NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Marcus Mariota showed he can take a beating, holding up under pressure. While the Tennessee Titans are not surprised by the quarterback’s toughness, their immediate goal is protecting him better. ADVERTISING NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Marcus Mariota showed
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Marcus Mariota showed he can take a beating, holding up under pressure. While the Tennessee Titans are not surprised by the quarterback’s toughness, their immediate goal is protecting him better.
They better. A healthy Mariota gives them the best chance of winning.
Mariota was sacked seven times and hit another four times, including one lick that sent his helmet and a shoe flying off. The rookie stayed in the game and nearly rallied Tennessee in a 28-14 loss at Cleveland while limping from a sore left ankle. Mariota remains the NFL’s top-rated passer at 129.9, and he’s the only quarterback with six touchdown passes in his first two career games.
Yet no quarterback survives in this league very long if consistently pounded the way he was on Sunday.
“Some of those sacks, no matter what your clock was, he didn’t have a chance,” Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt said Monday. “We’ve got to do a better job of protection.”
Mariota took so many shots that tight end Delanie Walker said he was praying the quarterback wasn’t done.
“There were some big hits, … things that just can’t happen,” Walker said. “Thank God he got up and he was able to finish the game.”
A day later, Whisenhunt said Mariota was in good spirits, though sore and banged up. The coach said Mariota needed no tests on his sore ankle, just treatment.
Improving pass protection sounds easy enough. Whisenhunt said the Titans have to get to the line faster to adjust to what they see from the defense, and he said that involves all of the offense, not just the rookie quarterback. The Titans were flagged twice for delay of game.
Mariota also lost two of three fumbles. Keeping two hands on the ball when the Heisman Trophy winner starts running will be a start.
“He believes he can extend the play and make the play,” Whisenhunt said. “To be quite honest with you, he’s done that a couple times. We’ve just got to play smarter in certain situations. … That won’t be an issue.”
The Titans also made it easier for the Browns to tee off on Mariota with too many penalties that forced Tennessee into passing situations. The Titans were flagged eight times for 80 yards by halftime alone with two illegal hands to the face penalties on left tackle Taylor Lewan on the opening drive alone.
The second ended even worse when Terrance West, the running back Tennessee traded for on Sept. 6 from Cleveland, fumbled away the ball.
The Titans cleaned up their mistakes enough that they were penalized only once in the second half. They also finished dominating Cleveland everywhere but the scoreboard by outgaining the Browns on offense (385-274) and holding the ball for more than 35 minutes.
But they couldn’t recover from falling behind 21-0 before halftime.
“The offense from last year to this year is night and day, and I feel like nobody stopped us but ourselves,” linebacker Avery Williamson said.
Now the Titans are preparing for their home opener after being one of five teams to open the season with their first two games on the road. Of those five, only the Titans and Miami (1-1) managed to split those games.
Tennessee hosts the defending AFC South champ Indianapolis on Sunday, and Whisenhunt is focused on fixing their mistakes.
“Let’s get those cleaned up so we can become the team we have the potential to become,” Whisenhunt said.
No time to panic for Seahawks
RENTON, Wash. — The last thing Pete Carroll is going to do after starting the season with two losses is overreact.
Every season he’s had with Seattle has come to some type of crossroads. Last year, it was the Seahawks sitting at 3-3 after six weeks before winning 11 of their final 12 games.
It just happens that an important point in Seattle’s season has arrived a bit earlier than expected. After losing 27-17 at Green Bay, the Seahawks are at the bottom of the NFC West standings.
“To play at the level that we have played at the last three years, we’ve done a lot of things really well and to play at that level you have to because you’re challenged at every turn,” Carroll said. “There is a lot of fine-tuning to get that done. There are a lot of teams that almost get on top but it’s very challenging. We’re in the fine-tuning of it and not starting well doesn’t mean we won’t finish well.”
Still, by starting 0-2, Seattle has placed itself in a difficult position, though not one that is impossible to overcome. Since the playoffs expanded to their current format in 1990, 24 teams have started 0-2 and still made the postseason. Five of those teams — Arizona (1998), Buffalo (1998), New England (1996), Detroit (1995), Houston (1990) — lost their first two games on the road and were able to rally and make the playoffs.
The challenge for Seattle will be getting to the point where home-field advantage is a possibility, a key component of its two straight NFC titles. Of the teams that started 0-2 since 1990, only two finished as the No. 1 seed in their conference — Dallas in 1993 and Philadelphia in 2003. Seven times an 0-2 team reached the playoffs as the No. 6 seed.
The sentiment in the Seattle locker room after the loss to the Packers was that everyone on the verge of panic needs to take a step back.
The schedule also softens for Seattle after two of its toughest road games of the year to start. The Seahawks play three of the next four at home and could end up favored in all six games prior to its bye in early November. The favorable stretch starts with consecutive games against teams with injury concerns at quarterback: winless Chicago and winless Detroit.
Romo will avoid surgery
RVING, Texas – Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is expected to miss about two months with a broken left collarbone, though he won’t need surgery.
The loss of Romo in Sunday’s 20-10 victory at Philadelphia means the defending NFC East champion Cowboys (2-0) will be without their starting quarterback and All-Pro receiver Dez Bryant possibly through October.
Coach Jason Garrett said Monday that tests revealed no ligament damage for Romo after the second broken collarbone of his career. The other was in 2010, and he missed the final 10 games of the season. However, Dallas was out of playoff contention before he could have returned.
