Tony Pollard — Week 1: Seven Carries of Fourteen Titans Runs
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Pollard carried seven times for thirty-five yards, the longest thirteen around left end in the third quarter, and caught one of two targets for minus one yard; the other was a deep shot on second and eleven in the first quarter that fell incomplete. Tennessee ran fourteen times all game, four of them Cam Ward scrambles, in a 23–10 loss to the Jets.
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The most telling number in Tony Pollard's day is 14, and it is not his. That is how many times Tennessee ran the ball Sunday — seven Pollard carries, three for Tyjae Spears, four Cam Ward scrambles — on an afternoon the Titans trailed from the first quarter and threw 35 times. Pollard's seven carries went for 35 yards, no touchdowns, longest 13, three of the seven successful, and came out at −0.5 expected points added, which is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position.
The 13 was first and 10 at the Tennessee 43 with three oh eight left in the third, Titans down 20 to three: left end, pushed out at the New York 44, a first down. It came three plays after a six-yard run behind the left guard, one play after Wan'Dale Robinson's third-down catch, and the drive died three plays later on a third-and-eight sack. Four of the carries came before halftime — two, five and five on the first-quarter drive that ended in a field goal, and a two-yard run with two 41 left in the half — and three after. The two targets were both short of nothing: second and 11 at the New York 31 in the first quarter, deep left, 26 yards in the air, incomplete; and second and three at the New York 44 in the third, short right, caught for −1. The two targets were worth −1.6 expected points between them.
Spears had three carries and four targets, all four after halftime, and three of Spears's touches came on the last drive. Ward's four scrambles gained 21 yards and were the most efficient running the Titans did, +2.5 expected points on four plays. Tennessee's running backs carried 10 times in total, against 32 for the Jets' backs; the Titans' first half was 17 offensive snaps, and Pollard had five of them.
Back in June the preview called Pollard a workhorse with a workhorse's mileage — ranked 20-fourth on 10 a game across 17, a line built on volume and 95 percent availability. The mileage question is not answered by one game; the volume question got a rough first answer, and it was seven carries in a game the Titans never led. Whether that is the script or the plan is the thing one game cannot say. Tennessee is home to the Eagles on Sunday the twentieth. The number to watch is Titans rushing attempts, before his share of them.
_Data via nflverse._
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