Titans 2017 Review Part Three: AFC North

In the first article part, we talked about expectations. The second we looked at the Titans overcoming the unavoidable injuries that hit every team in the NFL. The Titans open the third leading the division. They’re tied for first place with the Jacksonville Jaguars who the Titans hold the tiebreaker over by virtue of beating them earlier in the season. That should have taken the pressure off the team. The Titans, after dropping consecutive games to the Texans and Dolphins have rattled off three wins in a row. Tennessee will start the second half of the season by continuing the AFC North portion of their schedule by hosting the Cincinnati Bengals

Game 9 Cincinnati

The Bengals had been an up and down team, mostly down, all year. To keep any playoff hopes alive the Bengals had to win at Tennessee. Cincinnati struggled all year to run the football and against the Titans stout run defense, this game was no exception. Only mustering 53 yards on the ground they turned to Andy Dalton and AJ Green. Dalton threw for 265 yards and two touchdowns on the day. The highlight was a 70-yard catch and run to AJ Green that actually put the Bengals ahead with just over five minutes to play. It wasn’t enough this day. With 36 seconds to play DeMarco Murray took a Marcus Mariota pass into the end zone from seven yards out. It was Murray’s third touchdown of the day and the Titans fourth win in as many games. Titans 24 Bengals 20

Game 10 @ Pittsburgh

Thursday night games, like Monday night games, are played with the entire league watching. When those games involve two division leaders it lands squarely on everyone’s radar. The 6-3 Titans visited the 7-2 Steelers with a chance to put themselves in the AFC conversation. It wasn’t to be. Tennessee was never really in this one. The Titans held Le’Veon Bell to 103 total yards and kept him out of the end zone but Antonio Brown torched the Tennessee secondary for 144 yards and 3 touchdowns. Mariota threw for 306 yards and a touchdown but tied a career high by throwing 4 interceptions. The Titans missed their chance to sweep the AFC North teams and more importantly fell a game behind Jacksonville in the AFC South. Steelers 40 Titans 17

Game 11 @ Indianapolis

The Titans get back to divisional play taking a trip up to Indianapolis. The Colts were playing pretty well, no matter what their record was. They had lost to the Steelers, the team that just dismantled Tennessee, by a field goal. There is a reason teams play games on the field though. After a field goal midway through the third quarter put the Titans behind 16 to 6 they woke up. A short pass from Mariota to Delaine Walker cut the Colts lead to three points and a fourth-quarter touchdown run by Murray put the Titans ahead for good. Titans 20 Colts 16

Game 12 Houston

A trip down to face the now Deshaun Watson-less Texans would give the Titans a chance to avenge their only loss in the division. Watson threw for 4 touchdowns and ran for another in that first matchup. A far cry from the seven times in that week four game, today the Texans found the end zone only once. The Titans started slowly again this game finding themselves down 10 to nothing before scoring twice in the last four and a half minutes to go in even at halftime. This was a close, hard-fought game you expect inside your own division. Derrick Henry led the Titans with 109 yards rushing although 75 of the most noteworthy came on one carry in the final minute to put the game away. Titans 24 Texans 13

Concluding the third part of the season the Titans stand at 8 wins and 4 losses. Once again tied with the Jaguars for first place in the AFC South. The Titans gear up for the final portion of the season by traveling out west to take on the Arizona Cardinals.

Tell me what you think! Hit me up on twitter @badappleffb or by email at dean@badappleffb.com