NASHVILLE — On a white board deep inside the concrete belly of Nissan Stadium, someone had scribbled the words “cage the tiger and go for the kill” in black marker, next to a picture of a cartoon Bengal tiger with its tongue sticking out in orange.
While it was a few hundred feet from the Titans’ locker room, likely written by one of the game day workers at the concession storage facility as they walked past, it was indicative of the home team’s game plan. Tennessee, despite its injuries, despite being under the boot heel of the hottest quarterback in football, came out in search of a slaughter. Even though the Titans were one of the least-frequent blitzing teams in football during the regular season, they were head hunting, sending extra rushers in the first quarter. They stunted and twisted their front four and then, when the Bengals’ offensive line was tired, they simply bull rushed with basic pressure. On one play in the fourth quarter, Jeffery Simmons jabbed guard Hakeem Adeniji near the collarbone, backed him on his heels then flopped him out like he was ridding a beach towel of sand. Tennessee sacked Joe Burrow a playoff-record-tying nine times, regularly sending him back to the sideline at the kind of soft, hobbling pace of a recreational jogger with muscle cramps.
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