A brilliant Tyjae Spears 27-yard run set up first and goal for the Tennessee Titans as the two minute warning approached with the game tied at 17 against the Philadelphia Eagles. What happened next handed the game back to Jalen Hurts. 

Then, the former Super Bowl MVP threw a touchdown with nine seconds left, for the Eagles to survive 24-20.

The Titans should have won this game. That is not a hot take or a silver-lining consolation prize. They had it. It was theirs, and they lost it. The Eagles then took it from them, because that is how it works when a team loaded with Pro Bowlers, All-Pros, and Super Bowl champions plays against a team still building its roster. The Titans lost this one in the margins, and those margins were lost because of a lack of experienced, skilled players compared to what Philadelphia has.

To me, there are two moments that ultimately allowed the Eagles to snatch this near-massive upset from the home team.

The second moment was Hurts avoiding a sack from Titans pass rusher Jacob Martin. With 51 seconds left, and no timeouts, the Eagles QB dropped back to pass from the Tennessee 26 yard-line. Already in game-tying field goal range, Hurts saw Martin rushing free from his left. Martin had the game’s strongest QB in his arms, but couldn’t get him to the ground. Hurts spun around, got (barely) outside the pocket, and threw the ball away past the line of scrimmage, avoiding an intentional grounding penalty.

If either Martin finished the sack, or didn’t let Hurts scoot outside the tackle box for a grounding penalty, the Eagles would have been pushed back near the 35 yard line, with a running clock, and a down lost. With no timeouts left, who knows if the Eagles would have had time for Darius Cooper’s game-winning touchdown with nine seconds left.

But, for the first moment that created the Eagles comeback, we got back to the play right after Spears had Titans fans thinking the victory was imminent. 

Brian Daboll’s play call that lost the Titans the game

The Titans offensive coordinator called a play-action pass on first and goal from the 9-yard line with 2:37 on the clock. Cam Ward was sacked by Jalen Carter, losing 9 yards, and ruined the Titans’ ability to win the chess match.

These are the margins I’m talking about. If you just run the ball and gain zero yards, it is still second and goal inside the 10. The Eagles have to call one of their two timeouts, and you have not screwed yourself out of a chance to actually score a touchdown. 

Instead, the Titans had 2nd and goal at the 18 and were forced to run the ball twice, burning the Eagles final timeout, and getting the clock down to the 2-minute-warning. Philadelphia got to perfectly play that entire sequence from after Spears’ run to the two-minute warning.

That first-down play call from Daboll was terrible regardless of what happened with Latham’s blocking on the first down play-action. Latham may have blown the block. I don’t know his specific assignment. But the play call was just dumb. You should not have put that play in that situation. Just run the damn ball.

The math that should have guided the first and goal decision

The goal of that first-down snap from the 9 with 2:37 left should have been clock management and positioning. 

Make the Eagles use one of their two timeouts at the end of that play, one way or the other. At worst, gain nothing. Don’t lose any yards. That should have been the objective.

If you run the ball and gain two yards to the 7, the Eagles call a timeout. The clock is the same. Second and goal from the 7, you still have to run the ball because the Eagles have one more timeout. Gain two more, and now it is third and goal from the 5. 

With a hypothetical third and goal from the 5, or even inside the 10, you can call a pass play because Ward can run it in if he needs to, just like he did earlier in the third quarter. That is how you manage the clock and set yourself up for a real opportunity to score a touchdown.

Robert Saleh said postgame that they really liked the play they called on the first down sack, but that Carter just made a great play. 

Even then, I didn’t understand the call. The Titans shouldn’t want to score a touchdown on that first down play. Scoring there just gives Hurts the ball back with their two timeouts and the two-minute warning. That is not smart football.

I think there are going to be a lot of things this team wants back after this game. Daboll is going to say that exact thing on Thursday because that is exactly what he said this past Thursday.

The Titans lost this one. They lost it on that first-and-goal play call. Daboll puckered up, the margins slipped, and Philadelphia did what teams with that kind of talent do. They took it.