The Tennessee Titans hit as close to rock bottom as they possibly could in 2022 when they were stream-rolled by the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 14.
This loss is particularly bad because it comes following two straight defeats, and after the team made an earth-shattering move by firing its general manager during the week.
For those of you who disagreed with the move, you saw first hand why you shouldn’t on Sunday. This 2022 roster simply isn’t that good and has regressed offensively, even in comparison to 2021.
Now, the Titans have to stave-off complete collapse in the AFC South, something that feels more realistic than it did just a few weeks ago.
As we continue to pick up the pieces from the Titans’ worst loss of the entire campaign, here are the team’s winners, losers, and those in between stemming from its ugly Week 14 loss to the Jaguars on Sunday.
Winner: TE Chigoziem Okonkwo
Okonkwo led the team with six receptions, which he turned into 45 yards and a touchdown. He also reeled in a great one-handed catch in the process. Okonkwo continues to show he’s a serious playmaker on this offense.
Loser: Titans' offense
From play-calling, to execution, to taking care of the football, the Titans’ offense did just about everything poorly in Week 14.
After getting off to a fast start that saw him tally 96 rushing yards in the first quarter, Derrick Henry was pretty much silent from there, totaling 25 yards on the ground the rest of the way.
Tennessee’s run-blocking deteriorated into what we’ve seen the previous four games in the final three quarters, and the group upfront struggled in pass protection as well, giving up four sacks and nine QB hits.
As if all that wasn’t bad enough, Tennessee turned the ball over four times, three of which came in Jaguars territory, and the other was in Titans territory.
Ryan Tannehill was responsible for two of them, with one coming on a play in which Tannehill and NWI had a communication issue, leading to the veteran signal-caller throwing a pass right into multiple Jags defenders.
This offense rarely overcomes injuries, Todd Downing’s play-calling, which was bad again on Sunday, and a lack of talent overall, so it certainly can’t hope to find any success wasting drives with turnovers, also.
In between: RB Derrick Henry
Henry started off the game on fire and looked like he would have his typical dominant performance against the Jaguars, but it wasn’t to be.
Henry still finished with 121 yards and a touchdown and was responsible for much of the offense on Sunday, but he had just 25 rushing yards from the second quarter on.
Adding to his struggles to move the football, Henry coughed up a fumble in Jags territory after a catch, thwarting a potential scoring drive that the Jags turned into points.
Tennessee’s issues in the run game were on the offensive line once again, but there is nobody to blame for Henry losing the football on that catch other than him.
Loser: Titans' defense
The Titans’ pass-rush was non-existent again, with the unit totaling zero sacks and just one QB hit. As a result, Trevor Lawrence had plenty of time to throw and was able to pick apart Tennessee’s injury-depleted secondary.
The Titans simply had no answer for Evan Engram and Zay Jones, both of whom were made to look like stars on Sunday. And, on top of poor coverage, the tackling wasn’t good, either.
The absences of David Long, Kristian Fulton and Denico Autry were simply too much to overcome.
Once it was clear the Titans’ defense had no answer for the Jags, this game was lost, as the offense was never going to be able to keep up.
Loser: Dennis Daley
Despite everyone around him playing poorly, Daley still managed to stick out like a sore thumb on Sunday.
The embattled left tackle had another bad game, especially in pass protection, where he allowed multiple sacks, one of which resulted in a fumble that the Jaguars recovered and eventually scored off of.
What made getting Daley beat on that particular play even worse was the fact that the defender was chipped by Chig initially, and that still wasn’t enough for Daley to do his job.
Tennessee continues to remain hesitant about moving away from Daley, but this game was just another example of the dire need to do so.
Loser: Special teams
Even special teams was an issue on Sunday.
The Titans let up a return touchdown that was called back because of a holding penalty, but an argument can be made it was a bad call.
Adding to that, Tennessee’s punt return unit averaged just 1.3 yards per, and Josh Thompson almost committed another turnover on his lone return.
