There are plenty of sights to see in London.
Tennessee defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons isn’t interested in them ahead of the Titans’ Sunday game against the Baltimore Ravens in the English capital.
“This is a business trip,” he said. “I haven’t been looking too much at London. My main goal is to go over there and get a win, and hopefully that’s the main goal for everyone. Not just that we’re going out of the country to play ball, but let’s get a win.”
Tennessee will aim for that victory on Sunday in its last game before a bye week. Win and the Titans will take their week off at 3-3, in good position in the AFC South with five of its six division games left. Lose and they will be 2-4 with the defending division champ Jacksonville Jaguars appearing to find their groove after back-to-back wins in London.
The Titans are 0-3 away from Nashville, including a 23-16 defeat at Indianapolis last week in which their defense couldn’t stop Zack Moss and their offense again settled for red-zone field goals instead of cashing in for touchdowns.
Moss ran for 165 yards and two touchdowns, while Tennessee managed one touchdown out of four trips inside the Colts’ 20. The Titans came away with nothing after reaching the 5 in the fourth quarter as Derrick Henry was stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-1.
“We haven’t scored enough touchdowns, period,” Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill said. “You look at getting down in the red zone, kicking field goals and getting behind the sticks, hurting ourselves, putting ourselves in long-yard situations. We got to score more as an offense.”
To a lesser extent, Baltimore (3-2) is experiencing some of the same issues. The Ravens were damaged by turnovers and sacks on Sept. 24 in a 22-19 overtime loss to Indianapolis and used the same formula to squander an early lead last week in a 17-10 defeat at Pittsburgh.
Quarterback Lamar Jackson absorbed four sacks from the Steelers while coughing up a fumble and throwing a late interception. Baltimore finished with three turnovers, a sure way to lose on the road anywhere but particularly so against a division rival.
“There was just too many things going wrong,” Ravens tight end Mark Andrews said. “It’s almost like a sleeping giant, man. We need to wake up.”
The Ravens are tied for second in the league in scoring defense (15 points per game) and second in sacks with 18, indicative of how they have stifled the opposition. No team has managed more against Baltimore than the 24 points Cincinnati got in Week 2.
However, the Ravens have lost six fumbles, tied for the second-highest total in the NFL. That’s why Baltimore is tied for 17th in the league in scoring average (21.8 points per game) despite Jackson completing passes at a career-best 69.9 percent.
“We should be 5-0, I believe,” Jackson said. “We just have to put points on the board, protect the ball.”
This will be the teams’ 27th meeting, regular season and postseason combined, and the series is tied at 13-13.
–Field Level Media
