After a season of blunders and hurt QBs, why is the Tennessee Titans’ O-line still so bad?

HOUSTON — With blood crusting over the open wound on his left elbow and a bandage spread across the back of his left hand, Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill joked that he felt a little bit like Keanu Reeves’ John Wick character at the end of one of his movies.

Which John Wick movie? Tannehill says it doesn’t really matter. John Wick gets beat up pretty bad whenever he’s on screen.

Tannehill knows the feeling.

After this year especially.

The veteran quarterback took a beating in the Titans’ 26-3 loss Sunday to the Houston Texans, Tennessee’s third straight loss and seventh in nine weeks. He was sacked five times, and he played barely half of the game. Rookie Will Levis had to exit in the second quarter with a foot injury after he was obliterated on a sack that turned into a fumble and a Texans touchdown.

In two games against the Texans just 14 days apart, the Titans (5-11) allowed 13 sacks and 23 quarterback hits. The 62 sacks allowed for the year are already the second-most in franchise history, and the most in any season since the club moved to Tennessee.

When asked if there were instances where he had no realistic chance to make a play because of the situation he was in, Tannehill answered with brutal honesty.

“Yeah,” he said. “Definitely.”

So what’s actually wrong with the Titans’ offensive line?

The Titans seem pretty certain they know what the problem isn’t.

“It’s definitely not for a lack of effort,” right tackle Dillon Radunz said.

“It’s not a lack of effort,” left guard Peter Skoronski said. “Guys are working.”

“We know what’s going on on the inside,” left tackle Andre Dillard said. “We’re trying to grow and learn from everything that we experience.”

So what’s left? There’s awareness. There’s scheme. There’s execution. And there’s ability.

Awareness didn’t seem to be a problem Sunday; the only penalty called against the Titans’ front was an illegal substitution. So there weren’t any costly holds or false starts, and none of the sacks came from unaccounted-for blitzers.

Which leaves scheme, execution and ability, and it’s tough to separate those. Take rookie John Ojukwu, the sixth lineman who checked in as an eligible receiver 18 times. He was the one veteran who Jerry Hughes blazed past on the sack where Levis got hurt. Speaking with The Tennessean after the game, Ojukwu said he just needs to get into his pass blocking set more quickly to prevent mistakes like that from happening.

Is there anything more the Titans could’ve done to help Ojukwu, Dillard, rookie Jaelyn Duncan or any of the other struggling blockers schematically? Yes and no. Titans coach Mike Vrabel conceded the team probably could stand to chip a little more on third downs or keep an extra blocker in a little more often. But that creates all sorts of other problems.

More blockers means fewer players running routes. When defenses are in zone coverage, fewer routes means less favorable matchups. Which means receivers are less likely to get open quickly. Which means quarterbacks have to hold on to the ball longer. Which defeats the purpose of the extra blockers to begin with.

Running the ball more effectively would help; the Titans averaged only 2.5 yards per carry on 21 carries Sunday. Getting Derrick Henry and Tyjae Spears going should free up the play-action passing attack. But the fact that the backs are struggling also could be a product of the offensive line struggles.

Radunz said the line takes full responsibility for the seven plays inside the Texans’ 10-yard line where the offense failed to score a touchdown. And heck, there was a play earlier in the game where the Titans snapped the ball directly to Henry behind seven offensive linemen and two tight ends and he couldn’t even get back to the line of scrimmage.

Henry, for what it’s worth, refused to put any blame on the offensive line. He said everyone needs to be better, himself included. But it’s obvious the season-long struggles are weighing on the guys tasked with opening holes for him.

Why isn’t anything working?

Dillard is tied for the NFL lead with 12 sacks allowed despite playing little more than half of the snaps of the player he’s tied with. He was benched for the third time this season after allowing sacks on back-to-back plays toward the end of the first half, and he was candid about the struggles.

“Surprised? It’s not a happy feeling. I’ll say that,” Dillard told The Tennessean when asked if he’s surprised the effort isn’t leading to better results. “It’s complicated. Obviously we want to do well. We’re not going to give up on that. We’re not going to give up on trying to grow.”

Dillard is one to stay off the internet. He doesn’t read what people are saying about him or his teammates. Doesn’t see value in it. The only opinions that matter, he says, are the ones in the meeting rooms and on the practice fields with him.

But two of those people are Levis and Tannehill. And for the third time this season, the line had to watch as one of their quarterbacks limped off the field after a hard hit and couldn’t return.

“As an offensive lineman, seeing a quarterback be injured is sort of gut-wrenching,” Skoronski said. “It’s like nails on a chalkboard. You never want to see that. It really sucks to be honest with you. We have nobody to blame but our unit.”

It’s enough to ask what all of this effort the players are talking about actually looks like. Dillard said the struggles aren’t as black-and-white as some outside observers may think, and issues that crop up on Sundays aren’t always what they seem. But he said he didn’t see value in expanding on what goes on the other six days of the week.

Some of his teammates did. It’s watching extra film. It’s fundamental work. It’s working on sets and punches and profiling rushers. It’s bonding exercises to build chemistry.

It’s a lot of work. And it’s a lot of work that isn’t exactly paying off when it counts.

Duncan said it didn’t look or feel like the Texans did anything different this time than they did 14 days ago. That’s a tough reality to accept, especially because they played without top edge rusher Jonathan Greenard Sunday. The Texans lined up and did the same thing twice in three games and the Titans had no answers either time.

“We have to be able to protect the quarterback,” Vrabel said. “The numbers are the numbers. You have to be able to protect the quarterback if you want to throw the football in this league.”

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.