The Titans played their starters in Sunday night’s preseason game, and the defense gave up two first-quarter touchdowns to Seattle’s backups. But Titans head coach Robert Saleh was seeing the glass as half full after the game.
Saleh said he hated seeing his team give up a 36-yard touchdown pass on the first possession and a 69-yard touchdown run on the second possession, but he believes making mistakes in the preseason is part of the process of his players learning his defense.
“The two plays are hateful,” Saleh said. “The pass play, I’m glad it happened, because that is a fundamental issue in the defense that if you don’t get those reps, you don’t recognize it fast enough, and for it to happen, glass half full, glad it happened. Half empty, it’s a shitty thing that happened. . . . Those two plays, wish we had them back, but overall I thought the defense was pretty good today.”
Saleh believes his defense played fundamentally sound football, outside the mistakes that can be corrected that resulted in the two long touchdowns.
“It was those two plays. Felt really good about all the different things that were happening,” Saleh said.
Saleh is confident that the mistakes being made in the preseason will get corrected before the regular season.
“Like I said, I’m glad it happened because it’s an easy fix. For the player to feel that, it’s like, ‘I get it now,’” Saleh said. “It’s a really cool a-ha moment. Unfortunately it happened in a game-like atmosphere. Thank God it was preseason. One hundred percent will get fixed.”
The Seahawks have taken three big losses before the season even starts.
During the joint practice with the Titans earlier in the week, the Seahawks lost wide receiver Jake Bobo for the season with a right leg injury.
During Sunday night’s preseason game in Tennessee, the Seahawks saw safety Bud Clark and offensive guard Mason Richman leave with injuries. Coach Mike Macdonald said after the 19-16 loss to the Titans that Clark and Richman were diagnosed with major injuries that will keep them out for months.
“We have had three heartbreaking injuries this week,” Macdonald said, via Brady Henderson of ESPN.
Clark, the team’s second-round pick, broke his ankle and will miss “multiple months.”
He was injured on the Titans’ first play from scrimmage on a 9-yard run by Tony Pollard and wore a vacuum splint on his right leg as he left the field.
Henderson reports that another of the Seahawks’ backup safeties, Rodney Thomas II, underwent surgery last week to repair a fracture in his hand. Thomas has a chance to return next week.
It is unclear what Richman’s injury is, but Macdonald called it “long term.”
Richman is the backup to Grey Zabel, though he started at left guard against the Titans with Zabel not playing.
Titans rookie wide receiver Carnell Tate was held without a catch in the preseason opener and then missed practice time this week, but quarterback Cam Ward has no doubt that there are big things in store for Tate.
Ward said today that Tate, who returned to practice after a few days off, didn’t get down about not having catches in the preseason game against the 49ers and always displays the right attitude.
“He never shows that to the team, whether he’s frustrated or not. The thing about Carnell, whether he has a drop or I have a bad pass, he never points a finger at nobody. He always comes back with a next play mentality,” Ward said. “He wants the ball, so when the ball does get thrown his way he’s urgent to it. He goes up and high points it, there’s times when he bails me out when the ball needs to be better.”
Ward said he has no doubt that Tate, the No. 4 overall pick in the draft, will have a major role in the offense.
“He’s been great. He may not have had the splash plays like he always does today, but he’s going to be a key reason we’re successful on offense,” Ward said.
After what Ward described as a “very competitive” joint practice with the Seahawks today, the Titans will face the defending champs in a preseason game on Sunday.
Titans first-round pick Carnell Tate is back on the practice field Friday.
Tate missed the last few days of work due to what head coach Robert Saleh termed stiffness, but videos from Friday’s joint practice with the Seahawks show that the wide receiver is back to work. Tate’s status for Sunday’s preseason game between the teams is uncertain.
Quarterback Cam Ward targeted Tate three times during Tennessee’s first preseason game against the 49ers, but the rookie did not reel in any of the passes.
Ward was 5-of-12 for 57 yards overall in that game. Saleh said afterward that he thought the second-year quarterback was “a little sped up” in that contest and the Titans will be hoping to see a calmer outing this time around.
The Titans signed a pair of defensive players on Friday morning.
Defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon and linebacker Milo Eifler have been added to the 90-man roster in Tennessee. Tight end Matt Lauter and cornerback Nazeeh Johnson were placed on injured reserve in corresponding moves.
Kpassagnon was a Chiefs second-round pick in 2017 and spent four years with the team before moving on to a four-year run with the Saints. He played in four games for the Bears last season and has 146 tackles, 17.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery for his career.
Eifler has appeared in 17 games for the Commanders and Falcons over the last four seasons. He has four tackles while appearing almost exclusively on special teams.
