This is a night the entire Tennessee Titans organization would like to forget. After a close 21-20 defeat against the New York Giants in Week 1, the Titans were laughed out of the stadium by the Buffalo Bills, 41-7, with Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs raining fire on the Titans backline. The Titans looked out of the Bills' league, and even head coach Mike Vrabel has found it difficult to come up with any answers as to why his team played such poor football.
After the game, Mike Vrabel could do nothing but concede that the Titans were thoroughly outperformed by the Bills on both sides of the ball.
“We got our a—s kicked, plain and simple,” Vrabel said in his postgame press conference. “They outcoached us, they outplayed us, and that's the definition of it.”
The Titans defense found it difficult to contain the rampant Allen, who went 26/38 for 317 yards and four touchdowns, while connecting thrice with Diggs, who had 148 receiving yards in addition to his hat trick. Meanwhile, things got so out of hand for the Titans that they pulled Ryan Tannehill in the third quarter in favor of rookie quarterback Malik Willis, the Titans' third-round pick in the 2022 draft.
Tannehill struggled immensely, completing only 11 out of 20 passes for 117 yards while throwing two costly interceptions, in addition to being sacked twice. Nonetheless, Vrabel does not like to point fingers, admirably taking accountability for the defeat instead.
“Playing and play-calling go hand in hand. You know, there's always gonna be some plays out there as a player that you wish you had back. There's always gonna be calls as a play-caller that you wish you had back. Now is not the time [to pin the blame on one person], we've never done it. It's not gonna be about one person,” Vrabel added.
The Titans, who won the AFC South behind a sterling 12-5 record in 2021, are off to a rough 0-2 start. Titans fans will be hoping coach Mike Vrabel and Ryan Tannehill turn it around soon. They will be facing a motivated Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3, who will look to bounce back from their choke against the Arizona Cardinals.
“We're gonna get back to work, and we're gonna figure out a way to win a football game,” Vrabel declared, ready to put this loss behind them.