehill is no Burrow. We can also agree the Titans are behind the Bengals in regard to quarterback play.
But as we saw Sunday night, it doesn't matter how good your quarterback is if you can't keep him from eating turf.
Including the Rams, the past 14 Super Bowl winners have given up an average of 2.0 sacks. Over this span, only Patrick Mahomes, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady have won a Lombardi after suffering more than four sacks in a Super Bowl.
The Titans' offensive line was not good in 2021, especially in pass protection. Now, a lot of this had to do with a crazy amount of injuries. For instance, the starting five didn't start and play an entire game together until Week 18. But at the same time, the guys who filled the void didn't have much success.
2021 saw the Titans finish 24th in both ESPN's team pass block win rate and team run block win rate. They allowed the seventh-most sacks on the year (49) and gave up the seventh-highest adjusted sack rate. Per Sports Info Solutions, they fielded the fourth-highest blown block rate that includes the fourth-highest blown pass block rate and fifth-highest blown run block rate.
Outside of 2020, the offensive line has been an issue since Mike Vrabel's arrival in 2018. Tennessee gave up the 10th-most sacks in 2018 (47) and the third-most sacks (56) in 2019 before seeing a major drop to sixth-fewest in 2020 (25). Tennessee finished 25th in team pass block win rate in 2018, fourth in 2019, and 24th in 2020.
It doesn't look like Tannehill is going anywhere in 2022. So, the best shot the Titans have to win a Super Bowl is to improve the offensive line. The tricky part, however, is the Titans currently have no spending room to bring in other players, unlike the Bengals. They may even have to let go of one or two guys of their own.
There's no clear answer when it comes to how the Titans are going to pull this off, but there is one clear objective: Don't do what the Bengals did -or didn't do- last year.
Featured image via Kareem Elgazzar-USA TODAY NETWORK
