The Tennessee Titans escaped with a 23-20 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers thanks to a goal-line stand that ended with fumble recovered by Jurrell Casey to end the game.
That stand made a winner of Ryan Tannehill in his first career start as a Titan and got Coach Mike Vrabel off the hook for a questionable failed fourth-and-one call at midfield.
After Tannehill was stopped for no gain at the Chargers 49 with 2:35 left to play, Philip Rivers wasted no time putting the Chargers in position for the win. The Chargers initially were given a 16-yard touchdown pass to Austin Ekeler but replay ruled he was down inside the one. Later, Melvin Gordon was given a touchdown only to have replay rule him short of the goal. On the next play with 19 seconds left, Wesley Woodyard knocked the ball out and Jurrell Casey recovered, with that too not initially seen by the officials but called through replay.
“It’s either rip the ball out, or they score, or we’re going into overtime,” Woodyard said. “I came off the edge got my hand across the ball and was actually trying to yank him away from the goal-line but I was able to get a light strip off and I saw it fall into Casey’s lap.”
The Titans (3-4) may have saved their season for the moment and found new life offensively with the switch to Tannehill at quarterback. Tannehill was 23 of 29 for 312 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. His ability to open up the passing game pumped much-needed life into the Titan’s stale offense.
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