JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- With impressive work against a couple teams from the AFC West, the Tennessee Titans put themselves on the precipice of a division title.
The Jaguars tossed them off it with a 38-17 win Saturday afternoon at EverBank Field and the Texans made things final, winning the AFC South by beating the Bengals in Houston the same night.
Those great Titans wins against Denver and at Kansas City?
The polish is off of them now.
“We went out there and took care of two playoff[-caliber] teams, but came in and lost to a team that wasn’t supposed to beat us,” Pro Bowl defensive lineman Jurrell Casey. “It takes away the credit from the past two weeks.
“We still know we’re a competitive team, but we have to take care of the teams we’re supposed to take care of.”
The Titans didn’t come close to taking care of the Jaguars, who had won only two games in their first 14.
Mike Mularkey sensed trouble in the pregame locker room.
“I felt a little bit of a drop-off of energy. I had that feeling in the locker room before the game,” he said. “But no matter what you say, it has to come from within. Hopefully your feeling is not what is going to take place, but it did.”
Mularkey and his staff need to help make sure it comes from within. They hardly had their best day and their roster matched it with terrible play.
“Once we got on the field and the game got going, it seemed like we weren't able to grab it like we've been able to do in games earlier this year," safety Rashad Johnson said. "Not starting fast really bit us and not being able to get it going when we needed to."
It’s hard to fathom that the same Titans team that found a way against Denver and in Kansas City amounted to a pushover for one of the NFL’s worst teams.
But it’s the sort of surprise that makes the league so popular and enjoyable.
“You’re always aware of games like this being trap games and whatnot, but I think we were well aware of the talent that this [Jaguars] team had,” outside linebacker Derrick Morgan said. “Regardless of what their record was, we knew it was going to be a tough game. And we just didn’t get it done in all phases.”
“It was both, energy and executing plays,” tight end Delanie Walker said. “We just didn’t start off fast. It didn’t feel like a typical game that we play, where we usually play very fast. I felt like we were sluggish.”
The Titans will finish their season on Jan. 1 at Nissan Stadium against the Texans.
On an afternoon pitting quarterback Tom Savage against Matt Cassell, it will be hard for the hosts not to think about what could have been.
They weren’t far from an afternoon with a playoff game on the line, with their growing young quarterback, Marcus Mariota, healthy and heading the huddle. He'll have surgery early in the week.
And instead of playing for the division, the game won’t mean anything but a potentially good ending and a winning record for the Titans.
At one point, that would have sounded great for this franchise. At this point it sounds brutal.
“That’s the NFL, the emotional highs and lows. There’s nothing like this in the world,” Mularkey said. “There is no occupation you can feel these.”
