Looking for blame and answers to the Titans' repeated failures in the red zone

Calvin Ridley screwed up.

No no. It was Will Levis who screwed up.

That’s crazy. It was a general lack of concentration. That was the problem.

And there were the referees. And the rain. And 100 other factors that led to the Tennessee Titans wasting their red zone chances at home against a lazy Jacksonville Jaguars defense.

The fact is that the opportunities were wasted. The fact is that the Titans lost 10-6 to a team that entered Sunday with the worst record in football. Now the Titans (3-10) are back in the conversation and are clearly one of the worst teams in the league. All because they spent all year looking for answers on how to convert red zone appearances into points. And none of those answers indicated progress as they scored zero points on two drives inside the Jaguars’ 10-yard line and settled for a field goal on a third play that advanced to the Jacksonville 21-yard line had to be satisfied.

ESTES | Low energy, low score, that’s all

“We definitely need to score more touchdowns in the red zone,” Titans coach Brian Callahan said. “We didn’t do enough good (expletive) on offense to score points and we lost the game.”

Key moments in the Titans red zone

Sunday’s game wasn’t the kind where there were chances everywhere. Aside from a few frantic moments before halftime, the Titans offense had seven true possessions. And to their credit, Levis and the offense put together four series that spanned double-digit plays and reached the 30-yard line. Two of these drives penetrated the interior of the 10.

Maintaining the trips was not a problem.

Ending them was.

Let’s break down some of the mistakes and missed opportunities.

First quarter, 9:15. Third-and-3 from the 28-yard line is stuffed. The Titans settle for a field goal.
Second quarter, 5:42. Tony Pollard’s 4-yard rushing touchdown is nullified by a holding penalty.
Second quarter, 4:46. After a short run and two incompletions, Levis fired an incomplete shot to tight end Nick Vannett in the back of the end zone, which caused a turnover on downs. After the game, Levis and Callahan admitted that tight end Chig Okonkwo was completely open.
Third quarter, 6:00 a.m. A failed play turns a second-and-7 from the Jacksonville 29-yard line into a third-and-13. One play later, the Titans settled for another field goal.
Fourth quarter, 1:20. Levis throws Ridley short in the flat on third-and-2. Instead of trying to push his way up for the first down, Ridley seems to run straight out of bounds, creating a must-make fourth down late on.
Fourth quarter, 1:15. Levis can’t reach receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine in the back of the end zone and misses another turnover on downs, ending the Titans’ best and final scoring threat of the second half.

Now for the explanations.

“I just saw Nick first,” Levis said of the Okonkwo piece. “He flashed. I thought he was one step ahead of him. If I had continued, I would have seen Chig. It sucks to see someone wide open right after dropping the ball.”
“We got to the 2 and had a guy down in the end zone who was wide open,” Callahan said. “I don’t regret the choice of game.”
“On that third down, I thought it was a Cover-2 look. He was already waiting at the corner. When I got there I took a photo of him. I just lost track of him,” Ridley says of his late-game faux pas. “I thought someone was out to get me. I should have done much better. No doubt.”
“That would have been a tough catch,” Callahan said of the Westbrook-Ikhine game. “We say it hit his hands, he gave him a chance. Will said that was the first time that day that the ball got a little slippery and slipped out. He didn’t have full control over it.”
“We couldn’t do it. There was nothing other than a lack of focus,” running back Tyjae Spears said of the whole ordeal. “I guess I don’t know. We just couldn’t get it done in the red zone. Looking back, it sucks. It just sucks.”

It would be one thing if such errors appeared for the first time on Sunday. The real problem is that this is not the case.

What happened:Tennessee Titans vs. Jacksonville Jaguars scores today: Live updates, stats on Jaguars’ 10-6 win

Titans’ red zone troubles: A season-long ordeal

The Titans have scored 16 touchdowns on 34 red zone trips this season. That’s a rate of 47%. Before Sunday, the league average was 55%.

The Titans converted 16 goal-to-go opportunities into nine touchdowns. That’s a rate of 56%. The league average was 73%.

It’s no surprise that the Titans are one of the worst teams in the league when it comes to converting scoring opportunities into points. However, it might be a little surprising how rarely these opportunities arise. Before Sunday, the Titans hadn’t had a goal-to-go shot since the Nov. 3 game against New England. At the time of publication, only three NFL teams were in goal-to-go situations less often than the Titans and four were in the red zone less often.

So it’s not just that the Titans are one of the worst teams in the NFL when it comes to converting chances into points. It is because the chances are relatively small.

When asked Thursday what the next steps are for Levis and the Titans’ offense more broadly, offensive coordinator Nick Holz said things are getting better on third downs and in the red zone. The Titans were 8 of 16 on third down Sunday, their best conversion percentage and most successful conversions of the Callahan era. Nevertheless, the problems in the red zone remained.

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