Game Preview, Week 13: Tennessee Titans at Washington
November 30, 2024
by Steve Thomas
I realize that I said in last week’s game preview that Washington needed to turn things around against a lesser opponent, the Dallas Cowboys. Well, folks, after their week 12 performance, now Washington needs to turn things around against a lesser opponent, the Tennessee Titans. Only this time, Washington is now riding a 3 game losing streak, and another loss could potentially turn their current status as a Wild Card team into a team on the outside of the playoffs. Furthermore, the Titans are coming off a very impressive road victory over C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans and should be motivated to continue their newfound winning ways. All of this means that Washington really needs to get their act together again and start acting like a contender. If they can accomplish that goal, then the dream of postseason play in year one of the team rebuild will be alive and well. If they fail . . . well, that just means that the team isn’t what we all were surprised to see early in the season. We’ll see. Our game preview is below.
Game time & location: Sunday, December 1, 2024, 1:00 p.m. ET, Northwest Stadium, Raljon, Maryland; Gates open 11:00 a.m. ET; Red Zone parking lots open 8:00 a.m.; all other parking lots 9:00 a.m.
Television: CBS
Television announcers: Andrew Catalon, Tiki Barber, Jason McCourty, AJ Ross
TV broadcast map: Click here
DC-area radio: BIG-100 (WBIG FM)
Washington radio network: Click here
Titans radio network: Click here
Satellite radio: Sirius: 83 (Wash. broad.); SiriusXM: 227 (Wash. broad.); internet: 831
Washington roster: Click here
Washington depth chart: Click here
Titans roster: Click here
Titans depth chart: Click here
All-time head-to-head record vs Titans: 6 – 8 (last 5: 2 – 3)
Last meeting: L, October 9, 2022, 17 – 21
Titans record: 3 – 8 / 0 – 4 against NFC / 2 – 4 on the road
Early odds: Washington, -5.5
3 KEYS TO THE GAME
Eliminate the mistakes of recent games
I don’t want to relive last week’s disaster with any sort of specificity, but you can’t win football games at the NFL level if you do things like allow kickoffs to be run back for touchdowns, miss extra points, throw interceptions, and miss blocks. Washington hasn’t played particularly clean football for awhile now, and they need to get back to that. Just eliminate costly penalties, special teams busts, and turnovers, and, considering the Titans’ talent level and performance, they really ought to be in pretty decent shape this week.
Keep Tony Pollard in check
The Titans don’t do anything particularly well, or for that matter, especially poorly, on offense. They don’t have one particular aspect of their offense that is way outside of the mean. That having been said, their starting running back, Pollard, has 184 carries so far this season, which is 7th-most in the NFL, with 800 yards, which equates to 4.3 yards per carry. The odds are good that the Titans will make a concentrated effort to get Pollard the ball in order to create some sustained offense. For their part, Washington has been bad against the run all year; opponents have gained an average of 4.8 yards per carry. Get ready for a big dose of Pollard on Sunday. As a result, Washington needs to focus its efforts on the interior defensive line and keep Pollard from establishing a consistently effective running game.
Re-establish a productive running game
The converse to the “stop Pollard” theory is that Washington needs to do the same thing to the Titans. Overall, on the season as a whole, Washington has been great on the ground, averaging 4.8 yards per carry, which is tied for 7th in the league. However, it’s been several weeks since the running back group has been productive. This includes last week when Brian Robinson returned. Now, he’s injured again, so Washington will most likely need to create an interior running game some other way. This means that Jeremy McNichols and probably Chris Rodriguez will need to step up. Washington needs to have a sustained rushing attack in order to get their offense back on track. Unfortunately, Tennessee has been successful against the run this year, with opponents averaging just 4.0 yards per carry this year, which is tied for 6th in the NFL. Washington therefore has their work cut out for them, but this is important to this game.
3 KEY MATCHUPS
Benjamin St-Juste / Marshon Lattimore vs Calvin Ridley
Lattimore may not be available in this game. He’s been able to practice in limited fashion this week, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll play on Sunday. If that becomes true, then that will most likely pit St-Juste against Calvin Ridley. This year, Ridley is a bit off of his normal pace – he’s averaging approximately 3.7 receptions per game, as compared to almost 4.5 last year and 6 at his peak in 2020. This downturn is certainly due at least in part to mediocre at best play by the Titans quarterbacks, Mason Rudolph and Will Levis. Regardless, Ridley is a still a “name”, and thus a matchup to highlight. We’ve seen Washington’s secondary crater at times this season, so it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see Ridley – who undeniably has talent – break out and do damage. I look primarily to St-Juste to keep him in check.
Brandon Coleman vs Harold Landry III
Landry leads the Titans in sacks, with 6 so far this season. Washington’s offensive line looked poor last week against Dallas, no matter what PFF says, so they need to do better. For his part, Coleman has made progress this year. At the beginning of the season, he was getting about 50% of the snaps, whereas an injury to Lucas allowed him to play 100% of the offensive snaps against Dallas last week. Lucas may be back this week, but the more high-profile and interesting matchup is Washington’s rookie third round pick against Landry. Washington’s offensive line, including Coleman, needs to do a better job keeping Jayden Daniels free of significant pressure, and this effort starts with Coleman versus Landry. Keep an eye out on how much time Landry spends in the backfield in this game.
Yes, this is another pass rush matchup, but I highlight it here because it has the potential to go horribly wrong, and as I said above, keeping Daniels upright needs to be a major priority for Washington. Wylie – who isn’t exactly a Pro Bowl caliber performer – is in concussion protocol from a hit suffered last week. He’s made progressed and practiced on Thursday, but it’s entirely possible that Trenton Scott will get the start at right tackle. Scott is a backup for a reason. Arden Key has 5 sacks this year, which is second to Landry. It wouldn’t surprise me if this matchup went poorly for Washington. Keep your fingers crossed, everyone.
OFFICIAL INJURY REPORT (active roster only)
LP – limited practice FP – full practice DNP – did not practice
NIR – not injury related Q – questionable O – out
D – doubtful
| Washington | Titans |
| WR N. Brown, knee; Wed: NL; Thurs: DNP; Fri: FP | LB L. Gifford, hamstring; Wed: DNP; Thurs: DNP; Fri: FP |
| RB A. Ekeler, concussion; Wed: DNP; Thurs: DNP; Fri: DNP; game: to IR | OLB A. Key, back; Wed: DNP; Thurs: FP; Fri: FP |
| DE C. Ferrell, knee; Wed: DNP; Thurs: LP; Fri: LP | OLB H. Landry, NIR (Rest); Wed: DNP; Thurs: FP; Fri: FP |
| OLB D. Fowler Jr., hip; Wed: FP; Thurs: LP; Fri: FP | CB R. McCreary, knee; Wed: DNP; Thurs: LP; Fri: FP |
| CB M. Lattimore, hamstring; Wed: LP; Thurs: LP; Fri: LP; game: D | WR C. Ridley, ankle; Wed: DNP; Thurs: FP; Fri: FP |
| RB B. Robinson Jr., ankle; Wed: LP; Thurs: LP; Fri: FP | DT J. Simmons, NIR (Rest); Wed: DNP; Thurs: FP; Fri: FP |
| T A. Wylie, concussion; Wed: DNP; Thurs: LP; Fri: LP; game: O | T L. Watson, back; Wed: DNP; Thurs: DNP; Fri: DNP; game: O |
| G N. Allegretti, ankle; Wed: FP; Thurs: FP; Fri: FP | CB C. Awizue, groin; Wed: LP; Thurs: LP; Fri: LP; game: O |
| CB N. Igbinoghnene, thumb; Wed: FP; Thurs: FP; Fri: FP | CB J. Brownlee, ribs; Wed: LP; Thurs: FP; Fri: FP |
| LB J. Magee, elbow; Wed: FP; Thurs: FP; Fri: FP | DB J. Hardee, groin; Wed: LP; Thurs: LP; Fri: FP |
| RB T. Spears, concussion; Wed: LP; Thurs: FP; Fri: FP; game: Q | |
| S A. Hooker, illness; Wed: FP; Thurs: FP; Fri: FP |
Steve’s Prediction
I’m going to believe in Washington for one more week before I start to change my opinion. Tennessee is a team that Washington really should beat, particularly at home. Washington wins 27 – 13.
Update:
Washington made roster moves on Saturday:
- CB Emmanuel Forbes was released. This move will cost Washington a net of approximately $5M in cap space this year and a smaller amount next year.
- RB Austin Ekeler was placed on IR.
- DT Carl Davis was elevated from the practice squad.
- K Zane Gonzalez was elevated from the practice squad as the replacement for K Austin Seibert, who was placed on IR earlier this week. This is Gonzalez’s third elevation from the practice squad, which is the CBA-mandated limit, so the will have to sign him to the active roster after this week if they want to keep him for the rest of the year.
- The team now has two open spots on the active roster.