Robert Saleh Believes Cam Ward Played Winning Football in Browns Loss

Tennessee Titans head coach Robert Saleh has defended his quarterback this season. 

Cam Ward has had his ups and downs this year. His best game of the season was arguably against the Baltimore Ravens. 

He finished with 222 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception. 

The Titans were down for most of the game, and Ward threw his lone touchdown in garbage time during the fourth quarter. 

So far this season, Ward has yet to throw a touchdown pass in the first three quarters of any game. He's only thrown touchdown passes in the fourth quarter when he does score. 

On Sunday, Ward had 181 passing yards and one interception. His one interception was one a pass intended for Elic Ayomanor and picked off by Denzel Ward. The quarterback's pass went right to the Cleveland Browns defensive back. 

Saleh was asked how he would critique Ward's play at Monday's Zoom call. Once again, Saleh stood by Ward. He said that the quarterback played winning football and refuted anyone who thought the loss was solely on Ward. 

"Yesterday, I thought he played a good game," Saleh said. "Not an exceptional game because, again, he had things that he has to fix, but I don't think you can possibly watch that film and say Cam Ward did not play good winning football. You can't. Now, there's things he has to fix. But if anyone's trying to pin this loss on him, you're just trying to make **** up." 

We've seen the same thing from Ward this season. He will play inconsistently in the first few quarters and then figure things out in the fourth. We still have yet to see Ward play a consistent 60 minutes of football this season. 

Luckily for the Titans, Tony Pollard was able to provide a lot of the offense on Sunday. There's going to be days when the Titans will need the passing game to provide a spark. 

That means Ward is going to have to figure out how to play consistent football for an entire game at some point. 

The Titans can't expect to give Pollard 25 carries every game and win each time. The Titans almost beat the Browns on Sunday, despite the passing game disappearing at times. 

Ward wasn't the only one at fault. 

The defense gave up two huge drives in the fourth quarter to seal the loss. Carnell Tate had ball-security issues and gave the Browns an extra possession. 

This team has more issues outside of just the quarterback. That doesn't mean that Ward is free of fault in these losses. 

The schedule is only going to get harder from here on out. The Cincinnati Bengals are up next, followed by the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

The Titans need to find a way to limit the Bengals' passing game, while not abandoning stopping the run. Ward showed good and bad things in the loss, but the Titans still weren't good enough to get the job done.