John Fassel thinks the Titans are owed an explanation from NFL on referee mistake that cost them vs the Colts

The Tennessee Titans desperately need a stretch of some normal situations. I’m talking some real boring, run of the mill football game circumstances. Because each week so far this year, at least one bizarre situation pops up that makes them look shockingly incompetent. And as is the case with most seemingly unexplainable things in life, there’s usually a backstory that clears things up a bit.

The Titans got booed relentlessly as they ran into the halftime tunnel in Week 3, in large part thanks to how mismanaged their last offensive sequence was.

Where The Titans Deserve Blame

On 3rd & 2 from the Colts 40 yard line, the Titans ran the ball for a one yard gain. It’s 4th & 1, and the Colts call a timeout to preserve game clock. The Titans spent this timeout debating to kick or to go, and didn’t come to a decision in time. So they call a timeout of their own. They then continue the discussion, and the timeout expires.

They settle for taking 57 yard field goal try, but then take a delay of game because… the wrong football is in the game? Kickers are using special “K balls” now, which are conditioned differently from regular quarterback balls. As Titans Special Teams Coordinator John Fassel explained on Tuesday, “the difference between a K ball and kicking a quarterback ball is significantly, significantly… I can’t say it enough, how different it is to kick a quarterback ball compared to a K ball.” Fassel said that he’d rather take as much as a 15 yard penalty and still kick, than to settle for kicking a quarterback ball. It’s that big of a deal, especially from long range.

So the delay of game backed them up 5 yards to make the attempt a 62 yarder, and it’s missed. So the Colts take over, gain a couple quick yards, and nail their own field goal before halftime. It’s a 6 point swing that every fan watching is righteously furious about.

Am I here to tell you that, actually, the Titans got secretly screwed on this sequence and are blameless? Absolutely, positively, no. They bungled this is a big fat way. It was an awful moment for the coaching staff. The true crime here was being so indecisive in the first place. The fact that they even needed a timeout to decide what to do on 4th and 1 in the first place is bad, if you ask me. That’s a clear “go” situation in my book. You were never going to field goal the Colts to death. The offense was driving, you were across midfield, and you needed one yard. Sack up and go out swinging.

But alright, you really trust your kicker from 57. Fine. The fact that you spent not just one, but two timeouts waffling on whether to put him out there is downright pathetic. It cannot happen.

Where it turns out the Titans didn’t necessarily mess up, and may in fact have been screwed up by the refs, was the delay of game. And while it obviously had no impact on the result in a game that not remotely close, it does sound like something the Titans need to get clarification from the league on before it happens again.

John Fassel Explains Bizarre Situation With Refs

This exchange with John Fassel on Tuesday was eye-opening to me. We first asked him what the timeline was on the k ball situation:

“Morgan (Cox) knew right away” Fassel noted. “You know, Johnny (Hekker), you can see him trying to push the play clock to try to get the quarterback ball in, because we came on, it wasn’t coming, and then Morgan was standing over it, knowing it was a quarterback ball, trying to get the K ball in. It just wasn’t coming. And it could have been that we were a little bit late, or the officials didn’t feel like they had enough time to get it in. I don’t really know. I just know that we didn’t get it in, and so we took the delay.”

We then asked what difference does it make to the refs if the ball is early or late in the play clock?

“Yeah that’s a good question… I don’t know. My hope would be that, even if there’s 17 (seconds) to get the K ball in there. And if the whole operation takes us into a delay of game, that’s on us, you know? But get it in there. Because we can snap the ball within three seconds after it’s spotted. So I don’t know, the officials, what their time is, I haven’t had a memo or had this happen before, so I don’t know what time on the play clock do they not accept the K ball being introduced into the game.” 

So would you like clarification from the league, we asked:

“Sure. Yea” Fassel said curtly.

To clarify, we asked if Fassel had ever had it happen to him or seen it happen to another team.

“Nope” he said.

What about waiting that long into the play clock to decide on making a kick? Had Fassel ever done that before?

“Yes. We practice at the stadium on Wednesday with Johnny (Hekker), Joey and Morgan, and practice all the situations. You know, clock running out, late decisions, field goals, we practice that stuff. And so that wasn’t unusual to us by any stretch.”

I don’t know how else to read that besides the officials subjecting the Titans to a situation that isn’t supposed to happen. At the very least, the communication between the refs and the team broke down in a way that’s unacceptable. John Fassel has been around the NFL specializing in this phase of the game for 20 years. If he hasn’t had the refs do that to a team hems been on before, and if he hasn’t seen or heard of it ever happening, then I’m inclined to believe him.

It makes that whole messy situation in Week 3 less confusing, and slightly less incompetent. I sure hope the Titans get a clarification from the league on what happened here so that they aren’t put in that situation again. At the moment, I’m not sure the reputation of this coaching staff could take another hit like that.