The Titans lost to the Bills 14-7 today, in a game that was filled with simple mistakes and a serious lack of execution.
It’s getting old at this point for this Titans organization. You come out, win a big game against an opponent you have no business of beating, then turn around and lay an egg the next week.
It’s a pattern that’s become all too familiar to this team. A pattern that has put a stronghold on a team full of talent, from breaking out of their old ways and leaving the ways of mediocre.
It’s pretty simple, until this team can start on the baby steps towards the goals they see for their selves, this team will continue to be 9-7. Make no mistake, 9-7 has unnecessarily grown on this team. Sure, a young team that’s just starting to reach their winning ways have some sort of leeway of mediocrity.
But this team is in year 5 of the Marcus Mariota project, 4 years since they started to tap into the joys of going along with a playoff run.
This team has to at some point get going and stop with the constant inconsistency. It’s a virus, a virus that’s spread throughout the team for the past 3 seasons.
It’s like a bird leaving the nest, at some point you have to spread your wings and be able to fly. With the Titans, at some point, you have to slay the dragon of mediocrity and stand on top as an accomplished football team.
But of course, there are plenty players who have had just enough of the mediocrity idea.
Which is totally obvious.
Taylor Lewan feels for the #Titans fans pic.twitter.com/P0DnEKZrDz
— AtoZSports Nashville (@AtoZSports) October 6, 2019
Even Roger Saffold, who’s been with the team since only April, notices the inconsistencies with this team.
Rodger Saffold: Consistency has been an issue with this team for awhile #Titans pic.twitter.com/L2YD9Ta5xG
— Buck Reising😷 (@BuckReising) October 6, 2019
So now that you’ve identified the problem, how do you eliminate it?
It’s simple to say, just play winning football week to week.
Don’t have your kicker miss 4 field goals, 2 of which absolute gimmes. Don’t send out your kicker for a 53 yard field goal when he’s been struggling all game long.
I have confidence in him, and obviously when we send him out there, we’re sending him out there with the intent to put points on the board. That’s what we’re trying to do and I felt like the way the defense was playing, to be able to win a game, we get the ball back and score a touchdown to win it.
Titans HC Mike Vrabel on sending struggling kicker, Cairos Santos, out for a 53 yard field goal.
You had 4th and 4, your defense was playing well, don’t sell out for 3 with a struggling kicker.
Go out there and give your offense a chance. It can’t hurt at all.
But because of the decision to send Santos out, you miss out on points, something that was so important in this close, defensive battle today.
How about another suggestion. Protect your QB from getting beaten and bruised every single week. Marcus Mariota was sacked 5 more times today.
That brings the season total to 20. Now some of those sacks so far on the year have been Mariota’s fault. But you couldn’t bring yourself to say Mariota was the cause for multiple. Maybe 1, but that’s about it.
Due to those protection issues, the Titans’ offense was held to only 7 points for the 2nd time in the last 3 weeks.
I think every week is a new week, and we’ll have to find out where those breakdowns were, and what the decision making process was, and coach it up. That’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to figure out a way to fix this, fix what we weren’t playing well, and what we did well. We’ve got to hang our hat on it and continue to do it, get healthy, and fight our way to go to Denver and win.
Titans HC Mike Vrabel on the lingering protections issues surrounding the offensive line
I can’t even start with the 2 issues that impacted THIS GAME.
Delanie Walker and Corey Davis were once again, non factors on offense. There were plenty times during the game that Davis was matched up 1v1, with no safety shading his side over the top. I know this team has protection problems, but you’re telling me you can’t block 7,8 and take a shot to arguably your best WR? That’s just wasting away talent that plenty other teams could use right now.
We really just have to play better. We’ve really been beating ourselves, not that there’s nothing against them[Buffalo], but there’s nothing that they[Buffalo]did extraordinary that really stopped us.
It was all self inflicted.
Titans WR Corey Davis on the offense’s continued struggles.
Delanie Walker still hasn’t been able to put his stamp on a game ever since his 2 touchdown performance in week 1. After a loss to the Colts in week 2, Walker kept his answers short about his non involvement in the offense.
Uttering the phrase “you gotta ask the coach that” several times, making plenty of us wonder if there was some sort of rift going on behind the scenes.
Fast forward to today, Walker was invisible. He made only 1 catch for 10 yards on only 2 targets. That’s unacceptable for one of the more talented TE’s the NFL has to offer.
But while we can all just sit back and ramble on about these separate issues, they all come down to the one thing that’s plagued the Titans for years.
Inconsistency
There is plenty time to fix these costly mistakes. It isn’t like this isn’t week 14 and these problems are still prevalent.
But until the sole problem of inconsistency gets squashed, then this team will continue to have a multitude of problems on both sides of the ball.
With that, the Titans will continue to stare at themselves in the mirror and see one thing.
Mediocrity.
Featured photo via Frederick Breedon/Getty Images
