Robert Saleh Didn't Mince Words on Titans Fourth-Quarter Woes vs. Browns

After looking very stout defensively in the third quarter, the Tennessee Titans couldn't keep the Cleveland Browns out of the end zone in the fourth. 

The defense did a great job keeping the game close, giving the offense a chance to take the lead. The Browns went into halftime up 17-14 and didn't score a single point in the third quarter. 

Joey Slye tied the game at 17, and the Browns got the ball back. After shutting the Browns down, the Titans finally allowed them to score. Deshaun Watson drove the offense down the field in eight plays for 71 yards to make it 24-17. 

The Titans scored their first touchdown since the first quarter, bringing the score to 24 -24 with under a minute to go. The Browns had all three timeouts to either score a touchdown or a field goal. 

Cleveland needed only four plays to get into Andre Szymt's field goal range and secure the win. As a result, the Titans fell 27-24 to the Browns. 

It felt similar to the Philadelphia Eagles' loss earlier in the year. The Titans had a 20-17 lead late, and the Eagles scored a go-ahead touchdown with nine seconds left. This time, the Browns needed fewer plays to break the hearts of fans in attendance. 

Head coach Robert Saleh went to the podium after another frustrating loss. He didn't mince words about the team's defensive issues in the final 15 minutes. 

He believed it was an all-around poor effort on defense. 

"They ran the ball really well," Saleh said. "We didn't do a good enough job today in the run game. We didn't do a good enough job tackling. We didn't do good enough covering. We didn't do a good enough job coaching. It was just a not good enough day on defense." 

The Titans couldn't stop Deshaun Watson from securing another game-winning drive. With the win over the Titans, he's now had five of them this season. 

At the end of the day, the Titans couldn't stop much of what the Browns were doing. Cleveland ran and threw the ball well. 

Quinshon Judkins had a season-high 96 rushing yards and two touchdowns. The Browns had one of the NFL's worst rushing offenses coming into the matchup. Cleveland was averaging the ninth-fewest rushing yards per game (94) ahead of Week 7. 

That didn't seem to matter against the Titans. The Browns had 183 rushing yards. Watson contributed to the rushing attack. He finished the game with 19 rushing yards and one touchdown. 

Although Watson didn't throw a touchdown pass, he still had over 300 passing yards. 

After a good start to the second half, the Titans' defense fell apart when they needed to stand tall. 

It resulted in another close loss, as the team is now 1-6. The Titans face another tough challenge in Week 8 as they head on the road to take on Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.