NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Despite winning their preseason opener the Titans made it no secret they had room to improve after last week’s work against the 49ers. On Friday they got the chance to show their improvement in a joint practice against the Seahawks.
And Tennessee more than held its own against the defending Super Bowl champions.
“If we were the same from last week, we’d be in trouble,” Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons said. “Our mindset is (get better). Every day we walk into this building we’ve got one goal and that’s to be the best defense in the NFL. And from last week to today it was a major difference.”
The Titans’ much talked about defensive front continued to bolster its reputation with consistent disruption as they bottled up the Seahawks rushing attack and got after quarterback Sam Darnold.
While there are no recorded sacks in practice it appeared like the Titans were in position to put Seattle quarterbacks on their backsides on more than one occasion.
“Defensively, I thought we did really well up front handling the run game,” Titans head coach Robert Saleh said. “I thought we got a lot of pressure on the quarterback. (Players) get frustrated with me because I never call sacks. We’ll get them on Sunday.”
Meanwhile, a secondary that faced sharp criticism after their performance against the 49ers, responded to the challenge with one of their best days of camp.
The secondary surrendered just one really big play on a perfectly thrown go ball from Darnold to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Alontae Taylor was closest in coverage on that play but responded with a great pass break up over the middle on his former teammate Rashid Shaheed.
Taylor then started the 2:00 drill by jumping in front of a Darnold pass for an interception that he returned for a touchdown as he and the defensive backs had a big time bounce back day.
“We’re all about getting better,” Taylor said. “We understand we’ve got to go through trials and tribulations in order to get better. We can’t be on a high all the time, right? I think that’s what training camp’s about so I think we bounced back the right way.”
Cam Ward and the offense also showed improvement, looking more in-sync from the beginning of practice. Tony Pollard ran hard as the run game continues to pick up chunks behind the Titans new look offensive line.
Ward did throw a pick six of his own but also threw two touchdown passes and led the Titans to scores in the red zone, the 2:00 drill and in a hurry-up period on a much more efficient day than what he put on film in Tennessee’s 19-13 win at San Francisco last Friday.
“Coach (Daboll), and the rest of the staff, that’s something they harp on because that’s when we have to be at our best,” Ward said. “It’s a standpoint especially for me to have the plays I want at that time, that I’m very comfortable with, no matter what coverage they play. And I think a lot of it has to do with the (offensive) line and the way they played today (and) how they handled everything.”
All in all, it was a good day against the NFL’s best that should provide a much-needed confidence boost for a Titans team that’s won just six games total the past two years and is determined to show that this team will be different.
“I don’t care – Hard Knocks, Seahawk Knocks – I don’t care,” Simmons said. “They won a Super Bowl, so what? It’s about us. The way we attack practice (this) is our standard. We talk about it in the meeting; we talk about fast and violent. That’s what we saw today.”
The Titans and Seahawks will meet again Sunday night in week two of the preseason in a nationally televised primetime game at 7 p.m. at Nissan Stadium.
Saleh says in a perfect world he would like his starters to play the entire first half and wants to see them execute and make good decisions no matter what the result of the game will be.
