Ryan Clark didn’t sugarcoat the Tennessee Titans’ mess on Sunday, and the scoreboard backed him up. Tennessee dropped a 24-18 decision to the Baltimore Ravens, slipped to 0-4, and Cam Ward’s rough opening sequence set the tone for a long afternoon.
“It’s not cute anymore. You have to make the routine play when your team doesn’t have the roster other teams have. Can’t have the mistakes that put you behind the football," Clark tweeted on Sunday.
That warning came after the Titans’ second snap turned into a nightmare. Ward’s flip pass on the play slipped out of Tony Pollard’s hands and was intercepted, giving Baltimore an early opening. Derrick Henry finished the sequence with a 5-yard touchdown run, and the Ravens were in front 7-0 before Tennessee could settle in.
To their credit, the Titans answered with a 10-play, 70-yard drive that ended in Pollard’s 3-yard touchdown run and tied the game at 7-7. But the momentum didn’t last.
Tennessee marched all the way to the Ravens’ 8-yard line and had first-and-goal, only to stall out when Pollard was stuffed on four straight runs, including a fourth-down attempt from the 2-yard line. The result: no points, and a 14-7 deficit midway through the second quarter.
Baltimore kept pouring it on behind Lamar Jackson, who threw two touchdown passes - one to Zay Flowers from 19 yards out and another to Mark Andrews. Then came the injury twist.
Jackson hurt his ankle late in the first half and Tyler Huntley took over. By halftime, the Ravens had stretched the lead to 24-7.
Ward finished 20 of 31 for 222 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
Baltimore moved to 3-1, though there was no detail on how serious Jackson’s ankle injury was. The Titans, meanwhile, will try to stop the bleeding next Sunday at Nissan Stadium against the Houston Texans.
In Other News...
Titans Suddenly Have A Lineup Problem They Can't Afford In Baltimore
The Titans head into their Week 4 trip to Baltimore with more uncertainty than they probably wanted this early in the season, as injuries have put parts of the lineup in flux. Tyjae Spears and Garrett Dellinger are among the players listed as questionable, and Robert Saleh has already acknowledged that availability is still very much up in the air as the week moves on.
For a Tennessee team trying to stabilize its rotation and settle on the best mix up front, the timing is not ideal. Baltimore has a way of exposing any soft spots, so the Titans may have to adjust their starting group if the injury report breaks the wrong way, and the last thing they can afford is another last-minute scramble before kickoff. [Read more 🡒]
Titans Walk Into Baltimore Facing A Derrick Henry Problem Again
Baltimore brings the old problem right back onto Tennessees schedule, with Derrick Henry set to face the Titans after moving on from the franchise following the 2023 season. Since joining the Ravens, Henry has been piling up the kind of rushing production that once made him the centerpiece of the Titans offense, and now Tennessee has to deal with him from the other sideline.
For Robert Salehs group, the challenge is familiar even if the uniform is different: find a way to slow a runner who still forces defenses to commit extra attention while Tennessee keeps pushing forward with Cam Wards development. The Titans task gets tougher up front, too, with two injured offensive linemen now on injured reserve, leaving less margin for error in a matchup already shaped by one of the leagues most familiar headaches. [Read more 🡒]
Titans Keep Finding Painful New Ways To Waste Their Chances
The Titans are already in a familiar and uncomfortable place after four weeks, and the latest loss to Baltimore only added to the growing list of small failures that have turned into big problems. Tennessee had chances to keep itself in the game, but the afternoon kept tilting the wrong way, from special teams mistakes to a late interception that undercut any hope of a rally. Former Titan Derrick Henry also found the end zone, another painful reminder that even the good moments have a way of slipping out of reach.
What makes the slide harder to watch is how many different phases have taken turns letting Tennessee down. The offense faded badly in the second half, while Brian Dabolls decisions were part of the broader conversation around how the game unraveled. Even Carnell Tate, who turned in a notable performance, was part of the story in a way the Titans could not afford after a costly fumble, and the result left them still searching for their first win. [Read more 🡒]