Welcome, to the NFL, young man. Cam Ward found out just how tough things can be on Sundays in the top level of the sport against perhaps the best defense the NFL has to offer.
Ward was under regular pressure and struggled substantially in the Titans’ 20-12 season-opening loss to the Denver Broncos. It was always going to be a big, big challenge for him in his first game, particularly on the road against a team as good as Denver – a playoff team last year – with an elite defense.
But Ward looked every
bit of a player making his first-ever start in the NFL. He finished 12/28 passing for 112 yards and no touchdowns. He had no rushing yards and was sacked 6 times for a loss of 50 yards.
I think, for me, having watched Ward play last year in Miami, what worried me the most about the transition to the NFL was his ability to avoid making a bad situation worse. There were tons of moments last season where he pulled off some magic with an escape and a dynamite throw for a big play. It’s the Brett Favre effect, and Ward has a gunslinger mentality to his game to some degree.
But even gunslingers in the NFL have to know when a play is lost, or when players have you in a disadvantageous situation and get rid of the ball, or get out of the pocket. You can’t hang around and try to buy time or run backwards. NFL players are way, way, way too fast and instinctive to let you pull something off very often.
And there were a couple of sacks that were tough to take. He took one near the goal line that was almost a safety, and the Broncos turned a short field into a go ahead touchdown right before the end of the first half.
Then, after a fumbled punt in the fourth quarter by Denver, he took a sack where he ran backwards that took a sure-fire go-ahead field goal backwards into fringe range around the 40. Then he was sacked again right after to force a punt. Tennessee’s offense line had plenty to do with the pressure during the contest, to be fair, but Ward will also have to learn to recognize the situations and not make them worse, particularly like he did with the first sack to help kill the potential go-ahead score.
It’s just game one. He will learn and do much better as the season goes on, no doubt. So, there’s nowhere to go from up but here, and it will be fun to see his improvement from week to week. On to the Rams next week in his first game at home.
