Titans offensive linemen 'deserve all the s–t' after embarrassing effort against Green Bay
NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Titans (0-3) got embarrassed by the Green Bay Packers (2-1) and Malik Willis on Sunday, losing 30-14 in front of a home crowd. A big reason for the loss was the pressure allowed by Tennessee's offensive line. Will Levis was already the most pressured quarterback in the NFL through the first […]
NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Titans (0-3) got embarrassed by the Green Bay Packers (2-1) and Malik Willis on Sunday, losing 30-14 in front of a home crowd.
A big reason for the loss was the pressure allowed by Tennessee's offensive line. Will Levis was already the most pressured quarterback in the NFL through the first two weeks of the season. Then the Titans allowed an astonishing eight sacks to Green Bay's defensive front.
Brian Callahan continues to emphasize the importance of winning the turnover battle. But that's easier said than done, especially when your quarterback is under constant duress.
The Titans offensive line was nowhere near good enough on Sunday. They were the first ones to admit as much. I spoke with RT Nicholas Petit-Frere and LG Peter Skoronski in the locker room after the game and both players owned up to the unit's bad play.
Petit-Frere took a lot of accountability for his own performance. He told me that this is the worst stretch of his entire football career when it comes to on-field performance. The 25-year-old offensive tackle couldn't really explain what had been going wrong, but said that he had nobody to blame but himself.
"I gotta just find out what I need to do to get better. Whether it's mental, physical., whatever it takes because this is not good enough," Petit-Frere told me. "I'm disappointed with myself. I'm disappointed with what I did for the o-line."
NPF was undoubtedly detrimental to the offense on Sunday. So much so that Brian Callahan ended up making a change, putting Jaelyn Duncan in at right tackle (who was somehow even worse). The Titans don't seem to know who will be the starter moving forward, but right tackle looks to be an open competition after recent events.
Right tackle may have been the biggest problem, but it was was not the Titans only problem on the offensive line. Left guard Peter Skoronski did not shy away from the criticism that was coming for the offensive line either.
"It starts with our group not being efficient. Going three-and-out, giving them the ball back, giving them chances to score. That starts with the run game and not being efficient there and getting behind the sticks, getting in passing situations…and then when we get in those situations we still have to block," said Skoronski.
"We deserve every bit of shit that's coming towards us and there will be a lot of it," Skoronski continued. "We're not going to point fingers anywhere. It's this five and we've got to be better. That's that. Eight sacks is never ever ever excusable."
I hate to reduce the Titans issues up to this point to just one thing. But I really think this team is a contender with better offensive line play.
Will Tennessee be able to turn things around? Who's to say? The addition of offensive line coach Bill Callahan and drafting JC Latham was supposed to fix some of these issues. But lately it feels like patching one holes just creates another.
Peter Skoronski was right. Tennessee's offensive line does deserve all the criticism they are getting. If they can't fix things soon, the 2024 season will be wasted away and the future of Will Levis will be in jeopardy.
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