Titans' 1-4 Reality Bites: Mike Herndon's View on Matters

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By MIKE HERNDON, columnist

The Titans needed to beat the Colts if they had designs on making things interesting in a race for an AFC playoff spot. It was a home game, coming off a bye, facing an Indianapolis squad without its best offensive player, Jonathan Taylor, and its best defensive player, DeForest Buckner.

Instead, the Titans blew a 17-10 lead, losing the fourth quarter 10-0, a period that saw the Colts punt returner Josh Downs net more return yards than the Tennessee offense generated from scrimmage. It dropped the Titans to 1-4 on the season with tough road trips to 4-2 Buffalo and 4-1 Detroit over the next two weeks.

Will Levis and Tony Pollard
Will Levis and Tony Pollard/ Angie Flatt

Since the NFL went to 16 regular season games in 1978, there have been 309 teams that have started 1-4 or worse through five games. Just 12 of those 309 have made the playoffs (3.9 percent) and only three snuck in as a wild card, which is worth noting as 5-1 Houston appears to be running away with the AFC South already.

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Paul Kuharsky has covered the Tennessee Titans since 1996, first for The Tennessean, then ESPN.com and now independently at paulkuharsky.com. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee and one of the longest-tenured Titans beat reporters in the franchise's history.