COLUMN: Titans' Highly Anticipated "Pick Your Poison" Offense Finally Appears in Blowout Win vs. Chiefs
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When he joined the Tennessee Titans via trade in June, seven-time Pro Bowl WR Julio Jones forecasted an explosive, dynamic offense that would prevent defenses from keying in on everything the Titans do well. “I mean, defenses, you’re really going to have to pick your poison,” Jones said. "If you stay in […]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When he joined the Tennessee Titans via trade in June, seven-time Pro Bowl WR Julio Jones forecasted an explosive, dynamic offense that would prevent defenses from keying in on everything the Titans do well.
“I mean, defenses, you’re really going to have to pick your poison,” Jones said. "If you stay in the box, put nine in the box, a guy like Derrick Henry in the backfield, you’ve got to respect him. So then, that’s when me and A.J. go to work outside.
"Then, if you only got eight in the box, Derrick’s going to go to work in the backfield."
Against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, Jones' prediction finally came to fruition.
Tennessee dismantled the Chiefs on Sunday, mounting a 27-0 lead at halftime and ultimately winning 27-3, and the key factor in that domination, aside from the Titans' pass rush suffocating QB Patrick Mahomes and sacking him four times, was the explosion of the team's offense.
For the first time all year, the Titans' offense used balance to force a defense to pick its poison.
It proved a major advantage.
"That’s all you want as an offense—everybody getting opportunities and taking advantage of them," RB Derrick Henry said.
FINDING BALANCE
Henry, Jones, QB Ryan Tannehill and WR A.J. Brown all contributed heavily to the Titans' blowout win.
Tannehill played his best game all season, throwing with extreme precision and accuracy. He completed his first 11 passes of the game.
Brown picked up where he left off against Buffalo on Monday night, hauling in eight passes for 133 yards, including an excellent back-shoulder TD catch against a hapless Mike Hughes in the first quarter.
Henry converted several key third downs and capped off Tennessee's opening drive by throwing—yes, throwing—a touchdown pass.
Jones, though mostly quiet, was more impactful than his final stat-line indicates. He was open on multiple plays when the ball didn't go his way, and he had a 19-yard reception in the first quarter wiped out by an offensive pass interference penalty called on TE Anthony Firkser.
With so much going on offensively from the Titans, Kansas City's defense couldn't key in on everything. It couldn't shut the entire unit down.
Instead, it had to pick its poison.
PICKING ITS POISON
The Chiefs, very clearly, wanted their poison to be anything other than Henry.
They sold out to stop him early and often, playing close coverage and loading the box with a lot of single-high safety looks.
In the run game, that decision paid off. Henry had his least productive game of the season, averaging just 3 yards per carry en route to a mediocre—for his standards, anyway—86-yard performance.
In the passing game, though, the Chiefs' strategy gave Jones and Brown numerous opportunities in single coverage. With help from Tannehill, who played exceptionally well, the Titans took advantage.
"They defended the run well but we were able to hit some plays down the field," head coach Mike Vrabel said.
Forcing a defense to pick its poison isn't helpful if an offense isn't able to make plays away from whatever area a defense decides to focus on.
Tennessee avoided that pitfall on Sunday, and that was the difference compared to their other six games in 2021, which featured a handful of clunky and disjointed offensive performances.
The Titans not only got Kansas City to focus on Henry at the expense of pass defense⏤they also exploited that focus.
"We were able to take advantage of a middle safety a few times, there," Tannehill said. "You get one-on-one matchups when that happens, and our guys made plays. If teams are going to try to take away Derrick by stacking the box, then we have to be able to win on the outside."
With a more-than-capable, situationally-proficient defense that held Mahomes and the Chiefs to just three points on Sunday, the Titans are poised to legitimately compete for the AFC's No. 1 seed if their offense can continue to perform at such a high level.
The unit found a rhythm on Sunday that it really hadn't at any point prior in 2021 and, chances are, it will only get better from here.
That's a scary thought for defenses.
"Hopefully we can keep the course, keep working, and keep getting better," Tannehill said.
Cover image: Andrew Nelles and George Walker IV/The Tennessean
