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Week 5 Game Recap: Tennessee Titans 13, Baltimore Ravens 10
What you need to know
| Tennessee Titans |
With former starting QB Vince Young able to suit up and serve as Tennessee's number two quarterback, starting QB Kerry Collins had perhaps his worst outing of the season as he tossed two early interceptions and barely cleared a 50% completion rate. Collins still managed to manage two good drives, however, and lead the Titans to the win.
RB Chris Johnson enjoyed his first game as the Titans' feature back with 18 of the teams' 22 carries on the day. Unfortunately, after some early success, the Ravens' stout defense shut Johnson out and he never got near the end zone.
Despite the Titans having to play a significant portion of the game from behind and some pass heavy play calling in the second half, the most frequent targets in the Titans' passing game were not WRs Justin McCariens and Brandon Jones, but the two headed TE monster of Bo Scaife and Alge Crumpler, with Crumpler hauling in QB Kerry Collins' only TD pass of the day.
| Baltimore Ravens |
QB Joe Flacco had a rough day as he was picked of twice and narrowly escaped a third INT. While he appeared competent enough on the short routes, his decision making while escaping the Ravens pass rush and trying to get the ball downfield left much to be desired.
RB Willis McGahee saw 22 carries as he shouldered the lions' share of the Ravens rushes, but he showed little ability to break tackles and generate long runs, only doing so on a pair of notable plays. Meanwhile LeRon McClain solidified his position as the number two back, and number one option on the goal line as he again accounted for all of Baltimore's points on the ground.
While they each received at least seven targets, WRs Mark Clayton and Derrick Mason were unable to generate significant fantasy numbers as Raven QB Joe Flacco struggled with the Titan pass rush and on his downfield passes. On the other hand, TE Todd Heap made the most of his opportunities and showed glimpses of his former self.
What you ought to know
| QB Kerry Collins, Pass: 17 - 32 - 163 - 1 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 1 - -1 - 0 |
After Vince Young's early season knee injury, Tennessee head coach Jeff Fisher tabbed Collins as the starter for his team barring injury, and presumably, even upon Young's return to health. With Young on the sidelines as the #2 QB, Collins was again given the opportunity to show why he should keep the reins. He didn't present a very good case. At least not until the end of the game. While he connected on his first three passes, the third was to a Ravens defensive lineman who recovered a batted pass knocked into the air at the line of scrimmage. In the Titans' second series, Collins again brought it to a premature end when he, with the pocket collapsing around him, made an ill-advised pass into double coverage that was snagged by Baltimore's Chris McAlister. While these would be Collins' only two picks on the day (a third was negated by a defensive holding penalty in the third quarter), the rest of his performance wasn't much better. Facing relentless pressure all day long, Collins regularly placed the ball just outside his receivers' reach. He only engineered two sustained drives all day, and the second of those would have been aborted early had it not been for a Ravens roughing the passer penalty on a third and ten play. The bright spot for Collins was his late fourth quarter double-pump pass from the 11 yard line to Alge Crumpler back-pedaling into the end zone. That pass provided the winning points the Titans needed to stay undefeated.
| RB Chris Johnson, Rush: 18 - 44 - 0, Rec: 2 - 4 - 0 (2 targets) |
For the first time this season, the rookie Johnson was given the chance to be the clear featured back in the Titans' rushing attack. As might be expected from a first year player facing a still imposing Ravens defense, Johnson's production was uneven. While his first rush of the day went through a gaping hole over left tackle for 13 yards, and his fifth was a burst up the middle for 11, they would be his two longest of the day. As the game wore on and the Ravens calibrated their schemes to account for his speed, Johnson's effectiveness plummeted. In the second half, Johnson gained only 12 yards on his ten carries, and his inability to gain any ground during the Titans' final series (three carries, negative two yards) gave the Ravens a chance to attempt some last minute heroics (that ultimately failed). In the passing game, Johnson was used out of the backfield on two occasions and provided a good outlet option for QB Kerry Collins.
| RB LenDale White, Rush: 3 - 4 - 0, Rec: 1 - 0 - 0 (1 targets) |
After a week that saw him limited in practice due to a sore shoulder, White ceded even more carries to rookie RB Chris Johnson and finished with only three carries on the day, all of which came in the first half. Since Tennessee did not run any plays close to the goal line, the question of whether White would continue to be the Titans' preferred RB in such situations was left unanswered. Notably, White did receive a rare target in the passing game. Consistent with his performance on the day, however, it went for no gain.
| WR Brandon Jones, Rec: 3 - 54 - 0 (8 targets) |
With Justin Gage inactive due to injury, Jones was given the opportunity to start opposite Justin McCariens. While he didn't really get involved in the passing game until a late drive in the third quarter, when he was given the opportunities during that drive, Jones made plays. First he hauled in a 14 yard pass along the left sideline and then three plays later he used his impressive leaping ability to go up and get a 26 yard pass that would have sailed over the heads of most of the league's WRs. Unfortunately, Jones would only convert one more pass that came his way (again for 14 yards), before returning to the invisibility that had characterized his involvement in the first half.
| WR Justin McCareins (5 targets) |
While he received five targets, McCariens failed to convert on any of them. This was due to a combination of a variety of unfortunate circumstances including starting QB Kerry Collins' struggles, oppressive coverage, and McCariens' inability to keep his footing on the one long, downfield play that he might have had a chance to grab. Certainly a day to forget.
| WR Justin Gage |
Gage was inactive for the game due to injury.
| TE Bo Scaife, Rec: 7 - 72 - 0 (8 targets) |
Despite, once again, not being tabbed as the Titans' starting TE, Scaife proved to be the most targeted receiver at that position, edging fellow TE Alge Crumpler by one. He also was clearly the team's most effective receiver. Despite Kerry Collins' struggles at QB, Scaife snagged virtually everything thrown his way as he ran clean routes at both short and medium distances. While he was never used deep, the sheer number of opportunities that he converted resulted in a very good 72 yard day.
| TE Alge Crumpler, Rec: 2 - 15 - 1 (7 targets) |
After being ignored in the passing game last week, Crumpler returned as a popular target for starting QB Kerry Collins. With one notable exception, however, Crumpler was unable to make much out of his opportunities as Collins either threw the ball poorly (including an underthrown toss into the end zone in the third quarter) or Crumpler was simply unable to hold onto catchable passes. That one exception mentioned above, however, was a successful 11 yard TD grab as Crumpler back-pedaled into the end zone late in the fourth quarter that not only gave the Titans the points it needed to win, but also made for a successful fantasy day.
| PK Rob Bironas 2 - 2 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 7 points |
With field goals from 35 and 26 yards, Bironas made both of his attempts with ease.
| TEN Rush Defense |
While the Titans rush defense was largely solid, they did give up the occasional long play and showed a regular inability to stop Baltimore in short yardage situations. This was exhibited both in third and short situations as well as on Baltimore's lone trip to the Tennessee goal line where the Ravens' LeRon McClain was able to convert on a first and goal from the one.
| TEN Pass Defense |
The Titans' pass rush was effective all day, and while they did not register any sacks, they were able to regularly force Baltimore QB Joe Flacco from the pocket and into bad throws. This, in turn, enabled Tennessee's ball-hawking defensive backs to play aggressively and grab two interceptions, including a late fourth quarter pick by Nick Harper that effectively iced the game for Tennessee.
| QB Joe Flacco, Pass: 18 - 27 - 153 - 0 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 2 - 4 - 0 |
Any rookie QB cutting his teeth in the NFL will have some good games and some bad games. For Flacco, this was one of the latter. While Flacco continued to show that he can rifle short passes to his receivers, when he tried to toss the ball further down the field, it proved a risky proposition. While the stat sheet might show Flacco throwing two picks on the day, in truth he threw three. Had Titan LB David Thornton not bobbled a Flacco first quarter toss ever so slightly as he tried to keep both feet in bounds, he would have had the INT instead of simply forcing an incompletion. What was troubling about this play was that Thornton was clearly in Flacco's view and clearly in a position to make a play on the ball, yet Flacco attempted the pass anyway. On the first of his real picks, Flacco tossed a poor pass into triple coverage while trying to escape the pass rush, and on the second he threw off the wrong foot and delivered the ball to the Titans' Nick Harper to effectively hand the game to Tennessee. By the end of the day, Flacco may have completed two-thirds of his passes (including, admittedly, a few nice tosses), but his performance was anything but effective.
| RB Willis McGahee, Rush: 22 - 64 - 0, Rec: 1 - 2 - 0 (1 targets) |
For the first time this season, McGahee entered the contest as the unquestioned starter and he ended up with, by far, the most carries (22) of any Ravens RB. While McGahee seemed to be able to hit the designated hole quickly and gain a few yards, he didn't seem able to power through the initial hit and broke few tackles. As a result, his performance on the day would best be described as workmanlike with two notable exceptions. First, late in the first quarter McGahee took the ball at his own ten yard line and punched through the right side of the line. While Titans LB David Thornton got to McGahee quickly, the Raven carried him for the last half of the 16 yard run. Then, late in the second quarter, McGahee gained 14 yards as he fought through multiple tackles. While such instances were few and far between, they were glimpses of what McGahee is still capable of, and may return to, if he can get his knee back to 100%.
| RB LeRon McClain, Rush: 11 - 51 - 1, Rec: 2 - 12 - 0 (2 targets) |
If there was any question whether McClain had solidified his position as the Ravens' number two RB behind Willis McGahee and ahead of rookie Ray Rice, it was answered in this game. While McGahee received twice as many carries (22), McClain's 11 were more than double all other Ravens ball-carriers combined, and Rice finished the game with none. While McClain saw his carries sprinkled throughout the game all over the field in relief of McGahee, most importantly he continued to see use in goal-line packages. Baltimore only got within the Tennessee red zone once, but when they did, McClain received almost all of the opportunities on the ground. The notable exception was a Lorenzo Neal run from the Titan two, but when Neal failed to get the ball across the goal line, McClain got the call on the next play and notched another TD. McClain also saw some attention in the passing game, and hauled in both of his targets.
| RB Ray Rice (1 targets) |
With the return of Willis McGahee's ability to handle 20+ carries, and the early season emergence of LeRon McClain, it has become clear that Rice is the third option on the ground for the Ravens. While he did periodically get on the field, Rice received no carries and was only targeted in the passing game once -- an incompletion.
| WR Derrick Mason, Rec: 5 - 38 - 0 (8 targets) |
While he was QB Joe Flacco's favorite target, Mason was primarily used in short routes that gave him little chance to make plays. As a result of this, Mason's day was rather unremarkable.
| WR Mark Clayton, Rush: 1 - 9 - 0, Rec: 4 - 37 - 0 (7 targets) |
With QB Joe Flacco struggling all day, Clayton had difficulty making any real impact. The lone notable exception was a late second quarter leaping grab along the right sideline for 19 yards. Unfortunately, this catch accounted for more than half of Clayton's total receiving yards. As has been the case all season, Clayton was able to supplement these receiving yards with a rushing attempt, but this nine yard end-around scamper was hardly enough to make up for his mediocre totals elsewhere.
| TE Todd Heap, Rec: 4 - 41 - 0 (4 targets) |
There has been a Todd Heap sighting. After struggling to make either receptions or an impact in earlier games, Heap finally started to justify his preseason fantasy rankings. While he was only targeted four times, he converted on each of them, including two passes of 14+ yards. He seemed able to find the soft spots in the defense and any question about his ability to take hard hits were dispelled as he bounced back easily from a pair of hard tackles late in the second half.
| PK Matt Stover 1 - 2 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 4 points |
Stover had two opportunities to earn three points, and both came in the first half. While he connected on a 38 yard first quarter attempt, he failed to do the same on a 45 yard attempt in the waning seconds of the first half.
| BAL Rush Defense |
After giving up two 11+ yard runs to Titans rookie RB Chris Johnson early on, the Ravens rush defense buckled down and regularly stuffed any Tennessee attempt to gain yards on the ground. The defensive line clogged the running lanes and the speedy Ravens line-backers were able to handle any attempts to run to the outside.
| BAL Pass Defense |
While they didn't end up registering any sacks of Titan QB Kerry Collins, the Ravens pass rush was relentless all day. On virtually every play, at least one member of the defensive line was able to fight free and apply pressure. As a result, Collins was regularly over-throwing or otherwise missing his receivers, and the Ravens were able to force two picks on the day. The first was a result of a pass deflected at the line, and the second was a Chris McAlister INT that was directly attributable to Collins attempting to force a pass into double coverage while trying to evade the pass rush.
