[FREE] Titans Sized Turnover Problem
Can the new look defense buck the Titans recent trend of lack of turnovers?
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Imagine you’re a professional football player that happens to play on defense.
Whether it’s corner, pass rusher, linebacker, safety, whatever the case may be.
You come into the facility, go to meetings, practice, stay late to watch extra film and/or go over extra details with your position coaches and coordinators, then go home just to watch extra film and then go to bed.
It’s suddenly game day, you hype yourself up, it’s another day to play the game you love for life changing money.
But suddenly, a feeling of dread washes over you. Not because you’re sad or anything, but because you know how the game is going to go and how your unit will be affected.
You’re going to play well for the most part, despite being put in horrendous situations by your offense, and you’re going to give your team a chance to win a game. But it all comes crashing down, as even your heroic efforts weren’t enough to tilt the scale of victory in your favor.
What you’ve just read, is a description of the Titans’ 2023 defense and their painful reality over the course of a miserable 5 month rollercoaster of pain.
Pure, raw, pain.
However, as much as they held the role of savior, they also weren’t perfect either.
The secondary was a mixed match mess, there was no consistent pass rush for the most part, and the depth was simply not good enough.
But if there’s one thing you can truly pinpoint as a problem for the Titans’ 2023 defense, it’s their low number of forced turnovers.
And when I say low, I mean really low.
That Turnover Number was….lowww
For some good ole record keeping purposes, it’s best to state just just how bad the Titans were at forcing turnovers last season.
Let’s put it this way.
21 teams forced at least 20 turnovers in 2023. 9 teams forced at least 15 turnovers in 2023.
The Titans weren’t a part of any of those groups in 2023. In fact, they were one of only two teams to force less than 15 turnovers in 2023, in which they only forced 14 across the entire season.
The only team that forced less turnovers than the Titans in 2023, was the Carolina Panthers. And if you’ve noticed, any time you’re similar in a specific state with Carolina, usually it’s not going to be a good thing.
14 is down from their 2022 total of 20, down from their 2021 total of 22, down from their 2019 and 2020 totals of 23, and down from their 2018 total of 17.
Somehow nobody noticed that there was a multi year trend of decreasing turnover numbers, which is surprising but we’ll still talk about it anyways.
Now, there is a bit of an excuse for these trends — especially the 2023 total — and that’s due to the poor play and injuries the secondary sustained over the years.
Hauling in interceptions is the most common way to create turnovers, and if you don’t have a secondary that can at least aid in that, then you’re not going to finish with some sweat inducing interception total.
Another excuse, well not really excuse but an observation, is the lack of forced fumbles.
Throughout Mike Vrabel’s entire tenure as head coach, the Titans never, I really mean it, never forced at least 15 fumbles in a season.
For context, the Colts, Bills, Seahawks, 49ers, Texans, Steelers, Ravens, Buccaneers, Cardinals, Eagles, and the Chargers have forced at least 15 fumbles 3 times during Vrabel’s tenure as head coach.
Fumble recoveries are a different discussion, since those are based on luck instead of skill for the most part. And if you don’t believe me, try fighting for a football at the bottom of a pile and see how often you come away with the football once the refs clear the massive bodies out of the way.
I guarantee you won’t come away with a 100% success rate. Matter fact, I guarantee it so much that I’d put money on it.
Forcing fumbles however, is something you can coach and something you can absolutely weave into your defensive philosophy.
We know the Titans have tried to do just that over the years, but the results weren’t there and it’s why these defensive units were good, very good even. But they also lacked the big play ability that turns those good units into downright scary ones.
If you want a recent example, just look at the 2022 Titans defense, which went wild and damn near carried this team after the offense spontaneously combusted due to all the injuries and Todd Downing being…himself.
That unit was a borderline scary one, despite the concerns at corner.
If the Titans want to get back to winning ways, or at least get back to giving themselves a chance at finding winning ways again, there needs to be an emphasis on creating turnovers.
How Will They Do it Though?
A plan without a vision is nothing but a dream after all.
While we don’t know the explicit messaging being used defensively this season, we did get some keywords from new DC Dennard Wilson earlier this year.
“We are going to be an attacking defense. We are going to be violent in our approach. We are going to be smart, we are going to be intelligent, we are never going to compromise for competing, and that is the brand of football we are going to play around here.”
This is going to be an aggressive, in your face defense that’s going to wreak havoc whenever they get the chance.
At least, that’s the vision.
But that’s a start though, you need a starting point in order to craft a finished product.
And the Titans realized that and responded by revamping their secondary.
Back end coverage is so key for turnover creation and the Titans are prepared to go down that route based on the moves they made this off-season.
Granted, they’ll still have to bank on their pass rush being reliable, which isn’t a given because of the questions at EDGE. They’ll also have to bank on some unexpected quality from inside linebacker, a group which’ll have to maintain integrity over the middle of the field whenever they’re called upon.
Lastly, there has to be an increased importance on forcing the football out. It’s easier said than done, but it can be done, and it’ll have to be done if the Titans want to make their lives easier on the defensive side.
It’s not a tough slope to climb or anything, just some tweaks and some increased game awareness when it comes to these big moments defensively.
That’s what camp and extra time in the film room will be useful for though.
If the Titans can rebound from a poor turnover creating season, times will be easier, especially if the offense doesn’t take off like some think it could.
We know the situations this defense was put in last season. Poor field positions, being tasked with carrying a dead team using $2 tires, we saw it all.
If this unit can start creating big turnover numbers again, then their job will become a lot easier.
Easier said than done though.
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