Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley spent a few minutes breaking down the Tennessee Titans offense on Wednesday and the words "big play" came up a few times. The Titans have some speed with guys like Chris Johnson and Randy Moss so making these guys go 80 yards in 10-plus plays will be key. They'll allow Tennessee to stay in the game if they start giving up 50 and 60 yards plays.
Here's what Haley had to say about the Titans offense:
Just running through them quickly, I think that offensively they have a quarterback in Kerry Collins who’s been around long, long time – 16 years – a true pocket passer with a big, big arm. He does a good job of spreading the football around the field to a lot of different receivers, tight ends and backs and can throw any ball that you need to throw out there.
He can make any pass you want -- but does he complete those passes? Sort of. He's completing 58 percent of his passes but he is interception prone at times. He's thrown six picks in 202 attempts. Matt Cassel has thrown five in 383 attempts. Collins, at this stage in the game, is an average quarterback. He doesn't do anything exceptionally well and he can manage the game.
Their running back, Chris Johnson, is one of the best if not the best back in the league. He can score from anywhere. He is as an explosive back as you will see. He can score from anywhere and he’s a threat to score at any time the ball is in his hands.
We've talked about him. CJ is awesome and we all know it. Stopping him is key but, more specifically, avoiding the big play is critical. If he's going to beat the Chiefs on 25 carries for 125 yards, I can live with that. But what you can't live with is him putting up 125 yards on 10 carries.
They have three real good tight ends that they utilize a great deal: (Bo) Scaife, (Craig) Stevens and (Jared) Cook. They see a bunch of footballs throughout each game and then they have a receiving group that as much or more than any group we’ve seen really stretches the field. I don’t know what all their time speeds are but they play fast and they stretch the field every single play. They look like they have a great deal of endurance and like I said, they move the football around to all of them and they all see the football a bunch. (Kenny) Britt, (Randy) Moss, (Justin) Gage, Nate Washington, they’re all very good receivers that can all score from anywhere. They have a number of explosive, explosive plays in the 70-yard range. I think at least two or three of them have catches of over 65 yards.
Big plays are a factor here as well. It sounds like the Chiefs won't have to worry about Britt and Moss on the field at the same time -- I'm not sure why they don't do that -- but both are enough to handle on their own. Collins, as Haley said, does have a big arm and can capitalize on a deep route.