Titans take committee approach to run game

A number of NFL teams take a running back-by-committee approach.

Most of them have a chairman.

Not the Titans. They have an equal opportunity running game. Three weeks into the season, they’ve spread out their carries among four backs — Bishop Sankey, Dexter McCluster, Terrance West and Antonio Andrews. Throw fullback Jalston Fowler into the equation, and it’s a crowded backfield.

And it’s not likely to change any time soon. Ken Whisenhunt doesn’t sound like a coach who is in a rush to identify his leading rusher.

“What’s wrong with what we’ve been doing in the first three weeks running the football?” he said.

Fair point. The Titans rank 10th in the NFL in rushing, but their leading rusher, Sankey, checks in at just No. 32 among individuals.

Whisenhunt’s approach is to install different offensive packages that are suited to each back’s skill-set. Then the Titans go with whatever is working in a given game.

That helps explain why a different player has been the leading rusher in each of the Titans’ three games — Sankey against Tampa Bay, McCluster against Cleveland and Andrews against Indianapolis.

“I don’t know what it’s going to be next week or the next week that we play,” Whisenhunt said. “That’s going to go from week to week.”

This is nothing new for Whisenhunt. Four different backs led the team in rushing during his six seasons as coach at Arizona. Clearly, he has a history of rotating backs.

It can be feast or famine. McCluster is a case in point. He ran for a career-high 98 yards against Cleveland but only 15 in the other two games combined.

“We go with whatever is working,” McCluster said. “As a running back, you have to be ready because it can change from game to game or even during the course of a game. You never know who’s going to be getting the ball.”

This is new territory for the Titans organization. Since the franchise landed on Tennessee turf in 1997, there normally has been a go-to running back on a given team — Eddie George, Chris Brown, Travis Henry, Chris Johnson.

Based on draft pedigree, Sankey should be carrying the heaviest load. He was the Titans’ second-round pick — and the first running back off the board — in the 2014 draft. You’d figure the 54th overall pick would be getting the bulk of the carries.

He’s not. In the 35-33 loss to Indianapolis on Sunday, Sankey had only five carries for just 10 yards. His primary role was as kickoff returner, where he watched all six sail out of the end zone.

For the Titans, it’s all about matchups. Against the Colts, the plays that were in the game plan for Sankey didn’t work because of how Indianapolis adjusted its defensive personnel and alignments.

“We didn’t have a good matchup in the packages that he was in there for, especially running the football,” Whisenhunt said.

Beyond that, the Titans haven’t really utilized quarterback Marcus Mariota’s running ability yet. Depending on the defensive scheme, we could start seeing Mariota carry the ball four or five times a game, maybe more.

Regardless of the method, the running game is significantly improved from last year when the Titans ranked 26th in the league in rushing. Through three games, the Titans are averaging 35.4 more yards on the ground.

It’s one of the reasons they rank fourth in the NFL in time of possession, which was a major issue last season. Likewise, third-down conversions are up significantly.

“We’re doing a lot of things better,” Whisenhunt said. “… We’re running the ball better than we’ve run it before. We’re a good red-zone team. We’re scoring more points.”

And they’re doing it by committee.

Reach David Climer at 615-259-8020 and on Twitter @DavidClimer.