NASHVILLE — Two things can be true of Tennessee Titans (1-6) quarterback Cam Ward’s performance in Week 7. Ward had his most well-rounded performance of the season, while also being most responsible for Tennessee’s 31-13 loss to the New England Patriots (5-2) on Sunday.

Ward must stop turning the ball over.

The Good, Bad & Ugly Of Cam Ward

Ward’s NFL leading fifth lost fumble was a death blow to his team against New England.

Trailing 24-13 in the third quarter, Ward and the offense headed out for their first drive of the second half. The rookie lined up under center on 1st-and-10 from his own 23-yard line, faked a handoff to his right, started to roll out to his left. Ward then got caught up in a weird back-peddaling style motion as Patriots linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson chased him down, wound up to throw to tight end Chig Okonkwo in the flat, but simply lost control of the football and coughed the ball up.

Chaisson recovered the ball in the end zone for the touchdown that put New England up 31-13.

“Fumbling the football, I think that was what really set us back,” said Ward. “If I don’t do that, the game does get out of hand that fast. So just got to continue to have ball security and get better.”

Ward has turned the ball over at least once in every game this season with 10 total giveaways in seven games.

Ward did show positive growth, but squandered it

Tennessee led 13-10 with 1:48 to play in the first half and trailed 17-13 at the start of the third frame.

Ward came out with points (field goal, 38-yard touchdown pass) on his first two possessions of the game. The scoring toss to fellow rookie Chimere Dike was a thing of beauty and was the fourth pass of 11 yards of more for Ward in those first two drives. It was a refreshing change of pace for the Titans, given that it was the first time the team had scored a first-quarter touchdown all season.

13 points in the first half felt like a revelation for a team that averaged only 13.8 per game to that point in the season.

Ward finished with a career-high completion percentage (73.5%) for 255 yards. According to NextGen Stats, Ward finished the game with a +6.1% completion percentage over expected. Ward played good football in spurts on Sunday, but also committed the sin that cost them the game.

Tennessee’s defense failed to stop Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, who completed 21 of 23 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns for a franchise-record completion percentage of 91.3% and a career high in completion percentage over expected (+24.4%).

“I think (Maye)’s a great player, he’s going to continue to make plays in this league,” Ward said. “When it’s all said and done, I think me and him, we’ll have a chance to have some elite battles. So he got the best of us today, but we got to continue get better. But you know that’s not really the main goal as far as us trying to be a particular person. We’re trying to play together, we ain’t played complementary footbal for a decent amount of time. It’s only been at clicks of the day. So we just got to continue to pour into each other, do better, and try to win next week.”

The Titans travel to face the Indianapolis Colts (6-1) in Week 8.

Featured Image: USA TODAY Sports.