Tag: Titans defense

Why the Titans’ defense might make them the AFC’s best team

There’s no clearly dominant team in the AFC right now, but even without Derrick Henry, the Titans have a defense that could set them apart.

The Tennessee Titans were going to be up against it when they faced the Rams last Sunday night, or so it seemed. They were without Derrick Henry, the foundation of their offense as very few running backs have been in the modern era, and given the severity of Henry’s foot injury, that absence could last until the end of the regular season, or even through however far Tennessee makes it through the postseason.

Not great news for a 6-2 team that had the AFC’s top seed, but could easily lose it with a slide that might have started against a Rams offense that was averaging 30.6 points per game through Week 8, and was led by a quarterback in Matthew Stafford and a head coach in Sean McVay who were demolishing enemy defenses with as multi-faceted a passing game as there’s been in the NFL. Asking Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill to keep up with that with Henry out of the picture was a lot. Especially with a defense that came into the Rams contest ranked 20th in Defensive DVOA.

Tannehill played decently in the Titans’ surprising 28-16 win, completing 19 of 27 passes for 143 yards, one touchdown, and one interception, but if there’s one thing we know about Tannehill at this point, it’s that he’s the kind of quarterback who will go exactly as far as scheme and surrounding players will take him. There was no way for Tannehill to compete with Stafford unleashed in the Rams’ offense, so the thought was that the Titans, and specifically offensive coordinator Todd Downing, would have to scheme things up something fierce to get around that limitation. The common perception was that the defense would not do much to help.

It was an earned perception. The Titans ranked 29th in Defensive DVOA last season, and as late as Week 6 of the 2021 campaign, they ranked 28th. Then, things started to turn around rather dramatically. In Week 7 against the Chiefs’ busted offense in a 27-3 win, the Titans limited Kansas City to fewer than 10 points for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era. Defensive lineman Denico Autry knocked Mahomes out of the game with one of his to sacks, and the score was 27-0 at halftime. Against the Colts in a 34-31 Week 8 overtime win, they took advantage of Carson Wentz’s proclivities for “improvisation” with two interceptions in the last eight minutes of the game.

And then, the masterstroke against the Rams. Over the last four weeks, in wins over the Bills, Chiefs, Colts, and Los Angeles, the Titans have the NFL’s fourth-best defense by DVOA behind only the Cardinals, Rams, and Saints. They’ve gone from 20th to 10th overall in Defensive DVOA in that time, and improved to eighth against the pass. They landed four players on Touchdown Wire’s midseason All-Underrated defense (Autry, interior defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons, edge-rusher Harold Landry, and safety Kevin Byard), far more than any other team.

The NFL’s All-Underrated defense in the first half of the 2021 season

If they can keep this up, it might not matter whether Derrick Henry is in the game or not.

How did the Titans improve so quickly on the defensive side of the ball? There have been several burgeoning factors at play.

Kevin Byard reveals why Titans’ defense was bad last season, and why a turnaround is imminent

The Tennessee Titans’ defense was not what it was expected to be in 2020. Safety Kevin Byard reveals what went wrong, and why an uptick in 2021 is possible.

In both 2018 and 2019, the Titans’ defense ranked 18th in Football Outsiders’ DVOA metrics — not great, but good enough to get the team into the 2019 AFC Championship game after turning Tom Brady’s final throw with the Patriots into a pick-six, and confusing the living heck out of Lamar Jackson before it ran into Patrick Mahomes. Under defensive coordinator Dean Pees, Tennessee’s defense was highly multiple, especially in coverage, and it worked well enough to make the Titans a Super Bowl contender.

After Pees’ retirement, the 2020 Titans had a mish-mash of defensive coaches — outside linebackers coach Shane Bowen and inside linebackers coach Jim Haslett among them — but no real alpha dog at defensive coordinator. As you would expect, this did not go well at all. The Titans slipped to 29th in Defensive DVOA, allowed more touchdown passes (36) than any team not named the Detroit Lions, and allowed an opponent QBR of 99.4, eighth-worst in the league. They could not keep Lamar Jackson in check this time in the wild-card round, and that was it for their 2020 season. Derrick Henry’s 2,000-yard season, and the exploits of an explosive passing offense, were wasted on a defense that really couldn’t stop anyone.

Tennessee added pass-rushers Bud Dupree and Denico Autry in free agency, and defensive backs Caleb Farley and Elijah Molden in the draft, and made Bowen the official defensive coordinator. As safety Kevin Byard said on the most recent episode of the Touchdown Wire NFL Podcast, there are all kinds of reasons to believe in a defensive turnaround in 2021.

“Honestly, I think it was a multitude of a lot of different things.” Byard said when I asked him what went wrong last season. “Personnel at times. I think a lot of it had to do with a lack of coordination within the defense. If it was the pass rush, and the coverage on the back end. I think one of the biggest issues last year were our third-down woes. When you talk about being a great defense, great defenses are great on third downs. When it’s third-and-medium, third-and-long, as a defense in this room, we are supposed to win in that scenario. Last season, too many times, we didn’t get off the field on third-and-long. When that happens, you get longer drives by the offense, more yards, and more points. So, I think as a defense this year, that’s been our biggest emphasis — being coordinated on third down with the pass rush and the secondary. If we can get off the field on third down better than last year, our defensive stats are going to rise dramatically. I hope that will take us over the top with the explosive offense we have.”

Byard is on point here. Last season, the Titans ranked 29th in Defensive DVOA overall on third and fourth downs. They ranked 27th in third- and fourth-and short situations, 16th in middle-distance situations, and 30th in third- and fourth-and long situations, ahead of only the Raiders and Chargers. In 2019, they ranked seventh in third- and fourth-down defense.

Byard also said that an unclear picture regarding the defensive coordinator position did not help matters at all — especially with a season that really didn’t have a preseason. Someone has to be the alpha in the room who can see things from a 30,000-foot view.

“Shane ran the meetings. Shane called the plays last year. As far as having the defensive coordinator title, that’s good for him. Because guys now understand, it’s like, ‘Hey, this is the top guy on defense. Going into last season, before the season started with COVID and everything, we didn’t know who the defensive coordinator was going to be. I knew Shane would be calling the plays, and as the year went on, I knew Shane was going to be the defensive coordinator. But he didn’t have the title then. With him having the defensive coordinator title, I’m pretty sure it’s given him more time to not be so focused on positions, but the entire defense, which should help him out a lot.”

Byard sounds optimistic about his own 2021 performance as well. Metrics for safety play are generally dicey because they don’t cover deep responsibilities as accurately as you’d like and they don’t account for sub-par cornerback play, but Byard had just one interception last season, and that’s not where a guy who had so many picks in his first four seasons wants to be.

Byard also allowed 37 catches on 51 targets for 409 yards, 160 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, and an opponent passer rating of 107.4 — the only time in his NFL career that he’s allowed an opponent passer rating over 100 through a season in his career. Byard had 17 picks from 2016 through 2019; only Marcus Peters (18) had more over that time, and Tre Boston finished second among NFL safeties in that period with 13 picks.

“The No. 1 stat for a DB is interceptions, as far as what people look at. And that’s super-important. I’m a big believer in turning the ball over. The more turnovers you get, the better you are as a defense. Last year, the opportunities weren’t there as much. I still had seven pass deflections, which is pretty high. I led the defense in tackles, which usually isn’t a good thing when a safety leads the team in tackles, but I’m just doing what I can to help my defense. If I need to get a guy on the ground, I’m going to get a guy on the ground. I’m just hoping that with a great pass rush, and being really great on third down, those opportunities will come. Honestly, I’m not concerned about the numbers as far as interceptions. I’ve always been a guy who gets interceptions. I had 19 picks in college, and 18 in my NFL career.

“They’ll come. But I’m just super-excited about getting back out there and making some plays for my defense. I don’t feel that I played up to my standard — not the media’s standard or the fans’ standard, but my standard. I’m excited to go out there and prove myself right.”

If Byard is able to do that in a more defined defense, the Titans would appear to have everything else to make another deep playoff run. Without that defensive uptick? Well, the AFC is loaded at the top, and it doesn’t take much for even good teams to get lost in the truth of that.