Fact or Fiction: Finding Truth in Loss to Giants

Derrick Henry remains a workhorse. Jeffery Simmons is as big a problem as ever. Ryan Tannehill has plenty of guys to throw to but doesn't have his go-to-guy.

NASHVILLE – This much is certain: The Tennessee Titans’ season-opening 21-20 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday was a difficult pill to swallow.

Tennessee led 13-0 at halftime and – despite some obvious struggles along the way – had a chance to win it at the end. Randy Bullock’s 47-yard attempt as time expired missed to the left and forced the Titans to come to terms with a 0-1 start.

Some will find it difficult to make sense of what happened and to understand what it means.

With those folks in mind, we offer this look at what is fact and what is fiction about the 2022 Tennessee Titans after Week 1.

• Fact: Ryan Tannehill will miss A.J. Brown.

Tannehill spread the ball around to 11 different receivers (10 had at least one reception) and showed he has particular trust in rookie wide receiver Kyle Philips, who caught three passes for 32 yards on the drive that set up Bulluck’s game-winning field goal attempt and a team-high six passes in all. Tannehill finished the day 20-33 for 266 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. His passer rating – 106.4 – was the best he has had in any Week 1 game he has played.

Still, it was impossible to ignore the fact that Brown finished with 10 receptions for 155 yards (on 13 targets) in his Philadelphia debut. As of the completion of the afternoon games, he was second in the league in yards and tied for second in receptions. When the offense went flat during the middle part of the game, no one stepped up and delivered the kind of big play or showed the kind of emotion for which Brown became famous during his three seasons in Tennessee. The good news is that Tannehill has plenty of people he can target. There is no one, though, like Brown.

• Fiction: The Titans won’t miss Harold Landry at all.

Their sacks leader in each of the last three years is too good a player to say he won’t be missed. And there will be games this season when his superb speed rush would be just what the defense needs to take advantage of a slow-footed tackle.

That said, it is clear that Tennessee can still pressure opposing quarterbacks without Landry. Three players combined for five sacks. Jeffery Simmons and Rashad Weaver had two apiece (one of Simmons’ was a strip sack that produced the game’s first turnover). Bud Dupree added one. All told, the Titans racked up eight hits on Daniel Jones, all from defensive linemen and linebackers, which says coordinator Shane Bowen does not need to manufacture pressure with a bunch of blitzes that leave the secondary vulnerable. It was a promising and disruptive start for the front seven, which came into the season with a lot of optimism, some of which was blunted by Landry’s season-ending knee injury.

• Fact: Franchise officials made the right choice when they released Brett Kern.

The impact Kern made in games and on the organization won’t be forgotten anytime soon, but there is no denying the power of Ryan Stonehouse’s right leg. The rookie nearly set a franchise record for gross punt average in a game (minimum four attempts) when he averaged 57.0 yards on six kicks. As it is, he already is fourth on the franchise’s list just one game into his career, and the performance included a punts of 62 and 64 yards in the third quarter and one of 66 early in the fourth. The latter was returned two yards for a net of 64 and was one of three that forced the Giants to start a drive inside their own 20. He had no touchbacks. Stonehouse’s net average was 46.7 yards, a figure Kern topped just once in 2021.

The coverage unit could have been better. New York’s Richie James averaged 12.4 yards per return and had a long of 22 yards. A year ago, the longest return against the Titans was 18 yards. Whether Stonehouse outkicked the coverage or not is for the coaches to decide. There is no doubt, though, about his ability to affect field position in a way not a lot of guys can.

• Fiction: This is the year that coaches will make a concerted effort to limit Derrick Henry’s workload.

Any thought that the two-time NFL rushing champion would be eased into this after a foot injury sidelined him for nine games last season are long gone after just one game. Never mind that rookies Hassan Haskins and Julius Chestnut have running styles that suggest it would be easy to take some work from Henry.

The Titans ran the ball 26 times against the Giants, and Henry had the ball in his hands for 21 of them. He was responsible for 15 of the first 16 (quarterback Ryan Tannehill had one scramble) before Dontrell Hilliard ran it a couple of times.

Only once in his career has Henry notched more carries in Week 1. That was in 2020 when he carried it 31 times against Denver to kick off his 2,000-yard season. His 21 carries against the Giants went for 82 yards, an average of 3.9 per attempt that was his best Week 1 average since 2019. So, there is nothing to make anyone think coaches won’t keep giving him the ball as often as possible.

• Fact: Jeffery Simmons is going to be a problem for pretty much everyone.

The Pro Bowl defensive lineman started the season with six tackles, and nearly all of them were impactful plays. That total included the two sacks and two tackles for loss (not the sacks).

He started with a sack in the first quarter, which made it third-and-20 (the Giants did not convert). Then came the second sack and the forced fumble, which Dupree recovered at the New York 42. Early in the third, he combined with David Long to stop running back Saquon Barkley for a loss of one yard. Late in the third quarter, he stopped Barkley for a 3-yard gain on second down, and two plays later the Giants punted. Early in the fourth, Simmons blew up a running play and dropped Barkley for a loss of six yards. Finally, he combined with Teair Tart to limit Barkley to a four-yard gain.

Everyone in the NFL already knows who Simmons is. That performance, though, is going to garner a lot of attention in film study in the coming weeks and will force opposing offenses to double-team him all the time. It still might not be enough.