National Football League

Britt catches 3 TDs as Titans beat Eagles 37-19

Published Oct. 25, 2010 5:25 a.m. ET

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Kerry Collins has seen plenty of receivers in his 16 seasons in the NFL, and he says he hasn't played with many better than Kenny Britt.

The second-year receiver caught seven passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns to help the Tennessee Titans rally for 27 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and beat the Philadelphia Eagles 37-19 Sunday. It was the most yards receiving ever allowed by the Eagles, topping the 213 Tony Hill had for Dallas in 1979.

''The guy loves to play. He loves making big plays,'' Collins said of the 6-foot-3 Britt. ''As a quarterback, it is nice to know that a guy like that is on your team because, like I said today, there were some throws that weren't exactly perfect, but the guy did whatever he had to do to get the ball.''

Britt scored on TD catches of 26, 80 and 16 yards two days after being excused from practice for his involvement in a bar fight in downtown Nashville. Titans coach Jeff Fisher didn't start Britt and may punish him further once the coach learns more details.

''His performance has absolutely nothing to do with what happened (Friday), OK? Absolutely nothing,'' Fisher said. ''It was a great performance. I mean, an outstanding performance. It is two separate issues right now.''

The Titans (5-2) won their third straight overall and their 12th in a row against the NFC. They now sit atop the AFC South with Indianapolis (4-2) and Houston (4-2) both idle.

The Eagles (4-3) snapped a two-game win streak, and coach Andy Reid announced after the game he's going back to Michael Vick as his starting quarterback when the team comes off its bye Nov. 7 at home against the Colts. Kevin Kolb started his third straight game and threw for 231 yards but had three turnovers.

Tennessee turned those turnovers into 17 points, including a 41-yard interception return by Cortland Finnegan to finish the game.

''It was up and down,'' Reid said of Kolb's performance. ''He had some good plays, phenomenal plays. We've got to continue to work with the pressure and make sure that we protect him. We've got to make sure we give him the right plays.''

Eagles linebacker Ernie Sims said giving up 27 unanswered points in the fourth quarter ''hurt bad.'' The Eagles had sacked Collins three times and forced him into three turnovers but didn't score any points off those.

''I feel like we had the game. The team I play with, we're really good. Just to see us go down like that, I know we're better than that,'' Sims said.

The Eagles led 16-7 and seemed ready to put away the game with 5:58 left in the third quarter. They had driven to the Tennessee 3, where Kolb tried to hand off to LeSean McCoy. But Titans tackle Jason Jones knocked the ball out, and rookie cornerback Alterraun Verner grabbed the ball and said he held on for ''dear life.''

''It just can't happen,'' Kolb said. ''It's nobody's fault, and it's everybody's fault. You cannot do that. Obviously, that was the turning point in the ballgame. They got momentum back. We made a mistake. I know exactly what went wrong.''

The Titans, even backed up to their own 1, drove 74 yards for a Rob Bironas field goal to pull within 16-10.

''Once that turnover happened, everything just started clicking for us,'' Jones said.

David Akers kicked his fourth field goal, a 28-yarder with 13:26 left, to put Philadelphia up 19-10.

With the Eagles holding Chris Johnson to 66 yards rushing, Collins just kept looking for Britt. On the first play from scrimmage after Akers' field goal, Collins threw downfield to Britt, a ball slightly underthrown because it was hit as the quarterback put it up. Britt came back, caught it and took off for the 80-yard TD.

The first-round draft pick out of Rutgers in 2009 had a 42-yard catch on the next drive to set up Rob Bironas' second of three field goals, a 38-yarder that put Tennessee ahead to stay. Britt later caught a 16-yard TD pass.

''A lot of times we had him doubled,'' Reid said. ''So he did a pretty good job. I give the kid credit. He's a good football player. We have got to do a better job there.''

Britt wouldn't say much about the incident at the bar. He said his teammates told him to forget what had happened and go do his job, and he thought this game would give him more confidence.

''It's my job to go out there and perform and make the quarterbacks look good, and that's what I did,'' he said.

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