Titans Must Fix One Glaring Issue
The Tennessee Titans are one of the league's worst teams with a 3-10 record after falling to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 14.
One of the reasons behind the loss was the penalty battle. The Titans had a touchdown run from Tony Pollard, but the score was negated due to a holding penalty. Had the hold never happened, the Titans may have won the game.
Titans coach Brian Callahan was asked about the team's penalties after the game.
"Yeah, they're killer. We coach it and talk about it all the time. It is what it is. Penalties happen. We only had, I think, four or five today, which was improved. But yeah, those things got to get cleaned up. And we've stalled drives because of it on offense, we've given up conversions on third down on defense. Not today necessarily, but just in general, yeah. Those penalties got to get cleaned up and we're working like hell to get them cleaned up," Callahan said postgame.
Penalties aren't a complete indicator in whether a team is good or bad, but it can have a massive outcome on games.
The Titans are the second-most penalized team in the NFL with 104. That's only one behind the Baltimore Ravens for the league lead. But the Ravens are a playoff-caliber team, while the Jags are one of the worst teams in the league despite having the third-fewest penalties in the NFL.
Penalties don't always cost teams games, but this was one of those instances where it did. If the Titans want to win any of their final four games for the year, fixing the penalties would be a good way to go about it.
In Week 15, the Titans face the Cincinnati Bengals, who have the fewest penalties so far this season.