Tag Archives: DeMarco Murray

Wildcard Saturday

06 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by in Playoffs

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Tennessee Titans (9-7) @ Kansas City Chiefs 10-6)

The first game of the weekend pits the stumbling Titans against the resurgent Chiefs.

The Chiefs started the season strongly, winning five straight games before losing their way in the middle of the season but having won their last four games they are looking something more like the team that started the season. Ever since Andy Reid handed play calling duties back to his co-ordinator Matt Nagy things have gone better for the Chiefs offence, which finished the season ranked fourth in the NFL by DVOA. However, the defence has continued to struggle, ranked thirtieth overall by DVOA and last is in the league against the run.

The Titans’ season never quite took off this season, but they kept grinding out enough results to make the playoffs. They are not the worst ranked team in the playoffs by DVOA but their offence has struggled and Marcus Mariota has not really looked right all year despite the team investing in receiving options in the offseason. It will not help an offence that was at least top ten in running the ball to be missing running back DeMarco Murray who has been ruled out through injury. The Titans will need to run the ball effectively against the Chiefs’ poor run defence to control the clock if they are to win this game and have lost half of their two pronged back field.

There is a template for the Titans to win this game, but on the road in the famously loud Arrowhead stadium I find it hard to see them running the ball well enough and containing the explosive Chiefs offence enough to win. They might keep it close, this is the playoffs after all, but in the end I think the Chiefs run out winners in this one.

 

Atlanta Falcon (10-6) @ Los Angeles Rams (11-5)

In one of the games of the weekend the Rams who changed their fortunes so drastically in a year welcomes a Falcons team who are still trying to get over last season.

The Rams made a statement against the Indianapolis Colts in the opening game of the season and have pretty much lived up to it for the rest of the year. In fact the only true bad loss of the year was against Washington in week two. Certainly by the time they faced the Seahawks for a second time they were up for the challenge and got the biggest win for a road team in Seattle in a very long time. There has been a lot of praise for thirty-one year old rookie head coach Sean McVay who has turned round a moribund offence whilst being brave enough to hire Wade Philips and let him do his thing despite Philips being over twice McVay’s age. The offence built around Todd Gurely, who ran for thirteen hundred yards and caught nearly eight hundred yards of passing, has made Jared Goff a competent quarterback and they have put up big scores against the teams they should whilst competing well against better competition. The defence has also played well and is also top ten by DVOA plus boasts in Aaron Donald, a terrifying interior pass rusher who should be defensive player of the year. They may lack playoff experience but they are a formidable proposition.

The Atlanta Falcons were always going to find the year after the lost such a big lead in the Super Bowl difficult, but with Kyle Shanahan leaving to become head coach of the 49ers the offence has stumbled all year. They have more than enough talent and in Julio Jones one of the very best receivers in the league but whilst some regression to the mean after last year’s stellar season was to be expected, this team is only just in the top ten of offences by DVOA and that doesn’t seem good enough. More worrying for them is that starting guard Andy Levitre tried to go in the last game of the season and only managed five plays. Facing Aaron Donald is not the time to have a backup playing one of your interior offensive line spots. Even more worrying for the Falcons is that their defence is a surprising twenty-second by DVOA and whilst I knew that Vic Beasly wasn’t playing with the form he had last season where he was one of the leading sack getters, I thought this fast young defence was better than their DVOA ranking. They also play the same scheme as the Seahawks who the Rams have played twice this year and so it could be a long day against a very good offence.

This looks to be a really good game, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it, but I have to think that the Rams will win out in the end. That said, some small part of me still thinks that the Falcons of last season might re-appear, but it would be a surprising if the Rams didn’t win..

AAF: The Titans Smash-Mouth Offence

09 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by in Amateur Adventures in Film

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For a team that are ranked twenty-first overall in offence by DVOA, I found a lot I liked about the Tennessee Titans’ exotic smash-mouth offence, but there are some critical flaws that are holding them back. However, I do not think these are particularly to do with the structure of the offence.

The first thing I should say is that although the Titans use a lot of double tight end, double tight end with two backs, and even  triple  back formations, they also spend plenty of time in the usual shotgun sets. They use a lot of pre-snap motion and spend a lot of time shifting formations as they move tight ends around, frequently from the backfield to the line or vice versa, but also flexing them out as receivers. They will also frequently keep their receivers close to the line and in bunches.

In this game, DeMarco Murray played the vast majority of snaps at running back, picking up ninety-five yards from twenty-five attempts as he had a mixture of runs that mostly went well with the occasional stop due to a lack of running room. The Titans looked to be pulling their guards often and use plenty of motion to have extra blockers going to where they are intending to run the ball. They managed to get over one hundred yards when you combine all carries and the offence sustained several long drives so whilst they were not generating overwhelming numbers, they would look good in a balanced offence, but this is where the problem lies for the Titans.

I like their use of formations and misdirection, but there are a couple of factors that appeared to be hampering the Titans to my eyes.in the passing game. I like the way that they move Delanie Walker around the formation, but Marcus Mariota was only able to connect to him twice for thirty-four yards despite targeting Walker eight times. In fact, Mariota was only able to complete thirteen of his twenty-nine attempts in this game, which is perhaps not surprising given that he seemed to frequently over throw his target completely or place the ball too high. He only threw one interception, but was simply not productive enough in the passing game. Mariota was not helped by his receivers, who often seemed to struggle to get open on their own or challenge the defence deep. This allowed the Texans to play closer to the line, although they were also helped by several good plays in their secondary with AJ Bouye catching my eye multiple times as he broke up passes. The one exception to all this was when Rishard Matthews got open on a double move and Mariota found him deep for a 60 yard play, but otherwise the Titans really didn’t achieve much in the passing game. Their receivers were often stacked or in trip sets on one side of the formation so they were trying to scheme them open. The only sack of the game came on a play where the Titans were max protecting with only two receivers running routes and Murray slipping out the backfield after a block, but no one was open in time as Mariota was chased down and sacked but this was partly because of his ability to scramble.

I think the Titans’ system could well work, but even if you are trying to focus on running the ball, you need receivers who can get open as if you can’t convincingly make plays in one phase of your offence, then all the defence has to do is focus on stopping the phase that does works. As obvious as it sounds, until some combination of Mariota making more accurate throws and receivers getting more open leads to better passing numbers, this team are going to continue to struggle on offence, and I wonder what the long term goal is for this franchise. If their ownership commits to the current setup then it might be possible to make things work, but they need the front office and coaching staff to work in step for long enough to see it through and I just don’t know if the current coaching/GM setup is good enough or if they will get the time.