For 2 ½ quarters, it seemed like one team had a plan and the other didn’t. Strip away the uniforms and it was hard to tell which team was 1-4 and which was 4-2.
The Tennessee Titans, playing backup quarterback Mason Rudolph in place of injured starter Will Levis, decided they were going to attack the Buffalo Bills by running the ball and throwing play-action passes off of that. The Titans were able to run the ball effectively, and subsequently, got Rudolph into a rhythm with easy throws.
But despite their head-scratching slow starts, the Bills made some adjustments and brought one of the worst offenses in the NFL back to reality. They overcame their fourth double-digit first-half deficit of the season — and third in four weeks — to beat the Titans 34-10 Sunday.
The Titans ran for 71 yards at 5.1 yards per carry in the first half, as linebackers struggled to get off blocks and track down running backs, while leaving the flats open on play-action passes and bootlegs. In the second half, however, Tennessee ran just 18 yards on 1.8 yards per carry to flip the game.
“I was really proud of the way that the staff adjusted at halftime and the adjustments that they had to make, which sometimes may not be anything other than just settling the players down and trying to give them a little bit of clarity on what was going on,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “Because sometimes when you feel like you’re out of rhythm, you feel like you don’t really know what’s happening.”
The Bills had some success stopping the run when they brought a safety into the box — the area 3 to 5 yards within the line of scrimmage — in the first half. They held the Titans to 2.6 yards per carry on seven attempts with an extra defender in the box, compared to 7.6 on the seven carries without an extra safety near the line of scrimmage.
In the third quarter, the Bills had a safety on nine of 14 plays as Tennessee’s running game wilted away. On the first play of the second half, safety Taylor Rapp played just off the hip of defensive end Greg Rousseau and shed blocks from tight end Nick Vannett and guard Peter Skoronski.
Rapp was able to set the edge and turn running back Tony Pollard inside for a 1-yard gain. Two players later, on third and 1 with Pollard taking a direct snap — which tipped their hand — defensive tackles DeWayne Carter and DaQuan Jones were able to collapse the interior and occupied blockers, which allowed linebackers Terrel Bernard and Dorian Williams to fly over the top to stop Pollard for a 1-yard loss.
On fourth and 2, Rapp walked back into the box and lined up on the hip of defensive end Dawuane Smoot on the right side. Carter blew the play up in the middle and the Titans didn’t account for the extra defender, allowing Rapp to shoot into the backfield for a 3-yard loss.
The Bills took over at the Tennessee 41-yard line and quickly scored a touchdown to take a 14-10 lead. On the next drive, the Bills stopped Pollard for another 3-yard loss and that was the end of the running game.
Pollard had 11 carries for 64 yards in the first half, but had minus-3 yards in the second half on five carries, with only two coming after the first drive of the third quarter. With the running game gone, the play-action passes went, too.
Rudolph went 8 of 11 for 69 yards and a touchdown on play-action in the first half, but just 1 of 5 for 9 yards after intermission.
“We went backwards on offense,” Titans head coach Brian Callahan said. “We had penalties, we had a million issues, quarterback hits, all those things. Not good enough. We didn’t do a good enough job to do anything in the second half worthwhile.”
Epenesa’s sack put Rudolph off kilter
While the game didn’t flip until the third quarter, the Bills started to rattle Rudolph near the end of the second quarter.
On first and 10 with 4:54 left in the second quarter, Bills defensive end A.J. Epenesa walked right around Titans rookie left tackle J.C. Latham, swiped the ball away from Rudolph, resulting in an 18-yard loss.
The Bills pressured Rudolph 13 times in the first half, but that was the first time they hit him before the ball was released. Suddenly all of the protections the Titans had around Rudolph disappeared in the second half and the Buffalo pass rush could come after him without mystery.
When the Bills offense finally started humming, the Titans were forced to play from behind for the first time in the game and had to rely on being a drop back passing time.
Without the running and play-action game, the Titans were not nearly as effective on early downs. They went from averaging 5 yards per play on first down to 2 yards on first downs in the second half, putting Rudolph in third and long often.
Not only did the Bills sack Rudolph twice in the first half, but the seven hits he took throughout the game started to make him antsy. Rudolph’s accuracy diminished and his footwork suffered when there was a pass rusher in his vicinity.
Rudolph was 14 of 18 for 117 yards and a touchdown before the Epenesa sack and then finished the game 11 of 22 for 98 yards and an interception.
“When you start to put some pressure on him, you can start to tell,” Epenesa told the Gazette. “He starts looking at us more than he’s looking at receivers downfield. When you get him to do that, that’s when bad decisions start coming up, and then gives people chances to attack and play.”