The Tennessee Titans officially completed their collapse in the AFC South in Week 18 after dropping the Saturday night contest to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are now AFC South champs, 20-16.
Despite nobody expecting the Titans to win, it was a heart-breaking defeat, as Tennessee held a 16-13 lead with three minutes left in the contest before Josh Dobbs was sacked and fumbled, leading to a defensive touchdown for the Jaguars, giving them a 20-16 lead.
The Titans would have crack at re-taking the lead but failed to convert, allowing the Jags to kneel out the clock and secure the division title.
It was a valiant effort by an injury-plagued and very flawed Titans team, and credit to Dobbs for giving this team a chance, but in the end it just fell short of being good enough.
Now, for the final time this season, let’s dive a bit deeper into what went right and what went wrong in the Titans’ year-ending loss.
Final score: Jaguars 20, Titans 16
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
| TEN | 3 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 16 |
| JAX | 0 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 20 |
It was over when...
Making matters worse after that, Austin Hooper was flagged for a false start, making it a third-and-17, which was just insurmountable with the way Tennessee’s offense played in the second half.
Titans' top performers
RB Derrick Henry: 30 carries, 109 yards; 1 catch, 19 yards
TE Chig Okonkwo: 3 catches, 42 yards, TD
K Randy Bullock: 3-3 FG (long 51), 1-1 XP
Instant analysis
-Dobbs and the Titans’ offense was playing well in the first half, and pass protection was sufficient. However, things broke down in the second half, with the group upfront failing Dobbs tremendously, which helped to stall Tennessee’s offense en route to just three second-half points.
-Dobbs did turn the ball over twice, including on a deep ball that came up short. The fumble he lost was a questionable call, as it appeared his arm was moving forward when he lost it. At the very least it was close and was deserving of more scrutiny than the quick review it got.
-On top of bad pass protection, the offensive line struggled to block for the run. Derrick Henry did break the century mark, but he did so at 3.9 yards per carry.
-The defense didn’t do anything particularly well on Saturday night, but they were able to make stops on some key third downs throughout the game. The pass-rush didn’t do much overall and protection wasn’t great, but as has been the case for just about all of 2022, Tennessee’s defense did its job in a losing effort.
-Todd Downing’s play-calling was atrocious, and hopefully this is the last time we have to say that. Downing had an astounding run-play to pass-play ratio on first downs, with it being somewhere around 19-3 the last time we checked in the fourth quarter. You can tack on the other litany of issues Downing has, but that was the most egregious one on Saturday.
-The Titans’ special teams was very bad, as has been the case all season. Every punt return — whether the Titans are defending it or returning it — becomes an adventure (and not a good one, either).
-Punter Ryan Stonehouse has officially broken the NFL record for the most gross yards per punt. I haven’t crunched the numbers yet but it should be right around the average he entered the game with (53.0).
What's next?
With the Titans’ season over, there are a lot of questions this team will have to answer during the 2023 offseason, and it all begins with finding a new general manager to pair with Mike Vrabel.
From there, Tennessee has some key players to make decisions on and an offense to fix, amongst many other things. It’s going to be an interesting offseason for sure, and one that will likely bring a lot of changes.
