The Tennessee Titans find themselves in a familiar, frustrating predicament: penalties. Flags litter the field, drives stall, and the chorus of frustration grows louder with each yellow marker. But does the sheer volume of penalties truly correlate with losing? A recent deep dive by Nick Suss of the Tennessean reveals a surprising truth: the connection between penalties and wins isn’t as straightforward as it seems.
Suss’s analysis, spanning the last three NFL seasons, examined eight different penalty-related factors, from total penalties called to net penalty yards and pre-snap infractions. His findings? No direct correlation between penalty counts and a team’s win-loss record. In fact, playoff teams over the past three years were evenly split between the top and bottom halves of the league in penalty rate. This begs the question: are the Titans’ penalties a symptom of their struggles, or the cause?
“Teams that commit the most penalties, there is absolutely zero connection between that and actual team success,” Suss states. “That does not mean penalties are not a problem. But…the Titans are losing games and they’re committing a bunch of penalties. The symptoms are not necessarily connected.”
This isn’t to say penalties are irrelevant. The type of penalty, however, appears to be more critical than the sheer number. Titans Offensive Coordinator Brian Callahan, in his offseason analysis, emphasized minimizing “controllable penalties”—pre-snap, post-snap, and alignment errors. These mental miscues, like false starts, encroachments, and illegal formations, are the true culprits disrupting the Titans’ rhythm.
Ironically, while the Titans focused on reducing these controllable penalties during the offseason, they’ve seen a significant uptick. Last season, they averaged 3.6 controllable penalties per game; this season, that number has jumped to six. While small sample sizes can be misleading, this stark increase raises concerns. Are the Titans trying too hard? Is the pressure of high expectations leading to mental lapses?
“If you know you’re going backwards, and if you know you’re a little bit overmatched…you’re going to be jumping,” Suss suggests, offering a potential psychological explanation. “And that is a…mental discipline issue. That is not a talent or skill issue.”
The challenge for Callahan and his staff lies in finding effective consequences for these mental errors. Fines might not be the answer; benching a player for a crucial mistake, however, presents its own dilemma. Does pulling a struggling player risk undermining his confidence and the very trust that earned him the starting spot? Finding the balance between discipline and support is a delicate tightrope walk for any coaching staff.
The Titans’ penalty problem is a complex puzzle. It’s not simply about reducing the number of flags; it’s about eliminating the mental mistakes, the pre-snap anxieties, and the self-inflicted wounds that derail drives. The solution lies not just in physical practice but in cultivating mental fortitude, fostering trust, and developing a disciplined approach to every snap. The Titans’ success may depend on it.
