Unlike Week 1, where the Tennessee Titans could not seem to right the ship, the team responded to a couple of big plays in the first half from the Seattle Seahawks offense on Sunday.
After a first quarter that saw both teams put a field goal on the board, Russell Wilson hit Tyler Lockett for a 63-yard touchdown with 6:34 remaining before halftime.
It was one of three big plays the Seahawks would complete in the contest. In fact, Seattle scored more than half of its points and gained more than half of its passing yards on those three plays.
The second big play from Lockett made it an innocent 10-6 Seattle advantage, but it seemed to give the home team a lot of momentum.
Seahawks running back Chris Carson would punch in two touchdowns from inside the two-yard line after that, making it a 24-9 ballgame at the half.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously on the big plays mess, you know, that same communication deal kind of reared his head,” Byard admitted. “You know, maybe one player here, not on the same page, but we’ll get that stuff fixed. I think the majority as far as the entire defense, the mood of the defense, and the simple fact is that we communicated well pretty much the majority of the game. Guys fought their butts off. It’s just a great group of guys to go out there and battle with. I’m just so proud to be a captain of this team because we could have easily tucked it in being down at halftime.”
The first half from Weeks 1 and 2 looked eerily similar to one another, but Byard and the Titans’ defense rallied to avoid starting the season 0-2.
After a slow start, the Titans’ offense did something that not many teams can do at Lumen Field — outgain the Seattle Seahawks. Ryan Tannehill picked up 347 passing yards on 27 completions, while Derrick Henry rushed for three touchdowns and collected 182 of the team’s 212 yards on the ground.
Led by Byard, who is in his sixth year in the league, the Titans’ defense settled down and sacked Russell Wilson three times, including a pivotal one for a 12-yard loss in overtime that ultimately gave the ball back to the Titans.
“It might have been the loudest stadium I’ve ever played in,” Byard said following the Titans 33-30 overtime win. “You know, I’ve been in Kansas City, AFC Championship Game. Those games were pretty loud, but that was definitely a playoff-like atmosphere. And I think it was a good test for us as a team to be able to go through something like that and actually come out on top and win against a tough team facing adversity because that’s how it’s going to be every single week. We have a tough schedule, and so every single game we have to understand that games are going to be tough.”
The Titans snapped Seattle’s 52-game home win streak when leading by 15-plus points, which speaks volumes about the group of leaders in the locker room that keep the team mentally in the game despite the large deficit at halftime.
“I just think it’s the way we’re built,” Byard concluded. “I think it’s the guys we have in the locker room [and] the leadership that we have is that when stuff isn’t always going well — because we understand that things aren’t always going to go well — and in an NFL game, it’s just how it goes. And we got to stick together and just keep battling.”
Up next, the Titans will face a potentially Carson Wentz-less Colts squad at Nissan Stadium on Sunday, followed by back-to-back games on the road against the Jets and Jaguars.
And then the Titans will find out what kind of team they really have when they play the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Colts, Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans Saints, Houston Texans, and New England Patriots.
Starting the year 0-2 would not have been too detrimental to the Titans’ playoffs hopes, but their schedule is about to be littered with teams that made the playoffs last year.
Needless to say, the Titans’ second-half comeback on Sunday could be one of those games that mold a team into a Super Bowl contender.
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