NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Ken Whisenhunt can blame himself for that one.
Though that's not what he chose to do when he stepped to the podium.
The Tennessee Titans put together the worst collapse by a home team in NFL regular season history, turning a 28-3 lead into a 29-28 loss to the Cleveland Browns at LP Field and dropping their fourth consecutive game.
While his players stopped executing, Whisenhunt's play-calling as the game got tighter didn't maximize the Titans' chances to keep scoring or to hold on. I was somewhat surprised he wasn't more self-critical, and team-critical, after the horror show.
He called it an "unbelievably tough loss" but also put the first half on display as evidence that the Titans "made progress from last week."
I tend to think the second half basically washed away the first, but then I'm not trying to hold together the psyche of what is clearly a weak-minded football team.
On the Titans' final two series with the lead, the team kept valuable time on the game clock with three incomplete passes and a pass that took Delanie Walker out of bounds.
That Walker catch at least looked to produce another thing that could have helped kill clock: a first down.
But Cleveland coach Mike Pettitte's challenge of the spot was successful, leaving the Titans with a fourth-and-1 at their 42-yard line.
Instead of pinning the Browns deep, Whisenhunt called for a Charlie Whitehurst sneak. The Browns surged and the quarterback got nowhere.
After a challenge he was still short.
The Browns needed 42 yards in 3:03 and Cleveland got them in 1:54.
"I considered [punting]," Whisenhunt said. "But I felt like with them only having one timeout we would have had a chance to win the game right there."
As for the play-calling that preserved time for Cleveland…
"We ran it some and weren't getting anything on it and we put ourselves in third-and-long and we were struggling to make a play," Whisenhunt said. "We had some matchups that presented problems early in the game from a passing standpoint. You know, we didn't execute."
Whisenhunt's been progressively angry after the team's last three losses. That did not continue after this one, which was by far the worst loss the team's suffered this season -- not to mention many years predating Whisenhunt.
First half success doesn't matter if you don't show up for the second half.
And in the final 30 minutes, the Titans produced six first downs, 126 yards and zero points while the defense allowed 16 first downs, 278 yards and 19 points.
For a bad team searching for a positive, I guess the first half is significant.
In the locker room, Whisenhunt's players reflected his tone. Maybe they were numb. Maybe losing narrowly actually seemed better than losing badly.
"You look at what happens in the league every week and you have to expect a game is going to be made of this thing and we expected that," Whitehurst said. "At halftime we knew we had a huge lead but we were prepared if it got close to win the game. That's where our mindset was. That's what happened and we weren't able to get it done."
I understand his point.
Still, they expected the Browns to make a game of it? That seems to be part of the problem right there.
Under the last two head coaches this team was entirely too excited about simply having a chance to win at the end.
It'd be nice to see a team ahead 25 points in the first half ice it, put an underwhelming opponent away and then share the details of stomping someone.
I'd talked to Whisenhunt and several players when I got to a group conversation with inside linebacker Wesley Woodyard. I said guys didn't even seem pissed off about it and asked if they were.
"Don't say that, man," he said. "Why would you say nobody's pissed off?"
"Because I just talked to six guys and nobody said, ‘I'm pissed off,'" I replied.
"I'm pissed off," he said, voice raised. "I'm pissed off. How about that?"