COLUMN: Things Are Setting Up Nicely for the Titans' End-of-Season Push
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ⏤ For a while, it seemed as though the 2021 Tennessee Titans were under some sort of cruel curse from the football gods. Star players, most notably RB Derrick Henry, were going down right and left. The team also team saw a brutally tough schedule and, heading into their Week 13 bye, looked […]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ⏤ For a while, it seemed as though the 2021 Tennessee Titans were under some sort of cruel curse from the football gods.
Star players, most notably RB Derrick Henry, were going down right and left. The team also team saw a brutally tough schedule and, heading into their Week 13 bye, looked to be running out of juice.
Following the bye and a 20-0 win over the Jaguars, though, the 9-4 Titans' fate appears to be changing for the better as they enter the home stretch of the season.
"Things haven’t been perfect for us up until this point, but we have ourselves in a good situation," QB Ryan Tannehill said.
Entering their final four regular-season games, the Titans remain the overwhelming odds-on favorite to win their division. They're also neck-and-neck with the Patriots and Chiefs in a race for the AFC's top seed.
That the Titans are still in such a good position this late in the season is a testament to how the team has handled its abundance of adversity.
They've managed to string together wins against difficult teams despite deploying gameday rosters that, at times, have resembled an AAF team thanks to injuries.
Now that the amount of adversity facing the Titans is getting slimmer by the week, the team is in a prime position to take full advantage of the position it's put itself in heading into late December and January.
"This is the time when you have to find your momentum," DL Jeffery Simmons said. "I think that’s when teams separate themselves."
Perhaps the primary reason why the Titans are more-than-capable of separating themselves from the crowded pack at the top of the AFC is, finally, their players are getting healthy following weeks of the reverse being true.
WR Julio Jones returned against Jacksonville on Sunday, OLB Bud Dupree figures to re-emerge in the Titans' next game against Pittsburgh, and WR A.J. Brown shouldn't be out too much longer, either.
That list doesn't include the likes of RB Jeremy McNichols, LB Rashaan Evans, RG Nate Davis and S Dane Cruikshank⏤role players who returned for the Titans against Jacksonville. More players figure to join that list in the coming weeks.
"We knew we had a tough stretch of the schedule and that we were going to have some guys out and we were gonna get guys back later in the year," safety Kevin Byard said.
"We’ve been able to string some wins together with some of our key players out, so hopefully we’ll get some new ammunition."
Beyond simply the schematic benefit of having a healthy roster, it has to simply feel good from an emotional standpoint for Titans players to see their teammates coming back at such a rapid pace.
After all, for weeks, watching the Titans play football was like watching a scene from an over-the-top Civil War movie in which soldiers continually fall dramatically to the ground because of cannon shots.
Add to the Titans constantly-getting-cleaner bill of health the fact that the team's remaining schedule isn't exactly filled with world-beaters⏤their best remaining opponent is 7-6 San Francisco⏤and you've got a recipe for a good end to the season.
That's not to say that the Titans can cruise to the No. 1 seed or even to a division title. They'll have to show up and execute week in and week out.
The formula and factors for that to happen, though, are there for the taking.
This late in the season, when simply not getting hot at right time can make or break the fate of a team, that's a big deal.
"There’s a number of things. Who’s going to be the healthiest? Who’s going to execute the best? Who’s hot right now?" LB Rashaan Evans said.
"It’s a good thing for us as a team that we’ve got a little bit of momentum right now and we can build off of that and have a really good game going into a hostile environment."
Cover image: Christopher Hanewinckel/USA Today
