Countdown to Kickoff: 23 Days

The countdown to kickoff continues.

The Tennessee Titans will open the 2020 regular season Sept. 14 at Denver. That is 23 days away. So, today we look at one way the number 23 figures into the team’s recent history.

The road to the Super Bowl has proved treacherous for the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Oilers/Tennessee Titans.

Perhaps that is because it often includes a bunch of road games.

Since the AFL-NFL merger of 1970, the Oilers/Titans have played 23 postseason contests on the road. That is the most for any AFC franchise and tied for second in the NFL over that span (Minnesota is first with 24).

The Titans passed three teams on that list last season, when all three of their playoff games were outside of Nashville – at New England, at Baltimore and at Kansas City.

Of the 16 playoff games during the Titans era (1999-present), 12 took place in the opponent’s stadium with another, Super Bowl XXXIV against the St. Louis Rams, at a neural site (Atlanta). Nine of the last 10 postseason contests have been true road games. The only exception was a 13-10 loss to Baltimore in the 2008 divisional round.

The good news is that a road playoff game has not always meant the end of the line for the franchise, regardless of whether its home was in Texas or Tennessee. Its record in those 23 games is 10-13, tied with Baltimore (10-6) for the most road playoff wins over the past 50 seasons. The Titans/Oilers’ .435 winning percentage in those contests is fifth best in the NFL.

By comparison, four franchises (Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Houston) have never advanced on the road during that span.

Following last season’s loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship, players and coaches talked about the need to earn the right to host one or more playoff games this season. That certainly would be something different.