Tennessee Titans 101: What to know before talking about the team
By Will Lomas
The Titans weren’t lucky last year.
Here is something incredibly frustrating for Titans fans, when analysts nonchalantly say that “the Titans were lucky to make it to the playoffs” it shows the underlying bias towards large market teams. This is true because it means that the people saying it, simply weren’t even watching the Titans before the playoffs started.
Let me show you. If people say any of the following, this is how you should respond.
“The Titans were lucky the Chargers fumbled at the end of the game.”
-No, the Titans were ahead by 10 points in that game with 5:17 left on the clock. However, they put Wesley Woodyard on Austin Ekeler in coverage which ended up in a 41-yard TD. Then the Titans played prevent defense which allowed the Chargers to quickly get it back to the goal line where they failed to get in on four straight attempts.
That isn’t luck, in fact in this case it was a very specific brand of butt whipping wearing number 98 with “Simmons” written in big letters above it.
“The Titans were lucky to get blocked kicks against Kansas City and Indianapolis”
-No, the Titans had to face a healthy KC team and they did it with an uneven start. Kansas City was given a fumble inside the Titans 20 early in the game for reasons that still aren’t clear to me, and the Titans are a team that is much different playing behind than they are with the lead.
Also, against the Colts the Titans had to play much of the game without Adam Humphries, Adoree Jackson and Tajae Sharpe on top of already having Malcolm Butler on IR. Also in that game, Derrick Henry lost a fumble, which has only happened three other times in his career.
“The Titans got lucky with injuries, but that won’t happen this year.”
-This one is weird because they didn’t necessarily have a rash of injuries, but they certainly weren’t at full strength all season either. Tannehill only played 10 games, Taylor Lewan was suspended for 4 games, A.J. Brown came in limited after missing all of the preseason, Derrick Henry missed a game for a hamstring injury that lingered, Malcolm Butler was put on IR, Adoree Jackson missed parts of 6 games, and Delanie Walker basically missed every game outside of the opener in Week 1, and Jeffery Simmons missed 7 games last season coming off of an ACL.
Maybe biggest of all, Ryan Succop was never healthy and the issues at the kicking position plagued this team and cost them at least two wins.
Even if they weren’t dealing with a constant string of injuries, to act like the team wasn’t missing eventual starters and impact players is crazy.
Speaking of annoying questions, let’s finish with this.