Jeffery Simmons is saying what he knows his Tennessee Titans teammates need to hear, and he hopes it sticks.
“Say what we want, but three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out, we’ve got to be better,” the defensive lineman told reporters after the Titans’ 16-13 loss to the Houston Texans on Nov. 16. “I’m tired of sugarcoating it. I’m tired of sugarcoating it. We need to be better, especially at home. We can’t have that many false starts. We need to be better. We can’t keep sitting up here and trying to sugarcoat it for the media or for anybody.
“I said it in the locker room. I said it on the field and I’m tired of sugarcoating it. We need to be better. We need to protect Cam better. It’s simple.”
The Titans (1-9) went three-and-out on offense five times in the loss at Nissan Stadium. Offensive players were called for five false starts, including three alone against right tackle JC Latham. Three holds. Three sacks. Wide-open receivers missed and miscommunicated with. Before the game-tying 95-yard drive in the final five minutes, the offense mustered only 134 net yards across nine series.
Blame the penalties. Blame the injuries. Call the recurring issues “inconsistencies,” as rookie quarterback Cam Ward likes to do. The fact is the offense went three-and-out nearly twice as often as it crossed the 50-yard line.
The fact is the offense took 20 drives across nearly eight full quarters against the Texans (5-5) this season to even get in the red zone one time. The fact is the Titans have one win, nine losses and the worst offense in the NFL in most important statistical categories.
“We’re not playing good team football right now and it’s showing,” Simmons said. “(Interim coach Mike McCoy) said it at practice on Friday. We had freaking four false starts Friday. We’re playing at home. We shouldn’t have that many false starts. I don’t care. I’m tired of saving feelings. I’m tired of losing. That’s what I’m tired of doing.”
The false start issue is particularly dispiriting. Ward took the blame for a cadence issue on at least one of them, and Latham said his stemmed from mental mistakes. He said he didn’t believe he was pressing or speeding up the game in reaction to how good Houston’s rushers are. Speaking to The Tennessean earlier in the week, Latham said one of his biggest conclusions about how to get better from his bye week self-scout was a need to eliminate mental errors. In the first game back, not only did they remain, but they came following a practice where Simmons says that very same issue was present.
To Latham’s credit, three of his four penalties came on drives the Titans scored. In fact, five of the Titans’ 10 penalties came on series where the offense scored or the defense got a stop. For as much as the Titans blame their offensive troubles on early-down penalties and sacks, those only materialized on one of the five three-and-outs. The other four came on standard, run-of-the-mill bad football series without penalties, negative runs or early-down sacks to derail the plan.
“I watch film every day,” Ward offered as his defense to why he’s still confident this team is better than its record. “I know what the defense is doing every play. I know how to see the field. Just as an offense, we just remain confident because the plan is good. We’ve just got to execute the plan. I think that’s the bright side of it. We don’t have too many plays. We don’t over-coach things. It’s more players just locking in and doing our one of 11.”
With seven games left, the in-the-moment question is obvious. While fans and analysts have every right to turn their sights to the coaching change and NFL draft positioning and which free agents will come available, the current Titans players have to finish the season. So, can they actually get better, as Simmons says?
Outside linebacker Arden Key has seen it happen to a slightly less-dramatic extent. He played in Jacksonville in 2022 when the Jaguars fell to 3-7 through 10 games but finished the year 9-8 and in the playoffs. He believes the key is staying on the young players, making sure they master situational football. As to why that hasn’t happened yet, Key doesn’t know. Throwing some not-so-subtle shade across the line of scrimmage, Key says he can’t know because he’s not in the offensive meetings.
Linebacker Cedric Gray offers a more charitable perspective on how players can answer Simmons’ call.
“You’ve seen it plenty of times. You’ve seen teams catch fire, go on streaks, different things like that and find a way to turn it around,” Gray said. “So I think it’s very much still possible. We’re not coming to work and quitting. We’re going to come to work and we’re going to keep playing hard every day and it might turn.”
It’s a might. It’s a maybe. It’s a possibly. After a game like this, preceded by plenty more games just like it, these hopes aren’t all that comforting.
At the very least, they’re assurances that Titans players are hearing what Simmons is saying.
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What frustrated Jeffery Simmons needs his Titans teammates to hear
