The Tennessee Titans entered their Week 9 game against the Kansas City Chiefs as massive underdogs but gave the AFC West leaders all they could handle. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, as the Chiefs emerged victorious in overtime on Sunday night, 20-17.
The Chiefs came out red-hot, scoring a touchdown and field goal on their first two possessions, which made us all think it was going to be a long night.
However, the Titans would put the clamps on Patrick Mahomes and Co. after that, while also scoring 17 unanswered to take a 17-9 lead that stuck until late in the fourth quarter.
But then came Mahomes, who put the Chiefs on his back and orchestrated a 13-play, 93-yard scoring drive that included a huge 20-yard gain on third-and-17 that completely flipped the game.
Neither team was able to win it in regulation, sending the game to overtime.
The Titans held the Chiefs to a field goal on their lone drive, but Tennessee’s offense, which went silent in the second half, wasn’t able to muster anything up, sealing the victory for Kansas City.
Now, let’s dive a bit deeper into the details and see what went right and what went wrong for the Titans.
Final score: Chiefs 20, Titans 17 (OT)
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | OT | F |
| TEN | 0 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| KC | 3 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 20 |
It was over when...
With the Titans trailing 20-17 in overtime, Malik Willis was sacked on second down, setting up a third and forever. With how badly the offense was playing in the second half, there was no way Tennessee would convert. Sure enough, they didn’t.
Titans' top performers
RB Derrick Henry: 17 carries, 115 yards, 2 TDs
DL Denico Autry: 3 tackles (2 for loss), 2 sacks, 3 QB hits
CB Kristian Fulton: 4 tackles, 2 PD
P Ryan Stonehouse: 8 punts, 48.8 yards per punt, two inside the 20
Instant analysis
-Offensive coordinator Todd Downing did a great job with the play-calling in the second quarter, as he incorporated Malik Willis’ legs into the offensive game plan more with great success.
-However, the Titans got super conservative as the game wore on, and no surprise they mustered up just three second-half points that came in the third quarter. Whatever shred of creativity Downing showed early on never manifested itself again the rest of the game.
-While the box score doesn’t look pretty, Willis showed major signs of improvement tonight as a thrower. Willis had a beautiful back-shoulder throw to Austin Hooper, and he made a couple of good throws down the field to Chris Conley and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine for what would have been game-changing plays but both were dropped. NWI’s was a much higher level of difficulty, though, but catchable nonetheless.
-With all that said, Willis is still having issues holding the ball too long and knowing when to throw it away when his receivers don’t get open, which is often. The pass protection wasn’t great, but it was sufficient enough. Willis was sacked four times, but some of those were on him and his receivers. Again, love the improvement we saw on Sunday night, but this is still Ryan Tannehill’s team.
-On top of dropping passes, Titans wide receivers got no separation, which is nothing new. In fact, not a single Titans receiver caught a pass on Sunday night, marking the fourth time since 2020 that has happened to an NFL team. A.J. Brown had some fun with the Titans’ wide receiver issues, also.
-There really isn’t much negative to say about the defense. Sure, you can point to Mahomes’ big runs and some other breakdown, but overall the secondary was sensational in coverage and the front did more than enough to impact Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense, which went seven drives without scoring a single point before the fourth-quarter touchdown. Making the defense’s effort even more impressive was the fact that it was on the field for a whopping 41 minutes as the Titans failed to sustain drives late in the game.
-The Titans committed eight penalties for 51 yards, while the Chiefs had 10 for 69. There were several questionable calls during the game, including on the two-point try for the Chiefs that tied the game at 17. Kansas City got away with a pair of holds on Teair Tart on back-to-back plays, and Travis Kelce nearly committed every infraction in the book on Joshua Kalu, who somehow got flagged instead of Kelce. There were many more bad calls, but I don’t have all night.
-Derrick Henry tallied his biggest gain of the season with a 56-yard scamper and looked well on his way to another monster game with 92 yards and two scores in the first half, but his success on the ground halted after that, with Henry totaling just 23 yards the rest of the way.
-Ryan Stonehouse is still really, really good. He had one punt that went 57 yards and dropped at the one, giving Tennessee’s special teamers a chance to down it there. Even Brett Kern was impressed.
-The Titans lost time of possession by over 15 minutes, which helped gas the defense.
-Tennessee was 2-2 in the red zone, while the Chiefs were 2-4. The Titans continue to be great in the red zone when they get there, the problem is getting there.
-The Titans were a horrific 1-11 on third downs, while the Chiefs converted 8-of-19, as well as both of their fourth-down tries.
-Kansas City had 499 yards of total offense to Tennessee’s 229.
-The Titans had 82 passing yards in the first half, but -2 in the second.
Injuries
DB Josh Thompson (knee): Thompson was ruled out in the third quarter.
OLB Bud Dupree (hip): Dupree was listed as questionable in the third quarter. He did not return.
DB Lonnie Johnson (undisclosed): We didn’t see an update on Johnson during the game.
What's next?
The Titans (5-3) will lick their wounds after a brutal loss to the Chiefs and look ahead to a Week 10 home matchup against the Denver Broncos (3-5), a team that has also seen struggles on offense this season. Thankfully, the Colts stink and lost again, so the Titans’ lead in the AFC South will remain intact.
