Early preseason blunders proved a blessing for Tennessee's secondary, transforming costly coverage breakdowns into vital "aha moments" that Robert Saleh believes will prevent regular-season disasters.
The Tennessee Titans went toe to toe with the reigning Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night.
The team was in high spirits after their performance in the joint practice with the Seahawks on Friday. The Titans were the better team that day and had momentum heading into the game.
That momentum didn't last very long.
On the Seahawks' first drive, quarterback Drew Lock led their offense down the field and hit tight end Elijah Arroyo for a 36-yard touchdown on a blown coverage.
It appeared that there was a mix-up with Kevin Winston Jr. He looked confused about who he was supposed to cover on that play and drifted too far up as Arroyo ran right past him to get wide open.
Then, on the next offensive drive for the Seahawks, the Titans let up a touchdown in four plays. Rookie running back Jacardia Wright burst through the defensive line and was hardly touched on his way for a 69-yard rushing touchdown.
The Titans' defense finally got its act together in the second half and didn't allow another touchdown for the rest of the game. Tennessee got back into the game and won 19-16.
While it's never good to have that kind of performance from your defense with the starters on the field, head coach Robert Saleh was glad that the secondary made that mistake early in the game.
At Monday's Zoom call, he was glad because it could be used as a learning experience.
"Well, yesterday overall, I thought yesterday was a lot better," Saleh said. "I know we had the one play, which, like I said, I'm actually glad it happened because it creates an aha moment for the entire secondary to understand why we do things a certain way. And so that fix is easy, but you wish it happens in practice, it doesn't look so shady. But it happened. I'm glad it happened and when it happened and like I said yesterday, it's going back and watching the tape."
For Winston, he wasn't able to play a full season last year after still recovering from the torn ACL he sustained at Penn State. So, in reality, this year is really like a rookie year for him as he learns this new defensive system because of the time he missed in 2025.
As Saleh said, it's good that these things are happening in the preseason rather than the regular season, so they can be fixed before meaningful football is played.
