There is a famous saying within NFL circles, ‘You are who your record says you are,’ and in this case, it is spot on. No matter how anyone tries to spin it, the 1-6 Tennessee Titans are a bad football team.
One group on the Titans continues to grow more inept by the week: the special teams (excluding Nick Folk). Early in the season, the unit cost the Titans by allowing multiple blocked punts and likely giving punter Ryan Stonehouse PTSD with the amount of pressure he was facing. While they might have shored that part of the unit up, they can’t stop anything in the return game now.
After Sunday’s special-teams debacle, #Titans have now surrendered 454 punt-return yards this season.
Next-closest team is New England at 312.
No other teams are over 300 punt-return yds allowed.— John Glennon (@glennonsports) October 28, 2024
After being shredded by the Detroit Lions, the Titans now lead the league in giving up 454 punt-return yards in seven games. Their next opponent, the New England Patriots, is next at just 312 yards. Those numbers are atrocious, and in a game usually decided by inches, the Titans’ deficiencies in this area are costing them mightily.
For fans, this is debilitating and one of the most painful parts of the game to watch. But by all appearances it is the status quo for head coach Brian Callahan, who continues to totally support special teams coordinator Colt Anderson.
For any other team in the league, Anderson would have likely been relieved of his coaching duties after blocked punts in consecutive weeks. But now, after the latest embarrassing performance, Callahan is standing firm beside his hire.
#Titans are not firing Colt Anderson.
Brian Callahan is backing his guy and says Anderson “knows special teams.”
— AtoZ Sports Nashville (@AtoZSports) October 28, 2024
“(Anderson) Knows special teams,” Callahan has said and has zero intention of making a change.
Standing by a coach is noble, but change must be made in this case. With a team struggling on offense and a defense that wears down throughout a game, the Titans need special teams to be special, and that does not mean special needs. Right now, the Titans don’t have anything close to competent special teams coaching or performance on the field; it is beyond terrible and nowhere near good enough to be considered NFL caliber.
Stay tuned for Week 9 action when the Titans take the field Sunday in Nashville against the 2-5 New England Patriots in a critical battle for draft positioning. It will be interesting to see how Anderson’s units help support the cause this week. Going by the early sample size, it will be a mitigated disaster, and they will fall short once again.