The Tennessee Titans continued their torrid pace on Sunday with a crushing 38-14 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. While the end result was a blowout, the game was actually within reach in the third quarter.
After running back Tony Pollard was stuffed on a third-and-three run from the Indianapolis 42-yard line, interim head coach Mike McCoy thought it would be a great idea to punt even though they were down only 17-7. One would think that with just one win all season and no hope in sight that McCoy would just press the “screw it” button and go for it. What would they do? Lose?
Rookie quarterback Cam Ward obviously didn’t like the decision and he was seen mouthing what looked like an obscenity in the direction of his bench.
“I think I’m a competitor,” Ward said when asked about the interaction after the game. “Our whole offense is like that. Our whole defense is like that…I just think the biggest thing is we want to be an aggressive team. Especially with the record we have right now, we have to be an aggressive team at the end of the season to get where we want to be.”
He said it all at the end there. With the record they have, why not let your team know that you’ll do anything to win?
Cam Ward is clearly frustrated
Ward was 22 of 38 passing with 259 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Not a terrible stat line, but not good enough to overcome a really poor roster that’s in complete disarray.
Ward didn’t think that particular decision to punt in that situation was helping things.
“I just think it’s a missed opportunity for us as a team to get a first down and keep the drive moving. We weren’t down that much at that time,” Ward said. “So, we’re going to always support whatever decision is made, but at the end of the day, we shouldn’t put ourselves in that position. We should get the first down on third down.”
So, he agrees that the decision to run on third-and-three was stupid too.
Cam Ward doesn’t share Mike McCoy’s confidence in the defense
Of course, as an offensive player, Ward wanted to keep the ball in his hands and go make plays. Even if there wasn’t a high probability of that happening, there also wasn’t a good chance that the defense would show up and stop Jonathan Taylor.
McCoy tried to explain his decision and said that in hindsight maybe he should have gone for it.
“It was something we talked about,” McCoy said of the fourth-down decision. “You know, hindsight, you look back and the last thing I thought they were going to do was have the big touchdown run after that. So yeah, I got it. You look back and say, ‘I should have gone for that.’ But initially when I said to punt it, you pin them deep, and the defense had done nice through the second quarter.”
McCoy hasn’t been the head coach for long (two weeks), but he’s been here all year. He should know that this defense was not going to stop anything the Colts were doing. In fact, Taylor went on to rip off an 80-yard run following the punt, making McCoy’s decision look even more egregious.
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