Titans get whipped in season opening loss to Cardinals

Let’s hope the Tennessee Titans just played the worst game of their season, and they can only go up from here.

The Titans had their rears handed to them on Sunday in a 38-13 loss against the Arizona Cardinals in Nashville.

The only silver lining from the game? It’s Week 1, and Tennessee still has plenty of opportunities to come back from the giant L.

We’ll take just a brief look at the stat sheet to rip off the band-aid and move on from this.

Ryan Tannehill threw for 212 yards and one touchdown, but he got picked once and sacked a whopping number of six times.

Cardinals’ defensive end Chandler Jones recorded five of those sacks and terrorized the Titans’ O-line all game. We wouldn’t be surprised if a book called “The Nightmare of Chandler Jones” gets published after this game and is assigned as required reading in Nashville’s schools. That’s how traumatizing this game was.

Left tackle Taylor Lewan was supposed to be the strongest link of Tennessee’s offensive line, but he knew how poorly he played. Everyone did, and some fans even started booing his name in the second half.

Lewan owned up to his mistakes on Twitter afterward:

Tennessee Titans lose in the most pitiful way against the Cardinals

Other Twitter users posted their own meme-y takes on the game:

https://twitter.com/ogmadslick4/status/1437113580239872000

We previously wrote about issues on the Titans’ O-line heading into the 2021 season, and unfortunately, those issues may continue to torment them all year.

Hopefully Lewan and the rest of the linemen can bounce back next game, that they’ll remember how thoroughly humiliated they were and vow never to let that happen again.

Tennessee’s offense also has to take a good, hard look at themselves and wonder why A.J. Brown and Julio Jones only recorded 78 receiving yards combined. Brown did haul in a touchdown, but he caught only 50 percent of his targets. So did Jones, whose scoreless debut stunk.

These are eye-opening moments for a Titans team that wasn’t expected to lose. But everyone — the coaches, the offense, the defense — lost today.

When your own fans in your own stadium are leaving the game in the third quarter, there’s something wrong with your performance.

Mike Vrabel has one week to figure it out.