Mark WiedmerNASHVILLE - Professional football's supposed to be a complex game. There are options on top of options. Enough competing X's and O's to give Einstein a migraine. Playbooks as thick as "War and Peace."
But Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota wasn't thinking about any of that when his team got the ball trailing the Philadelphia Eagles 23-20 in overtime Sunday afternoon inside Nissan Stadium. He needed to position the Titans for a field goal to salvage a tie against last season's Super Bowl champs. He needed a touchdown to win a game his team had trailed by two touchdowns midway through the third qurter. And he couldn't return the ball to the Eagles. He had to get whatever points he could get on a single possession.
So just what were the thoughts dancing in Mariota's head with 6:19 left in the extra period and zero room for error? Was he processing more options than a super computer? Was paralysis by analysis about to do in the Titans?
"It's like when you're a little kid, running around in the backyard, counting down the seconds," he said. "You just go out there and play."
And, oh, how he played in those final 379 seconds. Oh, how all the Titans played. Mariota. And Derrick Henry. And Nick Williams. And Dion Lewis. And Tennessee's underrated offensive line. And Corey Davis. Especially Corey Davis.
When Mariota threw it toward Davis one final time, with less than 10 seconds on the clock, lofting it high and soft and true - knowing all the while that if Davis didn't come down with it on third-and-goal from the Eagles' 10, the Titans would almost assuredly be forced to settle for that unsatisfactory tie - Davis did not disappoint. Instead, the second-year pro caught it the way Michael Jordan once caught alley-oop passes, as if hovering above the clouds.
Touchdown, Titans.
Tennessee 26, Philadelphia 23.
"Marcus threw it up there and I got it," said Davis, who caught nine passes total for 161 yards. "God is good. But I expect myself to catch every ball."
Yet great as that throw and that catch were, great as Mariota was in hitting 30 of 44 passes for 344 yards and two touchdowns, the most memorable moment in this most improbable Titans victory was the decision by first-year coach Mike Vrabel to eschew a seemingly makeable 50-yard field goal on fourth-and-2 from the Eagles' 32 and instead go for the victory.
"I think the players like being aggressive," Vrabel said afterward. "And again, making the call is the easy part. The players are the ones who have to make it happen."
So despite kicker Ryan Succop being 9-for-10 on field goals this season - including his lone 50-yard attempt - Vrabel took the far less certain option. The Titans called for Mariota to hit running back Lewis with a short pass going right. The play covered 17 yards to the 15. Nissan Stadium exploded with noise. The champs sagged. The Titans surged.
"Just to know that (Vrabel) trusts us," Davis said, "means the world."
It could mean the world regarding where these Titans go from here. They limped into this one with a myriad of injuries and off-field issues, the two biggest being tight end Delanie Walker's season-ending ankle injury in the opener and receiver Rishard Matthews quitting this past week, at least partially because the veteran could see Davis taking more and more of his minutes.
A show of maturity from Davis: When asked about Matthews' departure, he replied, "Rishard is a great person. I love him. But he made his decision, and we had to go with the guys we had, and that's what we did."
The Titans take their 3-1 record back on the road next Sunday to face the Buffalo Bills. They come home to face the Baltimore Ravens on Oct. 14, then don't get back to Music City until Nov. 11 against the New England Patriots, with their Oct. 28 open date surrounded by road games - against the Los Angeles Chargers in London on Oct. 21 and against the Dallas Cowboys on Nov. 5, a Monday night matchup.
Given that their three wins this season have come by a total of nine points, this figures to be a wild ride moving forward.
"We know that we're going to play close games; we've said that," Vrabel said. "My heart pills have come in. I got a prescription, a big bottle."
If this keeps up, a lot of Titans fans should buy a few big bottles of champagne - or Pepto-Bismol - to properly celebrate this season.
But whatever happens from here on out, these postgame words from Mariota should be permanently attached to Nissan Stadium for years to come: "You don't play this game to tie."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.