Week 1 GDT: Tennessee Titans @ Chicago Bears

[ttitansfan4life]

🤣

[Justin615$]

If this season is about finding out if Will Levis is the guy, yesterday was a mark in the no column. Luckily he has 16 more games for some yes

[El Ramster]

I thought Levi’s was fantastic and did the best with what he could. The bears were all over him. Build the line and keep running the ball. He just has it. 
 

Did Ernest Jones start? See had 3 tackles. 

[TitanRedd]

9 minutes ago, El Ramster said:

I thought Levi’s was fantastic and did the best with what he could. The bears were all over him. Build the line and keep running the ball. He just has it. 
 

Did Ernest Jones start? See had 3 tackles. 

Either you trolling or you didn’t watch the game he wasn’t fantastic at all it was the worse game of his career 

[El Ramster]

2 minutes ago, TitanRedd said:

Either you trolling or you didn’t watch the game he wasn’t fantastic at all it was the worse game of his career 

I did not watch the game. I was watching the Texans and Colts game. Where I’m from in my papies 5 acre farm in Lubbock Tx we only get texan games. But I know many TN folks were high on him. Just extending that good ol southern hospitality partner. Either way, my main concern was Ernest. 

[deeluxx3]

I guess I'm just a bit baffled at what Callahan and Levis were doing all summer

YES YES, this is game 1 and this is an overreaction.  Welcome to Titania/FF.

 

But my gosh. We got on Vrabel and his cronies for their obvious failures...I thought Levis was supposed to look like a QB with some in-game experience and an offseason under "real" coaching. Bears have as legit of a D as anyone and clearly they did something at halftime to neutralize our O. But Callahan just with zero ideas.

What confuses me most is how "inspired" our preseason playcalling seemed. I understand we weren't going up against a preseason D yesterday...but we just looked super vanilla on offense. Treating Tony Pollard with the same love/affection/obsession that Vrabel+crew had for Henry. Spears with 8 touches to Pollard's 19....wtf?

Dancing Calvin around in motion like he's a Tyreek Hill type weapon. He's not that type of player / doesn't make a defense flinch pre-snap w/ sh** like that.

Everything just felt horizontal/outside the hashes from a passing perspective. Feel like we have a lot of guys that can eat over the middle of the field. I get the possibility that we have a condensed playbook because Callahan may not trust Levis...but again, wtf were they doing all offseason?

Callahan gets a big fat F from me in his debut, with Levis at an F-.

[TitanRedd]

20 minutes ago, deeluxx3 said:

I guess I'm just a bit baffled at what Callahan and Levis were doing all summer

YES YES, this is game 1 and this is an overreaction.  Welcome to Titania/FF.

 

But my gosh. We got on Vrabel and his cronies for their obvious failures...I thought Levis was supposed to look like a QB with some in-game experience and an offseason under "real" coaching. Bears have as legit of a D as anyone and clearly they did something at halftime to neutralize our O. But Callahan just with zero ideas.

What confuses me most is how "inspired" our preseason playcalling seemed. I understand we weren't going up against a preseason D yesterday...but we just looked super vanilla on offense. Treating Tony Pollard with the same love/affection/obsession that Vrabel+crew had for Henry. Spears with 8 touches to Pollard's 19....wtf?

Dancing Calvin around in motion like he's a Tyreek Hill type weapon. He's not that type of player / doesn't make a defense flinch pre-snap w/ sh** like that.

Everything just felt horizontal/outside the hashes from a passing perspective. Feel like we have a lot of guys that can eat over the middle of the field. I get the possibility that we have a condensed playbook because Callahan may not trust Levis...but again, wtf were they doing all offseason?

Callahan gets a big fat F from me in his debut, with Levis at an F-.

I disagree, sure at times his play calling was vanilla but I expect a learning curve this his 1st time calling plays, he’s trying to get a feel of the game. As to his heavy use of pollard he also said that at times he may ride with whichever back has the hot hand & pollard had the hot hand Vs a very good beard D. As for Ridley as I said when we got him, we were going to use him the same way Cin use Chase, & that’s the same way Miami uses hill, motion, why is that because it makes it hard for the defense to lock on him, motioning him around helps get him free releases off the LOS, it helps you get a feel of what coverage the D is in Pre snap zone or man. Levis missed Ridley twice on big plays that should’ve been six, therefore I see no problem in how he uses Ridley. Using Ridley on the outside & not moving him around to create mismatches & leaving him outside is malpractice just like Jacksonville. It’s just growing pains 

Edited September 9 by TitanRedd

[KingTitan]

28 minutes ago, TitanRedd said:

Either you trolling or you didn’t watch the game he wasn’t fantastic at all it was the worse game of his career 

Trolling. 
He thinks Levis sucks. 

[-Hope-]

19 minutes ago, deeluxx3 said:

I guess I'm just a bit baffled at what Callahan and Levis were doing all summer

YES YES, this is game 1 and this is an overreaction.  Welcome to Titania/FF.

 

But my gosh. We got on Vrabel and his cronies for their obvious failures...I thought Levis was supposed to look like a QB with some in-game experience and an offseason under "real" coaching. Bears have as legit of a D as anyone and clearly they did something at halftime to neutralize our O. But Callahan just with zero ideas.

What confuses me most is how "inspired" our preseason playcalling seemed. I understand we weren't going up against a preseason D yesterday...but we just looked super vanilla on offense. Treating Tony Pollard with the same love/affection/obsession that Vrabel+crew had for Henry. Spears with 8 touches to Pollard's 19....wtf?

Dancing Calvin around in motion like he's a Tyreek Hill type weapon. He's not that type of player / doesn't make a defense flinch pre-snap w/ sh** like that.

Everything just felt horizontal/outside the hashes from a passing perspective. Feel like we have a lot of guys that can eat over the middle of the field. I get the possibility that we have a condensed playbook because Callahan may not trust Levis...but again, wtf were they doing all offseason?

Callahan gets a big fat F from me in his debut, with Levis at an F-.

i don’t disagree that we didn’t target the middle of the field enough and the lack of play action was kind of jarring, but the complaint about ridley’s usage here is baffling. ridley is a Z receiver, moving him around and playing him off the LOS is exactly what you’re supposed to do with a guy like him. everyone was (justifiably) mad about the lack of motion in vrabel’s offense last year and now all of a sudden it’s a problem? 

with as poor as levis looked i’m going to have to wait for the all-22 to know how much of it to put on playcalling and how much levis just wasn’t executing.

[KingTitan]

22 minutes ago, deeluxx3 said:

I guess I'm just a bit baffled at what Callahan and Levis were doing all summer

YES YES, this is game 1 and this is an overreaction.  Welcome to Titania/FF.

 

But my gosh. We got on Vrabel and his cronies for their obvious failures...I thought Levis was supposed to look like a QB with some in-game experience and an offseason under "real" coaching. Bears have as legit of a D as anyone and clearly they did something at halftime to neutralize our O. But Callahan just with zero ideas.

What confuses me most is how "inspired" our preseason playcalling seemed. I understand we weren't going up against a preseason D yesterday...but we just looked super vanilla on offense. Treating Tony Pollard with the same love/affection/obsession that Vrabel+crew had for Henry. Spears with 8 touches to Pollard's 19....wtf?

Dancing Calvin around in motion like he's a Tyreek Hill type weapon. He's not that type of player / doesn't make a defense flinch pre-snap w/ sh** like that.

Everything just felt horizontal/outside the hashes from a passing perspective. Feel like we have a lot of guys that can eat over the middle of the field. I get the possibility that we have a condensed playbook because Callahan may not trust Levis...but again, wtf were they doing all offseason?

Callahan gets a big fat F from me in his debut, with Levis at an F-.

I thought we were holding back in our preseason pass play calling. Because I didn't see anything that was like yeah, this is good stuff. 

Now I'm reminded what I thought of the Bengals offense when they played us.  It was very dependent on them having better skilled players. 
Like it was lot of slants, and go's to Chase/Higgins/Boyd.  I kept saying to myself, the designs aren't masterful. It's Burrow getting the ball out to the playmakers. 

Cally won't be here long if he doesn't find ways to scheme players open. Looking at the Rams last night (one of the best), they just have plays were guys are open.

We will be opening the stadium with a new rookie QB and new coach if they don't get it right. 

Levis deserves the fire he is getting, but to ignore other things with the offense is short-sighted. 

[titans0021]

7 minutes ago, -Hope- said:

i don’t disagree that we didn’t target the middle of the field enough and the lack of play action was kind of jarring, but the complaint about ridley’s usage here is baffling. ridley is a Z receiver, moving him around and playing him off the LOS is exactly what you’re supposed to do with a guy like him. everyone was (justifiably) mad about the lack of motion in vrabel’s offense last year and now all of a sudden it’s a problem? 

with as poor as levis looked i’m going to have to wait for the all-22 to know how much of it to put on playcalling and how much levis just wasn’t executing.

Also, Ridley was two decent passes away from ending up with like 170 and 2 TDs yesterday. I can’t really complain about his usage or the results on his end. 

[titans0021]

Depending on how Levis ends up, think I put our biggest need at edge moving forward. Not that it can really be addressed until next offseason, but a great edge would absolutely feast with Sweat and Simmons absorbing blockers and collapsing pockets. Saw it yesterday with Landry getting an untouched sack because Jeff had three guys on him.

[KingTitan]

As the looks come in, we get a fuller picture. 
This isn't really about Lathum. 
Just looking at Levis and the WRs.

In the sack, on the first clip, he maneuvers and escapes the pocket from pressure.

Looks like 4 DB's on 3 WRs. Nowhere to throw the ball. Should have tossed it away at the least.

2nd clip. Stands tall with pressure coming, no where to go with the ball when pressure comes. Hits the one on one gives chig a ball TD.

3rd. Climbs pocket. feels the pressure tries to throw it to a covered guy and hit while throwing. 

4th clip- Feels pressure from back side, slides away. Tries to unload. strip sacked. 

Thats just 4 plays. Doesn't give a whole picture, but a small glimpse into the day. 

[KingTitan]

I'm also concluding this. 
There are some QB's guys just hate. 
No matter how successful they end up being. 
Example: Kirk Cousins. He has been a good NFL QB. Not Hall of Fame, but good QB. Seems to be a good dude. But people hate him. 

Levis will never be universally liked, no matter what he does. This fan base has a segment of people who will love every minute of his failure. Some because of the UT connection and others just because they don't think he was ever a good college QB. 

It's going to be frustrating season here, because every pass will be analyzed. Every miss this forum will call for his head. Every TD will be downplayed because of the "I'm sure that won't happen again" mindset. 

There will be those that preach patience. Those that preach bench him for Mason Rudolph. Some just want a good QB and don't care who it is. 
One thing is for certain, he will never have the full support of the fanbase. You have people too loud on both sides. 

It he truly is unable to be salvaged as a QB, there will come a point where Levis will bury himself in a grave, similar to Marcus, similar to Tanny, similar to Locker, similar to Young..etc. 

We have a good group here for the most part, that are critical without just saying he sucks. But there are a few that no matter who is at QB, no matter who is the coach or the GM just get off on hating whoever is in the forefront. Wish it was different. But going on almost 2 decades now. It won't change. (Damn, I been here almost 20 years. lol)

[deeluxx3]

@TitanRedd@-Hope- to clarify my point on Ridley/Motion ... i know/understand that we need to get a player like him in motion and get him clean releases because he cannot line up on the LOS and win 1-1 consistently. I'm all about getting him in motion with intent and reason. My point is moreso just how it seemed like we were putting him in motion just to put him in motion, only to just run the ball into a wall of defenders. I understand a big part of a failed play is just down to execution by the players, but our intent with Ridley/motion didn't seem to have much rhyme or reason. Ridley should've had a big game yesterday but his QB failed him and I think Cally did, too. I'd argue that by putting him in motion we should also be able to scheme him open for some easy grabs. None of that happened yesterday. I don't think Cally "schemed" a single guy open.

Obviously I'm just a fan and don't know the ins-and-outs of Xs and Os nor has any of us seen the All-22. But just in general Callahan's plan seemed to lack a feel yesterday. I don't reference him because he was some all-world mastermind, but you felt a rhythm when Art Smith was calling plays. Yesterday was obviously Cally's first as HC and first as play-caller, but boy did he seem green. His QB was failing him, but no obvious adjustment to make Will's life easier was made.

If memory serves, a lot was made on how Cincy had to transition to more of a quick game/short passing attack once Burrow had a lot of success throwing downfield and teams worked more to take that away. Cally argued that you take what the defense gives you, and that makes a lot of sense. However, all we heard in training camp was how the team was focusing more on short stuff versus slinging it down the field a lot. Well, we sure saw that yesterday. It makes me wonder about if this is a systemic plan versus a Levis plan.

 

ultimately all of this will be sorted out over the next 16 games. so not fair for me to make any accusations right now. yesterday was just really really hard to watch.