Titans running back Chris Johnson had another terrible game on Sunday, but head coach Mike Munchak doesn’t want Johnson getting all the blame.
Instead, Munchak said, the offensive line deserves some of the blame, and so does the coaching staff for not putting the ball in Johnson’s hands more often.
“As a group, for the limited time we had to run it, we didn’t block well. We were very average and inconsistent and that’s where you go when you do that for eight carries,” Munchak said, via Titans Insider. “I’m not going to give any excuses. We would have liked to have had more opportunities, and that’s my fault. So if you only get 10 carries, you’ve got to do a much better job than we did with 10 carries. So that starts with the offensive line, and anytime you have this conversation, it starts with them. They know that, and we need to do better than that.”
Sorry, but the conversation about why Johnson is averaging 3.2 yards a carry should start with Johnson. After all, it was Johnson -- not any of the Titans’ offensive linemen -- who got a huge new contract before the season. If Johnson got the financial rewards for his big numbers in his first three NFL seasons, why shouldn’t Johnson get the blame now that his numbers have gone south?
And Johnson’s numbers have gone way south. He had 12 carries for 13 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Falcons, the sixth time this year Johnson averaged less than three yards a carry in a game. Johnson has been held under 35 yards five times this season. His longest run all year is 25 yards.
So Munchak may be right that his offensive line isn’t blocking well. But the bigger problem is that Johnson isn’t running well.