The Tennessee Titans lost to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, but head coach Mike McCoy saw a lot of positives.
Rookie quarterback Cam Ward did not blow away the numbers on the stat sheet, but he used his legs to extend plays and find open receivers several times.
“I think he’s gotten better from week to week with [taking what the defense gives him] and I think it’s a great example—yesterday’s game—of not only taking what they give him, but then taking off and running,” McCoy said.
“That was the next part of it, and the growth of him. [He] made some really nice plays for us.”
On the second play of the game, Ward dropped back to pass, but a hole opened up on the right side of the offensive line. He ran through it, pump-faked to get a defender to jump, then scampered for a 14-yard gain. McCoy compared it to Los Angeles Chargers QB Justin Herbert’s ability to find a running lane while working through his progression and pick up a few yards.
“I think yesterday he took that next step in making plays with his feet,” McCoy said.
“Now the next thing he needs to learn to do is when he’s out of that pocket, get rid of that ball a little quicker and not take some of those hits. So, that’s kind of the coaching point we talked to him about today is don’t take the unnecessary hits at times. But very pleased with the way he played.”
Ward’s first pass was the first of several clutch plays he made on Tennessee’s opening possession.
On 4th and 2, Ward stepped up in the pocket and found tight end Gunnar Helm for a first down. Then, on a 2nd and 9, Ward ran into his own center and was wrapped up by a defender, but as he fell down, he found tight end Chig Okonkwo open for a first down.
Backed up on 2nd and goal from the 9-yard line, Ward found wide receiver Chimere Dike at the 1-yard line.
All game, Ward used his legs to extend plays and find open receivers. He also used it to find the end zone. With about 1:20 left in the third quarter, Ward took a jet sweep keeper and followed his lead blockers for a touchdown. With under a minute left to play, he rolled to his right and found Dike for a TD.
Ward finished the game 28 of 42 passing for 256 yards and a TD, and added six rushes for 37 yards and a score.
McCoy said that this year’s first overall pick has been playing slower because he is trying to execute the offensive system.
The staff has been pushing for him to use his legs because even if he only gains a couple of yards, it helps the offense, and he does not have to force throws back across the middle of the field into coverage.
“He’s progressing in the right way on how to play the game and do certain things, and making the right decisions, and part of that is doing what he did yesterday, more than he’s done the entire year,” McCoy said.
Those plays don’t usually work out, but they have in a couple of instances. In Week 2 against the Los Angeles Rams, Ward ran backwards some 20 yards to escape pressure, then lobbed a pass to wide receiver Elic Ayomanor in the opposite corner of the end zone for a touchdown.
Against Seattle, Ward did the same thing, rolling back and around and heaving one over the middle as he was about to fall out of bounds; he found his former college wideout, Xavier Restrepo, for a 13-yard gain that traveled more than 20 yards in the air, from the boundary to the right hash, as Ward was falling away.
McCoy said those are not the improvised plays coaches look for, but they are the next best thing.
“It’s players making plays,” he said.
“There’s good players in the other side, too. There’s certain times you’ve got a great design for a play against a certain coverage. Well, that [defensive tackle] blows by your guard or a defensive end smokes your tackle, and then you’ve got to go out and make a play. Every year you do red area studies throughout the league, and more often than not the teams that ad-lib the most and the most efficiently are the best red area teams, because it’s players making plays.”
