Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau has seen a lot of football over his 80 years, but perhaps nothing quite like Sunday's loss to the Texans. A rookie quarterback helping his team put up 57 points is difficult to forget.
"Well, you would love to [burn the film], but you can't," LeBeau said, via the Tennessean. "You have to look at that film. You have to see where we failed -- all of us. The coaches, the players, all of us. And we have to make sure that everybody understands what we have to do to go forward. And I think we've had an excellent week of practice. I think the guys are focused, and we're going to go play hard for the rest of the season."
LeBeau said the porous performance, fueled by a brilliant afternoon from Deshaun Watson, Will Fuller and especially DeAndre Hopkins, wasn't characteristic of his team.
"That's not us," LeBeau said. "We're going to prove that's not us. That is not us."
Giving up 57 points isn't really anyone. Since the NFL merger, the NFL record for points in a game is 62, which was reached by five teams and only two (the 1999 Jacksonville Jaguars and the 2011 New Orleans Saints). The Titans were another touchdown away from being alone atop that unfortunate list and, as unbelievable as it might seem, the Texans had more scoring left in them Sunday.
A blowout loss is difficult for any team to recover from, but what about a Titans team that normally has the luxury of a dominant, run-first offense? With Marcus Mariota (hamstring) less than 100 percent, will they be able to replicate the type of system that allows their defense to function at full strength? Facing the Dolphins (1-2), who are currently struggling to find the light on offense, might help. But at 80 years old, LeBeau is smart enough to know that it takes time to forget about a 57-point performance.
