During July, the Last Word On Sports NFL department has been analyzing the schedules of every team in the NFL. We will be ranking each game in order of difficulty (with one being the most difficult). This series will be split up into the eight most difficult games (ranked 1-8) and the eight easiest games (ranked 9-16) for each team. In this article, the Tennessee Titans most difficult games are the focus.
Tennessee Titans Most Difficult Games of 2017
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Week 11 at Pittsburgh Steelers
November 16th at Heinz field should give the Titans their biggest challenge of the season. Ben Roethlisberger and the killer Bs could prove to be too much for the Titans young secondary. With Martavis Bryant back in the fold for the Steelers, the offense has become an even greater miss match for any defense, let alone the Titans.
It won’t get any easier for Marcus Mariota and the offense. The Steelers front seven, spearheaded by the speedy Ryan Shazier and medicine ball throwing James Harrison, the Titans will need to depend on their aerial attack to keep up with the Steelers high power offense.
2. Week 6 vs. Indianapolis Colts
The Titans haven’t beaten the Colts in 82 years!! It’s actually 11 games, but it feels like 82 years. Week six will be the Titans first chance to end the horrid skid, and even though it’s at home, it should challenge the Titans. Why? Well, no one knows the answer to that. On paper, the Titans are far better than the Colts at every position but quarterback, and that’s even subject to change…soon.
3. Week 1 vs. Oakland Raiders
The Raiders and Titans have a lot of similarities, Oakland is just one year ahead of the Titans. They both have a young talented franchise quarterback who’s dealt with injury. Both have veteran power running backs. Corey Davis should be on Amari Cooper‘s level, in time. The offensive lines are both top ten in the league. And, their secondaries struggled last year against the pass.
And all that really means is the AFC Championship game in 2020 will be between the Titans and Raiders.
The last three meetings between these two have been less than a touchdown and week one should prove to be another close game.
4. Week 3 vs. Seattle Seahawks
If this had been in Seattle, it would have been higher on this list. Instead, the Titans get to play a tough Seahawks team at home, early in the season. For some reason, Seattle always struggles on the road in the first half. But, that doesn’t change the fact they will make it hard on the Titans, but it’s definitely a winnable game. The offensive line will definitely be tested.
5. Week 12 at Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee just faced the Steelers a week ago on the road and now have to travel to Indy to face the Colts…not good. You wonder why the Titans didn’t have the Raiders or Seahawks on the road? Well, the NFL must have noticed that when they were scheduling the Titans after their bye week and quickly had to make up for that.
However, the Titans could have already beaten the Colts by week 12 in their previous meeting; so, this game could be less intimidating. But, in the case, they lose week 6, the skid will continue for another 82 years, probably.
6. Week 4 at Houston Texans
Even though the Texans still don’t have a starting quarterback, they are in better condition than when they had Brock Osweiler, and they still made the playoffs, and only lost to the Patriots because of some interceptions (Brock’s fault). With him gone, the Texans get better automatically. So whether it’s Tom Savage or Deshaun Watson, the Texans have a healthy J.J. Watt and their defense should be a nightmare. With the Titans offense still getting used to one another early in the season, the defense alone may be too much.
7. Week 10 vs. Cincinnati Bengals
A.J. Green, Tyler Eifert, John Ross, Brandon LaFell, Joe Mixon, Giovani Bernard. That is a ton of skilled players on the Bengals offense, and even though Andy Dalton is above average, the Titans will have their hands full against this offense. Cincinnati’s defense was eighth in points against last season and will make it tricky for the Titans. However, the Bengals were far below average against the run, so the Titans need to take advantage of that to open up the secondary for Mariota and somehow contain all of those guys above.
8. Week 13 vs. Houston Texans
The Texans and Titans will be fighting for the AFC South which makes their two games against each other all the more important. In Week 13 the Texans are on the back end of a back-to-back on the road. Even though the games against Houston won’t be easy with how important each game is, the Titans have the advantage of facing them either after a back-to-back (week 4) or on the back end of one (week 13).
Be sure to check out the easiest games of the 2017 Tennessee Titans schedule.
