Head coach Brian Callahan seemingly has no answers to fix the mess that is the Tennessee Titans, which should place him squarely on the hot seat, even in Year 1.
On Sunday, the Detroit Lions destroyed Callahan’s squad, 52-14, in a lopsided matchup that revealed all of the Titans’ warts. Despite winning the total yardage battle, 416-225, Tennessee turned the football over four times and allowed a special teams touchdown, falling to 1-6 on the season after another sloppy performance that’s becoming far too common for the franchise.
Callahan isn’t on the field committing turnovers or allowing huge returns for scores. However, the Titans look directionless and unprepared to play a full 60 minutes of football every week, which is an indictment of the head coach.
Ahead of Week 8, tight end Nick Vannett told reporters that after energetic starts, the team routinely falls flat once things aren’t going their way. Those words rang true on Sunday as once the Titans fell behind the Lions, 21-14, with 12:51 left in the first half, Tennessee allowed 31 unanswered points the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, the league’s worst special team’s unit continued to struggle under coordinator Colt Anderson, giving up a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown to Lions’ Kalif Raymond. Callahan hired Anderson even though he had only three seasons of experience as an assistant to the special teams coach while both were with the Cincinnati Bengals, a move that’s looking more and more questionable by the week.
Furthermore, Callahan, the play-caller, had a rough day. With the Titans trailing, 35-14, with 33 seconds left before halftime, he inexplicably called four straight pass plays from the one-yard line, which all failed, resulting in Tennessee walking away with nothing at the break.
Perhaps most worrisome, Callahan seems clueless when it comes to solving the Titans’ woes. After the game, he addressed the state of the team with a not-so-inspiring message.
“Right now, it is not a product that people are excited to watch, and that’s the way it is,” Callahan told ESPN’s Turron Davenport.
The NFL is notoriously a “What have you done for me lately” type of league, but head coaches usually receive more than one year to prove they’re the right guy to lead.
Callahan will probably be the head coach in Tennessee next season, but the fact that it wouldn’t be unthinkable for the franchise to let him go says everything about where the Titans are through eight weeks.
