Tennessee Titans

Three Takeaways From Week Four

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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This coaching staff has broken Marcus Mariota

It might come off like we’re a Marcus Mariota fan club, but we’re just realistic. Everyone and their moms knew that Mike Mularkey was not going to be the answer when it came to unleashing Mariota’s potential. As we’ve seen so far this year, Mariota has looked worse than he ever has. While a lot of that is due to Mariota, the coaches have not put him in a position to succeed and it’s been sad to see.

As much as we HATED Ken Whisenhunt, he was actually good for Mariota. With abysmal offensive talent around him, Whisenhunt turned a young Mariota into a comfortable pocket passer and it resulted in him ending his rookie season with a cool 91.5 passer rating and 19:10 touchdown to interception ratio. Mularkey’s train wreck of an “exotic smashmouth” offense has put Mariota in positions that aren’t beneficial to ANY quarterback.

Offensive coordinator Terry Robiskie consistently draws up complex plays that are never before seen because they don’t work. There are several plays where we roll Mariota out and cut his field of vision in half and have only one or two receivers on that side of the field.

Then there’s this disgusting excuse for a play call from week three. Two receiving options against seven covering defenders. How in the world is Mariota supposed to find a completion here? I can’t wait until this staff is fired. (h/t to twitter user @Ensconatus for the picture)

The Titans special teams suck and coach Bobby April paid for it

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If you haven’t heard yet, special teams coach Bobby April has been fired by the Titans following a debacle on Sunday against the Houston Texans. The Titans got a 12 men on the field penalty on an opposing punt play that resulted in the Texans being able to move up five yards and kick a field goal. Later in the game, Will Fuller went virtually untouched on a 67 yard punt return for a touchdown.

Many people are saying April is being used as a scapegoat, but every aspect of our special teams had been poor throughout the preseason and into the regular season. There was no reason to keep him around, and I’m glad the Titans were proactive in trying to fix a part of the team that wasn’t performing. I don’t understand why the Titans always struggle when it comes to special teams, but this seems to be an annual occurrence. I’m hoping new coach Steve Hoffman can get it resolved because it cost us 10 points and possibly the win on Sunday.

This team is better than last year’s team

Attribute it to more talented players or a different mindset/philosophy, but this team has been substantially better than it was last year. For those who don’t remember last year, we were constantly getting blown out and it wasn’t pretty. We lost seven games by at least two touchdowns or more and, despite a blowout win in Tampa in week one, two of our three wins were by a combined nine points.

This year hasn’t been the same. The one win so far was only by a point, but our losses have come by nine, seven and seven points, respectively. Maybe I’m alone in this, but I would much rather be a team that loses close games with a chance at the end (which we’ve had the last two weeks) than one that gets demolished and embarrassed. It’s only a matter of time before luck (and good calls) begins to come our way, and when it does we’ll begin to pick up some wins.

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