Titans coach Mike McCoy is not a man given to great detail when it comes to explaining the performances of his team or its individual players.

But McCoy had no hesitation in naming one of the areas his staff spent considerable amounts of time self-scouting during the Titans’ open week.

He said he needs to see marked improvement in the Titans’ ability to convert third-down opportunities on offense.

The Titans’ shortcomings in that department were apparent in Tennessee’s 27-20 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Nov. 2, as the offense converted just 1-of-9 of their third-down chances for a season-worst 11.1 percent.

That performance was hardly an outlier, however, as the Titans sit dead last in the league at third-down conversions (28.5 percent) this year, the only team in the NFL with a success rate of less than 30 percent.

“We have to be better on third down offensively,” McCoy said Monday, as the 1-8 Titans began preparing for the Houston Texans on Sunday at Nissan Stadium.

“You talk about scoring more points … but when you’re in the high 20’s on third-down conversion rates, it’s tough to score a lot of points. You’ve got to sustain drives, whether it’s in the red [zone], where you talk about those four-point plays — you’re kicking field goals or you’re extending the drive — or is it somewhere else on the field where you want to get another opportunity? That’s a huge focus for us.”

Struggling on third downs has plagued the Titans for years under different coaching staffs, as Tennessee has ranked 20th or below at the end of the previous three seasons — 36.5 percent in 2022 (23rd), 33.5 percent in 2023 (28th) and 37.7 percent in 2024 (20th) — in that department.

Short-yardage rushing has been a small part of the problem this season.

The Titans have run a combined nine times on either third-and-2 or third-and-3, and have picked up only four first downs on those attempts.

But more often than not, the Titans have needed to pick up longer distances on third downs, forcing the team to pass. That was the case against the Chargers, when Tennessee needed to gain an average of 8.2 yards on third down, and failed in the face of long-distance situations such as third-and-12, third-and-16, and third-and-17.

Trying to convert third downs of more than four yards via the passing game has posed a significant challenge for rookie quarterback Cam Ward and the Tennessee offense.

A couple of eye-opening examples: The Titans have gone 0-for-6 when trying to convert third-and-5 situations through the passing game, and Tennessee has gone 0-for-8 on third-and-8 situations when passing.

The consistent inability to move the chains on third down is why the Titans not only rank last in the NFL in points per game (14.4), but also last in the league in percentage of gaining at least a single first down on each series (57 percent).

“That’s a big part of [failing to turn drives into points], when you don’t capitalize on opportunities,” McCoy said. “Not just on third down, but there’s other plays you look at in the game, too, where maybe there’s an opportunity for an explosive play or a big run. There’s a number of opportunities that get you to cross [midfield], but we haven’t done that consistently enough this year.”