Titans prove (once again) why they don’t deserve national attention

After three years of late season collapses, it’s looking like the Titans will once again fall apart in December, which is the reason it’s understandable why the national media doesn’t pay much attention to this team.

The Tennessee Titans now find themselves in an all-too-familiar situation.

With their 24-21 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday, they now are in need of help if they want to make it to the playoffs.

Their playoffs standing is not the situation I’m referring to, however.

Every season, the Titans find themselves in a situation to prove that they are a legitimate playoff contender late in the season, and for the better part of the past few seasons, when they are under the bright lights of the media, more times than not, they fail to come through.

After a 2-4 start to the season, the Titans turned their season around by winning six of their next seven games, getting to an 8-5 record, and having a chance to take sole possession of first place in the division.

Quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who became the starter in Week 7 after the struggles of former starter Marcus Mariota, finally seemed to have hit his stride and become the quarterback that the Miami Dolphins expected him to be when they drafted him.

Derrick Henry rode a string of four straight 100-yard performances to pull to within range of taking the league lead in rushing yards.

A.J. Brown also put together multiple big performances to make a case for Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Everything seemed to be going the Titans’ way, and it looked like they were finally going to prove that they deserved national respect.

And what do they do? They do what they have done the previous three seasons; lose a crucial game late in the season, making their road to the playoffs much less clear.

Sunday’s loss proved once again why nobody in major sports media shows this team respect. When the lights are shining the brightest on the team, they just seem to fall short. When a playoff spot or division title is on the line, they prove that they just can’t get the job done.

Granted, they did make the playoffs in 2017 after winning a crucial Week 17 matchup, but that came after losing three games in a row and falling out of contention for the AFC South division title.

The Titans still have a chance to make the playoffs, and there is the possibility that they could win the next two games, have everything fall into place, and make the playoffs, but this lost against Houston did very little to lead me to believe that it will happen.

I understand people will look at me as though as I am overreacting and being overly pessimistic, but understand that I truly hope that I’m wrong. I hope that the Titans do find a way to get into the playoffs, go on a big run, and even win the Super Bowl.

It’s just that after three years of late-season collapses, I find myself jaded when it comes to those possibilities.