I wonder if this is more about Lazor, Philbin or Campbell, is this Lazor as he would like to call a game, and that Philbin was calling too much, or was it Campbell telling Lazor what he wanted? It wouldn't surprise me if Philbin was passing more in an attempt to get as many passing reps to Tanne as possible, and yes, I do think Philbin is that disconnected that he would try something like that.
I'm sure Al Saunders had a lot to do with us running it more this week as well as Dan Campbell. The fact we only had 6 runs last week to 44 passes, made it completely obvious coaching was the real issue on this team, not talent (as I've been saying for years lol).
Campbell wants a tough team. Nothing says tough like the running game. This also helps the OL gel and get into a rhythm where they can get better.
The type of offense we were trying to run was very similar to Green Bay's when Philbin was there. Take that for what you will.
I'd say it was a combination of Campbell and Lazor. I think Campbell instilled toughness, physicality and an emphasis on running the football. And, I think within that structure Lazor called a really good game (there were two or three poor calls in a couple of situations but other wise he did a good job on the play calling). Really seemed like Campbell was more hands off and steady during the game - just so different from Philbin. Of course, it helps when you do run the ball effectively early on. The 20 yard gain by Miller early really helped ignite that first drive.
I loved every second of. I was getting so irritated with Philbonehead's insistence on dropping Tanny back to pass 35-40 times a game and abandoning the running game.
Me too, though I won't let Lazor off the hook just yet. I suspect he was given an ultimatum. Hell, they brought in an offensive consultant.
How much of that was because we were down big early in all those games though? Probably a good amount of it. We pretty much had to throw to try and catch up. Either way, I'm glad we are putting an emphasis on running more. It only helps Tannehill and the offense as a whole be more effective.
I think what he was getting at was that the Defense put the O in a position to where they were playing "catch up" - the play calls would have been similar to what we saw yesterday if not for having to play catch up. I don't agree with that and I suspect Saunders / Campbell told Lazor to run a lot more.
His biggest shortcoming was not understanding how to develop a young QB like Tannehill. Look at the histories of each franchise QB and in their first few years as a starter you will find either a stud feature back or a real commitment to a run-first offense. It's a very very strong trend: Brady, Ben, Eli, Peyton, Brees, Rivers, Ryan, even Newton, Wilson.
I have to think back to last season and the play calling then. I believe we had better balance than this year and I'll have to look that up. So my belief is that coach Philbin was interjecting his will in the play calls and I would attribute at least part of the play calling balance to Lazor getting back to what he believes.
1. The Titans offensive line is horrible. Especially with all of the injuries they suffered. 2. The Titans defensive line is horrible. Especially with all of the injuries they suffered. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the win. But let's put it all in perspective here. The Fins were fired up and played a team that over the course of the game lost a bunch of their starters. I'm holding my judgment for a couple more weeks but this is what I was hoping for at the beginning of the year. There are only 6 teams that don't have 3 loses in the AFC right now. Even with our poor start, were not circling the drain yet.
I could agree with that sentiment about the D if we were being blown out every game, however the first 2 games were not blowouts, in fact we won one of those games but the play calling was the same, so I didn't see the correlation.
Lazor as a college coach was very run heavy and he's made comments here that indicate he wanted to run more but was overruled. He's also expressed a desire to use a lot of presnap motion which Philbin also balked at. Since we saw a ton of those features in yesterday's game plan I would guess that this is our truest look at the offense Lazor wants to run.
Aside from the other points, these coaches have to let it loose. They know their jobs are on the line. They have to do what they can to change things up. They know what they were doing wasn't working. They also here the complaints from everyone in the sports world. Go for broke. Their jobs aren't just on the line here, but for the future with any team. Since there is an interim coach, I'm sure they all have a lot more input on the game plan and rely on each other more. They don't feel stifled and basically, what they were doing wasn't working, so if they're not insane, they have to something different. Kudos to Cambell for taking the chains off and letting the coaches do what they do best. Lazor was like a different man. Creative, misdirections, running the QB, getting him out of the pocket, etc, etc, etc Wooo! The chains are off and that's great! Changing guards, literally and figuratively was a great move. I love guards who can get down field and play physical and nasty. Helps with the big play.The Kracken waking up, feeling better and getting back to his beastly self didn't hurt either.
This is what I was wondering about, Lazor had been involved with a lot more running in the offenses he's been with, and also the motion aspect, I'm not ready to give up on Lazor yet, I look forward to seeing how this offense develops without Philbin.
Here's the thing though- we were coming out every week flat, giving opposing teams a 1-2 score lead and then trying to come from behind. And you know as well as I do, when you're doing by 14, you pass more often to preserve the clock and get bigger chunk yards. Now, Campbell said coming into yesterday that we were going to pound the football through the run game...so that was definitely his strategy whether he actually called the plays or not. But it's hard to predict what Lazor wanted to do in weeks 1-4 because of how we had zero control over the actual tempo of the game. Since we kept him around though, I think it's pretty clear that he was willing to do things however Campbell said it would be done....which means we'll be running the ball more from here on out. One play that really got me yesterday was the empty backfield with the designed sweep from Tannehill....we've never seen that before. Was that Campbell's idea or Lazor? It would be interesting to know.
