You Can’t Buy Culture: Titans Lose to Jaguars

Titans Lose to Jaguars

TITANS LOSE TO JAGUARS – Sunday’s lopsided loss to a 4-8 Jacksonville Jaguars team who just got torched by Detroit is the wake-up call to a Titans season on the brink.  

This is the day, as a Titans fan, we have to acknowledge reality: Tennessee is not very good.  

We could excuse the Giants, Bengals and Chiefs losses as competitive games and bad luck. Buffalo and Philadelphia were far superior teams talent wise that we need to aspire to by nailing next year’s draft and getting a few free agent upgrades.  

Amy Adams-Stunk saw the roster decline and fired GM Jon Robinson last Tuesday, but the Titans were still were in first place in the AFC South. They have Derrick Henry and a stellar run defense, right?

Maybe we could win a first-round playoff game at home and then hope for miracle and steal a game on the road. Hope was still abound.  

Sunday

The total thrashing Tennessee experienced in Nashville at the hands of a team they had defeated 9 out of the last 10 games at home was stark.  

The Titans held Jacksonville to 60 yards total rushing and lost 36-22. Trevor Lawrence went 30-42 with 368 yards passing. The Tennessee secondary, although beset by injuries, is a sieve. The Titans sacked Lawrence only once and failed to create meaningful pressure.  

Four turnovers by the Titans only exasperated the defensive secondary meltdown. You can’t win in the NFL with four turnovers to the opponent’s zero.  

The Full Monty

But blaming the game on the four giveaways is only half the story. The Jaguars knew going in what we all knew: Tennessee’s secondary is pathetic. After 13 games they lead the NFL in pass attempts made against and are ranked last in the stopping the pass. 

This has gone on for years in Nashville.  

This franchise now has to face reality. Head coach Mike Vrabel said last week his team was at a crossroads. He was prophetic, to say the least.  

The secondary’s lack of speed and the defensive front’s sudden lack of pressure on opposing quarterbacks has to be addressed in six days. This team’s next game is at L.A. where Justin Hebert will throw the ball 50 times. With Dallas and Jacksonville on the road looming, the Jags could actually now win the division. The Titans, once 7-3,  could finish 8-9, assuming they beat Houston. (Not a guarantee.) If Jacksonville wins three out of their next four games, they will capture the AFC South.  

Culture

There is only so far the Titan’s superior culture and team toughness can take it. You have to have the athletes on the field in the defensive secondary to stop today’s NFL sophisticated passing game.  

To watch little known Jags tight-end Engram split the Titans zone for 11 catches and 162 yards was startling.  

The way the Titans played on Sunday, they are not a legit NFL playoff team.  

Amy Adams-Strunk saw this in the front windshield.  

The Titans hope it’s not the prelude for what’s to come.  

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