Heartbreak for Titans as They Fall to Texans on Last-Second Field Goal

The Tennessee Titans kept the Houston Texans scoreless for the first half. They also forced the Texans to go 1-for-3 in the red zone. But the Titans still lost.

Apart from a 95-yard game-tying drive, the offense was largely invisible and unproductive.

Cam Ward was decent, going 24/37 for 194 yards and a touchdown. He also had a costly fumble that led to a Texans field goal.

The Titans’ defense played very well, keeping the Texans at bay and completely neutralizing the run game. Jeffery Simmons and Arden Key were both back from injury, and they combined for 2.5 sacks and six tackles.

The Texans had 75 rushing yards, and most of those came at the end of the game when Woody Marks helped set up the game-winning field goal.

Davis Mills did have a good day passing the ball, throwing for 274 yards and a touchdown.

But the Texans did not dominate the game, and the Titans were in it until the end. It is an improvement from the last time these two teams met, when the Texans dominated and won 26-0.

While the Titans’ defense got healthier, their offense suffered two key injuries. Calvin Ridley, who was just returning from an injury, suffered a leg injury and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

Fellow wide receiver and kick return specialist Chimere Dike also left the game with an undisclosed injury and did not return.

This left the Titans even thinner than usual at wide receiver. Mason Kinsey was called upon to have a much bigger role in the offense. He was targeted three times and caught one pass for 14 yards. The other two targets, though, were very catchable balls that would have gone for significant gains. Kinsey dropped them both.

This season, a couple of dropped passes usually were not the difference between losing and winning for the Titans. But this week, one can make the argument that had Kinsey caught those passes, the Titans would have scored at least one more touchdown, if not two.

Blaming one player for a loss is immature and unhelpful, though. The truth is that regardless of who’s on the field, the Titans are still a bad football team with no permanent head coach.

Mike McCoy is doing well enough, and the players clearly respect him because they are putting in effort on every down. That is likely why the Titans’ last two games have been so close. The players are fighting, and that must be admired. With that said, McCoy is not the future leader of this organization, nor is he the coach who will get the best out of Cam Ward.

The Titans might continue putting up good fights this season, but the wins won’t be coming until Ward and whoever the new coach is get to work together. That will likely happen during the offseason, so for now, Titans fans will have to be content with close-but-not-close-enough efforts like this week.