by Terry McCormick
TitanInsider.com
For about two-and-a-half quarters, it looked promising.
But then, the Titans returned to their struggling ways of the past couple of seasons, turning the ball over on three second-half possessions in a 25-16 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday at Nissan Stadium.
Those turnovers helped doom the Titans to their 28th loss in their past 33 games and came after posting a 10-0 lead in the first half.
The Vikings, starting backup Shaun Hill at quarterback with Teddy Bridgewater out for the season, got two gift touchdowns from the Titans. The first came when a Marcus Mariota pass that Eric Kendricks picked off and returned it 77 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.
After that, a fumbled exchange in the fourth quarter on a handoff from Mariota to DeMarco Murray was picked up by Danielle Hunter and returned 24 yards for another score that made the score 22-10.
The Titans had another fumble from Murray that the defense managed to get a stop on.
Tennessee’s defense did a good job of stopping Adrian Peterson, holding him to 31 yards on 19 carries. Also, Tennessee held the Vikings out of the end zone on offense. But kicker Blair Walsh, who had an up-and-down day, hit 4 of 6 field goal tries.
But it was the turnovers in the second half that did in the Titans on Sunday. Not only did the Titans turn it over, an offense that put up 11 first downs in the first half, was held to just four first downs in the second half until a consolation drive late in the game.
Mariota connected with Murray for a late touchdown to account for the final score.
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