The spotlight trained its glare on rookie QB Marcus Mariota as soon as the Titans selected him with the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL draft.
If his first three games are any indication, Mariota hasn’t been hampered by the enormity of his stage. He’s put on his top hat and he’s high stepping his way through Act 1 of his professional career.
The Titans may be off to a 1-2 start, but Mariota has shown he’s ready for prime time. His eight TD passes in his first three games ties an NFL record he now shares with former Redskin QB Mark Rypien.
Asked about the play of his rookie QB Sunday during a 35-33 loss to the Colts, Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt admitted Mariota wasn’t perfect, but emphasized he did deliver in the clutch.
“He took us on a two-minute drive to score at the end of the game,” said Whisenhunt. “One of the questions you have about a quarterback is can he do that? If you wipe out everything else and say you’ve got two minutes to score a touchdown in a critical situation, he handled himself very well.”
The Titans gained possession with 2:51 remaining down 35-27. Mariota orchestrated a nine-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a Jalston Fowler 1-yard TD run to make it 35-33. The Titans needed a 2-point conversion to force overtime and, after a pass interference penalty, Fowler was stopped on a run from the 1.
Perhaps forgotten in the heartache of the home loss is that Mariota finished 27-of-44 for 367 yards. It goes down as the eighth best passing game for the team since the Titans moved to Nashville in 1999.
“He’s been putting the ball where it needs to be since the day he got here,” said Titans WR Kendall Wright, who finished with seven catches for 95 yards and a TD. “When we’re not making penalties and hurting ourselves, I feel like we’re a hard offense to stop.”
Despite the 1-2 start, the Titans have won the time of possession battle all three games. Mariota has compiled a 109.2 passer rating, good for eighth best in NFL history for a quarterback’s first three starts.
Hurting Mariota’s numbers against the Colts were two dropped passes on the Titans’ first two drives. Both passes would have picked up first downs, but the team instead went three-and-out both drives.
Mariota seems to have developed goal-line chemistry with monster-sized rookie WR Dorial Green-Beckham, who has three NFL catches, two for TDs.
“For me, I used the preseason to get the nerves away,” said the player who has been nicknamed DGB. “Now I’m getting to be a bigger part of the offense. It’s all about getting off the line, getting to the right spot, and then high-pointing the ball.”
Mariota wasn’t without a few mistakes, most notably an interception with 6:09 remaining. On the play, Mariota was looking to squeeze the ball into Wright on the left sideline, but he threw the ball late and with too much touch and Colt safety Dwight Lowery was able to step in front of the pass at the Titan 37. He returned it to the 12 to set up the Colts’ go-ahead TD, 28-27.
“He’s a young quarterback,” said Whisenhunt. “He’s just like our tackle, just like our fullback, just like our receiver. We’re experiencing things for the first time in situations like that and they’ll be better the next time around.”
Whisenhunt continued, “You can try to simulate these conditions all you want but you never know what’s going to happen during the course of a game, when somebody’s going to make a play, just like DGB. On that last two-minute drive when Marcus scrambled to his left and hit DGB on the crosser and he got down to the 3-yard line. Those things happen in a game. They made a play. Marcus and DGB made a play, got us down to the 3-yard line and we scored a touchdown.”
The Titans have a bye this Sunday before facing Buffalo the following Sunday in Nashville.