Category: Titans

Will Levis loses fumble, recovers fumble by Justin Blackmon of Colts on same play

Will Levis showed veteran smarts on a play he could have turned over the football

Strange play in the game between the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans on Sunday.

Will Levis fumbled the football, which was recovered by Justin Blackmon of Indy.

However, the DB also lost control of the football when hit by the quarterback who was on the spot to recover it? None other than the Titans’ QB.

The run to the end zone didn’t count but it still showed smarts.

3rd & 10 at TEN 40
(4:12 – 1st) (Shotgun) W.Levis sacked at TEN 31 for -9 yards (S.Ebukam). FUMBLES (S.Ebukam), RECOVERED by IND-J.Blackmon at 50. J.Blackmon to TEN 48 for 2 yards. FUMBLES, RECOVERED by TEN-W.Levis at TEN 48. W.Levis to TEN 48 for no gain (K.Moore). The Replay Official reviewed the fumble ruling, and the play was Upheld. The ruling on the field stands.

Titans quarterback Will Levis throws interception, forces fumble on the same play

Titans quarterback Will Levis, the NFL’s King of Variance, threw a pick, forced a fumble, and recovered a fumble… on the same play.

Never let it be said that Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis isn’t exciting… or interesting. The King of Variance in the 2023 NFL season blew the doors off the Atlanta Falcons with four touchdown passes in his first NFL start in Week 8, and then threw a total of no touchdowns and two interceptions in his next two games.

There is perhaps no more obvious example of Levis’ “Oh, no/Oh, yes” style than the interception he threw to Indianapolis Colts safety Julian Blackmon in the first quarter of Sunday’s game. The ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage, and Levis scooted to the ball, forcing and recovering Blackmon’s fumble.

On the same play.

#THICCSIX Alert! Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons grabs 2-yard TD pass

The Titans took a blowout loss to the Jaguars, but defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons got himself a #THICCSIX touchdown, so all is well.

The Tennessee Titans won’t have much to celebrate after getting blown out 34-14 by the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, but there was a bit of brightness in the fog. With 4:28 left in the game, quarterback Will Levis threw a two-yard touchdown pass to defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, the two-time Pro Bowler.

Simmons is the fourth player in Titans history over 300 pounds, and the first defensive lineman, to catch a touchdown pass. He joins Dennis Kelly and David Quessenberry in 2019, and Taylor Lewan in 2016.

Houston’s Dare Ogunbowale can stick as well as kick

Dare Ogunbowale of the Texans with a massive special teams hit

A week after delivering a field goal when pressed into action, the Houston Texans’ Dare Ogunbowale showed he can be a force in another aspect of special teams.

Watch as Ogunbowale absolutely levels the Cincinnati Bengals’ Trenton Irwin on Sunday.

This was a massive hit and as clean as it gets.

2024 NFL Mock Draft: Bears rule the roost with two top-five picks

In this two-round 2024 NFL mock draft, the Chicago Bears continue with Justin Fields as their quarterback, and start to build around him with the first and fifth picks.

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The Chicago Bears’ 16-13 win over the Carolina Panthers on Thursday night was a double victory for the Monsters of the Midway. Not only did they “up” their record to 3-7 on the season, but the first-round Panthers pick, owned by the Bears as part of the trade to select Bryce Young with the first pick in the 2023 NFL draft, is now the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, because the Panthers are 1-8.

That puts forth an interesting question for the Bears, and whoever’s in charge of their personnel in 2024, whether it’s current general manager Ryan Poles, or somebody else: Are they happy enough with the development of quarterback Justin Fields (when he’s healthy) to avoid taking one of the two rock star quarterbacks — USC’s Caleb Williams of North Carolina’s Drake Maye — with that first pick? Chicago also has its own fifth overall pick as a result of its own dismal record, so it’s either hold onto Fields and build around him, or punt to a new guy.

In this mock draft, the Bears do show faith in Fields, giving him a possibly “generational” receiver in Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. with the first pick, and a potential franchise edge-rusher in UCLA’s Laiatu Latu.

For the rest of the picks in this two-round mock, read below.

Tennessee Titans’ offensive concepts fell short for Will Levis in his second NFL start

Titans quarterback Will Levis fell to earth against the Steelers after his historic NFL debut against the Falcons. Where did it all go wrong?

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There were times in Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis’ first NFL road game on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Steelers when he looked like the same guy who ripped the Atlanta Falcons’ defense to shreds last Sunday in his overall NFL debut. Levis, who became the third quarterback in pro football history to throw four touchdown passes and no interceptions in his first start (Fran Tarkenton and Marcus Mariota) fell to earth a bit, completing 22 of 39 passes for 262 yards, no touchdowns, a game-ending interception, and a passer rating of 66.4 — quite the drop from the 130.1 he put up against Atlanta.

Titans QB Will Levis had a historic NFL debut. What does it mean for his future?

Now, few people were expecting Levis to do against the Steelers what he did against the Falcons. In his NFL debut, Levis became the first NFL quarterback since at least 2016 to complete three touchdown passes of 50+ air yards. That’s not the kind of thing that happens repeatedly, no matter how good you are.

So, regression was inevitable after such an explosive first game. But as much as Titans offensive coordinator Tim Kelly dialed things up brilliantly for his young quarterback before… maybe it was the short week, but there were too many instances in which Kelly’s plan for Levis just didn’t make sense. That was evident on the broadcast, and it really came into view with the All-22 on Friday morning.

Before we get into that, and Tennessee’s especially weird two final drives, a few metrics:

Against the Falcons in that historic debut, Levis completed eight of 13 passes with play-action for 116 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 130.1. Against the Steelers, Levis had just seven attempts with play-action, completing four for 62 yards, including a 23-yard completion to Derrick Henry, and a 21-yard completion to Treylon Burks.

Levis completed nine of 12 passes with pre-snap motion against the Falcons for 101 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 139.2. Against the Steelers, Levis had just seven attempts with pre-snap motion, completing one for -8 yards.

None of the plays on Tennessee’s final two drive had either motion or play-action. The hurry-up nature of that drive would negate motion to a point, but as the Titans had someone else with Levis in the backfield on 10 of his final-drive throws, I’m at a loss there.

“Atypical” is an odd word to use for a quarterback who’s started two NFL games, but the stark strategic and schematic differences told a story. Let’s dive into what ultimately became a 20-16 Steelers win, pushing Tennessee to 3-5 at their halfway mark for the season.

Twitter reacts to the Steelers’ 20-16 edging of the Titans

The Pittsburgh Steelers outlasted the Tennessee Titans 20-16 on Thursday Night Football. Here are some of the best tweets from Week 9.

The Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers are on similar paths. Both franchises are in the middle of a division with clear favorites at the top. However, if they can find a spark in November, they might be able to change the narrative by January.

For the Titans, the spark was rookie quarterback Will Levis. For the Steelers, simply having offensive coordinator Matt Canada call plays from the sidelines as opposed to the booth.

The Steelers outlasted the Titans 20-16 on Thursday Night Football. Levis was not as prolific as Week 8 with four touchdown passes, but his 22-of-39 for 262 yards and an interception performance emphasized big plays.

Twitter was full of takes and remarks throughout the Thursday night thriller. Here are some of the best.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Week 9’s biggest NFL matchups

Dolphins-Chiefs! Seahawks-Ravens! Cowboys-Eagles! Bills-Bengals! Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar preview Week 9’s biggest NFL games in “The Xs and Os.”

It’s time for Week 9 of the NFL season, and as always, Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, get you ready with tons of tape study and advanced metrics.

This week, Greg and Doug get deep into these games.

Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh Steelers: Titans quarterback Will Levis had a historic debut on multiple levels against the Atlanta Falcons, but the Pittsburgh Steelers will have some different things awaiting him on Thursday night.

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Miami Dolphins “at” Kansas City Chiefs: Welcome to Frankfurt, Germany! The Chiefs have a deep-ball problem, and they might not be able to remove themselves from it. Meanwhile, the Dolphins are also trying to get back on track on offense… and Kansas City’s defense has no such issues.

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Seattle Seahawks at Baltimore Ravens: The Ravens now have the NFL’s best defense, and they’re doing it as much with scheme as talent. A fascinating matchup against Seattle’s explosive offense… and let’s not forget that the Seahawks just added Leonard Williams to a defense that has become quite good under the radar.

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Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles: The Eagles are coming off Jalen Hurts’ most Jalen Hurts-like game against the Washington Commanders, but Dan Quinn’s Cowboys defense presents a far more formidable challenge. Also, Dak Prescott is playing as well as we’ve seen in a while.

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Buffalo Bills at Cincinnati Bengals: The thing to watch here is that the Bills’ offense has suddenly gone full old-school K-Gun with its speed no-huddle passing concepts, and they’ll likely try that once more against a Lou Anarumo-led Bengals defense that usually shows you one thing pre-snap, and then changes the picture with authority. Also: Joe Burrow is all the way back, but the Bills have an exciting new cornerback in Rasul Douglas via trade.

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You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Titans QB Will Levis had a historic NFL debut. What does it mean for his future?

Will Levis of the Titans put together a historic performance in his first NFL start. What does it mean for his future? Tape tells the tale.

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Maybe it was the Houston Oilers throwbacks.

Maybe it was an Atlanta Falcons defense that looked out of sorts more often than it should have been.

Maybe it was just the vagaries of football.

Or maybe, rookie Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis has developed to the point where he can do this more than once. But what Levis did against that Falcons defense was indeed historic. With Ryan Tannehill sidelined due to an ankle injury, and backup Malik Willis playing like… well. Malik Willis, Titans head coach Mike Vrabel made the call to give evis not only his first NFL start, but his first actual NFL snaps.

It’s been a interesting journey for the 2023 second-round pick out of Kentucky, but Levis clearly stored up some explosive plays for that debut. He became the third quarterback in pro football history, following Fran Tarkenton in 1961 and Marcus Mariota in 2015, to throw four touchdown passes in his NFL debut. And his passer rating of 130.5 was the second-highest for a pro quarterback in his first game, trailing only Robert Griffin III’s 139.9 in 2012.

“It was a lot of fun,” Levis said after the game. “Like I’ve been saying: This is the game I love, and there’s nothing better than winning a football game.”

Others were impressed.

“He was ballin’, huh?,” running back Derrick Henry said of his new starting quarterback. “He was playing out of his mind. It was good to see, because he works so hard. I could tell he was locked in, and we were excited to see it come together for him and the offense.”

“He’s a very talented quarterback, confident,” said receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who had four catches for 128 yards and three touchdowns. “He plays the game like he’s been here. [Offensive coordinator] Tim Kelly and those guys did a great job getting him prepared today.”

“I think you can build off a win,” Vrabel concluded. “Now we have to recover, we have to get back, and go on the road to Pittsburgh. We know how hard that is to win, at night, on a short week.

“But I am excited. I am excited that we won.”

What did we really learn about Will Levis’ NFL potential? Because when you tie a record previously get by one Hall of Famer (Tarkenton) and one career journeyman (Mariota), it tells you all you need to know about judging a young quarterback based on just one game. The Thursday night matchup between the Titans and the Pittsburgh Steelers gives Levis a quick opportunity to capitalize… or with Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett out, ostensibly replaced by Mitch Trubisky, this could be one of those games that sets offense back 50 years.

But here’s what we saw in Levis’ first meaningful NFL reps.

NFL’s Worst of the Week: Giants-Jets, Steelers get hosed, double Falcons, Brock Purdy

Giants-Jets! Steelers get hosed! Falcons fail on both sides of the ball! Who’s looking out for Brock Purdy? It’s time for the NFL’s Worst of the Week!

Football is a wonderful, thrilling, inspiring game that can lift us to new heights in our lives.

But football is also a weird, inexplicable, at times downright stupid game that may force you to perform Keith Moon-level furniture destruction in your own living room.

So, as much as we at Touchdown Wire endeavor to write about what makes the game great, there are also times when it’s important to point out the dumb plays, boneheaded decisions, and officiating errors that make football all too human.

Folks, it’s time for the Worst of the Week for Week 8 of the 2023 NFL season.