{"id":987002,"date":"2026-08-30T05:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T05:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/987002\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T05:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T05:24:18","slug":"tennessee-titans-offense-struggles-in-24-15-preseason-finale-loss-to-chicago-bears-local-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/987002\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Titans\u2019 offense struggles in 24-15 preseason finale loss to Chicago Bears | Local Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Titans Head Coach Robert Saleh played mostly backups in Saturday\u2019s preseason finale against the Bears, so it\u2019s not too much of a surprise that Tennessee struggled in a 24-15 loss to Chicago.<\/p>\n

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Will Levis got the start at quarterback, while VFL Hendon Hooker finished the game. Saleh had originally planned to play more regular guys, but decided he was pleased with the amount of work and reps the team got in Thursday\u2019s joint practice with the Bears. Instead, it provided an opportunity for players fighting to make the 53-man roster to showcase their abilities one final time.<\/p>\n

The Two-Toned Blue open the regular season at home on Sept. 13 against Saleh\u2019s former team, the New York Jets. “It doesn’t matter \u2013 we’ve got to go,” he responded when asked if the Titans are ready for the regular season. “But look, we’re going to evolve as the year goes on. It’s Week 1, and we’ll be a completely different team come game 17. It’s the nature of the NFL, and you can say that about all 32 teams.<\/p>\n

“This is our floor, we’re a super young team. We’re going to get better as the year goes on and we’re looking forward to this Week 1 matchup.”<\/p>\n

Levis completed 14-of-22 passes for 143 yards in the game, and he guided three drives that ended with field goals from kicker Joey Slye. Hooker finished the game 5-of-8 for 37 yards, and he guided a touchdown drive late.<\/p>\n

It was a tough start for the Titans defense. The Bears scored on a 97-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tyson Bagent to Zavion Thomas on their first snap on offense, which made it 7-0.<\/p>\n

Levis directed a 13-play, 68-yard drive that was capped off by a 28-yard field goal by Slye, which made it 7-3 at the 7:11 mark of the first quarter. Slye continued his hot streak not long after when he made a 56-yard field goal, which capped off a short drive that was set up by a Jacob Martin fumble recovery for the Titans.<\/p>\n

The Bears answered with a 16-play drive, capped off with a two-yard touchdown pass from Bagent to receiver Maurice Alexander to make it 14-6. Slye’s third field goal of the night, from 25 yards out, made it 14-9 at the half.<\/p>\n

Chicago then extended their lead to 21-9 in the third quarter on a three-yard run by running back Raschon Johnson. A 37-yard field goal by kicker Cairo Santos made it 24-9 near the end of the third quarter.<\/p>\n

A nine-yard touchdown run by Titans running back D’Ernest Johnson made it 24-15 with 3:50 left, but the two-point conversion try failed.<\/p>\n

The game ended, and so did the preseason.<\/p>\n

The Titans must trim their roster to 53 players by the NFL’s 6 p.m. ET deadline on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Titans Head Coach Robert Saleh played mostly backups in Saturday\u2019s preseason finale against the Bears, so it\u2019s not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":987003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[265,5443,692,391,7,636,122,6,48315,46044,47359,84,47357,1890,47358,6043,25558,632,526,394,2411,527],"class_list":["post-987002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennessee-titans","tag-american-football","tag-american-football-league-teams","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bears","tag-football","tag-gridiron-football-variants","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-champion-seasons","tag-nfl-controversies","tag-nfl-franchise-relocations","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-nfl-seasons","tag-nfl-teams","tag-nfl-teams-seasons","tag-robert-saleh","tag-season-sports","tag-seasons-in-american-football","tag-tennessee","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-tennesseetitans","tag-titans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117182796274596269","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/987003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}