Amid Bad Calls, Titans Know 'It's More About What We Did Wrong'

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Would an early 7-point swing have changed the Titans’ fortunes Sunday?

We can’t know how a 23-13 loss to the Vikings might have unfolded.  

But the Titans had a more legitimate complaint with a mid-second quarter call than anything that’s gone against them in their 2-8 season.

Brian Callahan
Assistant director of sports performance Brian Bell holds back Brian Callahan/ Angie Flatt 

Mike Brown delivered quite a shot to Jordan Addison in the South end zone early in the second quarter Sunday. But a jarring hit that jolts a guy’s head doesn’t make it unnecessary roughness. 

I’ve looked at the replay multiple times. Brown didn’t leave either foot, and that’s what the rule book says is required to qualify as launching.

So when Brown sprang up to deliver the hit, he unleashed his body but didn’t leave the ground.

“I saw a hit that was level with the shoulder pads to the body,” Brian Callahan said.

Instead of the Titans holding on fourth-and-1 at their 1-yard line, the Vikings got a first down from inside the 1 based on Brown’s penalty and Callahan’s unsportsmanlike conduct for his ballistic reaction on the officials.

“They get in those moments and they just let you yell at them and they don’t really say much, so at that point the call had been made, they already had a first down, so I figured I’d let them hear it,” Callahan said. “It wasn’t going to cost me anything at that point.”

Does it buy Callahan anything with his players, for them to see him in that frame of mind at that moment?

“Maybe, you’ll have to ask them, I don’t know,” he said. “I just was really frustrated in the moment, just that there seems to be a lot of big plays and critical plays in games that get taken away from officiating and that’s unfortunate.”

Players including Brown, Jeffery Simmons, JC Latham and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine said they appreciated Callahan's fervent defense of his player on the penalty call.

Last week a strip sack by Simmons at Sofi Stadium was returned for a TD against the Chargers, and a replay review overturned it and ruled it an incompletion.

This call was worse.

“Even some of the players I know from Minnesota came up to me and thought it was a bad call,” Brown said. “But it's just part of the game. Everything doesn't go your way.”

Sam Darnold snuck in on the next play for a 13-3 lead.

While the Titans felt like a more competitive football team at times, it took a beautiful 98-yard pass from Will Levis to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine with poor coverage from Joshua Metellus for them to score a touchdown. They only managed two field goals otherwise.

There were other debatable calls, but there was also easily fixable nonsense.

Isaiah Prince, called up from the practice squad to rotate at right tackle with Nicholas Petit-Frere has a miserable debut. 

He was called three times for illegal formation in the second half, which means he lined up too far off the line of scrimmage. The first undid a 6-yard completion to Tyjae Spears, the second a 51-yard TD pass to Calvin Ridley and the third and 23-yard connection to NWI. Three plays and a 95-yard swing between gains lost and penalty yards backed up.

After the third penalty, NFP replaced him in the middle of the series.

There is no getting around the trouble the spot is giving the team, no real solution coming until another free agency period and draft. They have to endure and somehow work around it better than they have, part of which comes from Will Levis being hype aware trouble will come from there quickly and regularly.

When this one was over, Callahan dispirited, the locker room coping, a couple of guys seemed to really be saying the right things and asking good questions after loss No. 8.

Levis and Latham said the officiating element is motivation.

"I'm a competitor you put me in a handicapped situation to go compete, it gives me kind of goosebumps, to go out there," he said. "Out of that penalty was a touchdown (Ridley's undone 51-yard score) so now if we go score or even get a big play, respectfully, it's a big fuck you to everybody. You see it on the guys' faces, when we had that touchdown called back and we went back down (33 yards to Bryce Oliver) you see everybody around us excited and geared up more than ever. 'Try calling this back.'"

Amani Hooker asked the Titans to think about who they are as men.

And Peter Skoronski said he wants to see the Titans deal with bad calls and bad moments better, to just play better football.

“I think shitty teams blame the officiating and there's so much that we have to correct from our standpoint and being better. Skoronski said. “And you're a bad team if you put the game in the hands of the officials and not just get on your stuff and execute, and we didn't do that and we deserve to lose. So, I don't really care about what penalties were called or not. I think it's more about what we did wrong.”

They'll need to do more right if they're going to find an upset in Houston next week.