The Tennessee Titans have been playing some of the worst football in the NFL these past five weeks, something we saw once again in the Week 16 defeat at the hands of the lowly Houston Texans.
The Titans have struggled to get their offense going consistently all season long, and making matters worse on Saturday was the fact that a raw rookie quarterback in Malik Willis was at the helm of the offense.
And while Willis wasn’t good, the Titans also did nothing to help their young signal-caller, both in pass protection and play-calling.
The defense only allowed 19 points, which should have been good enough for a win, but there were also some major hiccups in the secondary that, if avoided, could’ve led to a better showing for the defense overall.
As we do every week, let’s take a look at the winners and losers. As you’d imagine, there are more of the latter than the former this week.
Winner: DL Denico Autry
Autry played in his first game after a four-game absence and quickly made his presence felt.
The veteran defensive lineman was all over the place, whether it was making plays against the run, pressuring the quarterback, or simply knocking down passes.
Autry, who has been Tennessee’s best defender this season, finished with two tackles for loss, the Titans’ lone sack, and a pair of passes defensed. He now leads the Titans with eight sacks.
Loser: LT Dennis Daley
Daley stood out for all the wrong reasons once again. The lone bright spot in his day was a nice block on Derrick Henry’s 48-yard touchdown run. Other than that, it was mostly bad.
One of the four sacks permitted on Malik Willis saw Daley fall asleep at the wheel, which allowed a free rusher to get to the rookie. In fairness to Daley, he wasn’t the only one, as Chig Okonkwo was also caught napping on the play when it looked like he was supposed to chip.
Loser: RT Nicholas Petit-Frere
On the other side, Petit-Frere was the second-weakest link upfront. Not only did he allow a sack, but his holding penalty negated a 22-yard completion from Willis to Treylon Burks. He also left early with an injury.
Winner: LB Jack Gibbens
With Zach Cunningham exiting early due to an elbow injury, Gibbens stepped up big time and had the best game of his young career.
Dr. Gibby tallied eight tackles (four solo), one of which thwarted a potential Texans touchdown drive. The rookie also added a pass defensed on an interception that halted another Houston drive.
If Cunningham misses more time, Gibbens has earned the right to start next to Monty Rice for the foreseeable future. Hell, with the way Cunningham played today, maybe it’s time to start Gibbens even if he plays.
Loser: OC Todd Downing
On top of all the normal issues with Downing’s play-calling, he once again made a massive blunder with his rookie quarterback by not utilizing Willis’ legs more, something he did in the Liberty product’s past two starts.
Downing is gone in 2023 or we riot (figuratively speaking, of course).
Loser: QB Malik Willis
Willis earns this designation for a few reasons, but let me preface it by saying this: the lack of improvement we saw in Week 16 shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The expectation has always been he’d need a year to develop.
That said, Willis threw a bad pick on the Titans’ second-to-last drive that ended their comeback bid, and he had an issue keeping his footing on multiple occasions.
Now, context is important. This kid has a lot to overcome to achieve even a modicum of success with this offense. The offensive line sucks in pass protection, and his play-caller is inept.
Don’t go crazy over what we saw out of Willis in Week 16, and really, what we’ve seen all season long. It really isn’t fair to judge him with everything bad going on around him.
Let’s just hope we see better in 2023 or else the Titans will be back to the drawing board — that is, assuming Ryan Tannehill doesn’t return.
Loser: RB Derrick Henry
Henry officially has a fumbling problem.
The superstar running back has fumbled the ball six times in total this season, losing three. However, his fumbling issues have been worse of late, with all three of the aforementioned lost fumbles occurring in two of the last three contests.
Henry’s fumble on Saturday was particularly bad, as it derailed a potential scoring drive in Texans territory.
As head coach Mike Vrabel rightly pointed out after the game, this team isn’t built to overcome those kinds of mistakes. This is something Henry must fix moving forward.
Henry did finish the game with 126 yards and a touchdown on the ground, but 48 of those yards came on one run. Otherwise, Henry averaged just 3.5 yards per carry on his other 22 attempts.
Loser: Titans' secondary
Coverage was the biggest issue the Titans had on defense in Week 16, as the secondary allowed multiple big plays that led to touchdowndrives for Houston.
On Houston’s first touchdown drive, the secondary fell asleep on a third down and allowed tight end Jordan Akins to slip past for a 30-yard gain. Houston found pay dirt three plays later.
Then, on what proved to be the Texans’ game-winning drive, the secondary gave up completions of 20 and 37 yards, setting up running back Royce Freeman’s four-yard touchdown run to make it 19-14.
Tennessee’s defense has been at its best this season when it limits big plays. That did not happen on Saturday.
Loser: LB Zach Cunningham
Cunningham simply hasn’t been able to stay healthy this season, and even when he has been on the field he hasn’t been good.
The veteran linebacker dropped a sure interception in the end zone that would have stopped one of Houston’s touchdown drives in its tracks.
Cunningham also re-injured his elbow, which has been giving him problems all season long. In his absence, Jack Gibbens stepped up and played better than Cunningham has in any game this season.
With his latest elbow injury, we may have seen the last of Cunningham in Nashville.
