One of the few compelling storylines of Sunday’s contest between the Titans and Browns was the matchup of rookie quarterbacks Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, each of whom — at some point — had been considered the top prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft.
As we noted earlier in the week, the playing field wasn’t exactly level for a comparison, as Sanders was going against a patchwork Titans secondary and personnel-depleted defense that ranked 24th in overall defense, 29th in points allowed going into the game.
Ward, meanwhile, was throwing against a Browns defense that ranked second in the NFL overall, third against the pass, and second in sacks entering the contest.
The odds were definitely tilted in Sanders’ favor.
Still, that said, Sanders — in just his third start — looked like the more accomplished quarterback in the Titans’ 31-29 victory, doing the kinds of things the Titans expected of Ward.
The fifth-round draft pick accounted for 394 yards of total offense and four touchdowns, completing 23-of-42 passes for 364 yards, three TDs and one interception, posting a quarterback rating of 97.7. He also ran three times for 29 yards and one touchdown.
The good news for Ward was that he recorded his first game with two touchdown passes, connecting with Elic Ayomanor from 14 yards and Chimere Dike from five yards.
But the overall numbers for Ward were not very impressive, as he completed 14-of-28 passes for 117 yards and a 70.1 quarterback rating. His passing yards total was the third lowest of the season, and his quarterback rating marked the fourth time in his last five games he’d finished under 75.0.
In some recent games, Ward had used his legs effectively, running for 37 yards and a touchdown against Seattle one week after gaining 33 yards on six runs versus Houston. But Ward’s two runs for four yards against the Browns followed his one carry for seven yards against Jacksonville last week.
Ward also threw his first interception in five games, breaking a streak of 149 straight pass attempts without a pick.
The Titans’ first three drives resulted in 17 plays for 140 yards of offense and two touchdowns — one of them Tony Pollard’s 65-yard run. But Tennessee’s next 11 drives — not including the kneel-downs at the end — consisted of 45 plays for 152 yards and seven first downs.
“We’ll watch the tape, learn from it, but this is a really good team for [Ward] to look at and kind of watch it and evaluate,” Titans interim coach Mike McCoy told reporters. “Unfortunately he had the one turnover. He’ll learn from that, understanding where that defender is and what could happen. But … he responded to the turnover. I’ll give him credit for that, too.”
Ward’s numbers would have looked better had Van Jefferson been able to hold onto a perfectly placed deep throw early in the third quarter.
But Ward hurt his own cause one series later, when — under some pressure — he failed to hit an open Dike on a deep route cutting across the field.
“I treat the wins the same, I treat the losses the same,” Ward said. “There’s always something I have to do better. There’s a lot of plays I missed out there, just from [the standpoint of] not giving my team the chance. I’ll wake up tomorrow and do the same thing I did last week, try to get better.”
We took a look at the Titans’ surprising path to success in a separate article, but here are nine other takeaways from the contest:
Slipping backward: The Titans began the day with the No. 1 draft position, but their victory over Cleveland came with consequences in that department.
The win improved Tennessee to 2-11, the same record as the New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders following those teams’ losses on Sunday.
Strength of schedule is the NFL’s first tiebreaker when it comes to breaking ties regarding draft position. So the fact that both the Giants (.537 winning percentage for opponents) and Raiders (.554) have worse strength of schedules — based on all 17 opponents’ current records — means the Titans (.572) would be picking at No. 3 if the draft were held today.
There could still be plenty change over the season’s last four weeks, and it’s worth noting that five three-win teams — Cleveland, New Orleans, Washington, the New York Jets and Arizona — may well enter the picture for No. 1 as well.
Some good news for Titans fans is that the Giants and Raiders square off in Week 17, meaning one of those teams — barring a tie — will earn another victory.
However, the Titans may well be favored to win in Week 17 against the Saints at Nissan Stadium, which would further jeopardize the team’s chances at gaining the No. 1 pick for a second straight year.
Silencing Garrett: It hasn’t been said often this season, but other NFL teams might choose to copy the Titans’ offensive gameplan as it applied to neutralizing Cleveland All-Pro edge rusher Myles Garrett.
Garrett entered the game with an NFL-best 19 sacks, and 14 of those had come in his last five contests, a stretch that included four sacks against Baltimore and five against New England.
It wasn’t unreasonable to think that Garrett might break the NFL’s single-season record — 22.5 — by picking up four sacks against the Titans.
Instead, the Titans effectively contained Garrett, who still finished with four tackles, one sack, three tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and one pass defended.
In fact, the Titans held Garrett to just a four percent pass-rush win rate, per Pro Football Focus, the second lowest of his nine-year career.
The Titans’ success came from running the ball right at Garrett — potentially tiring him by making him work against blockers — and by throwing a lot of quick passes, giving Garrett less time to get to the quarterback.
“Just knowing the type of player he is, how dominant he is out there on the field, [we were] trying to minimize him as best as possible with the run game, trying to stick with it and be more consistent,” said Pollard, who gained a career-high 161 yards on 25 carries. “We did a good job executing today.”
Fassel a prophet? Earlier this week, Titans special teams coordinator John “Bones” Fassel reminded his team that Tennessee hadn’t blocked a puntTim Shaw did so in 2012.
The Titans responded Sunday, when linebacker James Williams blocked a punt by Cleveland’s Corey Bojorquez midway through the fourth quarter. Tennessee didn’t go far on the ensuing possession — just six yards — but still cashed in when Joey Slye kicked what turned out to be the game-winning field goal, giving the Titans a 31-17 lead.
“It’s kind of crazy how Bones had showed that at some point in time to the players and everyone is in awe, could not believe it had been that long,” McCoy said.
Williams later told reporters the block was dedicated to Shaw, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2014 and is a regular visitor to the team’s facility.
Earlier this season, Fassel had said he felt he was confident the Titans were on the verge of ending a lengthy streak of games without a punt return for a touchdown.
Sure enough, days later, Dike returned a punt 67 yards for a touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers, Tennessee’s first punt-return TD since Darius Reynaud recorded two in the same game against Jacksonville in 2012.
A long time coming: The Titans’ 31 points were the most the team had scored this season, as Tennessee had previously scored 24 points in a loss to Seattle and 22 points in a win over Arizona.
But the Titans’ final tally also marked the first time the team had scored more than 30 points in Tennessee’s last 20 games, dating back to a 32-27 win over Houston last Nov. 24.
The Titans scored 30 points in a 38-30 loss to Indianapolis last December.
Tennessee entered Sunday’s game averaging just 14.2 points per contest, which ranked last in the NFL.
“It’s about time, honestly,” Ward said of the offensive output. “That’s really all there is to it. We just have to continue to be efficient. I have to be efficient throwing my guys open in their radius to make plays, and we have to continue to be efficient in the run game.”
Don’t make Simmons angry: On the first play of the fourth quarter, Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons was flagged for a neutral zone infraction, a penalty Simmons believed had been preceded by movement on the Cleveland offensive line.
The penalty gave the Browns a second-and-4 situation on their 29-yard-line.
But the emotional Simmons erupted on the next two plays, taking down running back Quinshon Judkins for a three-yard loss and then dropping Sanders for an 11-yard loss on third-and-7.
Simmons, who’d split a sack with Jaylen Harrell earlier in the contest, now has eight sacks (in 11 games), just half a sack behind the career-best total of 8.5 he produced in 2021, his first Pro Bowl season.
Penalty parade continues: The Titans’ 11 penalties were the second most the team has committed this season, and the 85 yards marked off against Tennessee was the third largest total of the year.
The Titans have now committed at least 10 penalties in three straight games, and in five of 13 contests overall this year.
The team has been penalized for at least 60 yards in eight of 13 games.
Three of the most significant penalties against the Titans: An ineligible man downfield called against JC Latham negated a 17-yard completion to James Proche; an illegal shift negated a 35-yard run by Tyjae Spears; and a Cedric Gray facemask gave the Browns a first-and-goal at Tennessee’s 7-yard line, leading to a Cleveland touchdown.
“That was not good,” McCoy said. “Too many penalties, giving them opportunities to go down. You can’t let a team back in. We got to shut the door when we can.”
Quick strike: When the Titans drove 53 yards in eight plays and 5:08 to open the game, it marked the first time in 13 games this season the team had scored a touchdown on its opening possession.
“That’s nice, wasn’t it?” McCoy said of Ward’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Ayomanor on second-and-8.
“We were very fortunate that [Myles Garrett] was out of the game [on that play], because that play would not have been run if [Garrett] was in the game. [Offensive play-caller Bo Hardegree] instantly said, `Let’s go for it, and make that call.’ It worked out perfectly, just a great way to start that way for the offense.”
The Titans scored another first-quarter touchdown on Pollard’s 65-yard run, matching the team’s high this season of 14 first-quarter points, first set in a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Tennessee has actually scored the game’s first points in seven contests this season, but the Titans had been 0-6 in those games before Sunday.
Up-and-down for Woods: Titans safety Xavier Woods had a mixed bag of an afternoon against the Browns.
He made one of the game’s biggest defensive plays, intercepting Sanders near the end of the third quarter and returning the pick 35 yards to Cleveland’s 38-yard-line.
Two plays later, Pollard scooted 32 yards into the end zone for a 21-17 Titans lead.
But there were some rough moments for Woods as well.
He was beaten in the end zone on Sanders’ seven-yard pass to tight end Harold Fannin Jr., which trimmed the Titans’ lead to 31-29 with 1:03 left in the contest.
In addition, Woods took a bad angle on Browns running back Quinshon Judkins following a short pass completion, which helped Judkins motor down the sideline for a 58-yard gain to the Tennessee 2-yard line.
Woods was also flagged for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty in the fourth quarter, after officials ruled he’d made an illegal hit on a defenseless receiver (Cedric Tillman).
In Woods’ defense on that play, television replays did not appear to show Woods making contact to the head or neck region of Tillman—so it’s entirely possible the hit was a legal one.
Rookies post record: It wasn’t an especially prolific day for the Titans’ three rookie pass catchers — Ayomanor, Dike and tight end Gunnar Helm — but the three still combined to set a franchise mark.
Ayomanor and Dike each joined Helm as members of the 30-catch club this year, meaning the Titans — for the first time in franchise history — have three rookies who’ve reached that plateau.
Ayomanor caught one pass for 14 yards and a touchdown, giving him 30 receptions for 353 yards, as well as three TD receptions. Dike caught five passes for 24 yards and a touchdown, bringing his season total to 34 receptions for 384 yards and three TDs in the passing game.
Helm caught one pass for eight yards, improving his total this year to 37 catches for 298 yards and one touchdown.
All three players were selected in the fourth round of the 2025 draft.