Predictable goal-line play calling and costly turnovers doomed Tennessee against Baltimore, forcing Robert Saleh to defend a rigid rushing attack that ignored the passing game entirely.
The Tennessee Titans were competitive with the Baltimore Ravens for about a quarter on Sunday.
The Titans got the ball first, and it didn't take two plays for Cam Ward to throw an interception reminiscent of Will Levis. Ward was falling down and trying to avoid a sack, so he attempted a shovel pass to Tony Pollard.
It caught Pollard off guard and went through his hands, into the clutches of Trenton Simpson, for an interception.
The Ravens then scored five plays later to take an early 7-0 lead. The Titans answered back with a touchdown drive of their own to tie the game at seven.
The Titans' offense stalled out for the rest of the first half, and the Ravens did the opposite.
Baltimore scored 17 points in the second quarter to take a 24-7 lead into halftime. Even when the Titans did something well, some kind of mishap negated it.
Ward threaded a pass to Carnell Tate just before halftime for him to fumble it and give it back to the Ravens.
Even when the Titans made good plays, they still made puzzling decisions. Anytime the Titans got deep into the red zone, they ran the ball. The Titans ran the ball seven times in the low red zone.
Essentially, when the Titans were inside the Ravens' 10-yard line, they only ran the ball and didn't try to mix in a pass. This made it easy for the Ravens to stop the Titans and led to a first-half goal-line stand.
The Titans got to a 4th-and-goal at the Ravens' two-yard line and ran a Wildcat play to Tony Pollard. Pollard was stuffed, giving the Ravens plenty of momentum.
Robert Saleh was asked after the game to explain the play calling on the goal line. He stood by his offensive staff, saying they made the decision based on the tape they watched ahead of the game.
"Felt like we were running the ball pretty well," Saleh said. "You know, something I'll definitely have a conversation with Dabes about. I do know that in those situations, the guys work their tails off to make sure we're calling the best plays for those situations based on what we've seen on tape. I'm pleased with the preparation that goes into it, and we'll watch the tape and figure out what could've gone better, if anything at all."
Could this be linked to the disaster at the end of the last game against the New York Giants?
Cam Ward and the offense had a chance to win the game late on the Giants' eight-yard line. With under 30 seconds left, the Titans had two timeouts. Ward threw a pass into the end zone that was intercepted, and the Titans lost the game.
Even though the play at the end of the last game prompted the Titans to call only running plays, calling a Wildcat run in that situation was confusing.
At that point, the Ravens had a 14-7 lead, and the Titans could've tied it with a touchdown or even taken a field goal to cut the deficit.
Instead, the Titans tried to get too fancy, and it cost them a chance to score.
Baltimore had a 98-yard scoring drive on the following possession. The Titans didn't get back into the game until the final two minutes. At that point, they had no timeouts and needed to recover an onside kick.
These kinds of mistakes can have lasting effects on game outcomes, especially for a team like the Titans that's had inconsistencies on both sides of the ball.
This is another learning moment for this coaching staff as the team moves on to the Houston Texans next in Week 5.
