The Tennessee Titans finally ended their losing streak with a win over the lowly Carolina Panthers, but such an ugly victory over the worst team in the NFL isn’t changing any hearts and minds about how bad Tennessee is this season.
In the power rankings of USA TODAY’s Nate Davis, he actually has the Titans moving up four spots to No. 19, although that’s more a result of a bunch of teams in front of Tennessee losing. Here’s what he said:
19. Titans (23): They’re unbeatable at home. Literally. Tennessee is now 4-0 this season at Nissan Stadium, though did lose a designated home game in London – meaning the Titans are 0-7 outside of Nashville in 2023.
The Titans are one of four teams to not lose inside their home stadium this season, along with the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys.
But Tennessee has managed to be the only one of the four to have a losing record overall. If the Titans had just shown a pulse on the road this season, they’d likely be headed for the playoffs.
But I digress — here’s the rest of our power rankings round-up:
Jarrett Bailey, Touchdown Wire: 29 (no change)
Jarrett Bailey, Touchdown Wire:
Derrick Henry ran for a couple scores and Tennessee beat the worst team in the league. What else can we say about the Titans? They wear blue? Sure. Moving on.
Barry Werner, The List Wire: 23 (+4)
The Titans found a team they could beat, the Carolina Panthers. That doesn’t exactly bode well for the rest of the season.
Pete Prisco, CBS Sports: 27 (no change)
They are undefeated at home, but winless on the road. It wasn’t flashy against the Panthers, but they found a way.
NFL Nation, ESPN: 26 (+1)
The biggest problem for the Titans’ offense is their struggles in the red zone. Tennessee has scored touchdowns on only 38% of its visits inside the 20-yard line, almost 30% down from last year (64.2%). That’s the second-worst percentage in the league. The Titans have lost four of their seven games by one score or less. The defense has uncharacteristically struggled against the run. It’s allowing 110.8 yards rushing yards per game as opposed to last season’s league-leading 76.9-yard average. Opponents ran for 125 or more yards in four of the Titans’ seven losses this season. The special teams unit ranks high primarily because of Nick Folk, who has made 95% of his field goal attempts, including four out of five from 50-plus.
Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News: 25 (+4)
Will Levis finally got a chance to attack a weak defense again at home and came through with a strong assist from Derrick Henry. The Titans will take the free space for their defense as they try to sneak back into respectability.
Frank Schwab, Yahoo Sports: 27 (+1)
The Titans had a nice pass rush and took Panthers top receiver Adam Thielen out of the game, which hasn’t happened much for the Titans’ defense this season. It came against the horrible Panthers but any steps forward are welcomed.
Dalton Miller, Pro Football Network: 27 (no change)
Dalton Miller, Pro Football Network:
The Tennessee Titans’ defensive line absolutely bullied the Carolina Panthers’ offensive interior. That version of the Titans’ defense is what we expected when the season commenced, but it’s not the unit we’ve gotten for most of the season.
The offensive line struggles have kept Derrick Henry under wraps most of the season, but he was able to find paydirt twice against the Panthers.
Josh Schrock, NBC Sports: 27 (+2)
Tennessee Titans (4-7): The Titans are now 4-0 at home after beating the Panthers. With four of their final six games in Nashville, Mike Vrabel’s club might be able to scrap together a respectable season.
K.D. Drummond, Cowboys Wire: 28 (no change)
Bleacher Report: 25 (+4)
The Tennessee Titans have struggled this season. But for one week at least, all it took to turn things around was a return to Nissan Stadium in Nashville—and a return to their run-heavy ways.
To be clear, the Titans offense didn’t exactly tear it up—Tennessee had just 264 yards of offense for the game, and Derrick Henry managed just 76 rushing yards on 18 carries. But Henry found the end zone twice and became the eighth running back in NFL history to run for at least 9,000 yards and at least 80 touchdowns before turning 30.
After the victory, head coach Mike Vrabel told reporters what just about everyone who has watched the Titans more than once already knows—as goes Henry, so go the Titans.
“He wants to impact the game,” Vrabel said. “I know that, and we want to let him. Proud of him, the career that he’s had thus far (with) 9,000 yards. You know (we) need 10,000.”
The Titans have been a very different team at home this year—Sunday’s win was Tennessee’s fourth in as many tries at home this season.
But even with four of their last six games at home this year, the Titans are going to be hard-pressed to inject themselves into the AFC wild-card race.
Eric Edholm, NFL.com: 26 (+1)
The Titans just know how to win games in Nashville, improving to 4-0 in non-London home contests on Sunday — and they still have four more dates at Nissan Stadium. The playoffs almost certainly aren’t within reach, but Tennessee can finish strong and decide whether Will Levis is the guy to build around. I remain fairly bullish. Levis had a very nice first half against Carolina, leading two TD drives and a pretty field-goal drive in the final 30 seconds. He cooled off after that and almost got in some trouble trying to force it to DeAndre Hopkins, but overall, Levis showed more positives than negatives, which is consistent with my season-long takeaway. He’s arguably displayed more upside with the Titans than Bryce Young has with the Panthers, even if comparing the two situations is like comparing apples to kumquats.
Titans' average ranking: 26
