The Tennessee Titans once again struggled to move the ball through the air during the Week 9 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, but the wide receiving corps. didn’t make things any easier.
Titans receivers made at least two key drops in this one, one credited to Chris Conley on a beautiful deep ball from Malik Willis down the sideline, while the other was credited to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine on a catchable jump ball.
In fairness to NWI, his was a much higher level of difficult, but catchable nonetheless.
Both drops were crucial, as either easily could’ve changed the complexion of a game in which the Titans lost by just three points.
Titans wide receivers were rightly roasted on Twitter for the showing, which saw the group not catch a single pass during the game, marking just the fourth time since 2000 an NFL team went an entire game without a receiver catching a single pass.
Titans haven't completed a pass to wide receiver all game. Only teams since 2000 w/out a completion to a WR:
Patriots in wind game at Bills 12/6/21
Broncos in Kendall Hinton game vs Saints 11/29/20
Texans w/ David Carr at QB vs Steelers 12/8/02— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) November 7, 2022
Despite the fact that Titans wide receivers have been criticized all season long for drops and the failure to separate, NWI must’ve missed that, as he said nobody had an issue with the group before it’s dreadful Week 9.
“No one was saying this earlier in the year when we were making plays, so I’m just going to ignore all that and go back to work and just try to get better and make the plays that we need to make; that’s all it is,” Westbrook-Ikhine said. “It was a bad game, had a few bad plays, and we just got to go back to work.”
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine said his drop was a game changing bad play.
He also thinks complaints about #Titans WRs began with their brutal night in KC. pic.twitter.com/Er1w1E0hek
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) November 7, 2022
Say you don’t read social media or articles in general without saying you don’t read social media or articles in general, Nick.
The worst part about Tennessee’s receiver issues was that it spoiled what otherwise would’ve been a better night for Willis, who showed improvement as a passer on Sunday night.
“It is a team sport,” Willis said. “I miss throws sometimes. I can’t be mad if someone doesn’t make a play. We are not perfect. We all make plays, and we all miss plays. It is the way the game goes. You can’t be mad at them because of that. We are one team, and if I did that, that is disrespectful and just arrogant. I make mistakes as well.”
When asked about what was going through his mind late in the game when the Titans needed to make a play in overtime, Willis didn’t mince words about what was going through his head.
“I hope someone gets open soon,” he said. “I can’t keep doing this.”
Willis might receive some slack for that comment, but it wasn’t said with any malicious intent; he was just being honest.
Titans head coach Mike Vrabel was happy with what he saw from Willis, but rightly noted the issue with drops.
“I tell you what, [Willis] threw some really nice deep balls,” Vrabel said. “I mean we went up and down with three of them that we have to make. Again, we get into this drop-back game, that is not where we want to play the game. I know we made some really nice balls that got up and down that hopefully we can figure out a way to catch and come down with.”
During the game, ESPN’s Ed Werder shared a quote from Vrabel in response to a question about Derrick Henry’s heavy workload, and in it Vrabel gave a brutally honest take on why Tennessee has to run it so much.
Asked Mike Vrabel sustainability of Derrick Henry taking 26-plus carries every game. “We’ve been able to use him and he’s helped us win a lot of games since I’ve been here. I don’t what else we would do _ throw it 50 times? I mean, who the (bleep) would we throw it to?’’
— Ed Werder (@WerderEdESPN) November 7, 2022
Our thoughts exactly.
The Titans are bad enough through the air, they certainly can’t afford to waste opportunities like the ones they had on Sunday night.
Hopefully Treylon Burks can come back from IR when eligible in Week 10 and provide a boost, but expecting the rookie to be some kind of savior for this struggling unit is expecting far too much.
