Tannehill, Titans' offense stumble out of the gate in 16-15 loss to Saints

The Titans’ new-look offense entered the 2023 season with at least one very low bar to clear: be better than last year’s offense.

It seemed like an incredibly easy goal, considering the 2022 offense finished 30th in total yards, 30th in passing yards and 28th in points — failing to score more than 20 points in 10 of the Titans' last 12 games.

But one game into the season, the Titans’ offense — hard as this may be to believe — looked every bit as bad, and maybe worse, than last year’s bumbling bunch.

That’s the obvious take following the Titans’ 16-15 loss at New Orleans on Sunday, a game in which the offense totaled just 285 yards and zero touchdowns, went zero-for-three in the red zone and two-for-12 on third downs.

Quarterback Ryan Tannehill posted a career-worst 28.8 quarterback rating, after completing 16-of-34 passes for 198 yards and throwing three interceptions. It was the first time Tannehill had thrown three picks in a regular-season game since Nov. 21, 2021, when he tossed four in a loss to Houston.

Overall, it was quite the disappointing debut for new offensive coordinator Tim Kelly, whose group featured Tannehill along with playmakers Derrick Henry, Tyjae Spears, DeAndre Hopkins, Treylon Burks and Chig Okonkwo.

“It’s a sick feeling in your gut obviously,” Tannehill told reporters afterward. “We weren’t good enough in the red zone, missed opportunities, mistakes, all of it. There was a couple bright spots. But on the whole, just have to be better in a lot of different areas.”

Given the horrendous offensive numbers the Titans produced, it was somewhat surprising to see the team still have a chance to post a winning score on its final drive.

But Titans coach Mike Vrabel didn’t appear to have too much confidence in the offense’s ability to secure a critical red-zone first down — or score a critical touchdown — in the closing minutes. Instead of choosing to go for it on fourth-and-6 at the Saints’ 11-yard line with two-and-a-half minutes remaining, Vrabel decided to kick a field goal that trimmed New Orleans’ lead to 16-15.

The Titans never saw the ball again, as the Saints managed two first downs and ran out the clock.

“Tried to put the game in [the defense’s] hands,” Vrabel said. “I thought we’d get a stop. … Thought we’d come down there and find a way to get it inside the 40 and then kick a field goal to win the game. That’s what I believed.”

Tannehill looked inexplicably off for most of the game, as he came close to getting picked at least a couple more times than he did.

In addition, the 11-year veteran missed open targets on a pair of potentially game-changing plays. He failed to hit an open Okonkwo down the right sideline to cap a nicely executed flea flicker early in the fourth quarter, and missed a wide open Spears deep down the left sideline later in the fourth quarter.

“We hit some plays and we don’t hit some plays,” Vrabel said of the missed throw to Okonkwo. “We didn’t hit it. ... I don’t know if that was a momentum switch, but it was certainly a play we have to hit and would have liked to hit.”

There were some offensive line issues, as Tannehill was sacked three times and harassed on other occasions. But they weren’t enough to explain all the difficulties Tannehill encountered.

Nor did Tannehill use rustiness as an excuse, though he missed the final three games of last year and played just three snaps in the preseason, handing off each time.

“I felt really good coming into the game,” Tannehill said. “Felt healthy. Felt really good mentally, ready to roll. Just didn’t come out and play well. Obviously, I’m not happy with the way [I] performed. There’s a lot of room to grow there. Excited to get back to work and be ready to go next week.”

As is the case with every game, the entirety of the outcome can’t be placed on one person or one side of the ball.

The Titans’ special teams, for example, chipped in when a failed blocking assignment turned into a blocked Ryan Stonehouse punt and, eventually, a Saints field goal.

The defense played well overall, sacking Carr four times and holding the Saints out of the end zone on three of four New Orleans drives that reached the red zone. But that defense also failed to get a stop when the Titans needed the ball back in the closing moments, and it also surrendered five completions of 20 yards or  more — including a back-breaking 41-yard, third-down completion to Rashid Shaheed on third and six with under two minutes remaining.

Still, this game was there for the taking if Tannehill and the Titans offense had done just a little more.

How much should we attribute the struggles to this being the first game for Kelly, for his new scheme, for an overhauled offensive line and for the tandem of Tannehill and Hopkins?

It’s certainly possible all the novelty played a role, especially in the noisy Superdome environment.

But that’s not a good enough excuse for a 2023 offense that — in its first opportunity to make a decent impression — instead recalled far too many painful memories of 2022.