Tennessee Titans Lose To Atlanta Falcons 10-7
By Les Bailey
44. Final. 7. 35. 10
The Tennessee Titans lost another close home game at Nissan Stadium to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday afternoon and extend the losing streak to five games after winning the season opener in Tampa Bay. They will hit the road next week and take their 1-5 record to Houston.
It was the first start on the season for second-year quarterback Zach Mettenberger, but the result was the same. The Titans lost three of the four games on the five-week home stand by a total of six points. The only game where they were blown out was last week vs the Miami Dolphins.
Starting for an injured Marcus Mariota, Mettenberger was 22 of 35 for 187 yards one touchdown and two interceptions. Unfortunately, the interceptions came at a bad time. The last one coming as the Titans were moving in for a go-ahead score with 1:31 left on the clock.
The interception was made by Falcons safety Robenson Therezie and let the Falcons take a knee three time to run the clock out and notch their sixth win on the season.
Mettenberger said in his post-game presser that he tried to force the ball in to Kendall Wright instead of taking what the defense gave him short by hitting Delanie Walker.
“It was a poor decision by me,’’ Mettenberger said afterward. “I should have hit Delanie (Walker) underneath. In that situation all we needed was to get 12 yards and get in field goal range to push it into overtime. It was just a bone-headed mistake by me to not fully grasp the situation.”
“I was just sticking to the quarterback,’’ Therezie said. “We had a zone pressure going on and I know he had to get it out real quick. I just read the quarterback and I was just right there.”
It was a bone-head throw by Mettenberger, but a failure to move the ball was the reason the Titans lost another game they should have won.
Costly penalties that put the offense in third and long situations were the reason this team lost in week seven.
The Titans managed only one third down conversion on the day out of nine opportunities. That will not get the job done in the NFL, especially after the Dick LeBeau defense turned in another great game.
I’m not sure why head coach Ken Whisenhunt is so quick to desert the running game. Antonio Andrews carried the ball 10 times for 57 yards and Dexter McCluster added 20 yards on five carries.
Andrews appears to be the big power back the Titans need, and was running with some authority, but Whisenhunt elected to keep throwing the ball even as the defense continued to shut Matt Ryan down and held Devonta Freeman to 116 yards on the ground.
Bishop Sankey saw only kick return duty on Sunday, and had one return for 27 yards.
This was another game the Titans should have won, but didn’t.
The Tennessee Titans hit the road next week for two games at Houston and at New Orleans before coming home to play the 6-0 Carolina Panthers in week 10.
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