By Armando Salguero

Copyright outkick

Jim Wyatt is one of the good guys in journalism. He’s covered the Tennessee Titans since 1999, was the Tennessee sportswriter of the year six times, and joined the Titans to cover the club for its website in 2015. And, for the uninitiated, guys that work for team websites are not in the business of criticizing the team because that criticism appears on the team’s own website. It’s like going to your boss’s house and scrawling disparaging things on their house. But Sunday’s depressing 41-20 loss by the Titans against the Indianapolis Colts was apparently the proverbial straw that broke Wyatt’s back. Callahan And Titans Seem Lost The Titans were outplayed. Out-classed. And, yes, out-coached. Again. The Titans are 0-3 and in last place in the AFC South. But what’s worse than the winless record is the seemingly clueless approach week after week. And this week, the lack of clues showed themselves just before halftime when the Titans, down 17-6, had a fleeting opportunity to press the issue and score. But deciding against that, the club also had a chance to make it 17-9 and maybe go into their locker room with some momentum and hope. But nope. What followed was a folly of work from the sideline and on the field. And hours later, Wyatt took his bosses to task on the team’s website. ‘Lowlights Of A Bad Day’ “If you’re looking for someone to rip the head coach, or to question everything that’s wrong with this 0-3 football team, then the team website isn’t the place you’re going to find it,” Wyatt wrote on TennesseeTitans.com. “But I was sitting in my pressbox seat on the 50-yard line for Sunday’s game, so I plainly saw what happened at the end of the first half. And, I’d be lying if I said it was anything but a mess. “The Titans, down 17-6 at the time, seemed content with going into halftime with a long field goal attempt. But they botched that by being indecisive, which ultimately resulted in a timeout, a delay of game, and then a missed field goal. “If I’m doing a ‘Six Things That Stood Out’ from the game, it would be irresponsible not to mention this sequence, because it’s impossible to ignore. Making matters worse: The Colts got the ball, and then quickly got into position to kick a field goal of their own. It was the lowlight of a bad day.” Brian Callahan Was Passive This is evidence that the season has already gone sideways and coach Brian Callahan is partly responsible. It’s a season that is three-games old and Callahan has been questioned about penalties, poor execution, urgency, and a Week 1 rules interpretation error in which the coach had to admit he didn’t know the rules about what constitutes a catch by a receiver going out of bounds. Add to that Sunday’s lack of aggressiveness in settling for a long field goal by a coach who seemingly has nothing to lose was galling. So what was Callahan’s explanation? “Thought we had a chance to get points there,” Callahan said. “[Joey] Slye’s been really reliable from deep. He’s been a bit of a weapon for us and has been thus far in the season. Then we went to kick it, and they were waiting for some operational things to uncover. Just would like to go faster. Obviously had no intention to take a delay of game there. Didn’t want that to happen. Obviously looks really bad at the end of the day.” And here’s the killer: The coach, who admitted to being unclear about rules after a previous game, admitted after this one he was uncertain about what to do in that situation before halftime. Callahan Was Also Unsure “We were going back-and-forth and wanted a minute to think about it. I was going back-and-forth between a fourth down call and a field goal and decided to go take points in that particular situation. The operational part of it to kick it on time didn’t happen.” Great, so he’s blaming the players. And, make no mistake, the kick attempt was blocked so the players were indeed at fault. But lesson No. 1 of coaching is don’t throw your players under the bus before you throw yourself first. Anyway, Callahan still had his offense on the field after calling a timeout. Why? “Because I hadn’t decided yet at the moment what we were going to do,” he said. And why not? “Like I said,” Callahan said, “we were having a couple different conversations about it.” Stuff like this will trigger Titans fans – and even the longtime journalist working for the team.