Titans cool off Bills in battle of unbeatens
NEW YORK: Ryan Tannehill threw for three touchdowns as the Tennessee Titans won the battle of unbeaten teams with a 42-16 victory over Buffalo in a rare Tuesday NFL contest that was rescheduled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The short-handed Titans have four consecutive wins to start the season led by their stellar offence, and their 122 points over that span is the most in franchise history.
The game, between two of the top teams in the AFC, was originally slated to be played on Sunday but remained in jeopardy after two dozen people in the Tennessee organisation tested positive for Covid-19 during the last 20 days.
It was the Titans’ first game in 16 days after their Covid-19 outbreak postponed their week four home game against Pittsburgh.
Tannehill completed 21 of 28 passes for 195 yards, and wideout AJ Brown returned from an injury to reel in seven catches for 82 yards and a touchdown in just the third Tuesday game in NFL history. Running back Derrick Henry rushed for 57 yards and two touchdowns.
The Titans currently have seven players on the Covid-19 list, including defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, receivers Corey Davis and Adam
Humphries, cornerback Kristian Fulton, linebacker Kamalei Correa, tight end MyCole Pruitt, and fullback
Khari Blasingame.
Brown hadn’t played since week one when he suffered a bone bruise on his knee. Brown made five catches for 39 yards in the Titans’ season opener.
The Bills, who suffered their first defeat after getting off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 2008, were unable to take advantage of the Titans’ depleted roster in front of a sparse crowd of 8,400 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Organisers restricted the number of spectators in the stadium because of the novel coronavirus pandemic which has so far killed over 219,000 Americans.
Third year quarterback Josh Allen completed 26-of-41 passes for 263 yards and two touchdowns and he also had a pair of interceptions.
But the Bills had injury problems of their own and were missing star linebacker Matt Milano, who is out with a pectoral injury.
Buffalo didn’t do themselves any favours by committing 10 penalties for 56 yards.
Henry put the Titans ahead to stay, 14-7, with a one-yard score just 66 seconds into the second quarter.
Tyler Bass’ 43-yard field goal pulled the Bills to within 14-10, but Tannehill engineered another scoring drive in the final 2:55 minutes of the second as the Titans led 21-10 at half-time.