BALTIMORE -- The Tennessee Titans have talked about penalties and talked about them some more.
Last week officials from the SEC began overseeing their practices.
And Sunday in a 21-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, a team that averaged 7.9 penalties a game for 72.5 yards was flagged for nine penalties for 67 yards.
On a day when field position was a constant struggle for the offense, five of the Titans' penalties came from the offense and four came from special teams as the Titans were taking possession.
“We’ll keep working at it, I promise that,” coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “Some of those things were really unfortunate, especially from a field-position standpoint.”
The one that many have hurt the most was against receiver Justin Hunter.
With a 7-0 lead and facing a second-and-6 from their own 20-yard line, the Titans had quarterback Zach Mettenberger drop back and look for Hunter up the left sideline.
He went and got it the way the Titans hope he will do more often, but he appeared to pull on cornerback Danny Gorrer in order to gain the ground he needed.
The 36-yard catch was erased by the offensive pass interference call that pushed the Titans back into second-and-16 from their 10-yard line and they punted two plays later.
“Oh no, I don’t think it was PI at all,” Hunter said. “I think I just made a good play on the ball. He did a little bit of acting and got away with it. I’ve never had a PI call before in my life. I don’t know. I’m not a push-off type, I’m gong to just go up and get it. I don’t know what they called it.
“That just set us back.”
Mettenberger seemed to feel the offense had improved.
“I mean how many offensive penalties you think we had tonight?” he said when I asked why the penalty message still wasn’t getting through.
Two or three I said, underestimating.
“Obviously that’s an improvement for us, I don’t think we had any personal fouls or crucial holds that put us behind the chains,” Mettenberger said. “We weren’t having drives that were first-and-20 like last [game[ which is an improvement. Those special teams penalties that pin us deep are going to be a point of emphasis.”
I agree with his overall point, but for the record Leon Washington drew a 15-yard personal foul for head-butting a Raven after the play where Delanie Walker was knocked from the game.
