When the Tennessee Titans lost edge rusher Harold Landry one week before the season to an ACL tear, most people instantly thought about the impact his loss would have on the pass rush.
However, when looking at the tape of Week 1 against the New York Giants, it is obvious Landry’s presence was missed far more in the run game.
The Titans’ EDGEs (OLBs/DEs) had a very rough game. Part of it is because of the way the Titans tried to play defense against the Giants, but another major factor is the overall athleticism the Titans have in that group now.
Denico Autry, Bud Dupree and Rashad Weaver are players that rely on physicality more than their agility. They play with power, not speed, as their primary weapon. The Giants clearly had a plan to take advantage.
In fairness, the EDGEs aren’t the only ones to blame for the miserable run defense. The Titans’ linebackers (David Long Jr. and Zach Cunningham) were out of control and played with no discipline for most of the day.
Their inability to shed blocks once a body gets on them is concerning. Along with that, the Titans’ defensive backs took terrible angles and missed multiple tackles — Amani Hooker specifically.
So, not only did the Titans players not play well, the defensive structure and philosophy put the players in a tough spot to begin with. That stems from the New York Giants’ use of RPO (Read-Pass Option) plays that give the offense the ability to pass or run on any given play.
New Giants head coach Brian Daboll came over from the Buffalo Bills where the RPO is heavily utilized. The Titans knew they had to account for it, and the Giants did too.
As we always do — and boy I’m happy to be back — let’s dive into the film to see what really happened!
The threat of RPO
First, I want to show how the threat of the RPO put the Titans in a bad position. The Giants play a lot in three wide-receiver sets so the Titans naturally countered with a nickel package of five defensive backs.
With RPOs, often the slot receiver is a quick target. So, to deter that, the Titans wanted to have someone covering the slot at all times. Sometimes it was Ola Adeniyi, but mostly it was Ugo Amadi.
The real point here is that this caused the Titans to only have six men in the box most plays. With their offensive line of five and a tight end, the Giants had 6-vs-6 chances in the box all day. The picture below demonstrates:
Due to the above, the Titans were already in a bind. Now, we add in the issues with scheme.
What the Titans try to do against teams that run read-option and use the quarterback as a run threat is to utilize a “squeeze and scrape” philosophy. This entails the last man on the line of scrimmage — usually an edge rusher — crashing down towards the middle of the formation and then the stack linebacker looping out to cover the spot where the edge originally was.
It is basically a flip-flop of normal gap responsibilities. It can be effective as it clearly defines responsibilities for each player involved and makes it simpler to play read options and RPOs.
Saquon Barkley's first big run
The issue is the Giants knew the Titans would do that and crafted their run game to take advantage. On Saquon Barkley’s first big run of the game, it is never more evident.
First thing to see is how Bud Dupree jumps inside. Again, his job is to squeeze down and then Cunningham would scrape over to the edge.
Look how the Giants easily pin Dupree in; they knew that was coming. Then, they get an offensive lineman pulling out to the perimeter to meet the scraping linebacker(Cunningham).
Cunningham isn’t the type of linebacker that sheds blocks well. Like Long, Cunningham is best using his speed to get around a block rather than getting off it. To make matters worse, Amani Hooker takes a terrible angle, gets beat to the corner and lets Barkley go rushing down the sideline.
Barkley's second big run
On Saquon’s second big-time run, the Titans were trying to execute the same philosophy and it goes even worse.
Autry doesn’t crash down hard enough and can’t get off the block. Because of this, when Cunningham scrapes over, there is no one in the gap Barkley goes through.
You see the pulling lineman get on Cunningham again, and he gets out of position. You’ll notice awful efforts from Long and Hooker, as well. Neither had a very good day to say the least.
Misdirection
The Giants also used some misdirection with motion to get the Titans’ defense leaning one way, only to come back in the other direction with pullers.
Pulling linemen were obviously a huge part of the plan for the Giants, as they knew they would get light boxes because of the RPO threat I outlined earlier.
This was a QB counter early in the game and foreshadowed how the Giants intended to attack. Motion moves the linebackers and then the Giants counter the other way with pullers.
Daboll knew the Titans’ EDGEs weren’t athletic enough to compete and the linebackers don’t shed blocks well. This really wasn’t on Bud Dupree, though, when you see just how far out of position both linebackers were.
Bud Dupree
I gave Bud a pass for that last one, but it was because I knew where we were going next. Look, I outlined the schematic advantage the Giants created and attacked, but the other reality, like I mentioned upfront, is the edge play was just pitiful.
First, watch how poor Bud plays this Saquon touchdown run. He is literally a non-factor on a run to his side and helpless against offensive tackle Andrew Thomas. This can’t be what 20 million dollars on the cap gets you. Also, David Long looking like Rashaan Evans out there.
Denico Autry
It wasn’t just Dupree, though, so let me make that clear; he is just getting a lot more money than the others I am going to show. The higher the money, the higher the expectations, the higher the scrutiny.
Autry was also a major issue in this game.
The Titans used Autry as a defensive end in four-man fronts quite a bit last year, but a few unknown offseason injuries and another year into his 30s and it’s obvious he can’t do it full time.
I had multiple plays I logged and named “Autry is Slow” in some form. Here is one below. Just tough to play on the edge in the NFL being this slow-footed. Autry is even upset with his own ineptitude after the play.
Rashad Weaver
Let me say again: it was all the folks on the edge; Autry and Dupree, but also Rashad Weaver. You can get an idea of why Weaver isn’t a full-time player.
Weaver gets absolutely worked one-on-one by a rookie tight end here; blown off the ball and too slow to get off the block and make a play. Cunningham doesn’t help by shooting early and missing, but the reality is you HAVE to set a better edge than that and force the ball carrier back in.
Dylan Cole
Things got so dark for the Titans on the edge that they played Dylan Cole there on the Giants’ last touchdown drive just to have some semblance of speed.
Only problem is Cole is a special-teams-only player and just doesn’t have the juice to be out there on defense. Watch how Saquon Barkley puts him in a blender on the go-ahead two-point conversion.
Simply put, the Titans have a major hole still with Landry gone. They have enough in the pass-rush department to withstand the loss, but it may be the run defense where Landry’s absence shines the most.
It sure did in Week 1.
