“At the end of the day, it all falls squarely upon me. I have to be better,” Tannehill said of his Week 11 performance.
The Tennessee Titans dropped their first divisional game of the 2021 season at a rain-soaked Nissan Stadium on Sunday, falling 22-13 to the Houston Texans.
Coming into this matchup, the Texans had just one win on the season, but the Titans dug themselves a hole from the get-go that they couldn’t get out of.
After the Texans notched the game’s first points with a 43-yard field goal, Ryan Tannehill and the offense marched down the field and inside the Houston 20-yard line.
The Titans quarterback’s pass intended for wide receiver A.J. Brown was picked off by Kamu Grugier-Hill, who returned it inside the Tennessee 10-yard line, leading to a field goal and 6-0 lead for Houston.
Turnovers were the theme of the day, as Tannehill threw a career-high four interceptions in the loss, and the Titans had five as a whole when you include wide receiver Chester Rogers’ botched punt. Three of those turnovers set the Texans up in the red zone.
“I’m not going to get into the details of everything. At the end of the day, it all falls squarely upon me. I have to be better,” Tannehill said after the game.
“We moved the ball well, we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot. Turnovers, turnover on downs, penalties. We shot ourselves in the foot all day and we’ve got to be better. It starts with me.”
The team also dealt with more injuries at the wide receiver position as Brown and Marcus Johnson both exited with injuries. The former initially left and returned with an apparent hand injury, but left for good with a shoulder injury. Johnson, meanwhile, was knocked out with a hamstring injury.
Coming into the game, the Titans had fielded 82 different players this season, approaching the all-time record of 84, a record Tennessee should smash.
To this point, the team had been able to survive those injuries. Mike Vrabel’s group has embraced the “next man up” mentality, but losing both Brown and Johnson felt like insurmountable injuries, especially since the team was already without Derrick Henry and Julio Jones.
“Obviously, it hurts. You want to have your guys out there that you’re used to playing with and you’ve got reps with, but that’s where we’re at right now in the season,” Tannehill said of the team’s injuries. “It’s been a tough season for us injury-wise. Guys have stepped up and took advantage of some opportunities, and there’s some things we still have to do to work through with that. Hopefully we can get our guys back, and then the guys that are just starting to get reps, that we can get more reps with them.”
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine tallied a career-high 107 receiving yards on seven receptions. Dez Fitzpatrick, the team’s 2021 fourth-round pick, hauled in his first career touchdown catch in the third quarter and finished with three catches for 35 yards, both career-highs.
The Titans ultimately outgained the Texans 420-190, with Tannehill throwing for 323 yards, but that wasn’t enough to overcome the turnovers.
The momentum appeared to swing back in favor of the Titans in the second half after Fitzpatrick’s touchdown, but Tennessee continued to shoot itself in the foot, turning the ball over on downs inside the Houston 30-yard line, and then throwing an interception on the next offensive series.
Former Titans defensive back Desmond King accounted for two of Tannehill’s four interceptions on the day.
Despite the turnovers, the Titans were still within striking distance late in the game. However, the proverbial nail in the coffin came with just over two minutes to play when Tannehill forced a ball into traffic intended for tight end Anthony Firkser, which was picked off.
“Yeah, once we’re down there late in the game, especially the last one, we needed to score,” he concluded. “We needed yards, had the short route on the outside, but we needed to move the ball and get more yards than a five-yard pass. Got a little too aggressive there and tried to make something happen knowing that we needed two scores there with no timeouts late in the game.”
Tannehill and the Titans (8-3) will look to bounce back next week on the road against the New England Patriots (7-4) before the much-needed bye week.
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