Clint Lamb
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The Tennessee Titans have been rough to watch the last few weeks. After starting the season 5-0, the team has lost three of its last four games, including a 34-17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday Night Football.
The struggles have come in every facet of the game.
The offense wasn’t great — or at least the passing game wasn’t. Wide receiver A.J. Brown had a case of the dropsies, but at least Derrick Henry (19 carries, 103 yards) and the run game were solid. Otherwise, it was a pedestrian performance offensively.
Defensively, the Titans are terrible. They gave up over 400 yards of total offense to the Colts, but that still wasn’t bad enough to make it the team’s worst unit on Thursday night. Once again, that award went to special teams, which has been atrocious this season and beyond.
Kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed his eighth field goal of the season. It was miss No. 10, if you also include the two missed extra points. It was a miss that could have cut the lead to seven. Could have.
No big deal, right? Wrong.
The punting game is actually what allowed things to get out of hand in the first place. Before Gostkowski could even botch another field goal attempt, the Titans had already gifted Indianapolis 14 points.
First, it was the 17-yard punt from new punter Trevor Daniel that gave the Colts the ball on the Tennessee 27-yard line going in. The Colts scored easily. On the next drive, Indianapolis blocked a punt that was returned for a touchdown.
Is Trevor Daniel the worst punter of all time? pic.twitter.com/rzAbeEfZT0
— Roto Street Journal (RSJ) (@RotoStJournal) November 13, 2020
That sequence of events put the Titans down 27-17, and they never recovered.
The masses on social media weren’t ready to let the special teams slide. In fact, people are absolutely sick of it. Maybe they are fans of the team, or maybe they bet that the Titans would bounce back after a rough couple weeks.
Either way, people aren’t happy.
It’s impossible for an NFL team to be worse in the kicking game than the Titans have been the past two years.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 13, 2020
Name a worst special teams unit in the NFL than the #Titans, go
— Titans Film Room (@titansfilmroom) November 13, 2020
Titans bettors watching their special teams unit pic.twitter.com/I2fgRC8E12
— br_betting (@br_betting) November 13, 2020
#Titans Special Teams Recap of the Night (Point Count):
> Shanked punt gives the Colts the ball inside the 30. Touchdown (-7).
> Blocked punt for a Colts Touchdown (-7).
> Missed Gostkowski FG (-3).
That's a -17 point swing, folks.
— It's Titans Time (@itsTitansTime) November 13, 2020
If this coaching staff doesn’t fix the obvious (secondary scheme, special teams punt and field goal) it’s going to be a very disappointing second half of the season for the players, the organization and the fans! #RealTalk #Titans
— Nate Washington (@nwash85) November 13, 2020
After the win on Thursday night, Indianapolis and Tennessee are tied at 6-3. The two will face off once again on Nov. 29.
Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.
Can you guys hire an intern to repost this stuff to Rumble or Parler? I want to punch myself in the nuts every time I have to open a Twitter link in Private Mode to try to deprive those assholes of a sixteenth of a cent of revenue.
It wasn’t as much the case last night, but the long snapper for the Titans has been awful all year. If you had a compilation of all his snaps I guarantee half on them are skipped or high. That throws everything off in the kicking game. You simply can’t have snapping issues in the NFL. Kern isn’t holding either, which throws everything off too.
I lay the blame on the Titans D struggles at the feet of Clowney. His inability to get consistent pressure on the QB is killing the secondary. Also, has he lost weight? He looks thin. Dude needs to bulk up more muscle and less hair.
AJ Brown simply cannot drop that perfect deep ball in the first quarter. In my opinion that changed the entire game. Tennessee is up 14-0 if he catches that, and Henry’s getting 30 carries on you if that happens. That was the killer.
I posted a defense of Clowney on another thread; the secondary support is a big issue there and Aikman pointed it out several times in the broadcast. You simply can’t get pressure if the QB never has to scan to a 2nd or 3rd option. The AJ Brown drop was killer. Also, after the long drives to close the first half and open the 2nd half the Titans had a critical 3rd and 2 when Henry was off the field for a couple plays; they needed the 1st down to rest the defense and Tannehill gets dropped by a fingertip tackle. He needed to make a play and it was a weak effort; next play is blocked punt and game over. I know Henry can put the team on his back, but not sure about Tannehill. He’s much better than where they were with Mariota, but this is where your $30 million guy has to step up.