The Tennessee Titans (4-5) evened out their record in Week 8 against the Los Angeles Chargers, but fell back below .500 in last week’s 30-20 loss to the Carolina Panthers (5-3).
The majority of the Titans’ struggles have more to do with internal issues rather than the strength of their opponents.
It’s what head coach Mike Vrabel referred to as “self-inflicted wounds” in Monday’s presser.
He specifically said the Titans “have to not stall in the red zone” as well as limit penalties, which the team had 11 of for 99 yards against Carolina.
“Those are a lot of self-inflicted wounds,” Vrabel said in a TitansOnline report. “Just not hurting ourselves, not killing ourselves.”
This isn’t the only way the Titans have beat themselves in 2019, though.,
Defensive coordinator Dean Pees also referenced the team giving up one big play per game as an issue
“Number one, we just can’t give up the one big play a game that we seem to be giving up. We’ll play well… then last week we give up a reverse… it’s not so much the desperation at the end that bothers me sometimes,” he said earlier in the season.
The Titans haven’t entirely solved that problem, and it was evident when Christian McCaffrey was allowed to be the playmaker he is, accounting for three Carolina touchdowns, despite being held to 146 rushing yards.
It will be interesting to see how well the team bounces back as they face the Kansas City Chiefs at noon CT on Sunday in Nissan Stadium.
