The most glaring issue in the Tennessee Titans’ Week 15 loss to the Houston Texans was offensive coordinator Tim Kelly’s insistence on sticking with the run when it didn’t come close to working, especially on early downs.
Running back Derrick Henry was stuffed on nearly every single carry he had on Sunday to the tune of a putrid nine yards on 16 attempts (0.6 yards per carry).
The showing was a combination of Henry not playing well and the offensive line being horrific in run-blocking. But that didn’t deter Kelly, who continued to try and run the football up the middle, which routinely set Tennessee up with second- and third-and-long situations the team couldn’t overcome.
When asked about the puzzling approach after the game, head coach Mike Vrabel had an answer that is simply unacceptable.
“Well, we have to be able to establish a run, whether that’s with Derrick (Henry), whether that’s Tyjae (Spears), whether that’s Jonathan Ward,” Vrabel said. “So, we’ve won a lot of football games with that formula. And we’ve seen where it’s been some inefficient runs, and then we break one and turn things around, and that didn’t happen today.”
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It’s one thing to try and establish the run early on in the game, but after multiple quarters of it not working — and with Will Levis having some success when he was allowed to throw down the field — the approach should’ve been abandoned entirely.
Further, the big runs Vrabel mentions that the Titans have been accustomed to getting in recent years haven’t happened in 2023, so depending on that wasn’t in the ballpark of a sound strategy.
At the very least, the Titans should’ve given rookie back Tyjae Spears more opportunities to see if he could have more success. Spears finished the game with nine carries for 30 yards, which looked like an all-time performance compared to Henry’s.
There’s a lot of blame to go around for Sunday’s loss, but the majority of it definitely goes to Kelly.
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