Titans Head Coach Accidentally Admits He Doesn't Know What A Catch Is While Incorrectly Stating Rule
The second-year head coach didn't do himself any favors in Week 1.
The claim that Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan may be in over his head grew stronger on Sunday after his team lost 20-12 to the Denver Broncos.
An eight-point loss on the road to a team that made the playoffs a year ago, in what was Cam Ward's first start under center, isn't a reason for Tennessee fans to sound the alarm. The undisciplined football the Titans played, plus the mind-boggling admission Callahana made after the game, well, that's a different story.
With the Titans trailing the Broncos 13-12 in the third quarter, Tennessee rookie wide receiver Elic Ayomanor went up and caught a pass, but was ruled to have come down out of bounds with the football. In real-time, it certainly looked like the correct call, but a replay showed that Ayomanor may have gotten his elbow down in bounds before any other part of his body hit the white line.
Callahan opted not to throw the challenge flag on the play, and when asked after the game to share his decision process, he admitted he doesn't know the correct ruling for what constitutes a catch.
"You've got to get a foot in bounds too," Callahan said during his postgame press conference. "We didn’t have a clean look at whether his foot was down as well. An elbow doesn’t equal two feet, so his foot would’ve had to come down as well. The call from upstairs was that it wasn’t worth challenging."
Whether the call would have been overturned or not if Callahan threw the challenge flag on the play isn't the issue here, it's that the head coach's statement does not align with the NFL rulebook.
A pass is complete if a player secures the ball and "touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands," per the rules.
Callahan will almost certainly be asked a follow-up question about his inaccurate statement when he meets with the media on Monday.
On top of potentially not understanding the ruling of a catch, the head coach will field plenty of other questions about how undisciplined his team was on Sunday afternoon as the Titans finished their game in Denver with 131 penalty yards.