Titans learning how to handle success
NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans are learning how to handle success.
After beating defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia earlier this season, the Titans lost three straight. Now they’ve rebounded with back-to-back wins, including Sunday’s 34-10 rout of reigning AFC champ New England, and are saying all the right things on staying focused after a big victory.
Lots of clichés.
“It’s just another step,” quarterback Marcus Mariota said of the big win. “If we just sit here and feel good about ourselves, the next week we’re not going to play very well. It’s nice to build off of it. It’s a great win for us. But this is not where we want to be and not where we want to go, so we have to continue to work.”
Three-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Jurrell Casey said beating last year’s Super Bowl teams doesn’t matter.
“We got to keep on building week in and week out and get ready for the next opponent coming up next week,” Casey said.
That’s a very different tone than the one they had after knocking off the Eagles.
There were demands for respect issued by two-time Pro Bowl left tackle Taylor Lewan and 2017 All-Pro safety Kevin Byard after the Titans knocked off the Eagles on Sept. 30. Then they went on the three-game skid.
So rookie head coach Mike Vrabel said after the win over the Patriots that he must do a better job helping the Titans handle success than the last time.
On Monday, Vrabel said keeping the Titans focused will be easy. All he has to do is start ticking off all the things the Colts (4-5) are doing well: winning three straight, averaging 29 points a game and not allowing a sack in three games.
“For me, to try to stand up here and make something up, I won’t have to do that …,” Vrabel said. “So it won’t be hard for me to look for clips of Indianapolis playing good football.”
The Titans (5-4) also have never beaten Andrew Luck, losing all nine games against the quarterback. They swept the Colts last season for the first time since 2002; Luck missed both games with a shoulder injury that put him on injured reserve.
Bengals fire defensive coordinator Austin after being routed 51-14 by Saints
CINCINNATI — Marvin Lewis got the Cincinnati Bengals’ head coaching job because of his reputation for defensive excellence. He’s now in charge of trying to resuscitate a historically bad unit and pulling Cincinnati’s season back from the brink.
The Bengals fired defensive coordinator Teryl Austin on Monday, a day after a 51-14 loss to the Saints that ranks among the worst in franchise history. New Orleans scored on every possession except the last one — when it took a knee while in field-goal range — during its rout at Paul Brown Stadium.
The fading Bengals (5-4) fired a coordinator in midstream for the second season in a row. And it’s up to Lewis to get hands-on and try to fix the mess while filling two roles at once.
“Teryl worked very hard, but I just felt like we have to rock their world, shake things up,” Lewis said.
The timing was curious. The Bengals were coming off their bye week that would have given them time to adapt to a change at coordinator. Now they’re changing on the fly while getting ready for a pivotal AFC North game at Baltimore (4-5) on Sunday.
Kansas City’s maligned defense shines in 26-14 victory over Arizona
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs finally got Justin Houston back onto the field Sunday against Arizona, and the four-time Pro Bowl linebacker made one of the plays of the game when he picked off Arizona Cardinals quarterback Josh Rosen on a second-half screen pass.
The Chiefs also got safety Daniel Sorensen back from injured reserve, where he had resided since breaking his leg in training camp, and he had five tackles while providing a hard-hitting presence.
Perhaps it’s no surprise the Chiefs defense played the best it has all season.
With two of their anticipated starters back on the field, the Chiefs held the Cardinals to 260 yards in a 26-14 victory. They sacked Rosen five times, intercepted him twice and even managed to keep David Johnson under 100 yards rushing — just barely.
“I feel like the first couple weeks we were putting too much into it, trying too hard,” linebacker Reggie Ragland said. “We’re having fun with it. Whatever happens happens. It’s football. We’ve been playing this game for too long for us not to have fun with it. It’s a child’s game and we’re grown men playing it, so have fun with it. Don’t worry about all that other stuff.”
The Chiefs (9-1) sure looked as if they were having a ball Sunday.
Dee Ford had his ninth sack of the season with three tackles for a loss and four hits on Rosen. Allen Bailey had his fifth sack while Chris Jones had two to give him a career-high seven for the season, including at least one sack in six consecutive games.
All told, Rosen was hit 13 times and fumbled once while throwing for just 208 yards and a score.
“The one thing we’re doing right now is we are minimizing big plays,” defensive tackle Jarvis Jenkins said. “That is one thing we all play on is minimizing big plays, then getting them one-dimensional so we can rush the passer. I think we did that this game.”
Cowboys look for win streak after saving season with victory in Philadelphia
FRISCO, Texas — Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott played off each other in a season-saving win over Philadelphia much the same way they did during their remarkable rookie year together in 2016.
Now the star quarterback and running back of the Dallas Cowboys need a winning streak, although it won’t have to be as long as the franchise-record run two years ago, the last time they made the playoffs.
“I don’t go back and look and try to compare now to then,” Prescott said after throwing for a touchdown and running for one in a 27-20 win. “This is the team we have and this is when everything is clicking and we’re playing the way we need to be playing. This is what we’re capable of.”
The Cowboys (4-5) were in a desperate spot visiting the defending champion Eagles because of an up-anddown season notable for its struggles on offense. Now that they have their first road win, they have to do it again Sunday at Atlanta (4-5).