Mariota struggles as Titans fall

Two evenings ago, Mariota made his NFL debut in an admittedly irrelevant preseason game on the road against the Atlanta Falcons.

Mariota suffered through a sack and an interception on his first series against the Falcons, and followed that up with a fumble on his second series that was returned for a touchdown.

If your last name is Mariota, your goal is to mirror such “M” quarterbacks as Manning, Marino or Montana.

The best thing that can happen during these early games are teams being able to build up depth. The rest of the game should be devoted to figuring out the jumbled backfield and seeing what David Cobb brings to the table in his first meaningful playing time as a Titan.

The NFL Insiders recapped the performances of Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie quarterback Jameis Winston and the Tennessee Titans Marcus Mariota on Monday afternoon in their respective openers.

“On a play like that you’re just sitting in coverage”.

For Pittsburgh, Ben Roethlisberger threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Martavis Bryant on the opening drive. That was a tremendous sign going forward. I’m not concerned about Marcus. The years and money are up in the air, but you’ll see this get done for certain. It was a lesson learned for the rookie quarterback. Coach Quinn aspires his Atlanta Falcons team to play as fast and as physical as possible. He was sitting right there.

Some might ask how could Mariota be the top player after turning the ball over twice, leading directly to 10 points. On Tennessee’s next drive, the ball slipped out of Mariota’s hand as he was getting ready to pass. Linebacker Paul Worrilow scooped up the loose ball & raced 14 yards for a touchdown. Each day, Marcus Mariota was on a pitch count.

It was after that that Mariota and the Titans, down 17-0, finally regrouped.

“I thought just the rhythm and the tempo of the guys coming off the ball, some of the completions early on for Matt (Ryan) to Julio (Jones) and the guys, loved the way they attacked”, Quinn said.

“So hopefully he continues to make the progress he’s shown”. “For us as an offense to battle back, it’s only gonna make us better”. Mariota was mostly accurate with his passes, completing 7 of 8 for 94 yards, but it wasn’t smooth-sailing by any means.

I don’t know if the Titans are a complete enough team to allow Mariota to succeed as a full-time starter in fantasy football.

“We started off really good with the touchdown to Rico”. Those were some of the things we had a huge emphasis on from the offense. On his third pass, after throwing zero interceptions in all of training camp, he threw an interception. Still, he only missed on one pass and he did lead the Titans on a scoring drive. Following Mettenberger’s pick, the Falcons cashed in and led 24-13 at the half.

Against Atlanta in a 31-24 loss Friday night, Sankey averaged a mere 1.9 yards on eight carries. “I think they helped us out a lot tonight”. His injury seemed more serious and likely is a season-ender.