Titans Dominate Bengals in Style, Roll to 27-3 Rout to Even Record

For the first time in nearly a year, the Tennessee Titans looked like a dominant football team on Sunday, thrashing the Cincinnati Bengals 27-3 at Nissan Stadium. They overpowered the Bengals in all three phases of a game, and had a lot of fun doing it.

Tom Brew | Oct 1, 2023

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NASHVILLE — Now that's more like it.

It was just a week ago in Cleveland when it looked blatantly obvious that the Tennessee Titans might not win another game this year. They were horrible in an ugly loss at to the Browns, but all week they kept saying they'd be fine.

They were more than fine Sunday.

Playing inspired football with a lot of razzle-dazzle on offense and ''speed and violence'' on defense, the Titans crushed the Cincinnati Bengals 27-3 at Nissan Stadium. It's the most complete game they've played in a long, long time, and now they're 2-2 on the season and in a four-way tie for first place in the AFC South.

Smacking around a perennial playoff contender, especially one that had beaten. them three times in a row, felt wonderful.

"I think we were efficient all day and we ran the ball well,'' Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill said. "We kept ourselves ahead of the sticks and stayed out of third-and-long situations. When you do that, you feel good about your plan and you feel good about your matchups.

"It opens up everything for us, and we were able to extend drives and make some big plays.''

For a team that's been struggling to score points, the Titans were phenomenal in the first half, scoring 24 unanswered points with three straight touchdown drives. That's saying a lot from a team that had scored only three touchdowns total in their first three games.

The first two drives were quick, too. They took a 10-3 lead at 6:36 in the second quarter on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Tannehill to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, capping a five-play, 78-yard drive. After forcing a Bengals three-and-out, they went 73 yards in four plays and scored again, with Derrick Henry scampering 29 yards for the score, his longest run of the year, with 3:58 to go in the half.

The Titans took over with 1:20 left and got a 16-yard run from Henry and then a 44-yard completion to Chris Moore. Henry ran for 11 more and then DeAndre Hopkins caught a pass for a 7-yard gain to the 2-yard.

The Titans lined up in a wildcat formation, with Henry in the backfield as Tannehill went in motion to the right. The Bengals called timeout, but Tennessee came right back in the same formation.

Henry took the snap .. and then threw a perfect strike to rookie Josh Whyle in the end zone for a touchdown, the first of his career.

"Peyton Manning had to show up again," Henry said afterward. "It's called: 'Go be Peyton Manning and throw a touchdown' and that's what I tried to do."

Henry is a threat in a lot of ways, and passing is on the list now, too.

"It never hurts when you have a guy in there that can run it in,'' Titans coach Mike Vrabel said of having Henry in the wildcat. "It was well executed there by Derrick.''

Vrabel said there was no hesitation in running the play, even after the Cincinnati timeout. "No. We had zero (hesitation,'' he said "Run it again. Call it again.''

The Titans, looking to be more creative, installed the play this week. Vrabel liked the design, and was confident it would work.

"It was very high,'' he said of his confidence level. "We go in there and game-plan and look at stuff and figure out what we're going to try to run. We let the players go and execute it. It's Derrick executing it in practice, and to Derrick's credit, he wants to practice it until he can't get it wrong. That was well executed.''

There were only three points scored in the second half, and those came at the end of the Titans' opening drive, which lasted 15 plays and took 10:22 off the clock. Nick Folk kicked a 35-yard field goal, his second of the day. He's a perfect 10-for-10 this year since joining the Titans just before the start of the season.

It wasn't the prettiest 10-minute drive, but it certainly was very effective,'' Vrabel said.

It was that kind of day for the Titans' offense. The offensive line, which has struggle for much of the year so far, did a good job. Tennessee rushed for 173 yards, with Henry gaining 122 yards on 22 carries and rookie Tyjae Spears getting 40 more on just five carries, including a 22-yard scamper the followed a fumble where he scooped it back up and took off through a variety of Cincinnati defenders.

Tannehill was efficient as well. He was 18-for-25 passing for 240 yards. Westbrook had five catches for 51 yards, and is now over 1,000 yards for his career. Hopkins had four catches for 63 yards, and a near-miss touchdown early on a flea-flicker that went through his hands in the end zone.

It was a terrific day for the Tennessee defense, which kept Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in check from start to finish. Cincinnati got a field goal on its opening drive — and that was it. Burrow passed for only 165 yards and was sacked three times. The Bengals also had just 72 yards rushing.

The Titans brought pressure from a lot of different angles. Jeffery Simmons, Arden Key and newcomer Trevis Gipson all had sacks, and linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair had two hits on Burrow.

"We were just trying to add a (line) backer and try to speed up (Burrow's) clock a little bit, maybe get some protection on the back or free up one of those defensive lineman,'' said Vrabel, who was also impressed with his oft-maligned secondary, which played well against the dangerous Cincinnati receivers.

"If we can be aggressive and still make them earn it and not have those mistakes down the field. I thought they mixed in coverages, man and zone, and just being able to swarm and stay on our feet. We tipped a couple of passes. We need to get some more, but to hold a very talented offense to just three points, that's a good day.''

The Titans are 2-2 now, as is everyone in the AFC South. They're on the road next week for a divisional game with the Indianapolis Colts, and then it's a trip to London to play the Baltimore Ravens, followed by a bye week. They don't play at home again until Oct. 29.

But they walked out of Nissan Stadium feeling very good about themselves, as they should. For a team that's struggled a lot lately — they had lost nine of 10 games dating back to Nov. 17 of last year — this one really meant a lot.

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