Brian Callahan’s job status continued to be a focus of attention following the Titans’ 26-0 loss to Houston on Sunday at NRG Stadium.
The defeat was the Titans’ 10th straight over two seasons, tying a “Titans era” franchise record that was set in 2014, when Ken Whisenhunt’s team lost 10 straight contests to end that season.
Tennessee has lost six straight AFC South contests since beating the Texans last November.
In addition, the shutout loss was the Titans’ first since Oct. 13, 2019, when Tennessee fell 16-0 at Denver. That contest was memorable because Mike Vrabel made a landmark decision at halftime, pulling starter Marcus Mariota and turning to Ryan Tanehill for the rest of the season.
Might this shutout mean the end for Callahan, whose record dropped to 3-18 over two seasons? Whisenhunt’s record with the Titans was 3-20 over two seasons before owner Amy Adams Strunk fired him after seven games in 2024.
Callahan said his job security isn’t something he thinks about.
“No, like I’ve said before, I show up and do my job, and we do it as hard as we can,” Callahan told reporters. “It’s everybody on our staff. We work our tails off and we try to do everything we can to put ourselves in a position to win, and we haven’t. That’s just the reality of our jobs in the league. So no, don’t think about it.”
How, Callahan was asked, does he keep from not thinking about it?
“What keeps [me focused on the job] is the guys in the locker room and the coaches on the coaching staff,” Callahan said. “My job is to try to lead, and leading is hard. This is hard right now. But that’s my job, and my job is to try to continue to fight and continue to help wherever I can help, and to continue to keep pushing our guys to keep getting better.
“That’s the only thing you can do when you’re in a spot like this. Just keep coming out and keep swinging. None of it’s been good enough and we all know that.”
Meanwhile, rookie quarterback Cam Ward, the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft in April, has yet to record his first league victory after a month’s work on the job.
“I just want to win,” Ward said. “When’s the last time Tennessee won? I don’t know. I’m trying to win. Everybody in this locker room, we want to win. We have to win. That’s really what it comes down to, no matter how we got to do it. At some point, we have to turn the tide and we have to start winning games.”
Ward’s frustrations: One could make a decent case that Ward had made incremental progress in each of his first three games.
Despite throwing a pick-six last week against Indianapolis, Ward wound up completing a season-best 23 passes (on 38 attempts) for a season-best 219 yards, connecting on a touchdown pass with Elic Ayomanor.
But Ward took a statistical step backward against Houston, completing just 10-of-26 passes for 108 yards and recording a season-low 35.4 quarterback rating.
Among Ward’s misfires was a fourth-quarter interception, when the rookie quarterback — who was moving toward the line of scrimmage after leaving the pocket — threw a sidearm rocket of a pass that was behind Ayomanor.
The ball bounced off Ayomanor’s outstretched hands and into the arms of Houston cornerback Derek Stingley, who returned the pick 20 yards to set up a Texans touchdown drive.
“Doesn’t matter whether I throw off platform or sidearm,” Ward said. “I just got to be more accurate with the football. I wasn’t accurate enough. [Ayomanor] was coming [inside]. I threw it on his backside shoulder. I can’t do that. I know he’ll make that play for me next time, but I shouldn’t have to put him in that situation.”
Ward’s turnover was his fourth in four games, as he suffered strip-sack fumbles in each of the Titans’ first two contests.
His frustrations over his own play and the team’s winless predicament were clear after the contest.
Ward, keep in mind, went 10-3 as a starter last year at the University of Miami and was 35-22 as a college starter overall.
“If we keep it [honest] right now, we ass,” Ward said. “At this point, we got nothing to lose. We dropped a quarter of our [obscenity] games, and we’ve yet to do anything. We have to lock in.”
Hardegree not a magician: Quarterbacks coach Bo Hardegree took his turn at the wheel Sunday, after Callahan turned over the team’s offensive play-calling duties to the Jackson native.
Hardegree, who had called plays for nine games in 2023 with the Las Vegas Raiders, had little luck in jump-starting a Titans offense that came into the contest ranked 31st in total offense, 32nd in yards per play and 28th in points per game.
The Titans’ 175 yards were the team’s second-lowest total of the season, as were Tennessee’s 10 first downs and 2-for-11 performance on third down.
Hardegree called a couple of trick plays in the first half that went nowhere.
On the Titans’ fourth play of their opening drive, the team tried a flea flicker, but Ward was nearly sacked, and somehow managed to throw an incompletion that came close to being a fumble.
Two series later, Ward handed the ball off to receiver Chimere Dike on an end around to the right, sneaking out to the left in hopes that Dike would throw the ball back to him. But Ward was well covered, and Dike had to swallow a four-yard loss.
The most head-scratching call from Hardegree came on the Titans’ initial series of the second half. Facing third-and-12 at Houston’s 45-yard line — and with the Titans still down by just 6-0 — Hardegree called for a run to Julius Chestnut that gained zero yards, leading to a punt.
“It’s third-and-12, so you try to be smart and not put the quarterback in harm’s way and kick the field goal,” Callahan said. “It is what it is. Those are the calls we make.”
Slumping Slye: Titans kicker Joey Slye looked invincible in the Titans’ first nine quarters this season, connecting on his first 10 field-goal attempts.
During that stretch, Slye connected on 57-yard attempts in the Titans’ second and third games.
But Slye has taken a recent turn for the worse.
In the home loss to Indianapolis, Slye was unable to hit his last two attempts — falling short on a 64-yard attempt before the Colts blocked a 62-yard attempt just before halftime.
Things got even worse for Slye against Houston, as he missed wide right from 41 yards and 43 yards. The first attempt would have given the Titans a 3-0 lead, and the second would have cut Houston’s lead to 6-3 at halftime.
Slye now has four misses (including the block) in the last two games, which is two more misses than former Titans kicker Nick Folk had in the 2023 and 2024 seasons combined in Tennessee.
The Titans’ decision to go with Slye’s more powerful leg over Folk’s accuracy looked great after two games, but not so good now. Folk, by the way, is 2-for-2 for the Jets this season, with one make over 50 yards.
Third-and-longs: The Titans had all kinds of trouble moving the football against the Texans.
Only three of the team’s drives produced more than one first down, and only two drives netted more than 20 yards. Tennessee never took a snap in Houston’s red zone.
One big problem was that the Titans were 2-of-11 on third downs, and one reason for that was the average distance the team faced: Tennessee’s average yards to go on third down against Houston was 8.1 yards, a total that included a third-and-14, a third-and-10, a third-and-12 and a third-and-13.
“The biggest thing is every time we get in a long situation or a get-back-on-track situation, the drive always ends,” Ward said. “[In the] NFL, it’s hard to play on second-and-long. It’s hard to play on third-and-long. That’s the biggest thing. We have to execute plays every play. It can’t just be whether we get a big run or a big pass.”
Officials miss Al-Shaair penalty: Former Titans linebacker Al-Shaair has been suspended once and fined on numerous occasions for rule violations.
He appeared to commit an egregious penalty Sunday in the Texans’ 26-0 win over the Titans, but it went uncalled.
On the Titans’ first drive, the team had moved to the Houston 28-yard line, where it faced a third-and-5 situation. Ward, pressured on the play, edged toward the right sideline and threw an incompletion.
A split second after Ward released the ball, Al-Shaair appeared to intentionally slap both hands to Ward’s helmet, snapping the quarterback’s head backward. But no flag was thrown, meaning the Titans were left with a fourth-and-5 situation.
Instead of gaining a first down via penalty, the Titans tried a 43-yard-field goal that Slye missed.
Missed connection: One of the few things for Titans fans to get excited about in previous weeks was the growing connection between Ward and Ayomanor.
In Weeks 2 and 3 combined, Ward completed eight passes (on 13 targets) to Ayomanor, for 94 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
But the two lacked chemistry against the Texans.
Things started well, when Ward hit Ayomanor for a 33-yard gain on the Titans’ first series, moving Tennessee to Houston’s 28-yard-line. But the two would combine for only one more reception (for 11 yards) despite Ward throwing six more passes in Ayomanor’s direction.
On some attempts, like the interception referenced previously, Ward simply looked off, failing to give Ayomanor good opportunities to make the catch.
But on one play, Ward tossed in Ayomanor’s direction a contested pass that the fourth-round pick wasn’t able to come down with.
“Not really,” Ward said when asked if his accuracy was off. “Some of them [pass attempts] got to be throwaways in some situations. Some of them were just me not putting the ball where it needed to go.”
Protection progress: After surrendering 15 sacks in their first three contests, the Titans allowed only two against a Houston team that featured talented edge rushers Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson.
The lack of sacks allowed was that more impressive given the Titans’ tackle situation.
Starting right tackle JC Latham (hip) missed the contest, and starting left tackle Dan Moore was added to the injury report as questionable Sunday due to an illness.
Moore did allow one of the two sacks, and replacement right tackle Oli Udoh was guilty of lining up in the backfield on one play (the penalty was declined). But overall, the Titans’ tackles stood their ground against a Houston team that registered a combined nine sacks in two meetings with Tennessee last season.
Simmons, Gray stand out: On yet another forgettable overall day by the Titans, defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons and inside linebacker Cedric Gray made strong impressions.
Simmons recorded his second sack of the season, and posted four tackles for loss among his five tackles. The seven-year veteran took down C.J. Stroud for a three-yard loss in the first quarter, getting into the Houston backfield so quickly that Stroud barely had a chance to turn around before getting pummeled.
Gray, a fourth-round pick in 2024, recorded a whopping 17 tackles (including 10 solo), which led the team and marked the first time in his 11 career contests he has ever recorded double-digit tackles.
Gray’s afternoon included a wicked hit on Stroud in the second quarter, one that helped force an incompletion and left Stroud wincing.
Fewer flags: The Titans came into the game having been penalized 31 times for 261 yards in the team’s first three contests, accumulating more penalty yards on average than any team in the league.
The team recorded its best day on the penalty front against Houston, as the Titans were flagged only four times for 35 yards. Tennessee’s previous low this season for penalties was eight, and the previous low for penalty yardage was 62.
Still, L’Jarius Sneed’s illegal contact penalty negated a Cody Barton sack, center Lloyd Cushenberry’s block in the back negated an 11-yard completion to Tony Pollard and Jaylen Harrell’s holding penalty negated a solid kick return by Chimere Dike.