Football is the team sport that is most reliant on group effort and working together. While there are plenty of superstar players, only a few here and there can individually swing the fortunes of a team. Marcus Mariota isn’t in
Football is the team sport that is most reliant on group effort and working together. While there are plenty of superstar players, only a few here and there can individually swing the fortunes of a team. Marcus Mariota isn’t in that small category yet, but his return Sunday seemed to give the Tennessee Titans the proper confidence to pull off an unexpected road win under some unique circumstances.
What Mariota lacks in experience, he has always made up for in maturity. With his team facing the prospects of an interim coach and a hostile environment, Mariota returned from a two-week absence to have the most impressive performance of his budding career. While he has experienced some growing pains, the Titans just seem to be a much more confident team with him under center. It takes that type of confidence to come back from a double-digit deficit in New Orleans, which is what Tennessee managed to do with their 34-28 overtime win against the Saints.
Mariota has seemed to have the respect of his teammates since very early this season, but any lingering questions were answered Sunday. The Titans entered on a six-game losing streak and had just fired head coach Ken Whisenhunt, who was certainly one of Mariota’s biggest supporters. Well before the draft, Whisenhunt was quoted as saying that if Mariota were to be a Titan this season, he would enter training camp as the starter.
While his firing wasn’t at all a referendum on Mariota and just the result of a 3-20 record as the head coach, it was still a fairly surprising move with three-and-a-half years still left on his contract. Organizational uncertainty can sometimes throw a young team into a tailspin.
The Saints seemed to be capitalizing on that level of uncertainty as Drew Brees and New Orleans built a 21-10 second-quarter lead. But Mariota never let the Titans fall too far behind and Tennessee finally pulled even midway through the fourth quarter, eventually winning on 5-yard strike to Anthony Fasano in the extra session.
A shootout like this can be aided by miscues, but Mariota stayed cool and collected. He had thrown five interceptions in his previous three games but kept a clean sheet, passing for a season-high 371 yards, four touchdowns, no picks and no fumbles.
Tennessee has lost a couple of heartbreakers and has been competitive most weeks. They’re probably not much better than their 2-6 record, but they’re not a team that can be checked off as an easy matchup on any team’s schedule.
With the injury to Andrew Luck and no team in the AFC South above .500, it’s not at all crazy to think the Titans can move back to the head of the pack in the division. They’re in a hole right now, but a few more performances from Mariota like this past week’s and Tennessee could be in the mix down the stretch.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
