The Thursday night game featured 15 penalties in the first half. But Ian Allan made it through to the bitter end. His fantasy takeaways …

Marcus Mariota:
He has problems with accuracy and decision making. He was particularly bad in the first half of this game, completing 6 of 16 passes for 62 yards. The Titans punted 6 times in the first half of this game, and it had me wondering whether that should be a category for defenses in fantasy leagues (you get a point every time your opponent has to punt). Mariota had more success in the second half, hitting on a few throws. He had one 47-yard bomb, and it came with Jalen Ramsey in coverage – that was his highlight throw. But Mariota in the third quarter missed on what would have been a 53-yard touchdown. I can’t say whether that was on Mariota or the receiver not running the route correctly, but it was a big play that could have changed the game. Mariota is one of the more athletic quarterbacks in the league but gets caught holding the ball a lot. He took 9 sacks in this game, and I remember him taking 11 in a loss against Baltimore. Those weren’t all on Mariota; the protection was shoddy on many or most of the sacks. But he’s just not very good. I don’t think Tennessee will be re-signing Mariota in the offseason, and it won’t surprise me if they try to get a spark by plugging in Ryan Tannehill at some point later this year.

Gardner Minshew:
Minshew is growing on me. He was selected in the sixth round, but NFL teams erred on that front. He’s played well in all three games. He came off the bench against Kansas City and completed 22 of 25, with 2 TDs. He impressively led a late-game drive at Houston, using a mix of timely scrambles and clutch completions to get the ball in the end zone in the final minute. Rather than going to overtime, they tried for a game-winning 2-point conversion, but that run was stopped. Minshew came up big again in this game, completing 66 percent of his passes, with 2 TDs and no turnovers. Minshew is a crafty scrambler; he’s not nearly as athletic as Mariota but has a much better feel for how to escape pressure and when to step up and run. He had four big-time throws in this game – 37-, 22- and 28-yard connections against good coverage, and a fourth-quarter ball into the end zone that was dropped (would have been his third touchdown). I think Minshew is a better player than Mariota right now, and I don’t know that the Jaguars are going to miss Nick Foles all that much. If Minshew continues to play well, I wonder how they’ll feel about Foles in November, December and 2020?

Tennessee running backs:
Derrick Henry had the big game against the Jaguars late last year, running for 238 yards and 4 TDs, so they came in loaded for bear, looking to stop him. He broke a couple of tackles and runs but finished with a modest 44 yards on 17 carries. He dropped a pass that was set up to go for a lot of yards. Dion Lewis was actually on the field for 4 more plays than Henry. That’s a surprise to me as I look at the participation numbers. I guess Lewis was used for most of those second-half drives, when they abandoned the run and were able to string a few drives together. But Lewis carried the ball only 3 times for 13 yards and caught only 1 pass for 7 yards. This isn’t a one-two punch backfield like it was for the first two thirds of last year. When the Titans are playing like they want to play, it will be with Henry getting the vast majority of the work.

Jacksonville running backs:
Leonard Fournette is a big power runner, but they couldn’t get him going at all in this one. He busted loose for a 69-yard run late, after the game was over, but his other 14 carries went for a total of minus-3 yards. He’s like Henry, only a lesser version – not as big, and not as good at breaking tackles. Fournette in this game was on the field for every play. I think only two other running backs have done that this year – LeVeon Bell and Christian McCaffrey. I don’t think that suits Fournette. He’s not a good receiver, and as a huge, road-grader runner, I don’t think he has the cardio to fill that kind of role. Earlier in the week, there were reports that Kenyan Drake wants out of Miami. Glancing over the other 31 rosters, this is definitely the team where the fit is the best – Jacksonville doesn’t have a good pass-catching back, and Fournette might be more effective if he was spelled more.

Tennessee wide receivers:
The Titans don’t seem to have a plan. They selected Corey Davis with the 5th pick of the draft, and occasionally he looks like he might be a franchise-type of receiver. But he had only 1 pass thrown his way in the first half of this game, and it came in the final minute. Davis saw 3 passes in the second half, but that time the game had slipped away. They were using four wide receivers in this game, shuffling them in and out of the game. They fired a lot of balls to A.J. Brown, especially in the first half, with very little result. He caught 1 of the 5 passes thrown his way, and it went for 4 yards. They signed Adam Humphries to a big free agent deal but have hardly used him the first two weeks. Humphries got more involved on this night, especially when they were piling up the passing yards late. He looks like he’s an above-average slot receiver (with quickness, good hands and a feel for the position) but I wonder if he regrets signing with the Titans. I would have thought Tajae Sharpe would hardly get on the field, but he was part of this rotation. He beat Jalen Ramsey on a deep route that went for 47 yards, and later Sharpe was wide open for a 53-yard touchdown but the throw didn’t wind up anywhere near him. Sharpe definitely played better than Brown in this game, so I wonder how that playing time will be adjusted in future weeks. In this game, Brown was on the field for exactly half of the plays; Sharpe was out there for one fewer play than Brown. (Davis and Humphries were up at 74% and 68%). All of these wide receivers, unfortunately, are tied to Mariota.

Jacksonville wide receivers:
DJ Chark is developing into a good wide receiver. He came into the league as a straight-line deep threat with erratic hands, but he’s more than that now, with a lot more ability to catch the ball in contested situations. He had two really nice downfield catches in this one – a 37-yarder on a back-shoulder fade ball, and a 22-yard touchdown. I don’t think he’ll lead them in catches in many games, but he’s making impact catches. He’s averaging 18.5 yards per reception. Right now he’s on pace to finish the season with 80 catches for 1,477 yards and 16 TDs. Dede Westbrook, I think, will be their other main pass catcher. They’ve got Chark catching most of the downfield stuff, and they’ve got Westbook as their primary option on most of their shorter route. Westbrook caught 5 passes for 46 yards in this one, with one impressive catch on a 28-yard bomb against tight coverage. But Westbrook undermined his night with a couple of drops, including a touchdown. Chris Conley is their other main receiver, and he had over twice as many yards as Westbrook in each of their first two games. But Conley doesn’t catch a lot of balls and doesn’t have the same downfield ability as the Chark Attack. He left this game with what appeared to be an ankle or knee injury but came back and ended up not missing that much action (he was on the field for 70 percent of their plays). He finished with just 2 catches for 30 yards, with some nice run-after-the-catch on one of them in the second half. Marqise Lee and Keelan Cole got on the field only briefly, and neither was targeted.

Tennessee tight ends:
Delanie Walker is one of the league’s better pass-catching tight ends, but they don’t seem to want to use him. He was on the field for only 58 percent of their plays in this one, only slightly more than Jonnu Smith (one of their other tight ends). They also use blocking tight ends, when they’re trying to gut-punch defenses with Derrick Henry. In this game, Walker was targeted only once in the first half, and it went for 2 yards. Smith saw twice as many targets. Again, what is the plan? What is the offensive vision. After the game was gone in the second half, they opened things up and Walker finished with 7 catches for 64 yards. On the drive that stalled near the end zone, they nearly got him the ball twice in the end zone, with fingertips knocking them away at the last minute.

Jacksonville tight ends:
James O’Shaughnessy is the better of the two Jacksonville tight ends. He’s played a lot more than Geoff Swaim in all three games. O’Shaughnessy has caught only 2 more passes but they’ve gone for twice as many yards. Swaim’s 8 receptions have gone for only 39 yards. O’Shaughnessy isn’t much of a receiving weapon, either; his 10 balls have gone for 78 yards. O’Shaughnessy snuck free for a touchdown catch early in this game, when the Titans misdiagnosed him as a blocker.

Tennessee kicker:
We didn’t see much of Cairo Santos. He hit his only extra point and kicked off twice.

Jacksonville kicker:
They flashed a graphic during the game, pointing out that Josh Lambo has never missed a field goal in a home game with the Jaguars. About 30 in a row, I think. The Pro Football Reference website has him at 94 percent on field goals at home, but only 77 percent on the road. That’s his career work – including the Chargers. Lambo in this game came down and had a tackle on a kickoff, and at one point they showed him on the sideline, yelling in Calais Campbell’s ear. Not your usual kicker.

—Ian Allan