2024-10-15 00:05:04
NASHVILLE – The frustration continued on Sunday for the Tennessee Titans, who let another winnable game slip away.
This time, the Colts left town with a 20-17 win.
The Titans dropped to 1-4 with the loss, with road games at Buffalo and Detroit on the horizon.
“Frustrating,” Coach Brian Callahan said. “I still think we’re better than what our record says we are, but we also aren’t making enough plays to win tight games. We have to find a way to do that, and I have to find a way to help us get there. Because right now, losing one-score games is tough.
“We’re in the mix and we’re fighting, and guys play hard as hell. But right now, we’re not doing enough to win the games, and that is why we’ve only won one.”
The Titans had won eight straight games after the bye week, dating back to 2016.
But that streak ended on Sunday at Nissan Stadium.
Instead of picking up momentum coming out of the bye, the Titans dug a bigger hole for themselves.
Quarterback Will Levis started the game for the Titans, and he was 16-of-27 for 95 yards and an interception in the contest.
Running back Tony Pollard ran for 93 yards on 17 carries in the contest.
But the Titans made too many mistakes, and they couldn’t make plays when they desperately needed them.
Against the Colts, the Titans committed 11 penalties for 113 yards, including several big penalties at critical times.
On offense, the Titans managed just 16 first downs and 241 yards of offense.
“Across the board, we just need all of us to play at a higher level,” Levis said. “I have to look internally at what I can do better, but everyone has to do the same. We know we can be better than what we put out there.”
Defensively, the Titans had trouble getting off the field on third down, and they allowed the Colts to erase a pair of leads.
“We have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot,” defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons said. “I’m tired of coming to you guys saying the same stuff every week. At the end of the day, we have to (be better). It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating as hell. I know how hard we work. I know we can be a good team, because we are right there. Small stuff that we are doing is not helping us.”
Joe Flacco started at quarterback for the Colts, and he guided Indianapolis to a 10-play, 70-yard drive on the opening drive that ended with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Flacco to receiver Josh Downs.
But the Titans responded, as safety Amani Hooker intercepted Flacco on the next Indianapolis possession and returned it to the Colts 27.
Three plays later, Levis connected with Nick Westbrook-Ikhine on a nine-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-7 with 6:51 left in the first quarter.
The Titans then took a 10-7 lead on a 44-yard field goal by kicker Nick Folk, which capped a 15-play, 56-yard drive that featured 11 combined runs for Pollard and Tyjae Spears.
The Colts tied the game on a 26-yard field goal by kicker Matt Gay with 19 seconds left before the half, and it was 10-10 at the break.
The Titans then surged back ahead, thanks to a beauty of a run by Pollard on third-and-19 from the Indianapolis 23-yard line.
Pollard took the handoff from Levis, and he made several Colts miss on the way to the end zone. His scoring run capped a 14-play, 70-play drive that took 8:41 off the clock. It made the score 17-10 Titans with 6:19 left in the third quarter.
Another field goal by Gay, this one from 22 yards, made it 17-13 with 14:57 left in the game.
The Colts then regained the lead 20-17 with 7:27 left on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Flacco to Michael Pittman, who went up high to make the catch over Titans cornerback L’Jarius Sneed.
The Titans couldn’t rally.
“We still have confidence,” Sneed. “We still have a long, long season ahead of us. We have to fight adversity, come in and put the work in. It’s a long season.”
The Titans return to action next Sunday at the Buffalo Bills.
“1-4 is bad, and 1-5, is even worse,” linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. “So, you’ve got to figure this (expletive) out. We’ve got to figure out what we can do to get wins. We’re right there. We’re just not capitalizing, and other teams are.”
