It was the same old story for the Tennessee Titans during their Week 9 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on “Sunday Night Football”.
Tennessee’s defense was sensational once again, with its latest great effort coming against one of the best offenses in the NFL, which no doubt adds even more credibility to this unit moving forward.
Unfortunately, outside of the second quarter, the offense wasn’t able to match that effort for several reasons, which ended up forcing the Titans’ defense to play an insane amount of snaps, ultimately dooming Tennessee.
Despite the ugly loss and the obvious negatives, there were a few positives to talk about. Check out what they were and more as we go over the biggest takeaways from the Titans’ Week 9 loss to the Chiefs.
Malik Willis showed improvement
While the box score told one story of Malik Willis’ second career start, the eye test told a completely different one.
Willis showed improvement as a passer on Sunday night, with throws to Austin Hooper, Chris Conley and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine being the highlights.
Unfortunately, Conley and NWI couldn’t come down with their respective targets, both of which could have changed the complexion of the game.
That said, Willis is still very much a project that needs refining and Ryan Tannehill still gives this team the best chance to win, but the rookie’s performance in Week 9 at least gave us some optimism.
Check out a full review of Willis’ second start right here.
Titans WRs still stink
As if things weren’t difficult enough through the air for the Titans, their wide receivers made it even more difficult on Sunday night.
Chris Conley and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine had two huge drops, both of which would have been game-changing receptions and could’ve led to the three points Tennessee needed to put them over the top in regulation.
Willis threw a beautiful deep ball to Conley down the sideline that he simply dropped, while Westbrook-Ikhine’s drop was certainly a higher level of difficult but catchable nonetheless.
On top of that, the Titans got nothing out of Robert Woods or Cody Hollister, although we can’t say we’re surprised about the latter. In all, Titans wideouts didn’t record a single catch during the game, marking just the fourth time since 2000 that has happened to a team.
Titans haven't completed a pass to wide receiver all game. Only teams since 2000 w/out a completion to a WR:
Patriots in wind game at Bills 12/6/21
Broncos in Kendall Hinton game vs Saints 11/29/20
Texans w/ David Carr at QB vs Steelers 12/8/02— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) November 7, 2022
The hope is that Treylon Burks can return from injured reserve when eligible this week, but expecting the rookie to be some kind of savior simply isn’t a realistic expectation. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Todd Downing still stinks
Downing’s play-calling in the second quarter was excellent, as he finally started incorporating Willis’ legs into the game plan to complement Derrick Henry, which worked to success en route to 14 second-quarter points.
We also saw the Titans actually take some shots deep, which would have worked if not for the aforementioned drops.
However, that was about all the good we can mention about Downing from Sunday night, as the offensive coordinator took his foot off the pedal and stopped going with what worked in the second quarter.
To nobody’s surprise, that led to a completely inept showing in the second half. The Titans gained just 27 yards on the ground and -2 yards through the air in the final two quarters.
We can point to a lot of questionable play calls throughout, but one of the worst came with the Titans trailing 20-17 in overtime.
Facing a third-and-21, Downing called a tight end screen to Geoff Swaim, who failed to get off his block fast enough. That left Willis looking at the backs of his receivers, who were blocking downfield and not turned around.
3 receivers blocking 20 yards downfield pic.twitter.com/F9zjoXrsgu
— Official Elon Musk Account. (parody) (@Robbie_gr) November 7, 2022
Granted, some of that is on Swaim for sure, but why is Tennessee going to one of its worst offensive playmakers in that spot?
The Titans continue to have to overcome their receivers, their offensive line, and their offensive coordinator, a three-headed monster that no offense can overcome.
Titans' defense keeps them competitive
As bad as things have been on offense this season, the Titans’ defense has been sensational, something the unit was once again in Week 9.
Granted, the Titans allowed the Chiefs 499 yards of total offense and Patrick Mahomes had some game-changing runs, but the showing was outstanding overall against an elite offense like Kansas City’s.
Making things more difficult for the defense was the fact that it was on the field for a whopping 41 minutes and 91 plays thanks to the offense’s failure to sustain drives in the final two quarters. When you consider how gassed Tennessee’s defense was, it makes the performance even more impressive.
As long as this defense plays at this level, the Titans can be competitive against any team, but that’s tough to depend on every week.
Unfortunately, Downing and the passing attack will continue to prevent them from winning games against the very best, just like they did in Week 9. That will be the difference in the Titans’ 2022 season, which is highly unlikely to see a deep playoff run based on the current state of affairs.
Officiating was dreadful
On top of everything else that went wrong on Sunday night, the Titans also had to overcome some awful officiating, something we went over in our winners and losers article after the game.
Where do we even begin? There were so many bad calls and missed calls in this game that I lost count. The two-point conversion attempt late in the fourth quarter was the most egregious.
Joshua Kalu was mauled by Travis Kelce, yet he was flagged for a penalty himself, giving the Chiefs another crack at it. Kelce also should’ve been flagged earlier in the game for removing his helmet, but was not.
Also on the two-point conversion tries, Teair Tart was held on back-to-back plays but the Chiefs’ offensive line got away with it, a trend that was prevalent for much of the night.
We can also point to a horrid block in the back called on Cody Hollister, as well as a pass interference that should’ve been called on a pass to Austin Hooper.
I’m definitely missing some other questionable calls and non-calls, but you get the idea: the officials stunk on Sunday night.
