INGLEWOOD, Calif. – It’s 5:11 Sunday evening Southwest of Los Angeles where the Chargers, Rams and Clippers play in some of the best venues in American sports.
Not long ago, downstairs in Sofi Stadium, I was part of conversations with Titans who were central figures in their 27-17 loss to the Chargers. Now I’m seven floors above that, in a corner of the stadium, watching carts with tanks that hold whatever magic formula erases logos from artificial turf end zones do their work.
The Dolphins play the Rams here on Monday night.
As I watch those carts circle, I look unsuccessfully for analogies about drains or removal after the Titans’ seventh loss in nine tries this season. Usually, something begs to be written. But in a third season of stacking losses, it’s getting harder, just like it has to be getting harder for Brian Callahan to step in front of the meeting room on Mondays, just like it has to be getting harder for his players to assemble.
Many people have changed in the span, but in two years dating back to Nov. 13, 2022 the logo has won eight times and lost 24 in 32 chances. Three out of four times you’ve watched them the result's not been good, and as that has mounted you’ve been left to wonder about ownership, management, roster construction coaching and players.
There are good people involved at every level. Brian Callahan talked to players last week about a ton who work behind the scenes to try to help – in the cafeteria and janitorial and marketing and ticket sales and all kinds of departments most people hardly think about.
What they, and you, don’t want to hear is that the Chargers dialed up a perfect play against the Titans’ defense when they were only down 3 points, when the game started to slip away.
That when Kenneth Murray wound up in coverage on Quentin Johnson for his 16-yard touchdown, things were largely written before the snap.
“They ran a drag and up, it’s a Cover-3 beater,” said Murray, a really pleasant guy who wants to be a difference for the Titans, especially on a Sunday when he traveled back to play against the team that let him go when his contract expired. The thing is, like a good share of inside linebackers, Murray isn’t equipped to catch up to Johnson.
quentin johnstH1M
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) November 10, 2024
📺 | @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/CbHXElQGUE
“Unfortunately there is nothing you can do. I’m in the curl flat, I’ve got the flat responsibility, I just so happened to see the dude behind me and tried to make the late play, late decision. Playing Cover 3 you’ve got a hook defender, a curl-flat defender, three deep players. Usually the guy in the flat is playing the low guy in the flat. They ran a drag and up it’s a beater. There is nothing you can do in that situation.”
There didn’t seem to be a low guy in the flat.
Jarvis Brownlee wound up in the middle of the end zone, with no opponent particularly close.
He said he was supposed to “go to the hash and look for something coming back.”
“It was a great play," said Brownlee, a rookie going through growing pains who should be around if the Titans come through this in the next few years. "He kind of ran a drag route, went up the field, did a go and then did a burner. It was new. We never saw it. So it was just a great play. My responsibility is to get to the hash, he didn’t run up the hash, he did a drag route, then he went up the field.”
“So that’s just something that we’ve got to work on as a defense. Do I feel like I could have helped that play? Of course, if I would have saw it. We all have room for improvement. We’ve got to get back in the lab, get back to work.”
You’re not going to like reading that the Titans defense “never saw it,” but Dennard Wilson and the defensive staff can only show their men so many permutations. At a point, they have to play football and react in the moment to something they haven’t seen. They have to just go to where it feels like they should be and arrive there and make something happen.
That’s in the same vein as Will Levis just gaining a better feel for sack avoidance. something that may simply never happen.
watch out for the bear 🐻
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) November 10, 2024
📺 | @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/6DOQswvDkY
The Titans saw Levis get taken down 15 times in their first three games and Mason Rudolph hit the deck just five times in the last three. Levis re-emerged after a layoff with a shoulder injury and the Titans drew a good front again and boom – seven sacks. Its just hard to think big-picture progress instead of troubling regression and lack of hope that with him at quarterback they'll never really be able to stop killing drives with quarterback tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
That's football sometimes, sure, but when are good things written before the snap for the Titans and when does the balance of it start to come out in their favor with any regularity?
We can find a few positives.
Calvin Ridley is turning more into what the Titans thought he’d be with that $50 million guaranteed – he caught two TDs with his game-high 84 yards. That’s nice. The Titans averaged 6.3 yards a carry. They didn’t turn the ball over.
But it’s way more about the bad stuff.
Former Titans performed against them: Hassan Haskins scored a TD; Bud Dupree recorded two sacks and forced a fumble; Elijah Molden had eight tackles. The seven sacks against them came with no sacks from the defense. The team that likes to talk big about run defense allowed the Chargers to “manage the game,” as Jeffery Simmons said, by running 39 times for 145 yards. Yet again, there was a monster return against them, this one a 56-yard kickoff return by Derius Davis. No reasonable explanation for how it keeps happening will come, be cause it doesn't seem like they know. A sloppy, undisciplined team committed nine penalties worth 68 yards and four first downs.
Players are not performing well enough. Coaches aren’t fixing repeat mistakes.
The GM who put the team together is out building the fantastic relationships we hear about from his acolytes, but he can’t be held to account for his roster because he’s invisible. He answered five whole questions two weeks ago and set off two weeks of criticism for his inane responses. The owner hasn’t taken a meaningful question from anyone who doesn’t get a paycheck from her in years. They’ll leave Callahan, as they left Mike Vrabel before him, to answer for everything, whether he deserves to or not, whether it’s his to speak about or not.
It’s such a big mess and there are so few people involved in it to be confident about. Maybe it's a super-slow build and patience pays off but it's hard to have faith in that.
Can Tony Pollard run this whole thing?