Titans in Crisis: 'Resilient/Relentless' Slogans Crash into Repetitious Results

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HOUSTON – The backlit big words on the Titans’ meeting room walls are “resilient” and “relentless.”
 
If I ran the show, I’d make some calls, get a crew in there before Monday morning's meeting and get them torn down. Of course, I’m a little reactionary and it’s not my money. 
 
But time’s up on aspirational messaging that hasn’t taken hold and yielded any tangible results.
Twenty one-games into Brian Callahan’s tenure as head coach and Chad Brinker’s time as president of football operations, they are 3-18.

Houston Texans wide receiver Nico Collins, right, makes a catch past Tennessee Titans cornerback L'Jarius Sneed, left, during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
L'Jarius Sneed chases Nico Collins/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

We know what the Titans want to be, but this team needs to understand that leadership understands what it is -- a team shut out 26-0 by the Texans, who also had not won heading into Week Four. Tennessee is a team that’s lost 10 consecutive games. A team with multiple people who told us what a great practice it had on Thursday and who found that meaningful, and was confused about how it didn’t translate.
 
I asked Callahan about resilient and relentless.

“I know what you’re doing there Paul, I know what you’re doing and I’m not going to answer that shit right now,” he said. I followed up about the themes. “I’m going to compose myself here before I say something I regret. Yes, I think this team is resilient. I think it is relentless.

"We haven’t played good enough football. And I BryMakthink those are two very distinct, different things. We have to execute at a better level; we have to coach better. That’s really all I can say.”

Leave last year alone, I think a truly resilient, relentless team would have a hard time being 0-4. What I was doing was asking him about that.

“We’re playing bad football, it’s simple,” Jeffery Simmons said. “We’re not playing good football right now. I’m tired of hearing the same thing coming in the locker room. I’m tired of saying it. This is the NFL. They wanted it more than us. They played like they wanted it more than us. We’re not playing good football right now.”

Cam Ward wasn’t sure how long it had been since the Titans won, because he wasn’t here for the first six of the current 10-game streak.

His help was an issue in previous games, and while he faced pressure here, he was not good either, scattering throws and holding the ball too long.

His final stat line: 10 of 26 for 108 yards with a bad interception and a 35.4 passer rating and two sacks.

“It’s everything, from an interception to a penalty to an incompletion by me to a bad ball, and then once you pass the 50, you’re just not continuing the drive,” he said. “If we keep it a buck right now, we ass. We’re 0-4. At this point, we’ve got nothing to lose. We dropped a quarter of our fucking games and we’ve yet to do anything. So we have to lock in. Especially myself.”

Said Quandre Diggs: “Obviously, those are our core values. Cally gets a lot of blame. Dennard (Wilson) gets a lot of blame. But at the end of the day, we’re out there on Sundays. If we’re not making the plays, then that’s on us. … No question it’s disappointing.”

You can’t tear down the roster on Sept. 28. I think it’s early to fire the coach and that it won’t accomplish much, just as changing play-callers didn’t.  

Resilient? No sign of it. If you’re resilient, you push back when things go badly. You’ve been reading for a long time about their failure to do that.

Relentless? Callahan argues that effort and results are two different things, but it’s hard to look from the outside and determine that this team is killing itself, expending everything -- and if it is, that almost makes things worse.

The Titans can’t even count on what they can count on. Joey Slye, who’s hit field goals of 57, 57, 55, 50 and 50 this season, but missed from 64 and had a 62-yarder blocked last week in the loss to the Colts, missed first-half attempts of 41 and 43 yards, both wide right. Kicker auditions Tuesday?

A 6-6 halftime tie was nothing to be excited about, but it would have given the game a different shape. Instead, it was 6-0 through three quarters, then 12-0, then 19-0, then 26-0. Time of possession measured 38:21 to 21:39 in Houston’s favor, with the Titans’ offense able to sustain nothing with 10 first downs and five punts.

And they didn’t force the issue, playing weakly conservative: running on third-and-10 with 17 seconds before halftime before Slye’s 43-yard miss; running on third-and-12 near midfield in the middle of the third quarter.

Callahan talked about low percentages. Sure. But take a crack at something on the first one, give yourself a chance at 7 points. Everyone has plays that are home runs or incompletions. Surprise them on third-and-12 with your best design for 12 yards and steal a first down. An incompletion is the same as the no-gain you got from Julius Chestnut.

Push.

I’m not seeing killer effort but it can be hard to judge in this context and certainly some guys were not part of the problem – Simmons, Tony Pollard, Cedric Gray -- but I am certainly questioning that sort of lack of fight.

Players see that lay-down and are compelled to follow.

And some key ones aren't showing us fire.

L’Jarius Sneed’s “who?” during the week when asked about Nico Collins was taken by the team as a good sign and a way to fire himself up, setting a bar out loud for him to meet in the game.

But he got burned for a 37-yard catch on a second-and-33 by Collins, and he wasn’t close. I asked him about that and his first response was, “That’s the only play you seen?”

I said, “Well, that was a big one” and he said “Next question.”

I did circle back and talked about how the comment during the week was viewed by some Titans leadership and the big play warranted a reaction and he did address it. But that initial reaction is not what you want from a big-name, big-dollar player who put a target on himself and then had something to account for.

“It’s all good, we all get beat,” he said. “He gets paid like I get paid. Shout out to him, he’s a great player.

The Titans trimmed penalties (four for 35 yards and one first down), cut down sacks allowed to two (the least this season) and sacked the QB twice, the most this season. They got better in three major areas of concern. And they got shut out.
 
Diggs said he knows people think the Titans are far off. But he told a few of us we see how they are a together team composed of good guys.

“I don’t think we’re far off,” he said. “We had an opportunity to make this a game in the fourth quarter. And we just didn’t capitalize. The details break down. It was (6-0) for a long time, the details break down and they go get three scores.”

It feels far. They feel far.

These Titans aren’t relentless. They aren’t resilient.

They’re repetitious.

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