Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati felt a lot like the playoff defeat in January, with the Titans again squandering plenty of chances to come away with a victory.
And it also feels like the beginning of something deeper developing between the two clubs.
For more than two decades, the arch-nemesis of the Tennessee Titans has been the Baltimore Ravens.
The Ravens were the first road team to come away with a win inside what is now Nissan Stadium. They also stung the Titans in the 2000 playoffs, ruining what many Tennessee fans felt like was a Super Bowl season. They went on to hand the Titans many other frustrating losses over the years, including two other home playoff defeats.
Crazy bounces and questionable calls over the years have helped turn games and fuel the rivalry that still exists, even though the teams aren’t in the same division anymore.
But if the Ravens are The Joker in terms of the team’s rogues gallery, then it might be safe to say that the Cincinnati Bengals are now becoming The Riddler in the hierarchy of Titans villains.
The upstart Bengals, led by quarterback Joe Burrow, who managed to survive nine sacks back in January to beat the Titans, were at it again Sunday.
Burrow made just enough plays on offense, and the defense frustrated Derrick Henry as the Bengals again were able to sneak out of Nashville with a win the Titans should have been theirs.
Riddle me this in terms of just how the Bengals have prevailed in unusual fashion twice now against the Titans:
• Sunday’s game ended with an odd personal foul penalty on Kevin Strong for hitting the long snapper on a late field goal try, and allowed Cincinnati to run out the clock.
• In January, it was Ryan Tannehill’s third interception of the game that set up a winning field goal as time expired as the Bengals stunned the Titans.
For whatever reason, the Bengals have done what is necessary against the Titans when it counts most, and Tennessee has yet to solve this puzzle.
The fact is the Bengals have found a way to take the Titans out of their physical and opportunistic style by playing their own version of it and then one-upping them with it. It has become a source of frustration for Tennessee.
“It’s frustrating because it’s a loss, but whether it’s the Bengals or who the (expletive) ever, it’s a loss, so that’s very frustrating,” linebacker David Long said after the game.
Earlier in the week, Coach Mike Vrabel was quick to say Sunday’s game was not a revenge game for the playoff meltdown 10 months before. But it’s not certain that anyone really bought that line of thinking.
The Bengals certainly didn’t, saying that Sunday’s game felt like a playoff game to them.
“For sure,” said Cincinnati running back Samaji Perine when that subject came up.
Just like the Ravens have over the years, the Bengals took the Titans’ physical toughness Sunday and shoved it right back in their face – and it worked.
“That’s what we’ve heard all week, coming into the game, that we’ve got to match their physicality. We’ve got to meet it and be ready for it and bring the physicality as well,” Perine said. “They got to match our physicality. We’re a different team than we were last year, and it showed out there today. Whatever they throw in front of us, we’re ready for it and we’re going to be physical.”
Defensive back Mike Hilton, who knifed through several times on run blitzes to keep Derrick Henry in check, said the Bengals were eager to prove themselves once again against Henry and the Titans.
“He’s a physical guy, but so am I. I live for games like this and went out and proved it today,” Hilton said.
For the record, Henry, who had just 38 yards rushing on 17 carries, acknowledged that the Bengals are a problem in this budding rivalry.
“They are playing better than the last time we faced them. We’ll see them again and I am sure we will play better the next time,” he said.
Perhaps, they will. And just in case you haven’t yet checked the playoff picture, if the postseason were to start this week, the Titans would play host to – you guessed it – the Cincinnati Bengals.
Stay tuned. Same bat time. Same bat channel.
Terry McCormick covers the Titans for TitanInsider.com, a part of Main Street Media.