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The Tennessee Titans haven't looked like the de facto best team in the AFC South this season, but they still will likely end up winning their division by default due to the fact that they are the only team in their division with a record above .500 right now. Even after suffering their third straight loss in Week 14 at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Titans are still in control of their division.
Tennessee was heavily favored to win this game, and after racing out to a 14-7 lead in the first quarter, they proceeded to get outscored 29-8 throughout the rest of the game. The Titans defense had no answer for Jacksonville's passing attack, and the offense turned the ball over four times on the day. That's not exactly a recipe for success in the NFL.
When all was said and done, Tennessee was blown out of the water by an up and coming Jacksonville team. The Titans still have control of their division, but it looks like they are heading in the wrong direction right now. With another loss in the books, let's take a look at the three players most responsible for the loss and see why that's the case.
3. Andrew Adams
Andrew Adams has had a bigger role in the Titans defense than many were expecting him to, and while he has held his own for most of the season, Week 14 was not his greatest showing. Adams was part of a Teneessee secondary that allowed Trevor Lawrence to carve them up all day long (30/42, 368 YDS, 3 TD, 3 CAR, 7 YDS, 1 TD) and he had a particularly big role in Evan Engram's monster day as well.
Engram put together maybe the best game of his career in this one (11 REC, 162 YDS, 2 TD) as the Titans had no answer for him. Adams found himself in coverage of Engram frequently, and was responsible for his second touchdown of the day. Truth be told, Engram made a great play by snagging the ball over Adams, but it wasn't exactly a great look for the veteran safety.
Adams wasn't the only guilty party responsible in the Titans secondary, and he did finish second on the team with 10 tackles on the day, but that shows how he was continually doing work to clean up the mess he was making when Lawrence threw the ball. Adams isn't solely responsible for Engram's big day, but he didn't exactly do anything to slow him down either.
2. Derrick Henry
A quick look at the box score will make Derrick Henry's inclusion on this list rather confusing. Henry absolutely torched the Jaguars early in this game, turning his 14 carries into 119 yards and a touchdown. It simply looked like one of those days for Henry, which makes what happened in the second half extremely surprising.
After torching Jacksonville early on, Henry was invisible in the second half. He had just three carries for two yards, with one of those carries resulting in a lost fumble. Henry also lost a fumble in the first half, and his two turnovers turned into ten total points for the Jaguars, which obviously played a big role in this loss.
Henry was largely phased out of the offense because of the game script, but he played a big role in the script getting flipped in the second half. Henry had a solid final line (17 CAR, 121 YDS, 1 TD, 3 REC, 34 YDS) but his two fumbles and inability to get anything going when the Titans needed him most earns him a spot on this list.
1. Ryan Tannehill
The other half of the Titans turnover tandem was Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill was forced to take control of Tennessee's offense when they fell behind and Henry was rendered useless, but he was simply unable to do so. Tannehill needed to have a big showing to keep the Titans in this game, and he was unsuccessful in his attempts to do so.
The final line for Tannehill isn't horrible (25/38, 254 YDS, 2 TD 1 INT) but it is worth noting that his second touchdown was basically a garbage time score, and he also lost a fumble early in the game as well. Similar to Henry, Tannehill's two turnovers turned into ten free points for the Jaguars.
It's easy to see that the big problem in this game for the Titans was turnovers. Had they protected the football, they likely could have controlled this game with Henry. But they were unable to do so, and that resulted in them having to fight their way back into the game through Tannehill, and his inability to do so earns him the top spot on this list.
