The Cleveland Browns beat the Tennessee Titans 27-24 in the dying seconds of their Week 7 matchup at Nissan Stadium on Sunday. Afterward, Browns coach Todd Monken, whose team sits atop the AFC North in his first season leading Cleveland, took to the podium and made sure the traveling crowd got its due.

In his eyes, Browns fans matched the energy of the home crowd (if they didn’t beat it outright). But who is that on?

Here’s how Monken put it:

“You’ve got to have a shout out for our crowd. How about the Browns fans, for God’s sake? It felt like our side of the stands were all Browns fans. Am I wrong? It just felt like our side was all Browns fans… That was so cool. That was so cool. I mean, that helped. That was critically important in terms of getting us through the beginning of the game when we weren’t playing nearly as well. That was awesome.”

At first glance, it reads like a total diss on a Titans fan base that some would call pathetic, uninterested, and lacking the pride and allure of other fan bases around the league.

I can no longer agree with that.

The way I see it, Monken’s comments are a reflection on the team, and it’s impossible for me to hold this against anybody but the Titans of the past four years and counting. Sunday was their golden opportunity to finally get some positive momentum. They blew it, and fans have no more patience for it.

Opposing fans taking over Nissan Stadium is nothing new

There’s no doubt Monken is right. But this isn’t unique to Sunday, either. Seeing a ton of the opposing team’s colors in the stands is basically a weekly observation in Nashville at this point. How many show up depends on the week, the fan base, how good the team is, and how well its fans travel. But there’s often an alarming number of them, and portions of the stadium regularly get taken over entirely.

It isn’t ever actually been the case mathematically, but I sometimes look around Nissan Stadium and wonder if there are more opposing fans than Titans fans in the building. That’s how bad it is these days.

The Browns aren’t exactly the winningest, proudest franchise of the past couple decades. Still, they have a loyal and proud fan base that travels well, and it showed out on Sunday the way so many other opposing fan bases do.

Titans fans did not show out. It was a Chamber of Commerce kind of day here, a gorgeous fall afternoon for football in Nashville, and they didn’t come close to packing the stadium. Honestly, their energy wasn’t felt for much of the game, at least not in the way a home crowd is supposed to create a home-field advantage.

Why I can’t blame Titans fans for staying home

I just don’t have it in me to hold that against Titans fans. This team hasn’t earned unconditional support from the masses, not for four years and running.

Sunday was Tennessee’s best opportunity in a long time to string together back-to-back wins for the first time in four years, and the Titans blew it. Just two weeks ago, after a 26-3 home loss to the Houston Texans, we were all unanimously saying this was the worst it has ever felt since the Titans moved to Nashville. Going from that low point to a two-game winning streak would have been the biggest momentum swing this franchise has seen in a very long time. Fact.

It’s also worth remembering what kind of city this is. Nashville is not Green Bay. It’s not Cleveland, Buffalo, or Jacksonville. Among the cities that have NFL teams, Nashville ranks at or near the top. It’s why the Titans draw so many opposing fans even when they’re good. When a fan base sees its schedule come out and starts hunting for a road trip, Nashville is going to be at the top of the list.

That cuts both ways for locals. There are so many better things to do in this town than spend your time and money on a Sunday afternoon at what is currently a dump of a stadium (in its final season, thankfully), pulling your hair out over this team again.

That’s coming from a fan of this team! Before I worked in media professionally, I didn’t miss a Titans game, and if I switched industries tomorrow, I still wouldn’t. I’m a massive NFL fan in general. Not a game goes by without me diving into it. I unconditionally love football. Even so, it’s supremely easy for me to understand why people choose to stay home, and why scenes like the one Monken described happen every week, even with fan bases from teams that aren’t historically the best.

This won’t change until the Titans prove progress. Until then, Titans fans will keep staying home on gorgeous days like Sunday, and opposing fans will keep filling those seats. That’s exactly what happened to the Browns this week. They trailed early, the game threatened to get late in a hurry for them, and their fans helped carry them back into it.