More Cam Ward is the Only Way the Titans are Going to Win

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Slow growth isn’t going to win games or soothe fans. Maybe it will save jobs. Maybe.
 
The Titans don’t want to go too far, too fast with Cam Ward, and it sounds reasonable in theory. Until you sit through a Sunday afternoon watching them.
 
Ideally, they’d probably like for him to have attempted fewer passes than the 33 he threw in their Sunday loss to the Rams at Nissan Stadium and the 28 the week before in Denver. He’s only hitting at a 50.8 percent rate and he’s already been sacked 11 times and hit an additional nine.

Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward throws a touchdown pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Cam Ward throws his TD vs. the Rams/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

But winning moments aren’t coming from Tony Pollard and the run game, where the seventh-year back has maxed out with a 10-yard carry. They aren’t coming from a defense that’s got one major playmaker and a few guys who can shine. 

We saw Ward’s first big magic moment late in the second quarter, when he drifted a bit left, then looped back and to his right to avoid rusher Tyler Davis. When he got to the numbers, he jabbed his left arm left, a conductor signaling one of his instruments, and he continued to flow right. Then halfway between the numbers and the sideline, he chopped his steps and let fly. The resulting “9-yard” pass went back across the field, to a jumping Elic Ayomanor, who caught the ball with his feet outside the first T in the Titans logo that runs across the end zone.

My crude math says the throw was probably 45 or 50 yards.
 
He didn’t need a special situation to make that happen and he didn’t need everything to go right around him in order for it to unfold. It was an ordinary third-and-9.  

Said Ayomanor: "I know just from watching film with Cam, it's like, if you’ve got a scramble drill, because of the way his mind works and how good his arm is, it is not out of the question to just go to the opposite side of the field. Like, if you’re going right and you feel like there's space on the left, run over there; he's probably going to see you.

"And so, I had done that early in the preseason, and he'd seen it, and he was like, 'I love that, like, do that again.' So, that's just what I did. I’d seen the space on that other side of the field, and I'm going to run over there, and he saw me.'"

Elic Ayomanor/ Courtesy Tennessee Titans
Elic Ayomanor pulls in Cam Ward's TD throw/ Courtesy Titans

That sort of success doesn't have to come on broken play scrambles. But it showed the possibilities.

I don’t have the answer for how to get to more of it.

But I don’t believe the Titans are going to get a great deal more out of their run game on most Sundays than they got against the Rams – 26 carries total for 109 yards. They need a higher completion percentage, which comes with better protection for fewer rushed throws, improved overall accuracy, better work from the targets in the passing game and likely some better calls in a few situations.
 
That will buy the Titans more than 18 first downs, and with it, more plays for Ward to work.
 
The Rams had 22 first downs to the Titans' 18, but they actually had fewer plays, 59 to 64. That’s because four of their drives ended in the end zone, and they took only six, four, three and five plays.
 
The Titans needed 10 plays for that one touchdown drive, and that’s their only touchdown through eight quarters. They are loving Joey Slye, who’s hit field goals from 57, 55, 50, 42, 37, 35, 35 and 33.
 
“I think I’m capable of a lot,” Ward said. “Coach Callahan, he’s (given) me a lot of authority, so I want more of it. And that’s the relationship that me and him are just building, every day. He’s only called two games for me. I want him to call a lot more games for me. He’s one for the coaches who’s going to do what’s best for his players, get his players in the right situation, run game, pass game. We just continue to grow, I think that’s the biggest thing. 
 
I asked him if it was inherently hard, because there is a short game inside of a long game at play.
 
“I wouldn’t call it playing the long game,” he said. “I’m trying to win every time I step on the field. That’s our mindset as a team. I just think we have to do it at a faster rate. We’ve got to continue to have more urgency. We’ve got to get better every day. The process is all about patience, but at some point it just comes to, you’ve got to go take it.”
 
Figuring out how to go take it, that’s where the Titans are. Plenty of us are skeptical of their ability to do so.
 
I think they will have a better chance at it against the Colts next week and in the three games after that, against opponents who are not on the same level as the Broncos and Rams – at Houston, at Arizona, at Las Vegas.

The pass rush is as anemic as expected, with one sack each of Bo Nix and Matthew Stafford. And Brian Callahan somehow saw L'Jarius Sneed getting the better of Davante Adams, who turned six catches into 106 yards and a score.

Again, the Titans were big penalty offenders, with 10 for 62 yards that cost two first downs. 
 
Sixteen of their 19 points came on possessions during which they weren’t penalized, with one field goal coming on a drive where a penalty was declined. Two Rams TD drives were penalty-boosted.
 
And while Ward made his biggest play on the move and his improvisation can be terrific, he’s got to be – and indications are he can be – a quality quarterback from the pocket. But he’s been sacked more in his first two games this year (11 times including five by the Rams) than Will Levis was last year through two weeks (seven).
 
“It’s a collective thing, we’ve got to be better up front,” Peter Skoronski said. “We’ve had huge challenges and we’ve got to meet those to give him the time because that’s our job. There is not much more to it. We’ve got to protect, we’ve got to give him time. If he’s having to scramble and make plays on the move, that’s not doing our job.” 
 
They are the same issues from last year’s disaster, of course, unfixed despite new people and a chance at new depth that put John Ojukwu back in place to replace the first tackle down, JC Latham (hip). 
 
Bill Callahan has performed heroics with depth pieces before in his career. He’s not doing it in Nashville. Ward, too, has to get rid of it faster, and the quick game needs to feature more than screens that are failing.
 
Good quarterbacks make it work even with holes in protection. Ward’s got to be one of those sooner than may be reasonable to ask, given the context he’s working in.
 
The people around him need to be better, soon, to give him more of a chance.

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