Titans Film Room: Breaking Down Will Levis' Four TD passes in Historic Debut for Tennessee Titans

The Tennessee Titans saw rookie quarterback Will Levis tie the NFL record for most touchdown passes in a debut. Dive into the film to see how the Levis made it happen.

The Tennessee Titans got a much needed victory against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 8 led by a tremendous debut from rookie quarterback Will Levis. Levis threw for four touchdown passes, tying the NFL record for most by a rookie in their first game.

On the first touchdown pass of the game, Levis showed incredible arm talent. He gets clean space to throw off of the play action and finds DeAndre Hopkins down the left sideline. Hopkins wasn't completely free of the defensive back, but was able to shake loose as the ball arrived.

Levis' ability to throw the ball down the field effortlessly is what stands out the most. With a slight flick of the wrist, Levis can quickly launch the ball and from the end zone angle the ball leaves the screen because it is so high.

Levis' deep passes stood out all day. If you look at the top ten longest touchdown passes in the NFL this season by air distance, Levis' name will be seen three times — after one week. The graphic below from Next Gen Stats is incredible.

In his first career start, Will Levis threw 3 of the 10 longest touchdown passes by air distance this season.

🔹 47-yard TD to D. Hopkins: 56.1 yards (4th)
🔹 33-yard TD to N. Westbrook-Ikhine: 55.2 yards (5th)
🔹 61-yard TD to D. Hopkins: 51.7 yards (8th)

Powered by @awscloud pic.twitter.com/goNMVDsw9X

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) October 29, 2023

While the long touchdowns are more eye-popping, the second touchdown throw of the day was just simple, good quarterbacking. Levis reads the zone defense and gets it to his best receiver on the underneath route. The ball was a touch behind, but Hopkins was able to snag it and make a play. Nice to see Hopkins doing that for the Titans now after seeing him do it against them all those years.

We are back to cannon mode on the third touchdown. This is really a team effort. The Falcons drop eight players into coverage and run a Cover 2. Hopkins comes from the outside right, up towards the deep-half safety on his side and pretends like he is about to sit down in front of the safety on a curl.

That is not what Hopkins is doing though. Instead after the fake, Hopkins bolts straight up the field. Great route by Hopkins to sell the curl and great throw by Levis to send a rocket that landed right in Hopkins' hands for a walk-in touchdown.

We do need to give credit where it is due to Tim Kelly though. The Titans had seen some drop-eight coverage from the Falcons throughout the game, mostly on second and long, so Kelly knew he would have time for the double move by Hopkins and knew, against only three rushers, that the offensive line could handle the rush out of empty formation. Beautiful design and game-planning.

The final touchdown throw from Levis might be the most impressive. The Titans are showing a rollout play to the right with Levis on the sprint out. Nick Westbrook-Ikhine is in the slot on the right while Treylon Burks is on the outside to the right.

Burks run a quick stop route by the sideline designed to pull the cornerback to him and Westbrook-Ikhine is showing a corner route to the right-back pylon, Westbrook-Ikhine flips the defender when he abandons the corner route and turns it into a post to the left.

This type of play is called a "throwback" because you are really selling a play to the right with the Levis' rollout and the route combination, but it is just in an effort to shift the defense with the intention of going back to the left.

The Titans execute perfect concept-wise, but there is some leaky protection upfront and Levis has a defender in his face while trying to throw from beyond the right hash to the back-left corner of the end zone. Oh yeah, from nearly 50 yards away.

Did it matter? No. Levis drops a dime to Westbrook-Ikhine  off his backfoot and gives the Titans the points they need to win a game they had to have to keep their season alive. The Titans face a stout Steelers defense in Week 9 though, so Levis will have to do it again.

Related Titans-Falcons stories

• WEEK 8 DEFENSIVE GRADES: The Tennessee Titans defense had moments of dominance and collapse against the Atlanta Falcons, but were able to get enough stops to win. The performance was mostly led by the Titans defensive line, who lead the defensive grades in Week 8. CLICK HERE
• WEEK 8 OFFENSIVE GRADES: The Tennessee Titans offense got a tremendous performance from rookie quarterback Will Levis and DeAndre Hopkins in their Week 8 win over the Atlanta Falcons, so it is no surprise those two players top the list of offensive grades. CLICK HERE
• WEEK 8 SNAP COUNTS: The Tennessee Titans got their season back on track against the Atlanta Falcons and they did it while having some interesting players making contributions. We see that in the snaps counts on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. CLICK HERE
• TITAN UP-TITAN DOWN: The Tennessee Titans got a huge win over the Atlanta Falcons that featured a fantastic debut for Will Levis, but other good and bad performances as well. Here are the top three winners and losers from the 28-23 victory. CLICK HERE
• WEEK 8 PHOTO GALLERY: The Tennessee Titans beat the Atlanta Falcons 28-23 on Sunday, with rookie quarterback Will Levis throwing four touchdown passes in his NFL debut. Our photographers had a great day, too. Here are 20 images from the game at Nissan Stadium. CLICK HERE
• WEEK 8 DRIVE CHART: The Tennessee Titans were led by rookie quarterback Will Levis on Sunday and beat the Atlanta Falcons 28-23. Levis had an incredible debut and here is a recap of what happened on every offensive drive. CLICK HERE