Category: Titans

David Long pick of Carson Wentz saves Titans’ win over Commanders

Carson Wentz was hoping to win the game but his pass was picked by David Long

The Tennessee Titans were in a bad spot. Washington had a third-and-goal and was in the position to score the game-winning touchdown.

Carson Wentz had gone 25 of 37 for 359 yards and a pair of touchdowns to that point with 9 seconds left.

Unfortunately for the Commanders’ QB what will be remembered is his 38th pass attempt Sunday, which was picked by David Long and sealed Tennessee’s 21-17 victory.

Titans survive, drop Raiders to 0-3

A desperate Raiders drive came up short when a 2-point conversion failed

Josh McDaniels is 11-20 overall as an NFL head coach.

That’s because he is 0-3 as the Las Vegas Raiders head coach after they lost to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, 24-22.

The Titans did everything they could to give Las Vegas a chance to tie the game and force overtime.

The Raiders converted three fourth-down situations in their final drive, two on receptions by Mack Hollins, another on a penalty.

Finally, Derek Carr threw a 9-yard TD pass to Hollins on fourth down and the Raiders had a chance to tie, down two points.

The Titans’ defense denied the Raiders on the conversion and Tennesse is 1-2 while McDaniels, who was 11-17 as Broncos coach, and the Raiders are winless in their first three games.

The Titans scored all their points in the first half.

Hollins had a career game with 8 receptions for 158 yards and the score.

Malik Willis takes over for Ryan Tannehill as Titans are crushed

Malik Willis replaced Ryan Tannehill as the Titans were crushed

Call it giving your starter some time off in a blowout or call it foreshadowing.

The Tennessee Titans were blitzed by the Buffalo Bills, 41-7, on Monday Night Football in Western New York.

How bad was it?

Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel pulled starting QB Ryan Tannehill from the game after an 11-of-20 performance with 2 interceptions.

The second pick was returned for a touchdown by Matt Milano of the Bills, the final score in the rout.

The interception by Milano was the final throw for Tannehill on an awful night all-around for Tennessee.

Rookie Malik Willis, a third-round pick out of Liberty replaced the veteran.

Willis was 1-for-4 passing for 6 yards. He rushed for 16 yards on 4 carries and also fumbled once but Minnesota recovered.

With the Titans 0-2, the quarterback situation bears watching … closely.

 

After 2 weeks, the AFC South has combined for 1 win

The AFC South has combined for 1 win over the first 2 weeks of the NFL season

The NFC East has been displaced as the worst division in the NFL.

The AFC South has cemented its position as the foundation at the bottom of league standings.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are in first place. That is because they have the only win the division has.

And, does that won actually count? Because it came against a division foe, the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts are 0-1-1. They have managed to fall behind the Houston Texans and Jaguars at different points over their first two games by a combined 44-3.

For perspective, the Jags and Texans were a combined 7-27 in 2021.

The Tennessee Titans were the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs last season.

They have opened the 2022 season by blowing a double-digit lead against the New York Giants and getting blown out by the Buffalo Bills on “Monday Night Football.”

Do the math and after 2 weeks and 8 collective games, the AFC South is 1-5-2 and can’t go much further south if it tried.

Bills punt for the first time this season, and recover it

Even when the 2022 Buffalo Bills have to punt, it tends to work out in their favor.

With 8:33 left in the third quarter of Monday night’s Bills-Titans game, Buffalo punter Sam Martin, generally a very bored man, got to do his job for the first time this season. The Bills hasn’t punted through their first six quarters of regular-season football in 2022, and as it turned out, the Titans weren’t quite sure what to do about it. Returner Kyle Phillips muffed the punt, and Bills linebacker Tyrel Dodson recovered the ball at the Tennessee 20-yard line.

On their subsequent drive, the Bills made it to the Tennessee 19-yard line, whereupon Tyler Bass booted a 37-yard field goal, putting the Bills up, 27-7.

Maybe the Bills should punt more often, but at this rate, we wouldn’t bet on it.

Bills cornerback Dane Jackson suffers frightening injury in Titans game

Near the end of the first half of the Buffalo Bills-Tennessee Titans game, Bills cornerback Dane Jackson suffered a frightening injury.

With 58 seconds left int the first half of Monday night’s Buffalo Bills-Tennessee Titans game, Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw a short pass to over the middle to receiver Treylon Burks. Bills linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and cornerback Dane Jackson closed to make the tackle, the two defenders collided, and Jackson stayed on the field, obviously hurt. Edmunds inadvertently hit Jackson in a way that bowed Jackson’s head back violently.

It’s important to note that Jackson was moving his arms and legs after the hit.

The ambulance at Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium was on the field right away.

Jackson was taken to Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo.

We will keep you posted with updates on Jackson’s condition as they are made available.

Bills-Titans MNF preview: Who must succeed for their team to win

The Bills-Titans Monday Night football game should be amazing. Here are seven under-the-radar players who must succeed for their team to win.

When we last saw the Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans face off, it was October 18, 2021 — Week 6 of the season. Tennessee pulled off a thrilling 34-31 comeback win, scoring 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, and pointing running back Derrick Henry at Buffalo’s nickel-heavy (and run-light) defense as if Henry was the biggest possible power tool — which, of course, he was. Henry led the way for the Titans as he had the two seasons before, and as he did until his season was halved by injury. He ran 20 times for 143 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-decider with 3:05 remining.

While the Bills are well aware of what Henry can do to them when healthy, it might not be the main story as these two teams get ready for their Monday Night Football matchup (7:15 EST, Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium, ESPN/ESPN2). Henry has not yet looked like the back he was before missing half the 2021 season with a foot injury. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill is coming off a season in which he led the league in third-down interceptions with 11. Tennessee’s receiver corps is very much in flux after the A.J. Brown trade, and a defense that used to be one of the NFL’s best has some questions marks in both pressure and coverage.

As for the Bills, everybody’s chic Super Bowl LVII pick lived up to the hype and then some in their 31-10 outright thrashing of the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. Buffalo’s defense made Matthew Stafford’s crew look like a bad Division II offense, and Buffalo’s offense caused coverage busts that Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey was eager to discuss after the fact.

So, we could see two very different teams in this battle of AFC titans in the Week 6 rematch. Here are seven under-the-radar players who must step up and succeed if their team is to win.

The worst coaching decisions in Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season

Several NFL coaches made decisions on Sunday that they’d like back. Here are the worst examples of strategic malfeasance in Week 1 of the NFL season.

NFL coaches are brilliant people who have devoted most of their lives to the beautiful game. Even the biggest alleged hacks in the business know more about football than we ever will.

That does not, however, inoculate them from the occasional situational flub. And in the first Sunday of the 2022 NFL season, there were all kinds of situations in which coaches had the opportunity to do the smart thing, and did the other thing instead.

Such brainfarts do not discriminate. In our inaugural edition of the article detailing the worst coaching decisions of the week, we have veterans with multiple playoff wins, Super Bowl coaches, and new guys on the block.

We did a poll for readers asking their opinions of the worst coaching decision of the week so far, and while the entrants were pretty well-balanced, our faithful followers also added a few examples worth discussing.

Here, for your perusal, are the worst coaching decisions of Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season.

Giants get tricky, shock Titans with game-winning two-point conversion

New Giants head coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka are creating a better offense for quarterback Daniel Jones.

You knew that the New York Giants’ offense would be different with new head coach Brian Daboll in charge. The former Bills offensive coordinator, known for his effective imagination in calling an offense, may have deferred play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, but the Giants’ opener against the Tennessee Titans showed not only some new trickerations, but also Daboll’s impatience with nonsensical throws — something that helped Josh Allen on his own journey.

When Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, on his last chance with his only NFL team, threw this pick to Titans safety Amani Hooker, Daboll had no issue letting his guy have an earful over it.

Daboll and Kafka undoubtedly knew that they’d have to scheme Jones out of his own limitations, and that happened to a point on the Jones touchdown pass to Chris Myarick…

…but it was really unlocked on the two-point conversion shovel pass from Jones to Saquin Barkley which put the Giants up, 21-20, with 1:06 left in the game.

The Titans drove downfield after that, but Randy Bullock missed a 47-yard field goal as time expired, and the Giants had their first season-opening win in six years.

The biggest question for every NFL team in the 2022 season

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar asks — and tries to answer — the most pressing questions for every NFL team as the 2022 season begins.

No matter how great any team is, every team has its share of questions to answer when a new season begins. The 1968 Baltimore Colts looked unbeatable until they met the New York Jets in Super Bowl III, and Jets running back Matt Snell exploited the weak right side of Baltimore’s defensive front over and over on the way to one of the greatest upsets in sports history. The 2007 New England Patriots were unbeatable until they lost to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII because their interior offensive line couldn’t handle the Giants’ NASCAR pressure packages.

No matter how great your team is, one little thing can turn everything upside down.

Conversely, teams that may look hopeless are actually building credibly to the future, and that will show up on the field more than anybody might think. And then there are the NFL’s stragglers — the teams for whom there is little present hope, and the primary question is, “How do we transcend our multiple weaknesses to be at least competitive?”

Each of the NFL’s 32 teams have questions to answer coming into the 2022 season, which of course is right around the corner. So here, for your consideration, are the most pressing questions every NFL team will — and must — answer in the new season.