NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- With a patchwork offensive line protecting second- and third-string quarterbacks and an opponent with an unthreatening offense, it was a game for the Tennessee Titans' defense to win.
The Titans lost it.
Tennessee lost to the New York Jets in the first 16-11 game in NFL history because the offense couldn’t find a touchdown, because Jake Locker and Charlie Whitehurst combined to complete 45.7 percent of their passes, and because the team ran for 3.2 yards a carry.
But the Titans would have won despite those things but for one play by the defense.
Jets quarterback Geno Smith threw incomplete for Eric Decker up the right sideline on a third-and-15 from New York’s 19-yard line with 6:58 left in the game and Tennessee ahead 11-10.
The Titans were set to get the ball back on the Jets’ seventh punt of the game.
And then a flag went up in the air.
Decker got up on the Titans’ sideline and pushed Wesley Woodyard, who glared back. Though the inside linebacker claims he said nothing to his old teammate from Denver, the flag was for him: unsportsmanlike conduct, 15 yards and a first down.
The Jets drove to the go-ahead touchdown.
“I am extremely frustrated by us giving the game away there at the end,” coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “…When you get in a situation like that in the fourth quarter after you fought your guts out to try and get in that position and you get them off the field on third down, that can’t happen.”
Woodyard said he did nothing to warrant the call.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “Decker [tried to catch] the ball, I stood over by him and he got up and pushed me, I got pushed in the face. I don’t know why. He didn’t explain anything, he just ran over and said, ‘It’s on you, 59.’”
Coty Sensabaugh was in coverage on the play.
“Even Decker said [Woodyard] didn’t say anything,” Sensabaugh said. “… He said that right after the flag was thrown. He said it to me when we were walking back to the huddles. He said, ‘Man, he didn’t even do nothing. That was a horrible call.’”
Too often this season the Titans have said the calls have gone against them unfairly. I think Woodyard would have fessed up if he had said something.
But there had been a brawl earlier in the game and referee John Parry and his crew were eager to maintain control.
Did Woodyard deserve the flag? Probably not. Once he saw the ball was incomplete and Decker was harmlessly out of bounds, though, he should have turned and gone back toward his huddle. Simply eliminate the possibility of any misinterpretation.
It may be unreasonable to have to do so to ensure no flag, but on a bad team with bad luck not long after a bad fight, it’s the disciplined decision a team captain should make.
The Titans' other defensive captain, Jurrell Casey, was a disruptive force all game. He was fortunate to be allowed to finish the game, however.
Smith said something Casey found objectionable in the third quarter after what was initially ruled an 81-yard Smith-to-Decker touchdown pass. A crowd gathered in the middle of the field, Casey took a swipe at Smith’s head and a brawl ensued, with Casey scrapping with right tackle Breno Giacomini at the bottom of it.
“I want to apologize to my team for putting us in a bad situation like that,” Casey said. “I have to control myself in those situations and control my feelings out there. … You know, words don’t hurt you. He didn’t put his hands on me, and I shouldn’t have put my hands on him.”
Casey said what Smith said is personal between the two of them.
Upon review, Parry ruled that Decker stepped out of bounds during his run after the catch. That took away the touchdown, but the resulting 48-yard gain got 15 yards tacked on for Casey’s unnecessary roughness.
Four plays later the Jets had their first touchdown and their first lead.
Two captains. Two 15-yard penalties. Two calls that extended touchdown drives for the Jets.
Two more things that went very wrong in a season in which just about everything has gone wrong.
