NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Even the biggest proponents of Tennessee Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt have to admit his stubbornness and unwillingness to make adjustments have reached new depths. At this point, I'm not sure who those supporters are right now, beside his colleagues and staff.
A strong-willed coach who believes his system will work is not a bad thing. But in the time between when he starts a job and when he has the people he needs to make that system function, he has to make it work with what he has.
After the Titans' 36-7 loss to the New York Giants, which also marked Tennessee's seventh consecutive defeat, it was clear he's simply unwilling or unable to do so.
"Our quarterbacks are getting punished, and that's sad," tight end Delanie Walker said when asked about the Titans' season-high eight sacks allowed.
They allowed them to a team that just put two of its top defensive linemen on injured reserve. Robert Ayers and Mathias Kiwanuka had accounted for 29 percent of the team's sacks through 12 games.
I love that Whisenhunt is not conservative, that he wants to sling it.
But at a certain point -- given an already-injured quarterback and an offensive line minus three starters and down to a third-string right tackle who joined the team five days ago -- a coach has to part from his methods, no matter how strongly he's married to them.
Whisenhunt is a rigid guy, and that served him well at the peak of his six-year run in Arizona. It is not serving him well now. That, as much as the failures of under-qualified offensive linemen, landed Zach Mettenberger an appointment with an MRI. Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean reported Mettenberger is likely done for the season.
A source subsequently told me, "it does not look good."
"It doesn't feel good right now," Mettenberger said of his right shoulder after the game.
A great offensive line can build somewhat of a fortress for its quarterback, and the right quarterback has a sense of how to survive when the fortress door is forced open.
The Titans have spent two seasons revamping their line by spending two first-round draft picks and a bunch of free-agent dollars on a group it thought would provide great protection and would also open big holes. Even healthy, that group came up far short of expectations in both departments.
Now the team is missing several pieces. No team has a great fourth or fifth offensive tackle. That's why playing one and expecting him to do well enough mostly on his own is folly.
Whisenhunt is wary of taking too many of his five eligible receivers and dedicating them to pass protection. In exchange for that, in the past two weeks, he's gotten additional time watching a quarterback he doesn't much care for in Jake Locker running his team's huddle.
The coach said he's wary of his quarterback taking too many shots. But showing would be better than telling.
He kept both Locker and Charlie Whitehurst active for the first time all season that the team had three quarterbacks dress. That was in part because of Mettenberger's shoulder heading into the game and in part because emergency QB Kendall Wright was out.
Did the Titans offer enough help to the linemen to protect the quarterbacks?
"We tried," Whisenhunt said. "I mean, when they bring extra guys, you've only got so many guys to block them. The way the game went, it kind of puts your back against the wall. We tried running the football, then you get to third down and you can't convert. You know we chipped, we put extra guys. But at some point, you know, one-on-one, you've got to hold up."
When you don't hold up the one semi-bright spot of the season, a rookie quarterback who's shown promise, he goes to the doctor and might miss the final three games.
Leaving guys such as Will Svitek, Byron Stingily or Terren Jones without much help seems brazen. If Svitek and Jones could handle such assignments, they'd be front-line players elsewhere and never available to Tennessee.
Eight sacks and two forced fumbles -- one that produced a touchdown and one knocked out the QB.
When Mettenberger got off the turf, he walked with a tilt that obviously gave him some small degree of relief and then headed straight to the locker room.
Whisenhunt desperately needs Mettenberger to pan out. Put most coaches in that position, and they'd happily sacrifice a tight end or a back as often as needed and make them a bigger part of the protection. They'd think it was better to help too much than not enough.
The coach isn't getting an MRI Monday. The results are on him as much as anybody.
