Tennessee Titans head coach Mike McCoy Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Titans HC Blames Penalties for Texans Loss

Originally posted on Tennessee Titans on SI
By Lane Mills | Last updated Nov 17, 2025 12:32 PM ET

The Tennessee Titans, following their latest home loss to the Houston Texans, are now 1-9 throught 10 games; their last five losses, in a particularly interesting statistic, have come in a row under interim head coach Mike McCoy.

Making Matters Worse

To make matters worse, the aforementioned Texans loss - which marks the second in that fashion this season - furthered Tennessee from their still elusive AFC South win. Winless in their division and facing a black hole of uncertainty, the team falling short in close, 16-13 fashion only made matters more grueling.

In a position where a miraculous, "win out" scenario would still see them fall short of the playoffs, the team has no particular metric at this point for what success would look like, if it were at all achievable. McCoy, speaking with media after the game, pinned the loss on his team's inability to avoid penalties.

"There's just too many penalties that put us against a very, very good defense," McCoy said of the Titans' ultimate fate. "That makes it hard, just keep going backwards instead of having positive plays. We hurt ourselves in those situations, so definitely have got to clean that up."

Mike McCoy with really no answer on why the Titans continue to be conservative with 4th and short pic.twitter.com/gsIw1FIEDO
— AtoZ Sports Nashville (@AtoZSports) November 16, 2025

You Can't Beat Yourself

"We hurt ourselves there," he reiterated. "We kind of had to change some things as the game went along, guys getting injured and not being in the game..."

"There were so many good things in the game... there's plays that guys are making, but you just can't beat yourself against a really good football team."

The Texans, while certainly not a slouch (they shut Tennessee out in their first game in Texas), were playing behind backup quarterback Davis Mills in a road game that, for the first time in a while, seemed like a good opportunity for the Titans to win back some good graces with their home crowd. Instead, in the face of a bye week break that was supposed to prepare them for the second half of the season, the team collapsed in the same fashion that has haunted them all year.

Going forward, in addition to whoever eventually replaces McCoy being more suited than the last two options to handle Tennessee's tangled roster, the franchise will have decisions to make regarding veteran talent, a massive salary cap and, for yet another year, a draft pick among the highest ranks.

As painful as it is, it's past time to outline this season in chalk and look forward to whatever is in store in the future for the good that still remains.

This article first appeared on Tennessee Titans on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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