Mike McCoy takes easy way out when asked about game-changing Titans coaching decisions

The lack of insight reaches new lows.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
Add as preferred source on Google

The Tennessee Titans lost again in Week 9, this time at home to the Los Angeles Chargers, 27-20. The good news is that they finally covered a spread! So that’s good. The bad news is that the offense managed just six points, and it’s now been a full calendar year since this team won a home game.

Things are bleak in Nashville. And in this game, the most memorable element of the offensive showing will be the play-calling on short-yardage situations. It was marred by trick plays doomed to fail from the start, way too much wildcat formation, and a refusal to run a simple QB sneak or tush push. When interim head coach Mike McCoy was asked to address these issues after the game, he took his typically unenlightening style at the podium to a new level.

Mike McCoy’s coachspeak reaches new lows

The Titans ran three plays from wildcat in this game, and not one of them worked. But let me tell you, they kept going back to that weird well anyway. I guess they ran a lot of it in practice this week and really loved how it was working. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the way it went in the game. Here’s the only video of one such play I could find immediately after the game:

The reaction to these wildcat calls was, well… just read for yourself.

It’s not like this is something the Titans have done a lot of before.

“Well, that’s all part of game planning,” said Mike McCoy, when asked about going back to wildcat calls repeatedly on Sunday. “I think, as the offensive staff, when you go look at a game plan, how you’re going to attack a certain opponent, there’s certain things you always put in. So, when the staff put the plan together, they had a lot of—they thought this was the best thing to do.”

I won’t pretend to know what compelled them to think this was the best thing for this game, but I do feel comfortable saying they thought wrong. Here’s my favorite part: McCoy was then asked why the wildcat plays didn’t work as they had hoped. His response, “The defense stopped them.”

And then there was the issue of refusing to run QB sneaks on any of these short-yardage downs and distances. It reached a crescendo when Cam Ward and company reached the 1-yard line, poised to take a lead in the third quarter. They ran one of their wildcat plays on third down, which went nowhere. Then, on fourth down, they handed the ball to Tony Pollard instead of trying a QB sneak.

Or, perhaps better yet, running a tush push. You know, the play that’s about to be outlawed for being too powerful an offensive tool? McCoy was asked about that after the game, too. Why not run a push play there? Are you guys against that kind of play, and if so, why?

“No, I’m all for it,” McCoy said. “I’m not against it by any means.”

Well then, why not run it?

Related Articles