Tennessee Titans: What’s missing from Ryan Tannehill’s game?

The Tennessee Titans have not been consistent on offense this year. What does Ryan Tannehill need to do to revive the offense so that they can beat the Buffalo Bills? 

The Tennessee Titans are going to face their biggest challenge all year in the red-hot Buffalo Bills. After losing to New York Jets, another AFC East team, just two weeks ago, the Titans need to find their old balanced attack if they wish to make a dent in the rolling Bills.

In the years since Ryan Tannehill showed up for the Titans, the team has focused on establishing a strong outside zone run game with Derrick Henry, and then building big chunk plays through play-action passes. This plan worked well as the Titans went to the playoffs two years in a row under this philosophy.

But this year, the offense has not seemed to run as smoothly as it once did. Tannehill is more than willing to take deep shots down the field, but without the consistent play action to complement his low percentage deep shots, the offense reveals its gaping hole. In years past, the play-action passing has added stability to the offense.

Tennessee Titans: What’s missing from Ryan Tannehill’s game?

However, in what appears to be an early league-wide trend, the Shanahan-McVay bootlegs are not as successful as they once were just a year ago. As Ollie Connolly discusses in this article, defenses have started giving one defender the responsibility of the quarterback on each run play to limit the quarterback’s ability to roll out. Unfortunately for the Tennessee Titans, this has been a big part of their offense.

If you remember, this is exactly how Chandler Jones racked up five sacks in Week 1 versus the Titans (and he has not had a sack since). And as it would be, Tannehill leads the NFL in sacks taken with 20. To put that in context, last season Tannehill only had 24 sacks in 16 games with only Jared Goff, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, and Aaron Rodgers having less.

But there is one element of Tannehill’s game that the Titans can explore to hinder defenses’ ability to contain Tannehill’s abilities. This ability, of course, is his legs. Currently, Tannehill is setting himself up to have his greatest rushing season ever. And he is not doing it with a bunch of designed runs.

An old classic, the zone read, needs to make a frequent appearance for the Titans this Monday night against the Bills if the Tennessee Titans hope to have a chance. By using Tannehill’s skill in the run game, the Titans offense can force defenses’ hands in the run game between both Henry and Tannehill. So, rather than relying on the bootleg as in years past to balance the offense’s attack, the Titans ought to give Tannehill designed opportunities to use his legs as a major part of the offense.