NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Titans have gone 12 long seasons since winning a division title, and this year’s team is in no mood to be distracted by math with such a big goal so close at hand.
They could clinch at least a playoff berth – it would their third in four years – by winning Sunday’s home game against the Detroit Lions, though that would still require outside help. In one such scenario, a Titans win and a loss by the Baltimore Ravens to the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars would be enough. In another, Tennessee’s help would come in the form of losses by the Las Vegas Raiders and Miami Dolphins and a win by the Cleveland Browns.
The Titans sit atop the AFC South standings alongside the Indianapolis Colts with each team 9-4, but Tennessee holds the tiebreaker with a better division record at 4-1 compared to 2-2. The Titans can’t improve that AFC South mark by winning against Detroit (5-8), but the Lions are in town – and so it’s the Lions they’re thinking about.
“When you start looking around and worrying about things that are out of your control or things that don’t really matter to this team,” Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill said, “you’re wasting time, you’re wasting your energy, and you’re not focused on the things that you need to focus (on).”
Tennessee is coming off a perfunctory 31-10 road win over Jacksonville, which has lost 12 in a row since stunning the Colts in the opener, and this will be the Titans’ final home game until next season if they don’t take care of business. Still remaining on the schedule are visits to the NFC’s Green Bay Packers next weekend and the Houston Texans on Jan. 3 to close the division slate.
“Hopefully nobody talks about anything past this week,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said.
The Lions haven’t been eliminated from playoff contention just yet. They’re 10th in the NFC with home games against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Minnesota Vikings still left. Interim coach Darrell Bevell, who is 1-1 since Detroit fired Matt Patricia on Thanksgiving weekend, said people are watching the Lions to see if they keep competing or throw in the towel.
“If I have anything to say about it or these players do, we’re going to keep fighting. And 1%?” Bevell said of one forecast for the team’s chances of making the playoffs. “We’ll take it. I don’t even know if that’s right, but we’ll take it.”
Standing in the way are the Titans, who this season have again been leaning on Derrick Henry as a running back who can carry them far. Henry is just three carries away from 300, and he is only 8 yards away from matching his career high of 1,540 yards from last season, when he led the league in rushing. He’s leading the NFL in rushing again and also is tied for the most touchdown runs this season with 14.
The Lions know any chance they have at pulling off an upset would increase if Henry has 60 rushing yards, as he did two weeks ago in a loss to the Browns, and not 215, which is what he had in Jacksonville. Against Cleveland, the Titans dug an early hole that forced them to throw and limited their chances to hand off to Henry.
“We know that the game is going to go through him,” Bevell said. “If you’re able to stop that guy, you’re able to make them be more one-dimensional.”
Still, focusing on only Henry is risky. The Titans are the only team in the NFL with at least 3,000 passing yards in addition to 2,000 rushing yards this season. Tennessee is the sixth NFL team since 1960 to reach those totals through 13 games and the first since the 2013 Philadelphia Eagles. Also, Tannehill has a career-high 28 touchdown passes, with those scores spread to nine teammates.
Detroit defensive coordinator Cory Undlin said Vrabel and his staff are committed to running when possible, knowing Henry will wear people out by the fourth quarter.
“I mean, he comes out of the tunnel, he just turns around and says, ‘Hey, I’m just going to hand it off to this guy, he’s going to run right over here, and then we’ll just see if you can tackle him,'” Undlin said. “I mean that’s what they’re doing, and they’re really, obviously, efficient.”