Titans pick terrible time for season-long strength to become a weakness vs Commanders
Nobody runs on the Tennessee Titans?
"Nobody runs on the Tennessee Titans" is something Brian Callahan's defense has prided themselves on all season. And for the most part, it's been true. They'd been one of the best run defenses in the league leading up to Week 13.
But after their embarrassing loss to the Washington Commanders, it's impossible to say that anymore.
The Titans vaunted run defense allowed an eye-watering 267 yards of rushing to Commanders ball carriers. Washington ran the ball at a 5.9ypc clip, taking off on the ground 45 times throughout the course of the beating.
Coaches and players spoke about the utter failure in the locker room, and few answers were given. This wasn't a case of running into a superior back, either. This was 267 yards from Brian Robinson Jr, a player named Chris Rodriguez Jr. who you'd never heard of before today, rookie QB Jayden Daniels, Titans legend Jeremy McNichols, and WR Dyami Brown.
For fans who have watched the Titans all season, this performance came as a complete shock. Sure, they'd shown some serious cracks defensively in recent weeks. But nothing like this was on anybody's bingo card. And according to Jeffery Simmons, the Titans were well aware they'd see a lot of gap scheme running from the Commanders offense. But they failed to stop it out of the gate, and then failed for 60 minutes to adjust and stop the bleeding.
At least we can put to rest the reductive idea that that Titans defense is top-3 in the league based purely on total yards allowed. On a Commanders postgame show, former Washington running back Brian Mitchell didn't mince words on the topic:
"You know why they were number one in yards allowed? Because their defensive and special teams gave people the ball inside their zone, and people were still scoring – they were damn near dead last when it came to scoring. Well we got the ball on the other side the 50 and we still scored. That defense is nowhere close to what they think. That's why analytics sometimes can tell you a lie. I don't believe in them 100%, I like them a little bit. But analytics lied to us. That is not a good defense and the Commanders made sure they looked like it today."
This was by far the worst run defense the Titans have mustered all season. In fact, it's the only time they've allowed north of 200 yards on the ground. Week 3 against the Packers was previously their worst outing of 2024, allowing 188 yards to runners.
Not only is it their worst run defense of the year, but it's their worst since Week 13, 2018. They allowed 281 yards on the ground at Houston that week, but nearly half of them came on two big runs. They only ran the ball 34 times that day, averaging a staggering 8.3ypc.
The last time they allowed a real volume, bleeding rushing attack of that magnitude was Week 15, 1997 when they were the Tennessee Oilers! Jeff Fisher's squad was visiting the Bengals and allowed 276 yards on 54 carries.
Whatever the issue for the Titans was in Washington, they have to get it figured out if they want to finish this season strong. Because a defensive effort like that could turn their winnable remaining schedule into a nightmare.
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