Tennessee Titans Failed 2-Point Conversion

A Must Have Play

My original idea on this post was concern for the botched 2 point conversion at the end of the 4th quarter last Sunday by the Titans.  Had the Lions been able to get inside field goal range and ended up with a win instead of a tie due to this, there surely would be more conversation about it.

My first thought was that every coordinator/coach should have a go to play that they think will work 4 out of 5 times for a two point conversion.  For the most part if you are going for 2 then it's a do or die situation, make it, or lose the game.  These plays should be as iron clad as possible.  As a fan, I would also think that given Mariota, Murray, Henry, and Walker, a coordinator could get a must have 2 yards.  From the live look of the play, all I saw was Mariota running backwards and DeMarco Murray diving into his legs.

In Review

As you can see by the replay.  There was a wide open Tajae Sharpe in the endzone.  Sharpe starts on the outside, works in for a second, and then turns his route back up hill as he curls behind the two corners that sit on the goal line watching Mariota and the short out route.  Delanie Walker also has two defenders beat as he works across the endzone from left to right and would be an open second option for Marcus.  Finally Fasano is a late outlet out of the backside of the play.

Here's a still shot at the end of the drop, where Mariota took the sack.

Obviously Murray gets beaten upfield which is what blows the play up.  The play begins between the hashes, but Mariota ends up a good 2 yards outside the right hash marks at the top of his drop.  At the same time, the rushing defender gets outside Murray and Mariota backs right into the same spot.

The way the play ended up developing, it looks as if Mariota had taken a straight drop, or at least moves less to the right, the pocket could have stayed clean and he would have at least 2 open options to pass to.  I'm assuming, however, that Mariota's drift to the right is intentional in design, which could lead to run pass option depending on what the defenders do on Sharpe and Rishard Matthews.  It would also give him a cleaner throwing lane to Delanie cutting across the endzone.  Maybe some one smarter than me can confirm?  Superhorn?  Lambert?

Ultimately, this one's on the players, namely Murray for getting beat up field by the defender.  The play call looks solid as there are many options for every stage of the play, and I really love the late outlet by Fasano out the backside.  Maybe next time it can be executed better.