Thread by @TomKislingbury, Spent a little bit of time looking at the Titans defense from [...]

Spent a little bit of time looking at the Titans defense from last week
Which was fun...
#NFLDefense

First snap of the game.
Long and Evans as orthodox LBs of course.
Long on the strong side.
Jack Crawford playing outside the RT.
Tuzar Skipper way outside the LT.
Kenny V sneaking up.

"Hang on" I hear you cry "where's Harold Landry?
Here he is.
Out in the slot.
Over Jarvis Landry.
Obviously.
You can see the 2-deep safety shell here too of course.

Next snap.
Landry playing as an off-ball LB here with Crawford and Skipper again the edges.
Note Landry is on the weak side here.

Here's the 4-man front we expect to see. Landry down on the LoS with Crawford on the other end.
Rashaan Evans is on the weak side here.
Jones is a 1-tech. Simmons a 3tech.

Next snap.
Crawford/Landry on the edges again.
Evans playing on the strong side this snap.
Kenny Vaccaro and Kevin Byard both heading down into the box.

Next snap.
Crawford and Skipper again on the edge.
David Long pulled out of the box on the weak side.

Here's where Harold Landry was on that snap.
In the slot again.
Nice example of a personnel shift by the offense.
Nick Chubb [24] motioned out to play right WR.
Landry is on Njoku [85].
You can see the defense looking a little confused.

Next snap.
Landry is back on the edge across from Crawford.
Evans is the weak side LB here.
Kenny Vaccaro down in the box over Auston Hooper.

A very Patriots-tree 3rd down look here.
Simmons is the only interior lineman on the field.
Long and Evans both showing zone blitz on the LoS.
Landry and Derick Roberson as the wiiide edges.
Amani Hooker in as the extra safety with Byard and Vaccaro both coming down into the box.

Next snap [after a penalty].
Again just one interior lineman on the field.
Roberson remains in.
Hooker in the box from safety with Byard deep this snap.

So there's plenty going on here.
As is the case with most of the Patriots-tree defense this is a very multiple defense.
And it works on variation and confusion.
More than most defensive schemes do.

Here's how I characterise the personnel package use.
You'll often hear them described as "the Titans use a 34" but it's so much more nuanced than that.
Their big dime secondary use is really interesting to me.

Here's what their "official" depth chart looks like.

That starting front 4 [Jeffery Simmons, DaQuan Jones, Jack Crawford and Derrick Roberson] has played precisely 19 snaps together this season.

Note that I have Jack Crawford as an interior lineman in my system.
From watching this I'm going to move him to being an edge.

Here's what that does to the personnel package data.
Look how much more multiple the front data is.
Much better representation IMO.
Always getting better!

Tracking defense is hard. There's been 965 players this season take a defensive snap in the NFL.
You're going to have situations when you've classified a player poorly - you just need to stay open minded and adapt when needed.

In terms of NFL defense quality I've got them at 25th.
They're not a good passing defense.
They're not a good pass rush unit.
Only 7 teams have allowed more points.
Only 7 have allowed more yards

No team has allowed more than the 27 receiving TDs the Titans have given up.
The Cowboys are level.
The Jags on 26.
The Browns on 25.
The Falcons , Jets, Chargers and Vikes are on 24

The Titans have committed 84 penalties on defense. Only the Eagles have more with 85.

The Titans have averaged 15 QB pressures per game.
The Bengals are worst in the NFL with 11.
Even the Raiders have more with 16 per game.
For context the Steelers lead the league with 24 per game

Thanks for reading Titans fans.
It really helps me understand a defense to do this sort of process.
I hope you guys found it useful.
Merry Xmas.

Latest Threads Unrolled: