{"id":304575,"date":"2025-11-24T21:53:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T21:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/304575\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T21:53:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T21:53:07","slug":"qb-cam-wards-improvement-offers-hope-for-future-amid-tennessee-titans-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/304575\/","title":{"rendered":"QB Cam Ward’s improvement offers hope for future amid Tennessee Titans’ struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 The Tennessee Titans<\/a> are starting to see more than a glimmer of hope from an absolutely miserable season with rookie quarterback Cam Ward<\/a> growing up with each passing game. <\/p>\n

Interim coach Mike McCoy couldn\u2019t praise Ward\u2019s performance enough even as the Titans lost their 10th straight home game in a 30-24 defeat to Seattle. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taking that next step, and that\u2019s what he\u2019s done,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been saying it from day one, the way he competes, the way he works every day. When we first came in in the offseason program, the early mornings, staying late, things like that, it\u2019s starting to pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The No. 1 overall pick helped Tennessee score a season high in points and run a season-high 68 offensive plays and holding the ball a season-high 37 minutes, 25 seconds. <\/p>\n

Ward also scrambled for a season high in yards with his first rushing touchdown and threw for 256 yards with one TD. <\/p>\n

Better yet, the rookie finished his third straight game without an interception and didn\u2019t fumble despite being sacked four times. <\/p>\n

The Titans (1-10) have been blown out at times this season and even shut out Sept. 28 before coach Brian Callahan was fired. But they\u2019ve strung together three straight losses by a touchdown or less. <\/p>\n

Tennessee is 5-6 against the spread this season according to BetMGM.com. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that matters the win or loss,\u201d Ward said. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s working<\/p>\n

The rookie class. If anyone\u2019s looking to grade first-year general manager Mike Borgonzi, the Titans started a season-high five of their nine draft picks against Seattle. That\u2019s the most for any Titans\u2019 game since at least 2005 when five or more draft picks started six times that season. <\/p>\n

Tennessee wound up playing a season-high 10 rookies in a season where nine have played in four other games. Rookie tight end Gunnar Helm<\/a> had a team-high six catches for 51 yards, a season high. Safety Kevin Winston Jr.<\/a> had a team-high 10 tackles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat gives a lot of hope,\u201d Ward said of the production of the rookie class. <\/p>\n

What needs help<\/p>\n

Self-inflicted penalties continue to help the Titans be their own worst enemy for a team with 102 penalties for 599 yards this season. They cleaned those up in McCoy\u2019s first two games as interim coach. But they had 10 for 63 yards against the Seahawks with two wiping out first downs. <\/p>\n

Worse, plenty are penalties the Titans should be able to eliminate. Unnecessary roughness, a chop block, too many men in the offensive huddle after a 25-yard pickup on third down. The last came as the Titans were trying to recover an onside kick in the final minute only to be flagged for illegal touching.<\/p>\n

Stock up<\/p>\n

Chimere Dike<\/a>. The rookie from Florida continues leading the NFL in all-purpose yards with 1,760 after having 232 combined yards. He has topped 200 all-purpose yards in three of the past four games. Dike has a chance to threaten Darren Sproles\u2019 league record of 2,696 all-purpose yards in 2011 with New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Derrick Mason is second all time in the NFL, and Mason has the Titans\u2019 record of 2,690 in 2000.<\/p>\n

Dike also tied the franchise record for longest punt return set by Pacman Jones on Nov. 19, 2006, at Philadelphia, with a 90-yarder for a TD. He became the seventh rookie since 2000 with at least two punt return TDs, a group that includes Devin Hester (three) and Tyreek Hill<\/a> (two). <\/p>\n

Stock down<\/p>\n

Jihad Ward<\/a>. The outside linebacker has 3 1\/2 sacks this season, but he was flagged for a pair of penalties against Seattle. <\/p>\n

Injuries<\/p>\n

LT Dan Moore Jr.<\/a> played only 33 snaps before a knee injury, and C Lloyd Cushenberry missed nine offensive snaps with a late ankle injury. DL Shy Tuttle<\/a> is in the concussion protocol.<\/p>\n

Key number<\/p>\n

9 \u2014 Teams currently with a winning record the Titans have played so far this season with a combined record of 76-46. <\/p>\n

Next steps<\/p>\n

The NFL\u2019s lone one-win team wraps up a four-game homestand Sunday by hosting the Jaguars (7-4) for the first game between the AFC South rivals this season. The Titans already have been swept by Houston and Indianapolis inside the division. <\/p>\n

Of the final six games, the Titans face only two teams with losing records in Cleveland (3-8) and New Orleans (2-9) in a season that could net Tennessee a second consecutive No. 1 overall draft pick. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n

Teresa M. Walker, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 The Tennessee Titans are starting to see more than a glimmer of hope from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-304575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}