Dismember the Titans: How the Tennessee Titans Fell Apart Completely

It seems redundant to write about the intensity of the Tennessee Titans’ collapse this season. But, like the inability to look away from a car accident, I find myself unable to avoid writing about a team that has seen all the roadside signs warning of a cliff ahead, and yet trusts the talking GPS that instructs them to continue forward at 75 mph.

In case you’ve been in a coma, the kind where you can’t hear anything even though the doctor insists to your family that you can hear and understand them, the Titans went 13-3 last year, and have started this season a spectacular 0-6.

But let’s not get in over our heads. The history of the NFL is rife with successful teams dropping off the map completely in a single year, and the Titans still have a long way to go to notch the worst one-season turnaround of all time. Three different teams in history have dropped off nine wins from one season to another: the 1998-1999 Atlanta Falcons went from 14-2 to 5-11; the 2001-2002 Chicago Bears dropped from 13-3 to 4-12; and the 1963-1964 New York Giants fell from 11-3 to 2-10, plus two tied games.

The honor for the worst drop-off in the NFL’s illustrious history, however, goes to the 1993-1994 Houston Oilers, who went from a stellar 12-4 in one season to a bottom-dwelling 2-14 (that’s a ten win difference) in the next.

But that Oilers team still gets somewhat of a pass. 1993 was Warren Moon’s last and most successful season with the Oilers, and he was traded in the offseason to the Minnesota Vikings. Taking his place was Billy Joe Tolliver (remember him? me either), who played the one dismal season for the Oilers and then found himself playing for the Shreveport Pirates of the CFL the following year.

The 2009 Tennessee Titans, however, can’t claim such a personnel change. They lost future HOFer Albert Haynesworth at defensive tackle, but retained their 1-2 running back punch of Chris Johnson and LenDale White, kept Kerry Collins as a game-managing quarterback, and were expected to compete for at least an AFC wildcard spot.

Wait, though—aren’t the Oilers and the Titans the same franchise? They sure are. And if you want to make it all come full-circle, dig this: it was current Titans coach Jeff Fisher that took over for Jack Pardee as head coach in November of that disastrous 1994 season, and he’s been there ever since.

But I digress.

There’s been a lot of finger-pointing about who caused this thorough, team-wide Titans meltdown. The scapegoat du jour is quarterback Kerry Collins, who has been benched in favor of starting Vince Young this week against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

And if you look just at the apocalyptic 59-0 loss to New England two Sundays ago, Young did technically have a better statistical game than Collins: he completed 0-of-2 passes, plus an interception. By managing to not complete a pass to someone on his own team he beat out the veteran Collins in passing yardage—Collins threw for -7 yards on 2/12 passing, also with an interception.

I’m inclined to believe, however, that the loss to the Pats is merely a symptom, and that the canker lies deeper than the mere swapping out of B-level quarterbacks would solve.

The Titans have settled into the deep sofa of losing. They’ve quickly defined a culture of losing and given up on their coach. I hate when people say this, but they need to “learn how to win” again.

It started as a few strokes of bad luck. The all-time greats in any sport are those with supremely talent who also had luck fall their way. Injuries can sideline a superstar at anytime, field goals can go awry, and any number of flukes can turn a win into a loss with a little bit of foul luck.

For the Titans it started with the overtime coin toss against the Pittsburgh Steelers. This season could be looking so much different—remember that last year Tennessee started 10-0—if the Titans had won that coin toss and scored in OT to win the game.

They would have taken some momentum, then, into game two against the Houston Texans. Chris Johnson had a career night both rushing and receiving, but Houston still punched in a field goal with mere minutes left to seal up the three-point victory.

Then in their third game they went down the wire against the New York Jets’ top-ranked defense. With two separate chances to march down the field and tie the game in the fourth quarter, the wearied Titans fell short both times. Collins threw and interception to end one, and the offensive line gave up a dagger-like sack in the other to let the game slip away.

This team needs a few chips falling their way to get their swagger back. When they get something good going against the Jaguars this week, they’ll need to seize the chance to reverse the karmic tides that took their season and their dignity out to sea.

So I wouldn’t give up on these Titans just yet—it’s not like they’ve been losing to the Oakland Raiders and the Detroit Lions every week. Nobody fretted after losing to the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers in overtime. A loss was to a then-undefeated-and-super-hot New York Jets team was merely disappointing, and two more of their losses came at the hands of the perennially-invincible Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots (though the 59-0 loss to the Patriots ought to count as several losses).

In contrast, their remaining schedule (excepting another matchup with the Colts) is refreshingly middle-of-the-road. Their toughest challenges look to be against the 4-3 Houston Texans and the 4-2 Arizona Cardinals. If the Titans can make some positive changes coming out of their bye week this Sunday, this could soon be a +.500 team and a longshot wildcard candidate. But the latter would take winning all, or most, of their remaining games.

To try to sink below the 1994 Oilers’ all-time-worst flop would be almost more difficult. To do so they’d have to lose 11 more games this year than last year, and only notch two wins. With the Rams, Dolphins, Seahawks, and Jaguars queued up in the schedule, it seems inevitable that these Titans will win more than two games.

Or it should be. This is a team playing well below its talent level, that should soon return to its winning ways.

Should, should, should.