Titans hurt themselves and fail to help rookie QB Cam Ward in season opener
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A quarterback making his NFL debut means a team has to expect rookie mistakes.
The Tennessee Titans didn’t help Cam Ward nearly enough, and that includes coach Brian Callahan costing the chance at stealing a big win on the road in their season opener.
Four to five dropped passes. A failure to challenge an incompletion where a wide receiver’s elbow came down inbounds. Too many penalties and sacks allowed in a 20-12 loss to Denver. Callahan took blame Monday for saying the receiver needed to get another body part down after the game.
“Ultimately, my interpretation of the rule was wrong. I’ll own it,” Callahan said. “We should have challenged the play.”
The Titans hired Callahan in January 2024 for his offensive experience, knowing he would be calling plays for the first time in his career. Tennessee went 3-14 and selected Ward hoping to land a franchise quarterback.
Ward had his rookie moments taking back-to-back sacks while in field-goal range after the Titans recovered a fumbled punt.
Otherwise, he was poised under pressure from a Denver defense that led the NFL in sacks last season.
The rookie was just 12 of 28 for 112 yards with a 54.5 passer rating not getting help with some balls going off hands. Ward opened by driving the Titans to a field goal, which wound up as their longest drive in a game where they nearly had more penalty yards (131) than total offense (133).
The bigger issues for the second-year coach came when Callahan said postgame that the Titans didn’t challenge the ruling of an long pass to rookie Elic Ayomanor that was ruled incomplete because the receiver didn’t get a second body part down. Under NFL rules, an elbow counts as a completion.
One sequence in the final 47 seconds of the first half summed up Callahan’s play-calling issues. The coach called for three straight passes with the team backed up at the Tennessee 7 with the Titans needing only to run out the clock to take a 6-3 lead into halftime.
Instead, Ward threw two incompletions before being sacked nearly for a safety. Denver never needed to use either of two remaining timeouts. The Broncos needed two plays to take the lead and were up 10-9 at half.
What’s working
Forcing turnovers was a key focus all offseason after Tennessee tied for 30th in the NFL with a minus-16 turnover margin last season with only 18 takeaways. The Titans came up with two interceptions, a forced fumble and recovered a fumbled punt.
What needs help
The Titans also spent the offseason trying to clean up mistakes such as penalties they can control and showed no signs of progress in Denver. They finished with 13 accepted penalties. Three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons said what really got them beat was their penalties.
“Now we got to take the next step and get less penalties and clean the penalties up,” he said.
Stock up
Simmons. He had a sack and a forced fumble. He also had a pressure that led to Xavier Woods’ interception.
Stock down
A tie between cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr., who drew three penalties, and veteran wide receiver Calvin Ridley. Brownlee is a second-year starter whose biggest penalty was pass interference on an incompletion that set up Denver’s first TD just before halftime.
Ridley has the biggest salary cap hit on the Titans. He caught four of eight passes for 27 yards with a couple of drops and one ball that was high and off his hands.
Injuries
Right tackle JC Latham didn’t finish the game because of a hip issue. Callahan said they will monitor the lineman who aggravated something he has “been battling for a little bit now.”
Key number
Six. That’s the number of sacks the Titans’ revamped offensive line allowed of the rookie quarterback.
Next steps
The Titans at least play the next two games at home, starting with the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. Then it’s back on the road for three straight games as part of a schedule that has Tennessee away from home five of the first eight games.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
By TERESA M. WALKER
AP Pro Football Writer
