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Five Takeaways from Loss to Jaguars

A terrible turnover ratio, the failure to build on Derrick Henry's fast start and more contributed to a third straight defeat.

NASHVILLE – One of the league’s most successful regular-season teams over the last half decade, the Tennessee Titans will wake up with an unfamiliar feeling on Monday – losers of three straight games.

A 36-22 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday gave the Titans their first three-game losing streak since Oct. of 2018 when they fell to Buffalo, Baltimore and the Los Angeles Chargers in succession.

“Not a place you want to be in, yeah, not a place that anybody of us walking into this building thought that we were going to be in today,” Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill said. “You don’t take care of the ball, you don’t get turnovers on the other side, don’t get stops, can’t stop points, you’re going to lose.

“Channel this frustration, channel this anger, channel this emotion. Put it together, stick together and find a way to win next week.”

Added defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons: “It’s going to be about our culture. Everything’s going to show now. We’re going to see what type of team we have.”

Here are five takeaways from the Titans’ loss to the Jags:

Turnovers hurt – on both sides of the ball

Anyone who watched could see that turnovers played a massive difference in the game.

The Titans’ offense turned the ball over four times – twice on Derrick Henry fumbles – and the Jaguars’ offense turned those turnovers into 20 points.

But let’s not let the defense off the hook.

Sunday’s game marked the fourth straight game that unit has not come up with an interception or fumble recovery. The Titans haven’t picked off a pass in four straight games, and they haven’t recovered an opponent’s fumble in seven straight games.

The last takeaway for the Titans’ defense came Nov. 13, when Terrance Mitchell picked off a desperation toss by Denver’s Russell Wilson in the closing seconds of that Tennessee victory.

The frustration was apparent on Jacksonville’s third touchdown of the first half. Cornerback Roger McCreary barely deflected quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s pass, and the ball went directly into the arms of Jaguars receiver Zay Jones for the score.

“We have to be able to get some turnovers,” coach Mike Vrabel said. “We have to be able to find a way to get our hand on the football. We batted one early on third down and then we batted one late, and then we had an interception that went through our hands that turned into a touchdown.”

Defense didn’t stop the bleeding

As referenced, the Titans tripped all over themselves in the first half against the Jaguars, turning the ball over three times – once on a Tannehill strip sack, next on a Tannehill interception and yet again on a Henry fumble following a reception.

It’s hard for any team to overcome that type of play by its offense.

But the Titans might have been in the game longer had their defense done better with sudden-change stops following those turnovers.

On the Titans’ first turnover, the defense surrendered a touchdown on a three-play drive that took just 45 seconds.

On the second turnover, the Titans’ defense did stall Jacksonville’s offense a bit, forcing the Jaguars to kick a field goal, one that still left Tennessee with a 14-10 lead.

But there was no excuse for the Titans’ defense when it took the field following the third turnover. On the ensuing possession, the Jaguars drove 78 yards on six plays, scoring the go-ahead touchdown with just 11 seconds left in the first half.

Jacksonville scored 17 points off turnovers in the first half, 20 points off turnovers in the game.

“We turned over the ball, true enough,” Simmons said. “But we talk about sudden change. We have to be better, especially when we turn over the ball. We have to at least try to go out there and (only give up) a field goal. But we didn’t do that. I think that’s where it starts, finding a way to get the drive stopped to kick field goals.”

Where’s the heat?

Remember when the Titans’ defensive calling card was harassing opposing quarterbacks – usually without need of a blitz?

In the Titans’ win over Denver on Nov. 13, they nearly broke Wilson into pieces, sacking him six times and hitting him 18 times.

Since then? It’s been a different story, as was illustrated Sunday when the Titans totaled zero sacks and just one quarterback hit against Lawrence.

That means over the past four weeks, the Titans have a combined 11 quarterback hits and four sacks against the Packers, Bengals, Eagles and Jaguars.

Part of the problem, of course, is that defensive lineman Denico Autry was injured in the loss to the Packers and has missed the past three games.

Another issue is that Simmons is clearly hampered by his ankle injury.

In his first six games – including the game he initially hurt the ankle against Indianapolis – Simmons totaled 24 tackles, 4.5 sacks and 24 quarterback pressures. In his last six games, Simmons has 17 tackles (zero against Jacksonville), two sacks and eight quarterback pressures. He did knock down two passes against the Jaguars.

The bottom line is that the Titans have allowed opposing quarterbacks to get way too comfortable in the pocket. Lawrence, for example, completed 30-of-42 passes for 368 yards and three touchdowns.

“There’s no secret to affecting the quarterback,” Vrabel said. “You got to have some guys that go and rush and get him. When we pressure, we have to be able to get there. We have to get there quicker and then coverage is going to have to allow for an extra count or a pump or a hitch. But that’s where it’s at. There’s no secret to that.”

A new challenger in the AFC South?

The Titans had won five straight games against Jacksonville, nine of 10 overall, and had beaten the Jaguars eight straight times at Nissan Stadium.

That’s a pretty long stretch of dominance over one team.

In addition, the Titans had become the bullies of the AFC South over the past three seasons, running up a 13-2 division record since the start of the 2020 season.

One game doesn’t necessarily signify a trend in the opposite direction, but the Jaguars certainly delivered a punch in the mouth to the two-time AFC South champions.

Jacksonville piled up 428 yards of total offense, scored on five straight possessions at one point – outscoring the Titans 26-0 during that stretch -- and held the Titans to eight points in the second half.

A Tennessee victory would have eliminated the Jaguars from contending for the division title, but Jacksonville (5-8-0) now has a little bit of life.

The Titans’ last four games are at the Los Angeles Chargers, home against Houston, home against Dallas and at the Jaguars. The Jaguars’ last four games are home against Dallas, at the New York Jets, at Houston and hosting the Titans (7-6-0).

It still seems highly unlikely the Titans would manage to lose control of the division, but if nothing else, the Jaguars served notice on Sunday they are no longer pushovers.

Rushing resurgence wasted

Heading into Sunday’s game, Henry and the Titans’ running game were going through significant struggles.

Since Henry’s 56-yard run in the second quarter against Kansas City on Nov. 6, Henry had gone 86 carries – over four games -- without a run of more than 10 yards. His totals in his four games before Sunday were 86 carries for 235 yards, an average of 2.7 yards per carry.

But Henry broke out in a big way during the first half against Jacksonville, carrying 14 times for 119 yards – a total that included a 50-yard run.

Unfortunately for Henry and the Titans, they couldn’t stick to their ground-and-pound in the second half, not after the Jaguars took 7:07 off the clock on their initial third-quarter drive, eventually scoring a touchdown and opening a 27-14 lead. Jacksonville later went up 33-14.

With the Titans needing to go to the air to overcome a three-touchdown deficit, Henry was limited to three carries for two yards in the second half – finishing with 17 carries for 121 yards.

“We were moving the ball effectively the whole first half,” Tannehill said. “Just shot ourselves in the foot with turnovers. Each time we were kind of getting in the groove, getting rolling … and then had the turnovers.

“(When you’re down three scores), you got to find a way to move and go get points.”