The opportunity was right there, and the Tennessee Titans missed it.
They not only suffered their sixth loss in seven games when they allowed the Cleveland Browns to escape with a 27-24 win Sunday at Nissan Stadium, they also nudged the Brownies out and themselves into the record book in a way no one would want.
The loss Sunday extended the Titans' nearly four-year stretch of not winning consecutive games to 65. That tied the Browns’ infamous stretch 2014-18 in which they also went 65 games without posting consecutive victories even once.
But now, with another loss tacked on, the Titans will extend and break that record starting next week in Cincinnati, no matter the result.
Even if they somehow stun the Bengals on the road, they would have to come back after their bye and defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars on Nov. 15 just to stop the nonconsecutive streak at 67 games.
To understand how incredibly and amazingly bad such a run is, you must go back into the standings and see that the Browns went through a stretch of going 1-31 in 2016 and 2017 en route to setting that pathetic mark.
For the Titans to equal that, and now certain to surpass it, speaks to the total dysfunction that has usurped almost anything positive that has happened in this franchise’s last four years.
Tennessee last produced a win streak of two games back on Nov. 13 and Nov. 17, 2022 when they defeated the Denver Broncos at home and the Green Bay Packers on a Thursday night on the road.
Much has changed since then. That team still had Derrick Henry, Ryan Tannehill, Kevin Byard and a host of other quality players with Mike Vrabel coaching and Jon Robinson calling the shots as GM.
That seems like aeons ago. At the very least, we know it was several regimes ago, and those currently in charge – head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Mike Borgonzi – are still at least partially paying the price for the failures of the last four years, as the infamous streak lives on.