Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan needs to improve on third down.
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Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan needs to improve on third down.
The Tennessee Titans are 0-2 to start the 2025 NFL season and are hosting the 2-0 Indianapolis Colts in a battle-for-not-much on Sunday. The Titans need to fix quite a bit, but first and foremost they need to get first-overall pick Cam Ward on track.
The first-year starting quarterback hasn’t thrown an interception yet, which is nice. However, he’s been sacked 11 times in two games, four short of the NFL record for most sacks in the first two games of a career. Houston Texans quarterback David Carr wears that one with 15 back in 2002. To our younger readers, Derek Carr has an older brother, just FYI.
So in order to attempt to slow the rush and keep Ward upright, Titans’ head coach Brian Callahan has tried to rely on the run.
“Some of the commitment to trying to run the ball is the defenses we were playing,” Callahan said Monday. “How do you keep the defense from teeing off? You’ve got to be able to run the football and put yourself in more manageable spots on third down, in particular.”
Tennessee Titans have struggled mightily on third downs
The Titans have absolutely not put themselves in manageable spots on third downs this year. They are usually in third-and-long situations and that’s not good for a young quarterback on a bad team.
“We’ve put ourselves in some tough third downs over the course of these two games on a first-down sack or a penalty or things of that nature,” Callahan said.
Hence the need to run the ball. If they are able to even get 5-6 yards on first down and second down, then maybe they have a puncher’s chance on third down. And maybe – just maybe – if they get two decent runs they’ll be in third-and-who-knows-maybe-we’ll-run-it.
Third-and-longs are awful for a variety of reasons, but not the least of which is the potential for sacks. Ward has enough to process as it is, but long routes take time to develop and that gives pass rushers time to get in there.
“Once you get to those third-and-longs, the defensive ends are licking their chops,” Titans receiver Tyler Lockett said.
Tennessee Titans will continue to pound the ball on the ground
Callahan stresses the need to run the ball to protect Ward as he learns the offense. A functional ground game solves a lot of problems (including those third-and-longs).
“You want to run the football well,” Callahan said. “That’s how you help your line, too. Keep it balanced and work your play-actions off of it. So it’s still an evolving process, and he’s getting better from a footwork and timing perspective.”
While Ward is all for a solid running game, he’s also said previously that he’d like more responsibility put on his shoulders. Whether or not Callahan does that remains to be seen, but in the meantime Ward would just like to cut down on the mistakes.
“We just got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot,” Ward said. “Offensively we have got to stay on schedule. I think the biggest things is us staying behind the sticks. It’s hard to overcome that. We’ve got to stay on schedule. The more we do that, the more successful drives we have. Every time we don’t stay on schedule, it’s always a bad drive.”