Mike Vrabel is looking for the same Ryan Tannehill answers that Titans fans are
NASHVILLE — Every Tennessee Titans fan watching the team’s Week 1 matchup with the New Orleans Saints on Sunday was asking themselves the same question: What’s wrong with Ryan Tannehill? Tennessee's starting quarterback looked uncomfortable from start to finish while completing just 16 of his 34 passes for 198 yards, zero touchdowns, and three interceptions. […]
NASHVILLE — Every Tennessee Titans fan watching the team’s Week 1 matchup with the New Orleans Saints on Sunday was asking themselves the same question: What’s wrong with Ryan Tannehill?
Tennessee's starting quarterback looked uncomfortable from start to finish while completing just 16 of his 34 passes for 198 yards, zero touchdowns, and three interceptions. That was good for a pitiful 28.8 quarterback rating and, statistically, the worst game of Tannehill’s professional career.
But the real question is why was Tannehill so off? Why was he so anxious in the pocket and missing throws to wide open receivers? Was it just one bad game or a sign of struggles to come? By the sounds of things during Monday’s press conference, Titans' head coach Mike Vrabel is looking for the same answers that Titans fans are.
"I don't know. I don't. I wish that I knew. I wish that I could tell you," said Vrabel when asked why he thought Tannehill was so off. "We have to be better. Ryan (Tannehill) has to be better. We have to hit guys that are open. We can't force the ball into double coverage. So, we have to give him cleaner pockets like we gave him in the second half earlier. There was some of that. When the play goes bad, we can point to a lot of different things, but we have to be better. We can't turn the football over."
Vrabel added that, at times, Tannehill may have been a bit overdetermined to get the ball to DeAndre Hopkins, resulting in some poor decisions.
"I think maybe. When you play quarterback, you can't just sit there. It's a yes-no," said Vrabel. "You're going to go to a side and obviously if the DB's underneath, we probably don't want to throw a back shoulder. We can't throw a back shoulder. I'm okay with the decision. When you're over here and you're going to give DeAndre (Hopkins) a chance, but you got to give him a better chance. But I just think that there's times where if a guy's double covered, we certainly need to progress through and to progress through, you have to have pass protection to be able to take an extra hitch or to be able to come back and work the backside."
As always, pieces of an NFL offense are cogs in a wheel. In order for a passing game to work, receivers need to get open, linemen need to protect, and the quarterback needs to make good decisions and good throws. If any of those cogs aren't functioning properly, your offense isn't going to score many points.
To some degree, Vrabel is correct. The pass protection for Tannehill was not good on Sunday and forced him to make some quick decisions and speed up his progressions. But ultimately, your quarterback that has spent over a decade in the National Football League needs to make better decisions and throws to protect the football.
Winning the turnover battle has always been a key ingredient in Mike Vrabel's winning formula as a head coach. While Vrabel said he was "positive the results would soon be different," if Tannehill continues to play the way he did on Sunday, it's going to be a long season (and a short leash) in Nashville.
The most concerning part is that there is no rhyme or reason for Tannehill's underwhelming showing. There are no answers right now. He just didn't look like himself.
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