NASHVILLE – Frustration was on full display on Sunday at Nissan Stadium.
Along with not enough points, once again, for the Tennessee Titans.
On a day when one Titans touchdown was taken off the scoreboard, and another Vikings touchdown was highly debated because of a controversial call, the Titans fell 23-13 to the Vikings.
It left head coach Brian Callahan steaming, and Titans fans disappointed yet again.
“(Players) have every right to be frustrated, and they should be,” Callahan said. “Our guys played hard, and they fought the entire game, and kept trying to climb back into it and make plays, and we made quite a few. But we didn’t have enough to overcome it and find a way to get into the end zone another time or two. We’re disappointed about that part.”
With the loss, the Titans dropped to 2-8.
Titans quarterback Will Levis completed 17-of-31 passes for 295 yards with a touchdown and an interception, but he was sacked five times in the contest.
The Titans were flagged 13 times for 91 yards in the contest, and some of them came at inopportune times.
Some were earned, without question.
And, a few questionable ones changed the course of the game.
The Vikings, meanwhile, were penalized just three times for 35 yards in the contest.
“Coach made the comment: Just try to limit your comments, because it’s not going to help us at all,” Levis said. “We just have to focus on what we can. We feel like everyone in the building is doing the right thing, and is coming to work preparing, and guys are playing their hearts out. At some point or another, things are going to shake in our favor, we feel like. It just hasn’t been that way. All you can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
This much is not up for debate: This Titans team has been on the wrong end of some controversial calls in back-to-back weeks, and it’s made things harder for a team already struggling to find success.
“It’s tough,” receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine said. “But it’s part of life. There are things that you can’t control, that don’t go your way, and you just have to keep rolling, and keep punching, and stay resilient.
“It’s how this game is – there’s going to be error in it, there’s going to be human error. It’s not the ref’s fault, sometimes it’s not their fault, and sometimes it’s not our fault. It’s just how the game is.”
The Titans took a 3-0 lead with 4:39 left in the first quarter on a 30-yard field goal by kicker Nick Folk, which was set up by a fumble recovery by defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons.
The Vikings answered back quickly, however, on a 47-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Sam Darnold to receiver Jordan Addison, which made it 7-3 barely a minute later.
Controversy marred the second quarter, when the Titans were flagged for a highly questionable unnecessary roughness penalty in the end zone on a fourth-and-goal play from the Vikings one-yard line. It happened on a Darnold pass intended for Addison, and Titans safety Mike Brown appeared to break the pass up with a clean, legal hit to the chest of Addison, which dislodged the football.
Callahan erupted on the sideline, and he stormed on the field to let officials know his disapproval. To add insult, he was slapped with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Instead of a Titans stop, the flag gave the Vikings a first-and-goal at the Tennessee 1, and they cashed it on for a one-yard sneak by Darnold on the next play to make it 13-3.
In a pool report after the game, referee Clete Blakeman offered this explanation on the call: “We had two officials call it. Essentially, the defensive player launched into the receiver – who is considered a defenseless player – and there was helmet contact to the chest and neck area.”
The Vikings led 16-3 at the half after a 40-yard field goal by Vikings kicker Parker Romo.
The Titans got back in it in a flash, with a 98-yard touchdown strike from Levis to Westbrook-Ikhine, which made it 16-10 with 6:55 left in the third quarter. The play tied for longest reception in franchise history, and it was the second-longest play of any kind in franchise history, trailing only Derrick Henry’s memorable 99-yard touchdown run vs the Jaguars.
But the excitement over the play was short-lived, as more frustration for the Titans, and their fans, mounted after cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr. was flagged for illegal contact on a third-down play, which kept a Minnesota drive alive.
The Vikings cashed that in for another score – a three-yard touchdown pass from Darnold to running back Cam Akers – to make it 23-10 with 3:15 left in the third quarter.
After a Levis-to-Calvin Ridley touchdown pass was wiped off the board because of an illegal formation penalty, a 43-yard field goal by Folk later made it 23-13 with 14:08 left in the fourth quarter.
But the Titans could get no closer.
“I think there was really good fight throughout the whole game,” guard Peter Skoronski said. “We were just killing ourselves. At the end of the day, that’s why we lost.”
The Titans return to action next Sunday against the Texans in Houston.
