26. Tennessee Titans
Last week: 28th
The Tennessee Titans showed some serious fight in Denver in the first week of the season. Of course, it helped that the Broncos had four giveaways and multiple failed fourth-down conversion attempts, but the Titans gave them a heck of a fight. And it looked like they were going to do the same against the Rams early on Sunday before the Rams just started scoring and the Titans couldn’t do anything about it.
The Titans had a really bad week in Denver back in Week 1 with penalties, and we saw that again in Week 2 with another 10 penalties for this Titans team. You expect that from a young team, but this Titans team is veteran-laden, and they can’t get out of their own way.
The remainder of this year will be all about evaluating Cam Ward, getting him rolling and perhaps even playing spoiler in some games. But the Titans will be content with knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s their franchise QB at season’s end.
25. Jacksonville Jaguars
Last week: 19th
Trevor Lawrence had three touchdown passes. The Jaguars knocked Joe Burrow out of the game early. They picked off Bengals backup quarterback Jake Browning three times. So, how in the world did they lose in Week 2?
They also held the Bengals to less than 50 yards rushing on the day, and outgained them 400-350 on the day. It’s one of those games that really came down to who had the ball last, and the Bengals engineered a 15-play, 92-yard drive to score the go-ahead touchdown late with minimal time on the clock for the Jaguars.
This is going to be a tough pill to swallow for the Jags as the season goes along. If they end up missing the playoffs by just one game, they’ll look back at this one being one that got away.