GLENDALE, AZ ― This isn’t a long story. It’s a bunch of short ones.
The Tennessee Titans finally won a football game. And fittingly, it was weird as can be. The two plays that helped them most came when the Cardinals ripped off a 72-yard run and when the Cardinals intercepted a Cam Ward pass. Y’know, that kind of weird.
Sometimes it takes that level of strangeness to pull a team out of a 10-game losing streak and back into the realm of winners. That was the case Oct. 5 at State Farm Stadium, where the Titans beat the Cardinals with a walk-off 29-yard Joey Slye field goal to win 22-21. The Titans (1-4) led for exactly zero seconds of regulation, but it counts in the record book all the same.
Here are the stories that made the Titans’ comeback possible.
L’Jarius Sneed goes for the ball
L’Jarius Sneed’s knee (and back and quad) seem fine, eh? The Titans’ oft-beleaguered cornerback hit a top speed of 22.21 mph (per NFL Next Gen Stats) on his chase-down play that turned what should’ve been a 72-yard touchdown for Arizona running back Emari Demercado into a fumble, a touchback and Titans football.
“The Sneed play was probably the biggest play of the game, honestly,” tight end Chig Okonkwo told The Tennessean. “That really changed the game. I feel like if they had seven more points, that would’ve been the thing that made guys go aloof, like, ‘It’s over.’ “
Sneed didn’t actually do anything, per se. Demercado let go of the ball before he crossed the goal line, and it trickled through the back of the end zone. As Titans coach Brian Callahan put it, though, Sneed’s presence affected the play. And the hustle ― Sneed pursued Demercado on a diagonal for more than 70 yards, long after most of his teammates had pulled up and quit chasing ― symbolized what it was going to take to turn a 21-6 deficit into a win over the Cardinals (2-3).
“It’s just a message to who we are as a team,” Sneed said. “Resilient. We fight into the fourth quarter until there’s no time left.”
Tyler Lockett uses his hands, and his head
Let’s talk about hands.
Ward had Calvin Ridley wide open. Ward danced around some pressure and fired toward the back corner of the end zone, eager to throw the Titans within three points. But ― and here come the hands ― Cardinals linebacker Mack Wilson Sr. made a sensational play to track Ward’s eyes and tip the ball, toppling it end-over-end and into the hands of diving Arizona safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson.
Taylor-Demerson just . . . umm . . . he just kinda forgot to hold on to the ball. He never got touched, so after he tumbled to the ground and let go of the ball, that was a fumble. Cue “Yakety Sax.”
Titans tight end Gunnar Helm dove on top of Taylor-Demerson, and Cardinals linebacker Baron Browning dove on top of Helm. Cornerback Kei’Trel Clark accidentally kicked the ball toward the Cardinals’ end zone, then dove and booted the ball again, colliding with safety Budda Baker, and in so doing, blocked Taylor-Demerson from recovering his own oopsie.
Suddenly the ball is in the end zone and receiver Tyler Lockett goes and does what he’s trained to do.
“When I dove I made sure to try to catch it with my hands rather than just try to body it and scoop it up, because that’s where the ball starts to move around,” Lockett explained.
Lockett’s handy play put the Titans within two. A lackluster defensive response, as has been customary over the years, would render it all meaningless.
“Right when they scored the last drive, I told him, ‘We’re going to get you this ball back,’ ” Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons remembered after the game, reflecting on a conversation with Ward. “I told him, ‘We’re going to get you this ball back, and you’re going to put it in the end zone.’ All he said was, ‘I got you.’ “
Easy to say in retrospect? Sure. Still kinda awesome for two star players to call their shots like that? Yes.
Winning’s on the menu
It looked so easy. So, so easy. Why can’t the Titans’ offense always run as smoothly as it did on the 11-play, 71-yard game-sealing drive to set up Slye’s winner?
“We always talk about it on the offense: We really like two-minute,” Okonkwo said. “It’s been the most consistent thing for us this year because it’s all of our simple stuff that we know. It’s a menu of only around six plays. We know exactly how to run ‘em. Cam has quick answers, quick options. The coverage is a lot softer in two-minute because they’re just trying to keep everything in front of themselves. It just feels better.”
“That’s where I want to live at,” Ward added. “If I could play that way the entirety of a season or a game, I would. But that’s not real football.”
Take the win, rook.
A big, loud exhale
As veteran guard Kevin Zeitler headed to the locker room after the game, he locked eyes with Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk. The two shared a moment in the hallway, then disappeared into the mosh pit that was forming inside.
Music blared. Chants rang through the walls. Callahan could be heard screaming, “FOURTH QUARTER” from the next room. Even Ward, a living, breathing testament to never letting the outside world know you’re living and breathing, felt some feelings.
Or at least he was happy to see someone else feel some feelings.
“Me and my man Coach Nick (Holz) was right,” Ward said. “He lost his voice today. He was so happy. I think that was the biggest win, just seeing him. He stuck to it. He told us he was going to get a win and he’s going to be the most excited person in the locker room, and he was. So I think it just meant something to everybody for us to finally get a win, finally know what it feels like.”
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss.
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