Tennessee Titans: Biggest reasons for Week 5 loss to Bills
By Brian Akins
The two biggest reasons the Tennessee Titans lost to the Buffalo Bills.
There were two major reasons why the Tennessee Titans lost to the Buffalo Bills in Week 5 at Nissan Stadium.
Offensive line
The Tennessee Titans O-line came into the game against the Buffalo Bills with Taylor Lewan back and off a no-sack game against Atlanta. However, that didn’t help the team whatsoever against the Bills.
The Titans’ o-line gave up five more sacks in Sunday’s loss against Buffalo. That brings the season total of sacks to 22 on the year in just five games.
“We feel like we shot ourselves in the foot over and over again like we did in other losses, and we have to get that fixed,” tackle Jack Conklin said, per Jim Wyatt of Titans Online.
Even with the return of their anchor left tackle Lewan, the O-line was still unable to keep Marcus Mariota on his feet.
In the first half, the O-line had already allowed four sacks on the quarterback, three of which came from Buffalo’s defensive tackle Jordan Phillips.
The Titans came into the game hoping to start a winning-streak after beating Atlanta last week, but thanks to terrible line play and consistent mistakes, it led to Tennessee losing by seven.
The offensive line woes for Tennessee are something that must be fixed immediately if they hope for any chance of having a shot at the postseason. The Titans are currently sitting at 2-3 overall and are winless in division play.
Bad protection continues to hurt Tennessee and has prevented the offense from being able to consistently make positive plays on offense. The lone touchdown for the Titans came off a one-yard rushing touchdown from Derrick Henry.
Tennessee’s defense has continued to play at a more consistent level than the offense, but with the lack of help on the offensive side of the ball, the defense wears down and can’t continue to make stops.
“When it comes down to it, our defense is playing outstanding, and we just have to play better complementary football,” Mariota said.
With all of that being said, Sunday’s loss to the Bills didn’t just fall on the O-line. Sixth-year kicker and first-year Tennessee Titan Cairo Santos missed four field goals in the 14-7 loss.
Cairo Santos
The Tennessee Titans saw their chances squandered against the Buffalo Bills in part also because of four missed field goals.
First-year Titan and replacement for Ryan Succop who is on injured reserve, Cairo Santos missed from 36, 50 and 53 yards out, and had a 33-yard attempt blocked. Those twelve missed points would have given Tennessee the upper-hand and likely the win over Buffalo.
However, even after missing his first three attempts, head coach Mike Vrabel still decided to send Santos out to attempt his fourth that was missed from 53 yards out.
“This is a guy that’s made some kicks for us,” Vrabel said of Santos, who left Sunday 4-of-9 on the season. “We’ll have to do a better job of making them, and coaching him, and executing them.”
These missed field goals stalled out the few positive drives that the offense was able to put together and left them with no points on the board.
Based on the final score of the game, if Santos hits just three of the four attempts the Titans would have won the game.
This proves the validity of special teams meaning so much to a team in the moments that they need it. Now, the Titans are looking for a new kicker after releasing Santos on Monday.
The Titans had few bright spots in their loss against the Bills, and more of the negative spots shined brighter in the game proving to fans that there is still a long way to go before Tennessee can begin to think about competing in the postseason.