“We’re just trying to win a game”.
When the Tennessee Titans won their 5th straight game to start the still evolving 2020 season, I don’t think any of us would’ve expected to hear those 7 words from Mike Vrabel in the middle of November. Just a couple of weeks ago, this team was sitting atop the AFC South, and even in the mix to snatch the top seed in the AFC.
Fast forward to now, and things are drastically different compared to where they were before.
Mike Vrabel’s squad is coming off their 3rd loss in the last 4 games, and are struggling to stay afloat in this unexpectedly crowded AFC playoff picture. Anything you can name, from the defense continuing to play poor football, to the special teams unit failing to find any sort of consistency in their play, its all gone wrong for the Titans over the last couple of weeks.
Fighting prolonged problems in a position group or even a unit, doesn’t sound alarms when you’re in the early stages of an NFL season usually. Normally, you’d still have time to work out the kinks and eliminate any annoying roots of the problem that’s causing struggles on your football team.
But when you start to get closer to the playoffs, it’s your best bet to have those issues sorted out, since finding some sort of late season epiphany is close to impossible.
For the Titans, they’re now stuck with achieving the impossible, and have been tasked to figure everything out before a potential playoff run gets underway.
We’re all aware of of the issues that have nagged the Titans over the course of this bad stretch of games.
This defense has continued to play some pitiful football, and there’s no immediate solution that comes to mind on how to reverse the costly play that’s significantly limited the ceiling of this talented team. Not only that, the once high flying, explosive offense that caught so many eyes during the first 5 weeks of the season, has cooled off quite a bit over the last 3-4 games or so, putting more pressure on this defense to play up to their talent level.
If that defense doesn’t get it together, it’s gonna stay that way.
Harsh, but it’s the truth. https://t.co/JpPigFWmls
— TreJean Watkins (@TreWatkins099) November 16, 2020
The end result has been a lost division lead for the Titans, and now a sudden fight to stay alive in this heated AFC playoff race.
It’s this sort of adversity that this team had yet to face this season, but are now faced with it at the most unwanted of times. We’ve heard time and time again about how this team is different, that they’re not the same ol’ Titans, that they’re ready to take on the challenge of ascending to the highest tier of contenders in the NFL.
Well, they’re about to put all that talk to the test, as their schedule to round out the year is about as daunting as they come.
Not only does this team go on the road to play the Baltimore Ravens this weekend, they still have scheduled road matchups against the Indianapolis Colts, and the Green Bay Packers. To add fuel to the fire, this team plays 5 of their last 7 games on the road. For a team desperately scratching and clawing to end this skid while trying to get their season back on track, these sorts of games aren’t the best ones to represent easy bounce back games for you to find your groove again.
#Titans are likely staring down their 3rd loss in the past 4 games.
Not good considering they have some really tough games coming up.
— TreJean Watkins (@TreWatkins099) November 13, 2020
In fact, they’re quite the opposite of an easy bounce back game, they’re dominant figurative walls that you have to chip at in order to truly get to the next stage. Not something you would want to have on your plate while trying to stay alive in a playoff hunt right?
But that’s what all the work and team building was for right?
To be prepared to fight these difficult times once they arise, and come out of the long battle as winners who’ve conquered the challenge that was in front of them before.
It’s time to put up or shut up for these Titans.
We’ll see how far they’ve come as a team, and if they’re truly ready to take on the challenges that await them as this wacky 2020 regular season comes to a close.
If they erase their troubles and achieve the goals they’ve set in place, this crucial point in the year will be looked back on as a period where this team finally got their play back on track, and defeated the monsters known as adversity.
However, if they can’t find a way to bring it all together, then they’ll just be cast aside like the rest of the non-playoff teams. While also being hit with the harsh reality that they were simply not good enough to overcome the massive challenges that stood in their way.