Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky
The best thing that shows up in my Monday e-mails comes from ESPN Stats and Analysis and is labeled "Next Level Data."
This week's high-quality breakdown comes from Doug Kern, who looked closely at the Titans' win over Chicago.
Without further delay:
- Tennessee managed 20 yards rushing, just a yard above the franchise record low, a mark they last hit in 1965. On first and second down, Tennessee didn't even average a yard. On first down they averaged 0.8, and second down 0.6, on third 1.4 and they got minus-1 on their one fourth down attempt before Ahmard Hall fumbled it away near the goal line.
- Tennessee quarterback Kerry Collins had to bail the Titans out with some long throws, particularly on third down. Only three of their 24 second-down plays were second-and-five or less -- one of those came on the second play of the game, and another was a goal-to-go situation.
| Titans play selection | | Down | Total Plays | Average Yards To Go | Run | Pass | Kick | | 1st | 30 | 10.2 | 13 | 17 | 0 | | 2nd | 24 | 9.0 | 12 | 11 | 1 | | 3rd | 17 | 9.4 | 3 | 14 | 0 | | 4th | 9 | 9.3 | 1 | 0 | 8 | | 2nd-short | 3 | 2.0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | | 2nd-long | 21 | 10.0 | 10 | 10 | 1 | | 3rd-short | 7 | 3.6 | 1 | 6 | 0 | | 3rd-long | 10 | 13.5 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
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- While Collins was efficient all over the field, his best numbers were down the middle, where he didn't miss and more than doubled his yards per attempt as compared to throws to either side.
| Collins passing by direction | | | Completions | Attempts | Yards | Yards per attempt | TD | Rating | | Left | 11 | 18 | 96 | 5.3 | 1 | 93.8 | | Middle | 9 | 9 | 115 | 12.8 | 1 | 155.8 | | Right | 10 | 14 | 78 | 5.6 | 0 | 108.6 | | Total | 30 | 41 | 289 | 7.0 | 2 | 108.7 |
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- The Bears forced the Titans to throw, but two-third of the Titans' passes were thrown less than 10 yards. Collins was pretty much perfect on those throws, as on the three incompletions under 10 yards, two were dropped and one was tipped at the line of scrimmage.
Collins dumped it off and allowed the receivers to run with it. More than half the short-pass yardage came after the catch.
On passes less than 10 yards, he was 20 for 23 for 133 yards and a TD, with 74 yards -- or 55.6 percent of the gain -- after the catch.
On passes of 10 yards or more, he was 10 of 18 for 156 yards and a TD, with 19 yards -- 12.2 percent of the gain -- after the catch.
- Chicago's highly-ranked rushing defense stuffed the Titans backfield of LenDale White and Chris Johnson. Tennessee rushed for only 20 yards -0 one yard off the franchise low. The only direction the Titans found any "success" was to the right.
| Titans running game by direction | | Run over | Attempts | Yards | | Left end | 5 | -7 | | Left tackle | 6 | -5 | | Left guard | 1 | -2 | | Middle | 4 | -1 | | Right guard | 2 | 4 | | Right tackle | 8 | 26 | | Right end | 3 | 5 |
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Overall, they had 11 runs for minus-12 yards to the left, seven runs up the middle for a total of one yard and 11 runs to the right for 31 yards.
