Titans Collapse Late: Six Painful Lessons From Seattle’s 30–24 Reality Check

The Titans lost 30-24 to the Seahawks on Sunday at Nissan Stadium.

Senior Writer and Editor Jim Wyatt takes a look at six things that stood out from the contest:

Cam Progress

I thought Cam Ward played his best game as a Titan on Sunday. The rookie quarterback ran for a score, and threw for another, while accounting for 293 yards of offense (256 pass, 37 rush). Ward scrambled to keep plays alive, and he found open receivers when he was on the move. This against a really good Seattle defense. Ward plays with great energy, and his will to win is infectious. He's a gamer, a competitor, whatever you want to call it, and he's clearly getting better. Just watch the games. Unfortunately for Ward, and Titans fans, there are too many other issues on this team most Sundays that make winning especially hard to achieve. "The only thing that matters is a win or a loss, so that sums it up," Ward said after the game. "It's just really the biggest thing with us offensively we got to be better in the middle of the games."

Dike's Impact

Titans rookie returner Chimere Dike continues to make a big impact. Dike returned a punt 90 yards for a touchdown on Sunday, which tied the longest punt return in franchise history. It matched Pacman Jones' 90-yard punt return for a touchdown at Philadelphia in November of 2006. Dike also became the first Titan to return two punts for touchdowns in a season since Darius Reynaud did it in 2012, and he's one of two players in the NFL this season (Parker Washington, Jacksonville) to return two punts for touchdowns. "The punter got all of, kind of sent me back," Dike said of his return. "I saw that Wo (Samuel Womack III) had a great initial jam, and I knew I was going to have space. I made a guy miss, and then I just saw the edge. As soon as I saw the boys, I knew we were going to score." Sure, Dike made a blunder when he fumbled the ball out of bounds at the three on a kickoff. But he more than made up for it with his return, and he added a one-yard touchdown catch late.

Defensive Woes

A week ago, Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold threw four interceptions, and he entered this Sunday's game with an INT in four straight games. The Titans didn't force Darnold into any mistakes while allowing him to throw for 244 yards and two touchdowns. Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught eight passes for 167 yards and two touchdowns, including a 63-yard catch when he got behind Titans safety Amani Hooker, with a push-off to help. Hey, it's true. But there's no denying Smith-Njigba is a beast, and the Titans couldn't contain him. "One of those was on me," Titans safety Kevin Winston Jr. said. "I have to be cleaner and stay more inside on those. And then another one, just in general, we have to be better in the post on those two plays. I put that on me. I'll get that fixed and work on that. But credit to them, they put him in a good position to make a play. I've got to get that fixed, and go back, and look at film, and get that right." I did like how the Titans defense got some stops late to give the team a fighting chance, but there were too many lapses in the middle of the game that allowed the Seahawks to surge way ahead.

More Penalties

The Titans continue to make things difficult on themselves with penalties. The team was penalized 10 times for 63 yards in the game, and that doesn't include one that was declined, and another that was offset, and didn't count. The Titans have now been penalized seven times or more in seven of their 11 games this season, and they've been penalized 60 yards or more in six of the team's 11 games. It's one of the "issues" I referred to earlier. "Continue to have penalties from us as a group," Ward said. "So that (and offensive inconsistencies are) the biggest thing that we got to harp on, we got to focus on."

Debut of Restrepo

Titans fans have been clamoring to see Ward's college teammate, receiver Xavier Restrepo, all season. On Sunday, they finally got their chance, as Restrepo was active for the first time this season. Restrepo's stat line wasn't eye-popping – he was targeted six times, and he caught just two passes for 26 yards. But it was cool to see Ward find Restrepo in the middle of the field on a scramble, and I can only imagine what the reaction would have been if Restrepo had been able to haul in that ball in the end zone. "It's always fun playing football again," Restrepo said. "It's a game that we all love and that we can't live without. … Not satisfied with anything that we did today. I left a play out there and we just gotta get better."

Fourth Down Tries

Titans interim head coach Mike McCoy has been asked repeatedly over the last few weeks about his conservative approach, and lack of urge to go for it on fourth down. Well, that went out the window on Sunday, when the Titans went for it a whopping seven times on fourth down. Yes, some were out of necessity, as the Titans were getting desperate. But McCoy and the Titans went for it on fourth-and-two on their opening possession (made it) and on fourth-and-one late in the second quarter (didn't make it). On the day, the Titans were 5-of-7 on their fourth down tries. "You get in the flow of a game, you do certain things, there's a certain aggression you take at times, and you go for it," McCoy explained. "We went in there with the approach we were going to take, the aggressive approach that we wanted to have, and the players executed it for the most part."