NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Tennessee Titans (3-8) go for their first win streak of the season Sunday when they visit the Washington Commanders (7-5).
The Titans head to Washington fresh off of a 32-27 upset of AFC South leading Houston last week at Reliant Stadium. That game saw quarterback Will Levis turn in a third straight strong performance for the Titans since returning from a shoulder injury.
“I think it’s something we needed for the rest of the season to give us the confidence to go out and play these last divisional games with the energy and focus that we need,” Levis said Wednesday. “Being able to get the win on the road against the top team in the division at the moment just gives us confidence and lets us know that we can go out there and beat all the rest of these teams we have on our schedule, just like we feel like we could have every team that we faced so far.”
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Will Levis’ last three games:
- 748 Passing Yards
- 5 Passing TD’s
- 2 Interceptions
“There’s a sense of confidence and there’s a sense of calmness,” said head coach Brian Callahan. “Much more letting the game come to him, not trying to do too much, not holding the wheel too tight, just playing football. Letting your quarterback instincts take over, and play the way that you need to play and take completions, and then when we get opportunities to take big ones, take the big one. But there’s definitely been a growth in his approach to negative plays, in his approach to his process. Those things have all been really encouraging. When you get to the point where you get tested like he did against the Texans, where you throw—really critical spot, lose the lead. We’re positioned to go take a two-score lead and now we’re down one—for him not to really overly reacting and just—it was a bad play and we got a whole lot of football left to make some good ones and he did, ultimately at the end of the game to help us win.”
Sunday he faces a Washington defense that surrenders only 189 yards passing a game, but is giving up 145 yards rushing per game setting up a potentially big day for running back Tony Pollard who is coming off of his first 100-yard game as a Titan.
Washington started the season 7-2 but has dropped three games in a row with its defense giving up an average of about 29 points per game in that three-game stretch. Scoring is the most basic metric there is and for the Titans, it is the easiest one to draw on for their success. The Titans have only scored 20 or more points in three games this season, but they have won all three of those games.
Defensively the Titans have to deal with rookie Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels who is in the running for rookie of the year. The second pick of this year’s draft has had a sensational campaign throwing for 2613 yards and 12 touchdowns while only throwing five interceptions.
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Daniels is also a threat to run the football. He is second in the NFL behind Lamar Jackson for rushing yards by a quarterback.
Quarterback Leading Rushers
- Lamar Jackson – 599 Yards
- Jayden Daniels – 556 Yards
- Jalen Hurts – 456 Yards
Callahan says Daniels is a problem with the ball in his hands, “Their run game has been good and especially when it’s driven by Jayden (Daniels) and all the things he can do with it, with the ball in his hand as a runner, both in the quarterback run game and with the ball in his hands off-script in the pocket. You could see that people have kind of settled some of their stuff down in that regard, but they’ve still been pretty darn good.”
As usual, this game will probably come down to turnovers for Tennessee. The Titans are still 31st in the league at (-12) in turnover margin but have finally begun to start taking the ball away on defense. Last week in Houston Kenneth Murray and Jarvis Brownlee Junior both came up with their first interceptions of the season in the Titans’ upset of the Texans.