Despite jumping out to an early 9-0 lead, the Tennessee Titans could not put away the previously winless New York Jets and eventually lost in overtime, 27-24.
The same issues that plagued the Titans’ defense in Week 1 and the first half of Week 2 reared their ugly heads once again.
Jets quarterback Zach Wilson had just 65 yards and a 38.5 quarterback rating going into halftime. The Titans generated an elusive turnover, with Kristian Fulton tallying his first interception of the season.
But the Jets gashed the Titans for big plays in the second half, with Wilson completing 14-of-22 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns in the final two quarters.
“I feel like we are frustrated because we just got our tails whupped,” Titans safety Kevin Byard said after the game. “It’s consistency with us and this team – we didn’t play well in the first game (a loss to the Cardinals), we didn’t play well in the first half of the second game (an OT win vs Seattle). We played well last week (in a win vs the Colts), but it’s consistency. We are just not doing it in all three phases, and that’s the main thing that’s disappointing for us as a team.”
Wilson completed a 54-yard pass to Keelan Cole and a 53-yard touchdown pass to former Titans’ wide receiver Corey Davis. Overall, Tennessee allowed six passing plays of 15 or more yards, with five coming in the second half.
After the Jets took a 10-9 lead, the Titans responded with a touchdown drive of their own and converted on the two-point try to make it a 17-10 game, but the Titans’ defense continued to allow the big play downfield, time and time again.
Wilson’s mobility also made it challenging for the pass rush to get home, something it could do against an immobile Carson Wentz last week.
“I think that’s the overall theme for today for our defense was big plays,” Byard added. “I’m not going to sit up here, we’re not going to make any excuses, we just didn’t make any of the plays that we needed to win the ball game.”
Offensively, the Titans were without wide receivers AJ Brown and Julio Jones, and it showed down the stretch. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s two longest plays of the day were screen passes to running back Jeremy McNichols.
Tannehill was sacked seven times as the Titans’ offensive line struggled with pass protection, and Roger Saffold, Taylor Lewan, and Ben Jones all left the game with injuries at different points. Lewan and Jones would later return, but Saffold was sidelined with a concussion.
The Titans came into this game, converting 42.5 percent of their third downs. However, the Jets stifled Tennessee, allowing just five third-down conversions on 19 tries.
Combined with their inability to convert red-zone opportunities into points, the Titans allowed the Jets to hang around.
“We just didn’t make the plays that we needed to make,” Byard concluded. “We had some really good drives – don’t get me wrong. The consistency just wasn’t there. We got to be more consistent. We stopped the run, we got an early turnover, but we didn’t get enough of those. In these type of games, we have to play better than their defense, and we didn’t do that.”
Up next on the schedule, the Titans will travel to Jacksonville for their first meeting against the Jaguars in 2021. Like the Jets before Sunday, the Jaguars are still looking for their first win of the season.
Once again, next week’s matchup has the makings of a trap game, with the Buffalo Bills waiting in Week 6 for a “Monday Night Football” showdown.
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