The Tennessee Titans fell to the Denver Broncos on Sunday 20-12 at Empower Field at Mile High. While the offense looked pretty poor at times, it’s no small feat for a four-win team to start the season in a 2024 playoff team’s house and escape with a one-score loss. Especially one where it is incredibly difficult to breathe.
First-overall draft pick Cam Ward didn’t exactly light up the stat sheet. But, despite that, the first-year quarterback still did some good things. EPSN’s Dan Orlovsky came away incredibly impressed by what he saw.
“I was blown away with his tape. I thought his tape looked awesome.” Orlovsky said. “They win the game if they don’t have like eight drops.”
In case you didn’t see the game, there were definitely drops. To be clear, the Titans are not nearly good enough to overcome mistakes like not being able to catch the ball. They need all hands on deck if they are going to be better than last year.
Orlovsky says Cam Ward is going to make rookie mistakes
Ward was 12-18 passing for 112 yards against the Broncos. It’s pretty amazing that they only lost by eight points when your quarterback has a stat line like that.
Still, Orlovsky says he made rookie errors and that he’ll grow from those.
“Yes, there are times, like Cam, you can’t get that sack that takes them out of field goals. He did that in college, he’s got to learn from that, he will, would be my expectation.” Orlovsky said, “(and) There are some times where he fires the friggin’ ball in there, and I’m like, could you have taken a little bit off to help them.”
Cam Ward gets a ‘C’ grade from CBS Sports
Jared Dubin of CBS Sports graded out all the quarterbacks starting for a new team this year. Of course, that would include Ward. He agreed with Orlovsky that there are some things to like in the loss to Denver.
“Ward’s debut in Denver was probably a bit better than it looks on the surface,” Dubin writes. “It was all about missed opportunities, right from the start of the game. He had a 10.7% drop rate on his throws, more than double the league average on Sunday, and you could easily have credit the Titans with more drops than that.”
Dubin then went on to address the drops that Orlovsky mentioned. He agrees that Ward wasn’t getting the proper help that he needed.
“Some of these throws hit the receiver in only one hand rather than two, but a lot of them are just plays that need to be made,” Dubin continues. “And if they were made, then Ward’s stat line would obviously look a hell of a lot better. In particular, the Calvin Ridley drop in the second-to-last clip would have set the Titans up for a potential game-tying score just outside the 20-yard line.
“Still, Ward officially went 12 of 28 for just 112 yards. He took a few really, really bad sacks in this one, including two in a row when the Titans had the ball at Denver’s 25-yard line after a turnover, and it knocked them out of field-goal range on that possession. He also had a pretty bad intentional grounding penalty late in the game.”
Dubin wrapped up his summary with a final grade of ‘C.’ Considering that stat line, that’s really not a bad grade.
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