What the Tennessee Titans defense must do against the Chargers
NASHVILLE — Stopping the explosive Los Angeles Chargers offense is a lot easier said than done. But that's exactly what the Tennessee Titans will have to do in order to avoid an 0-2 start for the second straight season. The Chargers have a quarterback in Justin Herbert with elite arm talent and four dangerous wide […]
NASHVILLE — Stopping the explosive Los Angeles Chargers offense is a lot easier said than done. But that's exactly what the Tennessee Titans will have to do in order to avoid an 0-2 start for the second straight season.
The Chargers have a quarterback in Justin Herbert with elite arm talent and four dangerous wide receivers in Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Joshua Palmer, and Quentin Johnston. Los Angeles also has a balanced rushing attack with Austin Ekeler and Joshua Kelley combining for 32 carries and 208 rushing yards in Week 1.
With all of that offensive star power, how can the Titans expect to slow down LA? Titans defenders coordinator Shane Bowen shared Tennessee's biggest defensive key on Thursday afternoon.
Bowen pointed to the explosive plays allowed in New Orleans as the biggest things Tennessee needs to fix this week. Saints quarterback Derek Carr had 305 passing yards on Sunday, but 160 of those yards were gained on five "explosive" passes. There was also a 19-yard touchdown pass that just missed qualifying as a sixth X-play.
"X-plays. They had five passes go for 160 yards," said Bowen when asked where the Titans need to clean things up on defense. "[We] can't let the ball get thrown over our head. Some of those, we're actually winning in pass rush relatively quickly but they're throwing it before we can get there. So we gotta do a better job of keeping the ball in front of us, not letting them throw it over our head, and winning some of those one-on-one matchups."
Why are limiting X-plays so crucial? Outside of the obvious, the Titans are looking to force teams to have long, methodical drives. The more plays an opponent is forced to run during a scoring drive, the more chances Tennessee's defense has of getting them off schedule, behind the sticks, or forcing a turnover.
"Regardless of who we're playing, if we make them drive it, there's more opportunities for us to make a play, more opportunities to get them off schedule, more opportunities to create a 3rd and long where we can get off the field," said Bowen on Thursday.
"One thing about the Chargers is they had five 10-play drives last week. They were pretty methodical with driving drown the field and finding success. They weren't really relying on the x-plays as much. It was really sound offense," said Bowen. "If we can find ways to get them behind the sticks and create some third-and-longs where we can rush and cover, I like our chances to get off the field."
I'm really fascinated to see what the Chargers' offensive game plan looks like against these Titans. Tennessee had the best run defense in football last season, and they continued that dominance in New Orleans by holding the Saints to 69 rushing yards on 27 attempts.
Meanwhile, the Chargers offense under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore ran the ball 40 times in Week 1. In 2022, Los Angeles was bottom five in rushing attempts.
Clearly, Moore has changed up the philosophy in LA, but you'd have to think a run-heavy offense would play right into Tennessee's hand. Not to mention star running back Austin Ekeler has not been practicing this week and could be out on Sunday.
With as good as the Titans' front seven was in New Orleans, I think Bowen has the right idea here. If you prevent the X-plays, you create more opportunities for big plays in the trenches. That might be the only way the Titans can slow this Chargers offense down.
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