The Tennessee Titans came up short in overtime against the Cincinnati Bengals, falling 43-36 in Week 7.

It was a far more competitive game than anyone expected. Cam Ward put together arguably the best performance of his young career, and Amani Hooker made Titans history. The game also swung between extremes on both sides of the ledger, which makes for a busy set of winners and losers. We’ll start with a loser, because the Titans did in fact lose.

Loser: Titans pass defense

The Titans’ pass defense simply wasn’t good enough. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow threw for 462 yards and five touchdown passes despite three interceptions. His passing to Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase accounted for almost 300 yards and three touchdowns. Add tight end Mike Gesicki and running back Chase Brown, and four pass catchers and one quarterback produced nearly all of Cincinnati’s 500+ yards of offense.

To be fair, the Bengals’ passing attack is arguably the best in the league, and it does this to much better defenses than Tennessee’s. You can’t knock the Titans too hard for it. Still, it was the overtime drive where the Bengals cut through the secondary like a hot knife through butter to score the game-winning touchdown. Tennessee was not good enough, plain and simple.

Winner: S Amani Hooker

Safety Amani Hooker intercepted Burrow three times. That’s the first three-interception game by a Titans player since Kevin Byard did it at Cleveland in 2017. It’s also the first by any NFL player since Jordan Whitehead did it for the Jets against the Bills on Sept. 11, 2023.

I’ve been critical of Hooker in the past for not living up to his contract. But over the past couple of weeks, and this season as a whole, he has played like the guy he’s being paid to be. His ball production has been fantastic. Hooker wore the defensive captain’s patch for the first time after Jeffery Simmons was traded away, and he absolutely played like it today.

Winner: CB Alontae Taylor

There’s a real dichotomy here, and a corresponding loser comes next. Taylor himself, though, is a winner! Starting cornerback Marcus Harris left the game at nickel, and Taylor came in at the very position we were told all spring and summer he doesn’t play. We know he has played it at a high level in the past, and now he’s in position to play it for the Titans going forward.

He looked far more comfortable and far more effective on the inside. After giving up a big catch-and-run to Gesicki early, he settled in. He was a disruptive piece of the pass rush in the second half, he looked strong against the run, and he played like someone who belongs at that spot. It was at least a start to a big redemptive arc for him.

Loser: The Alontae Taylor contract situation

The contract itself is still a big fat loser. General Manager Mike Borgonzi and the Titans’ front office signed Taylor to an outside cornerback deal, then benched him and made him inactive by Week 5 because he couldn’t hang on the outside. The fallout is showing up in more ways than one.

Until halfway through this game, that big contract was buying a backup slot corner on the bench. It also meant Josh Williams was playing outside alongside Cordell Flott, and the Bengals picked on him all day. Williams is playing admirably for a guy who didn’t take a defensive snap for the Chiefs last season and arrived on a cheap deal. But cheaper free agents can’t hang in a knife fight with two high level receivers, and that kind of matchup comes up against more teams than just Cincinnati!

Taylor is being paid to handle that assignment, and he has already been deemed unsatisfactory at it. That’s a failure of a plan that is being felt.

Winner: QB Cam Ward

Ward had the best game we’ve seen from him in 2026. From a down-to-down efficiency standpoint, it was arguably the best of his career. He topped 300 passing yards for the first time and set a career high with 41 rushing yards. He also posted the third-best yards per attempt mark of his career (7.6), his second-highest total EPA (+5.5), an 83.3 QBR, a 104.6 passer rating, and two touchdown passes to boot.

So why a B+ on our postgame show and not an A, beyond the loss? Two inexcusable mistakes. After a Hooker interception, Ward turned what should have been a completion to Chim Dike across the middle (or at worst a throwaway) into a strip-sack by Dexter Lawrence, which handed Cincinnati the ball in scoring position. Then, with the game tied late in the fourth quarter and Tennessee in range for a 63-yard field goal on third down, Lawrence sacked him again and knocked the Titans out of range. The game went to overtime, and you know the rest.

Those are the kinds of mistakes young quarterbacks make and eventually learn from. And he did everything else well. He looked like a guy in command. I said it on Twitter during the game: if Ward plays at that level or higher for the rest of the season, the Titans will go into his third year with him as the franchise quarterback. That’s not something we’ve been saying about him this year.

Loser: Killing momentum after takeaways

The Titans won the turnover battle 4-2 between Hooker’s three picks and a fumble recovery.

wice, they immediately gave the momentum right back.

First came Ward’s strip-sack after Hooker’s second interception. Then after the third pick, with Tennessee backed up, offensive coordinator Brian Daboll called a delayed handoff with Ward in the end zone, and Tony Pollard got tackled for a safety. Hooker has to be pulling his hair out over it privately.

I don’t know what Daboll is doing calling a draw there. I also don’t know why Ward didn’t identify the free rusher. A frustrating waste of a turnover happened last week, too. After a goal-line stand against the Browns, the Titans recovered a Cleveland fumble, and Ward threw an interception intended for Elic Ayomanor on the very next play. These momentum-killers are completely wrecking Tennessee’s ability to finish.

Winner: WR Chimere Dike

With Carnell Tate out, Dike had his best game of the season by far, catching five passes for 71 yards and a touchdown. The Titans have made a mistake relegating him to WR5 usage. He needs a bigger share of snaps in that big slot role. Even if it isn’t totally quantifiable, he does positive things whenever he’s on the field. This is a player who needs to play more, right now.

Loser: WR Wan’Dale Robinson

That goes hand in hand with Robinson, who is joining Alontae Taylor in making Tennessee’s 2026 free agency class look like a potential big disaster. Between the two of them, there’s $128 million in sticker value. On paper, six catches for 57 yards and a touchdown on seven targets looks fine, but he also had two giant drops. He hasn’t been the volume monster and reliable safety blanket the Titans paid for.

Halfway through the season, I can’t help but call for the youth movement at receiver. Are we sure Tate, Dike, and Ayomanor shouldn’t be the three receivers playing the most snaps, both now and for the future? I understand the money spent on Robinson, and that Calvin Ridley is a vested veteran. I’m not so sure that matters when identifying the best bets for this team.

Winner: Titans trade deadline assets

Pollard looks like a man playing for his trade deadline life. He ran 21 times for 117 yards (5.6 yards per carry), two touchdowns, and a long of 40, adding three catches for 20 yards. The deadline buzz around him may be real this year at that rate! I believe the conversation needs to start at a fourth-round pick for the Titans to listen, ideally a third-rounder, and even then, moving him would stunt Ward’s growth and hamstring the offense.

Then there’s Jacob Martin, who posted a career-high three sacks to push his season total to a personal-best 6.5. This smells a lot like the Dre’Mont Jones situation last year, when the Titans moved their mercenary pass rusher at the deadline for a mid-round pick. A contender could absolutely use Martin as a designated pass rusher.

Loser: Special teams penalties

Did it change the outcome? Not necessarily. Did it make everyone watching want to start cutting the offending players on sight? Yes! The Titans could not stop getting called for holding, primarily in the return game. It was more common to see a flag on a return than not, to the point you found yourself surprised whenever one went clean! It’s becoming a season-long issue, and it has to get ironed out.

Winner: Titans pass rush

Without Simmons, this felt like a pride moment for the front. Tennessee piled up three sacks and nine quarterback hits. Taylor brought pressure from the nickel, Femi Oladejo and Solomon Thomas each registered a quarterback hit, and John Franklin-Myers and Jermaine Johnson were both disruptive too. It was a whole-team effort that deserves its flowers, even with the secondary not holding up its end against an elite passing game.

Loser: Injuries

The Titans got pretty beat up for the first time all year. Their two best linemen, right tackle JC Latham and left guard Peter Skoronski, both left and didn’t return. Safety Kevin Winston Jr. left before eventually coming back. Marcus Harris and backup linebacker and key special teamer James Williams also left and didn’t return, all on a day Tennessee was already without Tyjae Spears and Carnell Tate.

The good news is the timing. The Titans’ bye week is next, giving them two weeks to get healthy before a second half that could define Ward’s future.