At 0-2 the Tennessee Titans have plenty to work on, but most important is doing what they do best and that is feed Derrick Henry.
Through two games the Titans have largely been able to feed the beast. Henry has only 107 yards on 34 carries, good for a diminutive 3.1 yards per carry.
That is not good enough and Henry knows it, “It’s a little adversity, I man the sky isn’t falling. You know, we’ll be fine, just stay with it. We know we’ve go the men in the building to get it done.”
The guys who have to get it done are the five in front of him, but they will likely be without three-time Pro Bowler Taylor Lewan Sunday after suffered a knee injury in Buffalo.
Head coach Mike Vrabel has not committed to a starter at left tackle this week, but Dennis Daley came in for Lewan in Buffalo. Daley struggled in Buffalo, mightily, but the Titans believe with a work of preparing to start he will fair much better against Las Vegas and star pass rushers Max Crosby and Chandler Jones.
Henry stressed it is not all on Daley and the offensive line, “It takes all 11, we’ve got to be better. I’ve got to do my part and be better. It takes all 11.”
Last week Vrabel said Henry left some “meat on the bone” in the opener against the Giants. There was no meat on the bone in Buffalo though.
“We’ve got to win the line of scrimmage.” said offensive coordinator Todd Downing ” We have to fire off the ball and we’ve got to win that line of scrimmage, get in these combinations and let Derrick get into his 4th and 5th step and see where we go from there.”
If the Titans can get Henry going they can work on improving on third downs where they have converted only 30% of the time this season.
They can also set up Ryan Tannehill for play action passes where he has enjoyed much more success than just dropping straight back into passes.
Through two games the Raiders are giving up 190 yards per game and 3.7 yards per attempt, so they are cake walk.
The Titans offense all starts with Henry and if he can not get started it is going to be a long Sunday at Nissan Stadium.
