What the Titans learned from their previous loss to the Jaguars
If the Tennessee Titans want any chance of defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars this Saturday and winning the AFC South title, they will need to play much different football than the last time the two teams met. When the Titans last saw the Jaguars in Nashville during Week 14, Tennessee's defense got carved up. Jags quarterback […]
If the Tennessee Titans want any chance of defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars this Saturday and winning the AFC South title, they will need to play much different football than the last time the two teams met.
When the Titans last saw the Jaguars in Nashville during Week 14, Tennessee's defense got carved up. Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence was 30/42 for 368 yards and four total touchdowns, and he was not sacked a single time in the 36-22 win.
Jaguars tight end Evan Engram also had the best game of his career, posting a career-high in targets (15), catches (11), yards (162), and touchdowns (2) during the contest.
On the other side of things, the Titans' offense moved the ball well, but turned the ball over four times, ultimately killing any offensive momentum the team was able to put together. In typical Titans fashion, Tennessee also had -26 yards of offense on their first three possessions coming out of halftime, which is when the game truly got out of hand.
So what adjustments do the Titans plan on making this time around to give themselves a better chance of beating the Jaguars and getting into the playoffs? What have the players and coaches learned about their opponent from seeing them once already?
Same Approach
When Titans head coach Mike Vrabel was asked by the media this week if his team needs to tweak their approach leading up to the game, Vrabel seemed rather confident that the approach and preparation should be the same, but the execution would need to be better across the board.
"No, it is going to be to prepare, practice, maybe try to limit some of the mental errors that we had on defense and take care of the football," Vrabel said about the team's weekly approach. "We will still do ball disruption and ball security. We will try to have an open field tackling drill. That is critical, our ability to tackle those players in space. They do an excellent job, whether that is (Jamaal) Agnew in the return game and all those things that we think are important for practice."
That same mentality was relayed to me by Titans linebacker Dylan Cole, who told me in the locker room that Tennessee turning things around will have more to do with executing their own defensive scheme that it will making adjustments to Jacksonville.
"Honestly, I think it's the same team, we just have to execute our calls, details, techniques, and fundamentals," Cole said. "If we do that, the rest will take care of itself. We can't dive too much into what they're doing, last time we just didn't execute on our side."
If there is one specific thing Titans coaches want to see handled differently though, it's the way they cover Engram this time around. Both Vrabel and defensive coordinator Shane Bowen pointed out deficiencies in tackling Engram in the open field as well as not staying tight enough in their coverage. "It is not like they are going to not target him. He has had 36 targets in the last four games," Vrabel said of Engram. The Titans are aware that they can not completely erase him from the offense, but they need to limit what he is able to do after the catch and avoid explosive gains.
That seems to be the biggest takeaway the Titans have from their last game with the Jaguars. Tackling after the catch and situational operations were both cited by Vrabel as keys moving forward.
"We learned from the end of the half situation if you look from just one week to the next, whether that be from the end of the Jacksonville game to the end of the Chargers game. That is something that we all learned. Just trying to make sure that we are conscious of the situation," Vrabel said. "You just try to take a little bit out of each game, but certainly that game, their ability to catch and run. There were some short plays that turned into long ones. We will have to be better there."
The Titans and Jaguars will kickoff in primetime at 7:15pm CST on Saturday night with the world watching. Only then will we truly know if Tennessee has what it takes to win a division title.
Image via George Walker IV / Tennessean.com-USA TODAY NETWORK
