Marcus Mariota was bad for the Titans, so let's all freak out about it

Joe Rexrode | The Tennessean

When you’re the focal point of a franchise and the impetus for a coaching change and you look as awful as Marcus Mariota looked Saturday, you have a rare opportunity to do something special.

You can make people believe preseason NFL football means something.

Please, Tennessee Titans fans, don’t buy it. Don’t trust it. Don’t panic. Don’t let a couple of unsightly Mariota misfires and one costly decision in Saturday’s 16-6 preseason loss at Pittsburgh make you think any different than what you should already think about Mariota’s fourth season with the Titans.

His performance will dictate their future together. It will determine whether this team competes for an AFC South title and more postseason success to go with the game Mariota won for the Titans last season in Kansas City. And it will heap justification or doubt on the decision to fire Mike Mularkey and go with rookie head coach Mike Vrabel and the offensive coordinator who means to maximize Mariota, Matt LaFleur.

There’s a ton on Mariota this season, and I don’t know how anyone could be close to convinced right now about either outcome. He’s a good player — he has demonstrated that. He is not and may never be a great player. He has tremendous physical talent and intangibles. He has worked hard to master this offense, and he’s absolutely made progress from the spring until now.

But the ability to see things in a flash, make good decisions in another and put the ball exactly where it needs to be? Most humans can’t get there. A handful or so in any particular era are truly great at it. Even if Mariota never exceeds good, the Titans likely will commit to him and pay him more than $20 million a year when it’s time to extend him.

Now, if his performance in Saturday’s “dress rehearsal” game becomes the norm, he’ll soon be following Johnny Manziel to Canada. There’s no spinning the enormous underthrow to Corey Davis on a third down that would have been a big play, or the sailed overthrow to Davis on another third down, or the forced ball for an interception after a scramble.

Mariota did explain afterward to reporters that the first of those three was a miscommunication with Davis -- that Davis recognized a coverage bust and correctly adjusted his route, and that Mariota "should have been thinking the same thing."

Mariota also said a game like this leaves "a bad taste in your mouth," and Vrabel said the offense has to "clean some things up" after a late surge from the reserves left the Titans with 210 total yards. If this were the regular season, those would be dramatic underreactions. In the preseason, just about everything is an overreaction.

You know better than to react beyond cringing and changing the channel, right? Mariota threw good passes and led touchdown drives on two of three preseason possessions before Saturday’s 0-for-4. For the third straight game, he played without Delanie Walker, Rishard Matthews and Jack Conklin. Preseason games are evaluation tools, not concerted attempts to win.

And the next time Mariota plays — likely the Sept. 9 season opener at Miami, after Thursday’s preseason finale in which most Titans regulars will see little to no action — he will give the Titans a chance to win. He might have all three of those guys with him. He’ll have a game plan and a full game to execute it.

That’s when the real evaluation of Mariota in this offense — and as the future of this franchise — can begin.

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.