“A major green light” — Cam Ward’s highlight first TD pass gave Titans head coach a flashback to a Hall of Fame QB moment

The Tennessee Titans are 0-2, and the vibes are low. Even when the majority of folks came into this season expecting them to start 0-2 against a pair of playoff caliber teams, finally arriving at that reality somehow still really saps the energy from the room. There are some bright spots to cling to, though, and you have to look no further than the quarterback if you want reason for hope.

Cam Ward’s Highs And Lows In Week 2

Cam Ward has had his fair share of rookie moments, and he’s far from perfect two games into his NFL career. I don’t think he played nearly as well in Week 2 than he did in Week 1. I don’t think he saw the field as well, turned down some easy yards for harder incompletions, saw a few things a bit too late, and missed others in the pattern he arguably should have hit. A full breakdown of all of that deserves its own, separate article though.

What’s worth mentioning for the purposes of this article is that even when Cam has looked “bad” at times so far, he still undoubtedly belongs as one of the no-doubt starting quarterbacks in the NFL. That question has already been answered in my mind. The question now is how good a starter can he ultimately become? And that brings us to his greatest moment as a pro so far: his first NFL touchdown. It was a ridiculous circus play, and Head Coach Brian Callahan shared his honest reaction to it at his Monday press conference.

“That’s What Made Him The Number One Overall Pick”

it was an otherwise somber, laid back press conference on Monday. You can tell that some of these repeat topics—penalties, offensive line woes, in-game adjustments—are beginning to wear on Brian Callahan’s patience. And I’m sure he’s even more impatient with his team’s ability to fix these things than he is with us asking about them.

But when we asked him about this play, that was the one time you could feel him light up. Even when you’re going through hell fighting to improve a bad football team, having a young QB with real juice is sure to brighten your day.

“Yeah, it’s certainly a fine line” Callahan said of the balance between playing smart and making a play. “But those are the plays that make him special. That’s what makes him unique. That’s what made him a number one overall pick is the ability to make those types of plays.”

If you somehow missed this play—or you just want to see it again to experience that warm fuzzy feeling epic quarterback play provides—here’s the film.

I wrote a full article about Cam’s insistence and success with breaking the rules of quarterbacking like this. And I included a bunch of national reactions to the play for good measure. Check that out linked right here. In that article, I question just how wise these kinds of plays from Ward really are. I guess I’ll keep questioning it, and he’ll keep proving I shouldn’t. That’s fine by me, much more fun than the alternative. His head coach applauded the move as smart situational football:

“Really, it was smart on his part. It’s third and nine from the nine. That’s like a major green light to extend the play because even if you take a six, seven yard sack, the field goal is in your pocket. You know what I mean? It’s a situational awareness thing, and that’s where the good quarterbacks in this league buy time. If they know it’s third down, they’re inside the 10 yard line. It’s like— it’s street ball, baby. That’s what it happens. And that was an unbelievable throw and catch and really the reaction by Elic (Ayomanor) was the one that was the most impressive part of the play other than the throw.”

the situational element of the decision to create absolutely was sharp by Ward, no doubt about that. It’s the throwback nature of his pass that is a scary proposition in my book. And in fairness, Callahan shared in that concern. He finished by comparing his concern-turned-elation to a classic hall of fame moment:

“But yeah, that like the old Mike Holmgren and Brett Favre clip where, you know he’s the— they got the old clip on where he’s like, “No, no, no. Okay, okay, okay. That’s a good play.” That is what it feels like sometimes. And you don’t want to take that away from him because those are the plays that he is capable of making.”