It was "get Carnell Tate the ball" day at Tennessee Titans joint practice with the Chicago Bears, even if the company line is that it wasn't by design.
The Titans' offense took the field for the final joint session of the summer on Aug. 27, hosting the Bears. Despite the blazing hot start to his pro career in OTAs, minicamp and early training camp, Tate had gone cold in the two weeks since joint practices started. He failed to catch any passes in either of the Titans' first two preseason games and failed to catch a pass in the joint practice with Seattle.
Against Chicago, his hometown team, this all changed. Tate caught seven passes on 12 targets for two touchdowns across seven full-team periods. On his first touchdown, he threw the cornerback
lined up across from him to the ground while busting press off the line of scrimmage for an easy goal-line TD catch. He second touchdown punctuated an easy four-play scoring drive that featured two intermediate-length completions to Tate, the first of which came off a scramble drill where Tate and QB Cam Ward mirrored each other effectively. He also bailed Ward out with strong hands on an out route that Ward easily could've had an interception and returned for a touchdown, but Tate fought through the coverage and plucked the ball for a first down.
When asked whether Tate's increased involvement was intentional, Ward responded simply: "He was open."
Between red zone, full team and two-minute drills, Ward attempted 30 passes on the day. Tate was his target a whopping 40% of the time. Ward finished his day 19-for-30 passing overall with three touchdowns and one interception. The lone touchdown that wasn't thrown to Tate ended up in the hands of receiver Chimere Dike.
The overall offensive output wasn't as successful or efficient as it was a week ago in joint practice with Seattle, but some of that had to do with the offense taking more gambles. Ward threw his interception on an ugly overthrow lobbed over the middle with no particular receiver in the area. He missed two would-be touchdowns in the red zone period by lofting the ball out of the back of the end zone, and had a pass targeted for Tate broken up on the goal line fighting through double coverage.
The good, though, was good. Ward ended both the move-it period and the two-minute period with touchdown passes. Across the four full-team periods that weren't red zone or two-minute focused, Ward completed 13 of his 17 throws.
Ward, Tate and the Titans' starters will play in the preseason finale against the Bears at Nissan Stadium on Aug. 29.
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: It was all Carnell Tate, all the time for Titans in joint practice vs Bears
