What We Saw: Week 14

Rashaad Penny came out of nowhere to be a potential league winner. Who knew?

Ben Brown
What We Saw 3 Years Ago
Series Navigation
Introduction
Steelers @ Vikings
Cowboys @ Football Team
Jaguars @ Titans
Seahawks @ Texans
Raiders @ Chiefs
Saints @ Jets
Falcons @ Panthers
Ravens @ Browns
Giants @ Chargers
Lions @ Broncos
49ers @ Bengals
Bills @ Buccaneers
Bears @ Packers

Jaguars @ Titans

Final Score: Titans 20, Jaguars 0

Writer: Dan Adams (@dadams0323 on Twitter)

 

This was one of the most boring football games I have ever watched. The game seemed over when on their second drive of the game the Jaguars faced a long third down. With their offense struggling the Jaguars drew up their best play to pick up the first down, a read-option running play featuring Carlos Hyde. Their offense did not improve from there. Trevor Lawrence was sacked three times and threw four interceptions, the running game was a non-factor, and the receivers struggled to get open as the Titans played a lot of tight coverage and dared the Jaguars’ offensive line to protect Lawrence long enough to try and take shots down the field. With the Jaguars not up to the task on offense, the Titans essentially sat on the lead after scoring on their first drive. Tennessee didn’t throw the ball downfield at all, preferring to take safe check-downs when they weren’t just handing the ball off for a three-yard gain, which led to the teams combining for less than 400 yards of total offense. Credit to the defenses for doing their jobs, but neither offense seemed that interested in scoring points. The Titans shut out the Jaguars 20-0, with the real winners being anyone who didn’t watch this game.

 

 

Jacksonville Jaguars

 

Quarterback

 

Trevor Lawrence: 24/40, 221 yards, 4 INT, 3 Sacks | 1 carry, 2 yards

 

Watching Trevor Lawrence has gotten progressively more depressing as the season has gone on. Lawrence looks like a good quarterback often. He throws the ball hard and with great accuracy and he does a good job of using his legs to extend plays. The issue is that Lawrence is clearly getting frustrated with the situation around him, and today he let that negatively affect his play. Lawrence was frequently under pressure and early in the game he did a good job of checking the ball down but in the second half, he started forcing the ball downfield, resulting in an ugly stat line headlined by four interceptions. His first interception hit his receiver right in the hands before deflecting up to a defender.

 

 

Lawrence’s second interception came when a pass rusher went unblocked forcing a quick throw. Lawrence thought he had a window to fit the ball into his receiver on an in-route, but one of the linebackers that appeared to be pass-rushing dropped into coverage just as Lawrence threw the ball.

 

 

The third pick was a clear case of Lawrence trying to do too much as he tried to force the ball downfield and underthrew his receiver.

 

 

And on the fourth pick, Lawrence looked off two wide open check downs to force the ball into tight coverage.

 

 

It is kind of hard to fault Lawrence given the lack of help he’s getting. His offensive line was overmatched and his receivers were struggling to create any separation downfield. But the answer can’t be to force bad throws, and Lawrence will need to learn that soon.

 

Running Backs

 

James Robinson: 6 carries, 4 yards

Carlos Hyde: 1 carry, 2 yards | 2 targets, 1 reception, 6 yards

Dare Ogunbawale: 3 targets, 2 receptions, 5 yards

 

James Robinson’s longest carry went for five yards and he finished with four total. He had one reception and one ten-yard run called back due to holding calls but spent most of the game struggling to not get hit behind the line of scrimmage. On the positive side, he was on the field more this week than he has been the past two weeks even if he wasn’t a big part of the offense. Carlos Hyde was still involved a little too much but left the game late with an injury. Dare Ogunbawale checked in at that point and earned a few targets against a prevent defense. In total, the Jacksonville running backs combined to generate 17 yards of offense.

 

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

 

Marvin Jones: 7 targets, 6 receptions, 70 yards

Laviska Shenault: 7 targets, 4 receptions, 34 yards

Laquon Treadwell: 6 targets, 4 receptions, 68 yards

Tavon Austin: 5 targets, 3 receptions, 17 yards

James O’Shaughnessy: 6 targets, 4 receptions, 21 yards

 

Marvin Jones had a decent game but inflated his total yards a bit with a catch-and-run play to end the first half as the Titans dropped everyone into deep coverage to prevent giving up a long touchdown. Laviska Shenault had a few nice catches early to move the chains but was a non-factor after his drop that led to an interception shown above. Jacksonville continues to struggle to find ways to get Shenault involved in the offense despite his impressive ability with the ball in his hands. Laquon Treadwell has emerged as the clear number three receiver, or number two depending on how you view Shenault, and while he didn’t have any stand-out plays he also didn’t have any terrible plays which is what passes for a good game in this offense. James O’Shaughnessy was the intended target on the coolest offensive play the Jaguars ran, a handoff to the running back that turned into a reverse end around that turned into a flea flicker, but unfortunately he dropped the ball.

 

Tennessee Titans

 

Quarterback

 

Ryan Tannehill: 20/31, 191 yards, 4 Sacks | 4 carries, 29 yards, TD

 

Ryan Tannehill wasn’t asked to do much today but when he was called upon he was efficient. He did a nice job extending plays with his legs and taking off to scramble when the rushing lanes were available, including on his touchdown run and a 17-yard rush that was the longest play on the ground for either team.

 

 

Passing wise Tannehill mostly stuck to short passes in a game plan that heavily featured the tight ends. Tannehill didn’t have a completion further than about 15 yards downfield and his longest passing play was a short pass to Geoff Swaim where most of the damage was done after the catch. But Tannehill also never had to try and force the ball downfield because his team was in control of the game the whole way and his consistent short completions limited mistakes and allowed the Titans to dominate the time of possession.

 

Running Backs

 

D’Onta Foreman: 13 carries, 47 yards, TD | 2 targets, 2 receptions, 15 yards

Dontrell Hilliard: 6 carries, 13 yards | 2 targets

Jeremy McNichols: 8 carries, 16 yards | 1 target

 

D’Onta Foreman was the primary early-down back for the Titans today. He failed to break any long runs and was typically just getting the yards that were blocked for him. He avoided negative plays though, which kept the Titans’ offense on schedule, and for fantasy purposes, he was the back the Titans turned to at the goal line.

 

 

Jeremy McNichols and Dontrell Hilliard split the rest of the running back snaps and had similarly uninspiring performances. McNichols actually ended up leading the group in snaps thanks to getting most of the garbage-time work, but as they ranged from 23-27 snaps each this seems like a true three-way committee.

 

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

 

Julio Jones: 6 targets, 4 receptions, 33 yards

Nick Westbrook-Ikhine: 3 targets, 3 receptions, 31 yards

Chester Rodgers: 1 target, 1 reception, 13 yards

Geoff Swaim: 4 targets, 3 receptions, 45 yards

Anthony Firkser: 5 targets, 4 receptions, 34 yards

 

Julio Jones returned from the injured reserve to lead the team in targets. Jones sat out most of the fourth quarter with the game in hand for the Titans. He wasn’t an every-down player during the first half either, but the important thing is he looked healthy and he finished the game healthy. Geoff Swaim had the longest play of the game thanks to some nice yards-after-the-catch on a play that got the announcers to comment on how fast Swaim looked, which may be a first for him on the NFL stage. He should have added a touchdown but was unable to come down with an end-zone target that was thrown just a little high as Tannehill was absorbing a hit. Nick Westbrook-Ihkine played a lot of snaps but rarely appeared to be Tannehill’s primary read and earned half the targets of Jones despite playing almost twice as much.

 

 — Dan Adams (@dadams0323 on Twitter)

Series Navigation
Introduction
Steelers @ Vikings
Cowboys @ Football Team
Jaguars @ Titans
Seahawks @ Texans
Raiders @ Chiefs
Saints @ Jets
Falcons @ Panthers
Ravens @ Browns
Giants @ Chargers
Lions @ Broncos
49ers @ Bengals
Bills @ Buccaneers
Bears @ Packers

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