Brian Callahan’s Titans offense flirts with the wrong kind of NFL history in Cam Ward’s first two career games

The Tennessee Titans fell in their home opener 33-19 to the Los Angeles Rams in a second-half beatdown. After taking a 13-10 halftime lead, the Titans allowed the Rams to go on a 23-6 run to finish the day decisively.

One thing that didn’t shift as the game went on, though, was Tennessee’s offensive line in pass protection. That facet of the game was consistently bad all afternoon long. And through two weeks, this rookie signal caller and his offensive line have worked together to near an NFL record no franchise wants to get near breaking.

Near-Record Sack Allowance So Far

In Week 1, the Titans allowed a league-high six sacks for 50 yards lost against the Broncos. In Week 2, they improved, only allowing five sacks against the Rams for a total of 32 yards lost. That led Week 2 as well, at least through the early window of games. One of the final games of the week has a lot of bad pass protecting to do to keep Tennessee from retaining its ugly crown a bit longer.

But how about an even more impressive, devastating record? The CBS research department tweeted out that Ward’s 11 sacks so far in 2025 are the most any QB has suffered through their first two games in the past 75 years.

Turns out, that’s not even close to true! The obvious player to compare this number to is 2002 David Carr in Houston. He, of course, holds the record for most sacks taken in a full rookie season, eight sacks clear of anybody else in NFL history. And he was sacked… 15 times in his first two games. So, in an upset, the biggest L of the day goes to the database guy at CBS.

Thankfully, my intrepid local reporter friend Ben Arthur has the real numbers. Don’t worry, they still make the Titans’ offensive line look really bad!

So, only four rookies since at least 1970 have been sacked more in their first two games than Cam Ward. And he shares his spot with a real motley crew: Greg McElroy, Steve Young, Spencer Rattler, and C.J. Stroud. Remember how much Will Levis got sacked last season? He went down just seven times in his first two games last year. So, needless to say, it’s been really terrible for the Titans.

The Greatest Disappointment, But A Brutal Start

There is no greater disappointment so far, based on preseason expectations vs. two-game realities, than the Titans’ offensive line. I wrote at length in the preseason about why my expectations were unambiguously high for this unit to turn into a league-average group or better, which you can read here. Each of their individual resumes warrants it.

But so far their performance has been disastrous. This has been in large part due to injuries and piss-poor backup play. Oh, and LT Dan Moore. The book on Moore is that he’s going to be alright against everybody but truly elite pass rushers, and you want him to be your worst starting offensive lineman. An unfortunate set of scheduling and injury circumstances has prevented either of those conditions from being met so far. So he’s stunk.

Meanwhile, terrible things have happened the moment any backup has been put in the game. When OT Oli Udoh went in for JC Latham in the Denver game, he gave up a sack on his first play and allowed a QB hit not too long after. When OT John Ojukwu replaced him to start in Week 2, he got a penalty and allowed a sack in his first series. And when swing lineman Blake Hance came in for an injured Kevin Zeitler in the middle of the Rams game, he got flagged on his first snap.

The only silver lining is the brutal scheduling they’ve faced. The Broncos and the Rams are a nightmarish one-two punch to begin the year. They’re impossible to establish a rhythm or build confidence against. It’s infinitely harder to do so when you’re already dealing with injuries.

The expectation (or, at this point, perhaps “hope” is the right word) is that once they get some more average defensive lines on the schedule, things can equalize. But the fact of the matter is that the Titans’ offense will remain inconsistent at best and atrocious at worst until the offensive line stabilizes. This has been the case for well over 1000 days now. It remains the case through these first two games in 2025.