NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A new ingredient’s been a prominent piece in Cam Ward’s slow advance.
After five games of no first downs for the Titans’ offense out of quarterback runs, they got two in their Week 11 loss to Houston and four in their Week 12 loss to Seattle. Against the Seahawks Ward’s first downs by land accounted for 22 percent of Tennessee’s first downs and they only got one more by rush.
Cam Ward scores against the Seahawks/ Courtesy Tennessee Tiitans
The runs have made Ward two-dimensional and provided a boost to a team that still ranks dead last in the NFL in first downs with 45. The New York Giants have 99 in 12 games.
It’s a big change for the quarterback, who is not a natural runner.
In 13 games at Incarnate Word, he averaged 0.6 yards on 112 attempts. In 25 games at Washington State, he averaged 0.9 yards on 227 attempts. And in 13 games at Miami, he averaged 3.4 yards on 60 attempts.
“We’ve been on him about it, and it’s not really something he’s done a lot in his career,” Nick Holz said. “When it’s not in your natural skill set, I think you’ve kind of got to feel success with it to feel good about doing it, which now he’s starting to have.
“I think probably as an athlete you probably rely in times of your greatest stress on your greatest talent and he’s a great thrower of the football.”
After three runs for 33 yards and two first downs against the Texans, Ward said the way Houston rushed the quarterback created open lanes and possibilities for him to take off.
CAM WARD RUNS:
But taking off twice as often a week later was not keyed by the same thing, so perhaps his coaches were really looking for a prompt where Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson were pursuing their rookie quarterback.
“Just feeling the pocket,” Ward said after the 6-point defeat to the Seahawks. “Getting better at it and just knowing where I need to set up every play. And then also being able to play on time and have a clock in my head to get the ball to my playmakers or whether I need to scramble around.
“But I just got to continue to do what I need to do to help the offense be successful.”
Running is definitely a part of it. He’s not the smoothest running quarterback in a league that features some premier talents at the task – Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have all won MVPs all their ability to take off is a big piece of their game., They average, respectively, 5.3, 5.4 and 6.0 yards per carry.
Ward is at 4.3 so far.
“I think early on as a young player trying to execute the system and trying to do certain things, you play slower overall,” Mike McCoy said. “And now, like I said, the second play of the game, all of a sudden, he’s looking to the right …and all of a sudden, he just takes off (for 14 yards).
“And that’s one of those things that we’ve been trying to tell him from Day One especially when you move the pocket with him, press the line of scrimmage and if it’s not there, you’d be surprised what a 2- or 3- yard run with your legs, how it helps the next play of positive plays, instead of trying to force one back across the middle and bad things happen.”
It clearly took some nudging for him to take advantage of some chances at the pro level, and now perhaps it will be a more regular feature.
“He’s progressing the right way on how to play the game and do certain things and making the right decisions,” McCoy said. “And part of that is doing what he did (Sunday) more than he’s done the entire year.”
Paul Kuharsky is a veteran NFL journalist who has covered the Tennessee Titans since 1996. He has run PaulKuharsky.com, an independent Titans analysis site, for over seven years.