Niners Nation
The San Francisco 49ers’ bye week has come and gone, and with such a late bye week, we turn our attention to the final stretch of the regular season.
With the 49ers entering Week 15 at 9-4 and a 93 percent chance to make the playoffs according to NFL.com, they will gladly look up and see ahead of them are the 2-11 Tennessee Titans in a tight fight for the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s draft.
While Tennessee is fresh off its second win of the season, the 49ers are looking to extend their win streak to four games, with a tough stretch of games over the final three weeks of the season. These are the numbers to know for the 49ers’ 14th fixture of the season, with the Titans heading into Santa Clara:
-12.0
The Titans’ average margin of victory is -12.0, last in the league.
With Tennessee sitting at a league-worst 2-11 record, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Titans are dead last in point differential, but when they lose, it’s typically a blowout.
After starting their season with a modest enough eight-point loss to the Denver Broncos, things went downhill quickly for the Titans. Their 14-point Week 2 loss to the Rams started a stretch of six of seven games in which the Titans lost by 10 or more points, with their closest loss coming to another 2-11 team, the Las Vegas Raiders, who beat Tennessee 20-10. The only non-two-possession game the Titans had in that stretch was a one-point win over the 3-10 Arizona Cardinals. In the Titans’ two wins this season, their combined margin of victory is just three points, with the win over Arizona in Week 5 and their two-point win against the Browns last week.
But after that seven-game stretch to start the season, Tennessee has at least made its recent losses competitive. After six of their first eight games this season resulted in at least a two-score loss, four of the Titans’ last five games have been decided by seven points or fewer, going 1-4 over that stretch, with the only two-possession loss coming at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars, winning by a score of 25-3 in Week 13.
Seven of the Titans’ 11 losses have been by nine points or more, and five of those seven have been by 17 or more. After starting the season with five straight one-possession games, each of the 49ers’ last five wins has been by 10 points or more. You would prefer to see that streak continue against the far inferior Titans on Sunday.
440
Tennessee has attempted 440 pass attempts this season, 11th-most in the league.
With how often Tennessee is behind in games, it makes sense that they are among the teams that pass the ball most frequently. However, what hurts the Titans is that they are not very productive in the pass game despite the high volume of attempts.
While Tennessee is among the most frequent of...
