NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Titans have been pouring on the pass rush, with six sacks in each of their past two games.
Their rushers and blitzers are playing well for sure. But some of the Sunday success is coming on Tuesdays, when assistant head coach Dick LeBeau is scheming plans that have been panning out at a nice rate.
Unconventional fronts and creativity by LeBeau have been a giant factor for Tennessee.
"There are just a lot of different variations we have," said outside linebacker Brian Orakpo, who has seven sacks in six games. "That’s him, as far as the way he’s able to call and get guys advantages on different plays."
How much can a team do with a seven-man front, sometimes adding blitzers? It would seem the amount of wrinkles is finite. But offensive linemen have to make quick decisions about who’s coming from where and sort through who’s blocking whom. It’s not necessarily that they haven’t seen things before. It’s that the constant changing by the Titans doesn’t lend any predictability.
Regular alterations in positioning, responsibilities and approach have to get exhausting to deal with.
"A lot of it has to do with self-scouting," said Derrick Morgan, the team’s other outside linebacker. "Knowing that you have certain tendencies that offenses take note of and then really adjusting as you go on.
"There is always something new, always a caveat to the defensive game plan every week. We’re always evolving as a defense, keeping it fresh, keeping it new, keeping an offense off balance, so they can’t really key in on what we are doing."
Two sacks against the Browns arrived easily.
On the first play of the second quarter, Jurrell Casey stood up across from center Cameron Erving. At the snap, Casey paused, and Erving mirrored him, just waiting. Left guard Alvin Bailey took on DaQuan Jones and left tackle Joe Thomas engaged Sean Spence.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Titans lined up with Orakpo off the line behind nose tackle Angelo Blackson. Avery Williamson and Derrick Morgan were bunched left, wide of the right tackle. Karl Klug and Spence were bunched right, wide of the left tackle.
Morgan angled toward the middle and Orakpo crossed behind him, Erving couldn’t get over in time and Morgan pretty much had a free run to a 10-yard sack.
Casey simply looped around, sliced between the two one-on-ones and headed for Cody Kessler. Erving tried to shift over but ran into traffic, obstructed by Jones.
Casey was hardly bothered en route to a 10-yard sack.
"They completely let him go to get the sack because they don’t know who to block," Orakpo said. "When you’ve got guys changing around all the time at the line of scrimmage, you really don’t know who to block."
Said Morgan, who now has three sacks: "It’s schemed up sometimes, they’ll see a look, they aren’t really sure who to ID, who to block, which way to slide the protection. And when you get looks like that, you kind of get confused sometimes. That allows guys to come free and get home."
"You’ve got to take the layups."
