Chattanooga Times Free Press

Too cold at home

Being seeded No. 1 hasn’t helped Titans

BY TERESA M. WALKER

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans had the AFC’s No. 1 seed, a weekend of rest after the regular season and home-field advantage, along with star running back Derrick Henry returning from injury just in time for the playoffs.

Once again, playing in Music City didn’t seem to matter in the outcome — not with all the mistakes the Titans made Saturday in losing 19-16 to the fourth-seeded Cincinnati Bengals in the divisional round.

“It’s super shocking,” Tennessee left tackle Taylor Lewan said. “None of us expected this.”

The Titans won their second straight AFC South Division title for their third straight postseason berth in coach Mike Vrabel’s four seasons, then clinched the conference’s top seed with a win in the regular-season finale. Saturday’s loss snapped a three-game winning streak for a team that had won four of its previous five.

“We didn’t get the job done,” said receiver A.J. Brown, who had five catches for 142 yards and a touchdown. “We’re not here to see how good the regular season can be. We’re trying to win the Super Bowl.”

The Titans lost for the third time as the AFC’s No. 1 seed, with each of those divisional round defeats to an AFC North team; they lost to the Baltimore Ravens in the 2000 and 2008 seasons. They were also home a year ago, when the Ravens came to Nissan Stadium and won 20-13.

Tennessee has not won a playoff game at home since January 2003, a skid that will continue for another year.

“Tonight we were on the wrong side of a tight game,” Vrabel said.

Tennessee tied an NFL record held by four other teams with nine sacks, led by Jeffery Simmons with three, and safety Amani Hooker ended Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow’s run without an interception at five games.

It just wasn’t enough. Tennessee cornerback Jackrabbit Jenkins had a potential interception go through his hands in the opening minute of the second quarter.

Ryan Tannehill, picked off 14 times in the regular season, was intercepted three times: by Jessie Bates on the game’s first play from scrimmage, setting up the first of four field goals by Evan McPherson; on first-and-goal at the Cincinnati 9 in the third quarter, when cornerback Mike Hilton jumped a short pass; and by linebacker Logan Wilson with 20 seconds remaining, setting up McPherson’s 52-yarder for the win as time expired.

“We all have to do a better job of taking care of the football,” Vrabel said. “Ryan, nobody feels worse than Ryan does. There was some contact, and I mean on the last one it’s like, where would you want him to put the ball any differently, in a better spot? So, they let them play, and that’s how it goes.”

After using an NFL-high 91 players during the regular season, the Titans were healthy when it mattered most. That included Henry, who was greeted with a roaring ovation as he ran onto the field after missing the final nine games of the regular season with a broken right foot.

Henry got the start and scored on a 3-yard touchdown out of the wildcat formation, and he finished with 62 yards on 20 carries. But the 6-foot-3, 247-pounder who led the NFL in rushing in the 2019 and 2020 seasons — and was the league leader when he broke his foot on Oct. 31 — struggled in key moments against a defense ranked fifth against the run in the regular season.

After the Bengals were flagged for having 12 men on the field on the extrapoint kick after Henry’s touchdown, Vrabel chose to accept the penalty, taking a point off the board but putting the ball on the 1-yard line. Henry was stopped just short of the goal line on the 2-point try, leaving the game tied at 6 in the second quarter.

Vrabel said his thinking was simple at that moment: “Try to score from a yard.”

Henry also was stopped for a 2-yard loss on fourth-and-1 at the Cincinnati 35 with 7:16 left. Vrabel said there were probably some runs Henry would like back and that the blocking could’ve been better.

For a franchise still chasing its first NFL title — the Titans have been to the Super Bowl just once, and not since the 1999 season — the ending could have, too.

“We overcame a lot to be here,” Tannehill said, “but at the end of the day we have got to play really good and make the plays necessary to win the games in January.”

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