Titans Need New Offense, Sort Of

I've started to believe the only way the Titans can be successful with Vince and everyone else on offense - and remember, VY isn't the only one on Titans' Island of Misfit Toys - is to make him utilize all the necessary skills, conventional and non, at his disposal in a way that's completely unpredictable yet proverbial.

Basically, they need to turn this Freakshow into a Circus.

Don't get me wrong. The Titans have shown they can beat average to good defenses a fairly high percentage of the time. But when it comes to battling elite offenses and defenses alike, our current offense tends to leave us coming up short, regardless of who is under center.

There's two conflicting things going on currently. This oversimplifies it, but the Titans are torn between an imbalance of doing the at-best well-executed very conventional, spurted with the short-lived exotic up-tempo stuff that works for a while. It's literally as though Fisher is choking his Heimerdinger sometimes.

Young is the central piece around which, to an extent, Johnson, Cook, Britt, Washington, et al., must harmonize. They need to catch teams off guard, by dictating, motioning, play-changing at the line, instead of making defenses simply guess by formation. In short, our offense needs to have a dynamic flow, and not be predicated on historical patterns.

The Titans have interesting and fairly aggressive run formations. But there is nothing remotely exotic about the pass scheme. It's afraid of itself. And it's only identity is a barely decent down field passing threat.

What they need to do is be able to chameleon other teams' passing offenses to limited degrees. Recent versions of San Diego and Philly passing to backs, New England, Arizona, and a little Indy, for instance. The point is, the O can't play like the Titans anymore. They have to disguise themselves as someone else's offense enough that they're not themselves anymore.

Young is going to have to run by design more and also throw on early downs, as they did Sunday. He's going to need to no-huddle at times, and be able to call his own plays on a limited basis.

In order to succeed, the new Titans offense will have to be an aggressive spectacle in my opinion.

Titans have to figure out what the Saints did: you have to be aggressive on both sides of the ball. You can't be entirely dominant on one side of the ball. The other side has to have it's own ways to excel and be highly effective.

There's a few things I still want to see Young do that Collins is still better at doing: namely, 3-step drops, quick releases, slants. Add in hot-routes, audibles at the line. You see where I'm going.

No, I don't think this should resemble his Texas offense. It needs to be more mature than spread the ball, call his own number, but there needs to be some of everything.

Fisher needs to go all in with turning the offense over to Mike. I don't fault him for pulling Young (this was no 2008 benching, I think most agree), but I do fault them for thinking they were going to do the same 'ol same 'ol against the Steelers and have success. Gross underestimation.

We can be a 9 or 10 win team with what we do currently, but I think we all know that's just not good enough anymore.

 

Some basic things that the Titans can change immediately:


Don't ever leave the option out of the game plan again.

You must get CJ the ball in the passing game, especially when the run doesn't work, a la Philly/ Westbrook, Chargers/ Tomlinson and Sproles. Flex CJ out and put Ringer in the backfield.

Where are the screens? We should be the best screening team in the league, bar none.

I think most agree we need to spread the ball out more.

Three TE sets have proven effective already this season.

Design plays to get balls to your playmakers. I feel like the Titans needs to make conscious efforts to get the balll to its skill players, and evaluate matchups pre-snap. This is going to call for giving Young some ability to change plays at the LOS.

We need to allow him to motion and call hot-routes. I know I'm being redundant, but after seeing this stuff against teams like the Steelers, Colts, Ravens, Chargers, Patriots, Jets, Cowboys, etc., you see why this is a point of contention immediately.

 

Offensive line play has been horrible enough through preseason that I think we should have already been prepared to roll pockets, do bootlegs, more designed runs, etc.

Frankly, I'm astonished that the Titans are going to count on having one long CJ run/ game to stay in it.

I think in order to be truly successful and balanced on offense, the Titans are going to need to become more of a pass-oriented team on early downs. Young can make the throws now. His completion percentage, INTs notwithstanding, supports that. I feel like the Steeler D was a test VY wasn't quite prepared for, and that's okay. It's really one of those phenomenons you have to see to believe, and as a QB, you must experience it for yourself.

Young has shown improvement against 3-4s in general, but this one is obviously la creme de al creme. Better to get this experience now versus later.

I appreciate what Fish did yesterday, in that I know he was trying to protect VY, but really, it's time to showcase him. Doing otherwise is going to shorten CJ's career span.

 

I agree that to duplicate the Saints on offense you need the personnel. And one huge thing Vince lacks currently is the extreme sense of urgency (always moving feet, pump fakes, etc.) that Brees and Manning have to find the open guy, look off the safeties, and find the open guy. One guy I feel VY can duplicate to a degree on field, ironically, is Ben Roethlisberger.

We're completely on the same page regarding slants, screens, passes to the flats.

Also, I'm tired of seeing the Titans offense being the ones confused. They need to do more confusing instead of strictly in the running game. This is where audibles, hot reads etc. need to come into play.

It's clear they've made strides with Vince and the offensive design, but Fisher is quick to return to the status quo. There is simply no ability to dictate neither coverages, matchups nor tempo from our side of the ball. We'll always "take what the defense gives us" but the problem is when they become stingy, the Titans have no answer or ability to take what the offense needs to be successful.