Jeffery Simmons exposes how Titans’ practice issues spilled over into Week 11 loss to the Texans

The Tennessee Titans came close to beating the Houston Texans in Week 11, at least by their low standards. A 95-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter tied the game at 13, but the Texans’ offense marched down into FG range before time expired to win 16-13 at the buzzer.

That touchdown drive orchestrated by Cam Ward was one of just two offensive drives all day that moved the ball down the field. It was largely another clunky day for that side of the ball, this week particularly marred by constant pre-snap penalties.

Specifically, false starts were the head-scratching theme of the day. And in the postgame locker room, the Titans’ best player didn’t pull any punches in expressing his frustration with this issue that dated back to the week of practice.

Jeffery Simmons’ leadership turned to tough love after Week 11 loss

The Titans committed nine penalties for 62 yards in total, and five of them were false starts. One was called on TE Gunnar Helm, one on C Lloyd Cushenberry, and shockingly, three were called on RT JC Latham.

He just kept jumping, for whatever reason. When asked after the game about the recurring issue, he said, “No, that’s a mental thing. You just got to do better… We called a cadence, and when we mixed up the cadence to change procedure, I executed that poorly on three occasions.”

Unfortunately for Latham, he will be talked about this week as the penalty culprit, rather than for his otherwise impressive performance. He was nails against one of the best EDGE groups in the league in this one.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t hard to see how hot Jeffery Simmons was getting over the Titans’ constant problems on the broadcast. He was seen at one point getting after the offense as he was coming off the field, as it was gearing up to go onto it. Perhaps it was highly animated encouragement, but it sure looked like a guy trying to light a fire under their butts. And in the locker room after the game, that was the tone of his comments to the media.

“We got to play complementary football. It’s not good enough,” Simmons said curtly. “Too many self-inflicted things today, like all around. I mean, say what we want, but I mean three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out. We got to be better. We’re tired of sugarcoating it. I’m tired of sugar coating it. We need to be better. Especially at home. Can’t have that many false starts.

“We need to be better. I mean, we can’t keep sitting up here saying the same thing, trying to sugarcoat it for the media, for anybody. And I said it in the locker room, I said it on the field. I’m tired of sugarcoating it. I mean, we need to be better. At the end of the day, we need to protect Cam (Ward) better. Simple.”

It’s fair to say the best player on this roster is officially fed up with the nonsense. And there isn’t a person on this earth who could blame him at this point.

I wrote this feature last week on Simmons and the leap in leadership he’s taken this season, and his comments to reporters on Sunday were a reflection of that. I’m not sure a younger Simmons takes this tactful approach to forcefully criticizing the team’s issues immediately after a game. He was harsh but fair. He called people out, but it wasn’t personal. He sounded like the leader of the team who was sharing some tough love.

“We not playing good team football right now, and it’s showing,” he continued. “And Mike (McCoy) said it at a practice Friday. We had freaking four false starts Friday. We playing at home. We shouldn’t have that many false starts. Don’t care. Like I’m tired of saving feelings. I’m tired of losing. That’s what I’m tired of doing.”

So it turns out the jumpiness of the offense was a theme from the practice week that spilled over into Sunday. And it’s mental, controllable errors like this that Simmons is sick of. A big part of the reason he’s so fired up about it is that he’s among the veterans on this terrible football team who are still busting their butts to get back and get better.

“Guys on this team are fighting,” Simmons explained. “Rid (Calvin Ridley) fighting. Arden (Key), we fought our way back from injuries, just because the team and this game mean so much to us. Everybody had to take that same approach. Take this approach. We grown men. Everybody have a job to do. And we need to attack this game. We need to attack every day with a better attitude. And like I said, we need to play better football as a team.”