NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Against the backdrop of being whipped 26-10 at home on Sunday by the Cowboys, the impressive road win by the Titans at Kansas City to open the season appears now as nothing more than fool's gold.
None of the key markers -- time of possession, third-down defense, balanced offense -- for success the Titans (1-1) had the previous week found their way here today to sun-splashed LP Field. Instead, the Cowboys (1-1) ran up and down the field nearly unimpeded, much to the approval of the high influx of Dallas fans who found their way among the sell-out crowd of 69,143.
To the contrary, the Titans showed more of the same mediocrity on both sides of the ball that has kept them from the playoffs since 2008 and without a postseason victory since 2003. The last five-plus seasons, the Titans are now 20-21 at a home roost they once ruled.
"I'm very disappointed that we didn't play better today, especially at home," said Ken Whisenhunt, who was making his LP Field debut as Titans coach. "It really hurts, and we got a lot of things that we can correct and work on from this game."
Rebounding from their embarrassing opening loss to the 49ers in which they turned the ball over four times in the first half, including interceptions thrown by quarterback Tony Romo on three-straight possessions, the Cowboys dominated the first half and raced to a 16-0 bulge by intermission.
Romo finished the game by completing 19-of-29 passes for 176 yards with one touchdown, no interceptions and a solid 93.5 rating. Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray raced for 167 yards on 29 carries (5.8 yards per) and a touchdown, a week after the Titans had nearly shut down Chiefs rushing star Jamal Charles.
"We make a lot of big statements about what every team is going to be after week one," said Romo, who saw limited time in the preseason after coming off back surgery for a second straight off-season. "I'm sure at the end of the day, you'll find out that a lot of the things we all thought of last week are completely different this week.
" ... A win today was a very important win. Starting 0-2 is a very, very big hole that you don't want to be in."
The Cowboys used 9-of-16 third-down conversions (56 percent) for a whopping 41:11 advantage in time of possession compared to the Titans' 18:49. That script had completely flipped from the previous week when the Titans held the ball 37:44 to the Chiefs' 22:16, while the Titans had allowed the Chiefs to complete only 1-of-12 third-down plays.
"I think it helps us out a lot," said Murray of defenses keying on stopping the ground game and opening other parts of the offense. "Definitely in the passing game, it lets (wide receiver) Dez (Bryant) and (tight end) Whit (Jason Whitten) get one-one-one matchups, and we need to take advantage of those things. The offensive line did a great job of blocking."
Bryant had 10 catches for 103 yards, both team highs, while Whitten -- a popular product out of the University of Tennessee -- had seven catches for 32 yards.
"He is just a bell cow type of back," said Whitten of Murray, who had 1,121 rushing yards last year in 14 games. "He can run hard. He can follow blocks and create yards, but he can also do it on his own. He is just a really good football player."
The general notion for the Titans this season is they will go as far as quarterback Jake Locker can take them. The fourth-year quarterback, now 9-11 as a starter, was erratic in the first half, completing only 4-of-12 passes for 26 yards with one interception and a paltry 7.6 passer rating.
"Yeah, we couldn't find a rhythm," said Locker of the first half. "(We) had some guys open and (I) missed them, and weren't able to get drives going."
The Titans began the second half with a sense of urgency. Locker completed 4-of-5 passes on the opening drive to finally get the Titans on the board with a 47-yard field goal by Ryan Succup. On their next possession, Locker connected on three straight passes, including a 61-yard scoring strike to tight end Delanie Walker, who bounced off Cowboys cornerback Morris Claiborne before outracing four defenders to the end zone for the longest scoring catch of his career.
"It's hard," said Walker of the team losing despite his posting a career-high 142 receiving yards on 10 catches, both team highs. "When you lose, the records, whatever, if it's the best game I had, it doesn't matter, we lost. So, no one cares about that, especially I don't."
"It's a tough one, especially to lose at home the way we did, not really putting up points on the board, and that's difficult."
Walker's touchdown pulled the Titans within 16-10 midway through the third quarter, seizing momentum for the first time after slicing the deficit to one possession. But the Cowboys answered on their next possession with the drive of the day, marching 80 yards on 12 plays and getting a 3-yard scoring strike from Romo to Bryant.
"That was big," said Cowboys coach Jason Garrett of pushing the score to 23-10 late in third quarter to thwart the Titans' comeback. "It's big. You have to respond. It's a 60-minute game. When things are going well, you've got to keep the heat on them. You've got to keep putting pressure on them."
The Titans now hit the road for consecutive games against 2013 playoff teams, including the Bengals next Sunday and AFC South rival Colts, the defending division champions, in two weeks. Somewhere between the solid effort in the win at the Chiefs and the egg laid here on Sunday against the Cowboys, you'll find a Titans team still trying to figure its way under a new coach.
"We had some success in the second half," said Whisenhunt said of the loss, "but it doesn't matter. We didn't do enough to win the football game. We all had breakdowns. We had dropped balls. We had missed tackles.
"Those are things we haven't done, even though we have played only two games, but something that we have to get better at."
