For the second consecutive week, Titans wide receiver AJ Brown was limited in practice leading up to the game, dealing with food poisoning. However, he came up big for Tennessee in Sunday’s 27-3 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, reeling in eight catches for 133 yards and a touchdown.
He immediately picked up where he left off in the second half of the Buffalo Bills game on “Monday Night Football” in Week 6, developing a connection with quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Brown set the tone for the game, bringing in a 10-yard catch on the game’s first play.
The Titans scored on their opening drive, something they hadn’t done in their last eight games.
“For me, personally, I was just trying to make a play each and every time the ball came to me,” Brown said after the game. “You know, we try to just keep going and wear guys down at the end of the game. We got out to an early lead so, unfortunately, Derrick (Henry) can’t break a long run like we would normally see, but he definitely has carried the team and he’s going to continue to do that.”
On their second offensive series, Tannehill connected with Brown on a 46-yard strike downfield that was initially ruled an incompletion. However, the replay showed that Brown had clearly caught the ball and took a few steps before the ground caused the fumble.
“I looked directly at him (Mike Vrabel),” Brown said about the play. “He told me to relax so he knew I wanted him to challenge it.”
The call was overruled, setting up Brown’s 24-yard touchdown catch five plays later, which had a 20.2 completion probability percentage (second-lowest of any Week 7 completion), per Next Gen Stats.
Guac isn't extra with this TD #KCvsTEN
đź“ş: Watch #KCvsTEN on @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/2aGKorCHaH
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) October 24, 2021
The Titans’ offense could do no wrong in the first half, scoring on every drive and taking a 27-0 lead into halftime.
For the second consecutive week, Tennessee was terrific on third downs, converting 8-of-12. They also scored on 50 percent (2-of-4) of their red-zone trips.
Defensively, the Titans held the Chiefs to 4-of-11 on third downs and didn’t allow any points within the red zone. Furthermore, Shane Bowen’s defense held Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to an average of 4.7 yards per pass.
“I think we did well in all three phases today.” Brown concluded. “Defense stepped up big time. They stopped them a lot. They’ve got some really good players over there. To hold them to three, that tells you everything you need to know. They had a really good day today on defense.”
Sunday marked the end of Henry’s 100-yard rushing streak at five games. However, the Titans relied on their passing attack with Julio Jones and Brown in the lineup. The duo combined for 10 receptions for 171 yards.
As for Brown, he has 15 catches for 224 yards over his last two games as he continues to get healthy. The Titans will look to stay red-hot when they travel to Indianapolis for their rematch with the Colts on Sunday.
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