{"id":140744,"date":"2025-09-08T03:02:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T03:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/140744\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T03:02:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T03:02:11","slug":"tennessee-titans-fall-to-denver-broncos-in-cam-wards-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/140744\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Titans fall to Denver Broncos in Cam Ward&#8217;s debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/davenport_turron.png&#038;h=80&#038;w=80&#038;scale=crop.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Turron DavenportSep 7, 2025, 10:03 PM ET<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"icon-font-after icon-close-solid-after\" href=\"#\">Close<\/a>Turron Davenport covers the Tennessee Titans for ESPN since 2018. Turron is a former collegiate football player at Cheyney University and is a native of Philadelphia, and he has authored\/co-authored four books. You can catch Turron on ESPN Radio on his show &#8220;Talking with TD.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>DENVER &#8212; The debut for No. 1 pick <a data-player-guid=\"9f4e87b5-5da8-38c0-9951-e3496b55b3c8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4688380\/cam-ward\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cam Ward<\/a> had its share of rough moments as the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"0a0aea59-9a5e-01b3-57a3-0151cf4bf393\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/ten\/tennessee-titans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tennessee Titans<\/a> lost <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/game\/_\/gameId\/401772832\/titans-broncos\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">20-12<\/a> to the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"51042145-e3c1-0694-ae0d-f720342ff8fc\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/den\/denver-broncos\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Denver Broncos<\/a>. Ward&#8217;s frustration came to the surface when he spoke about scoring only six points off four turnovers created by the Titans&#8217; defense.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were ass honestly,&#8221; Ward said after the game. &#8220;When you get a defense that gets three or four turnovers and don&#8217;t capitalize on it, that&#8217;s on us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The four turnovers resulted in two field goals by kicker <a data-player-guid=\"14161879-c0f4-dfb0-f02d-a03b141fe757\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3124084\/joey-slye\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joey Slye<\/a>. The first one came with 49 seconds left in the first quarter when <a data-player-guid=\"94aa18de-e04a-ae52-6e23-3f72ffce1141\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4371973\/roger-mccreary\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roger McCreary<\/a> picked off a <a data-player-guid=\"f9de7512-a950-3317-816b-abe094068409\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4426338\/bo-nix\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bo Nix<\/a> pass that was intended for <a data-player-guid=\"32a202cd-dda5-e1c7-1c11-569436ff5230\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3128429\/courtland-sutton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Courtland Sutton<\/a>. The Titans took over at the Broncos&#8217; 32-yard, but <a data-player-guid=\"1fcf4862-25fd-157f-c216-63e99beebfee\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3916148\/tony-pollard\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tony Pollard<\/a> fumbled a few plays later.<\/p>\n<p><a data-player-guid=\"23ac2df6-b423-cfe9-5527-7a09058b5b4b\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3047495\/sebastian-joseph-day\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sebastian Joseph-Day<\/a> recovered <a data-player-guid=\"3d2c970c-ba26-bcf9-3e98-bd833dd57be6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4035369\/jeffery-simmons\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jeffery Simmons<\/a>&#8216; strip-sack on Nix in the second quarter at Denver&#8217;s 38-yard line, resulting in a 33-yard field goal by Slye. Tennessee got another interception when <a data-player-guid=\"e99867e9-3b2f-75c4-6985-49b7fdd68a4c\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3040572\/xavier-woods\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Xavier Woods<\/a> picked Nix off on the Broncos&#8217; first drive of the second half. Woods returned the interception 16 yards to Denver&#8217;s 26-yard line. Slye came through again, this time with a 35-yard field goal.<\/p>\n<p>For the game, Ward completed 12 of 28 passes for 112 yards. A number of Ward&#8217;s passes were dropped by his receivers, including a crucial one by <a data-player-guid=\"4bfb2401-3499-7fb7-2eea-a237345fed6a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3925357\/calvin-ridley\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Calvin Ridley<\/a> that would have resulted in a first down on their final offensive series.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee&#8217;s best scoring opportunity came when gunners <a data-player-guid=\"0ca790ac-6cfd-f910-f4a4-ad515ef5add6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3930066\/van-jefferson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Van Jefferson<\/a> and <a data-player-guid=\"3f1faae0-bc7a-d4d6-7c62-8b8bc0bb9892\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4362617\/bryce-oliver\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bryce Oliver<\/a> were directly in front of Broncos&#8217; returner <a data-player-guid=\"9874a811-7338-3390-bfc5-c75b65beb1b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4686472\/marvin-mims-jr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marvin Mims Jr<\/a>. as he muffed a punt after calling for a fair catch. Linebacker <a data-player-guid=\"eec27ef0-2191-3e30-ac8d-280ce6b29fb1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4573318\/dorian-mausi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dorian Mausi<\/a> recovered the fumble at the Broncos&#8217; 24-yard line. Ward was sacked on second and third down for a combined loss of 27 yards and the Titans had to punt.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/p>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think there was a point in that game where they became one dimensional, somewhere in the fourth quarter, earlier in the fourth quarter than they would have liked. And that&#8217;s hard for any quarterback,&#8221; Denver coach Sean Payton said in reference to Ward. &#8220;But once they were one dimensional, our pass rush did a great job.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Those two sacks gave Ward what he called the biggest lesson of the day. He accepted responsibility for them because he felt he needed to get the ball out quicker.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just got to be better situationally knowing when we are on the edge of field goal range, not taking a bad sack,&#8221; Ward said. &#8220;Just getting the ball out, and whether that&#8217;s dirt it or having to get out the pocket to throw it away.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Titans will get an opportunity to rebound next week when they host the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"2e1473b2-e269-fd7a-1137-c1edacb85986\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/lar\/los-angeles-rams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Rams<\/a> at Nissan Stadium for their home opener.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN staff writer Jeff Legwold contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turron DavenportSep 7, 2025, 10:03 PM ET CloseTurron Davenport covers the Tennessee Titans for ESPN since 2018. Turron&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-140744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}