A frustrated Jeffery Simmons stood at his locker for over 20 minutes discussing the Tennessee Titans' 23-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. Simmons spoke at length about what he and the Titans thought was a questionable personal foul call on safety Mike Brown that negated a defensive stop on fourth-and-goal, giving them a new set of downs.
It would have been easy for the Titans to mail it in at that point, which gave the Vikings a chance to score their second touchdown and take a 13-3 lead. But Simmons praised his teammates for continuing to battle and said first-year head coach Brian Callahan is the catalyst.
"We got his back and we'll keep fighting," Simmons said. "The fight this team showed, especially in the second half, is why you want to play this game. No matter what the record may be, that's why I come to work, and I'm ready to go to war with my guys."
The Titans (2-8) are one of five teams with two wins, and only the Jacksonville Jaguars (2-9) have a worse record. As it stands, Tennessee has a 0.5% chance of making the playoffs, according to ESPN's Football Power Index, and have the fourth-best odds (13.8%) as of Tuesday to have the No. 1 pick.
It's clear things are not good for this franchise. The organization is stuck between rebuilding and striving to be competitive now.
They have glaring roster questions, including second-year quarterback Will Levis who has yet to prove he can be the face of the franchise that the team was hoping he could be. The Titans haven't had a winning season since 2021 when they went 12-5, and they would have to win out to avoid extending that streak.
That doesn't mean the team has nothing to play for in the remaining seven games. Outside linebacker Harold Landry III pointed to the 2022 Jaguars team as an example of how things can go if they stay the course. Jacksonville overcame a 3-7 record and won the AFC South in the season finale by beating the Titans that season.
Tennessee has five clashes with AFC South opponents left on the schedule, and Landry believes a spark to change course could be on the horizon.
"There's optimism because we know the guys that we have in the locker room, and we have the right people in the building to turn this thing around," Landry said.
The team believes in Callahan, who has driven a narrative that incremental improvement is occurring within the building. It's little things like undrafted free agent receiver Bryce Oliver stepping in for Calvin Ridley and making a 33-yard reception on a play he hadn't repped in practice or Brown stepping in and making plays at safety after Quandre Diggs suffered a season-ending foot injury.
"Everything that we're doing on a daily basis is what's driving those incremental improvements and we just got to find a way on Sunday man to put it all together because we're right there," Landry said.
Callahan said he saw early that he had a locker room full of pros who "understand what it means to play in the NFL." The adversity from losing has taught Callahan that his team won't give up when things don't go their way.
Callahan got an opportunity to show his players he'll fight for them too when he was beside himself after the penalty on Brown against the Vikings and drew an unsportsmanlike conduct call. It resonated with players.
"It shows his passion for the game," Brown said. "Everybody wants to win. If something's not right he's going to speak his mind."
The first of Tennessee's remaining division games will be against the AFC South-leading Houston Texans comes this Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS) at Reliant Stadium. The Titans lost their only division game in Week 5 against the Indianapolis Colts. Callahan will be looking to bounce back this week.
"The stakes are a bit higher and they're games you want to win because none of us like each other very much," Callahan said. "We got to find a way to at least make a mark on our division here at the end of the year with all these games coming up."
