Titanic Turnovers For Tennessee

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

The Tennessee Titans lost this afternoon’s AFC Divisional Playoff game (13-10) more than the Baltimore Ravens won it. I’m not taking anything away from the Ravens. They did plenty of things well. But look at the stats. Tennessee held onto the ball longer (34:07 to 25:53), gained more yards (391 to 211) and had more first downs (21 to 9). Those totals really aren’t even close. What you can’t do is end up minus three in the turnover differential and expect to win any game in the National Football League, let alone a playoff game. The Titans learned that. You also can’t have 12 penalties, which is what the Titans piled up for negative 89 yards. It was a sloppy, miserable and uncharacteristically poor performance from the league’s best team during the regular season. Blech. Titans tight end Alge Crumpler, who committed one of the team’s costly turnovers, was understandably quite distraught after the game:

“It’s probably the worst feeling I’ve had in my life because I understand the magnitude of what we’ve built here. When you lose possessions, especially being the cause of it, it’s a feeling I don’t know when I’ll ever get rid of. The game’s a blur right now. I’ve lost playoff games before, but it’s the worst feeling I’ve had in my life.”

Sources: NFL.com, TitansOnline.com