NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Titans were a two-touchdown underdog heading into Saturday’s game versus the defending Super Bowl champions, and if they wanted to compete, they needed to play a near-perfect game.
A first quarter – unbelievable – catch by Corey Davis, left Titans fans with a glimpse of hope that the Titans might compete with the Patriots.
But that went south very quickly.
The Titans defensively could not seem to sustain Patriot’s quarterback Tom Brady. He made multiple short throws to running backs and receivers converting numerous third down drives and had unlimited time in the pocket to make plays happen.
However, that was not the case for Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota.
Mariota was sacked eight times by Patriots’ defensive line.
The Titans made significant strides this season by getting to the AFC divisional round of the playoffs and defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in the opening round, but that still left many people with the question of Mularkey’s status with the team and how far he could lead them.
That question got answered quickly on Monday morning when it was announced that the Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk and General Manager Jon Robinson decided to part ways with head coach Mike Mularkey.
Mularkey was named head coach of the Titans on January 16, 2016 after serving as interim head coach at the end of the 2015 season. The Titans went 9-7 in back-to-back seasons under Mularkey.
Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk released a statement on Monday morning:
“I want to thank Mike Mularkey for his contributions to our franchise over his tenure with our organization. He took over our team during a low moment and together with Jon built a solid foundation for our franchise. I appreciated that Mike devoted himself to this team and the community.
In fact, we did discuss extending his future with our team over the past week, but in those discussions about the direction of the team, it became evident that we saw different paths to achieve greater success.
It is certainly unfortunate that we couldn’t find enough common ground. I generally believe that continuity is the best path for success, but I also view this as an important moment for our football team as we try to make that next step to sustained success on the field. Jon will begin the search immediately to identify that person.”
Perhaps one of the main reasons the Titans decided to part ways with Mularkey was the surrounding question of the development of Marcus Mariota.
Robinson mentioned in his press conference on Monday:
“I think we’ve done a lot of good things here over the last two years. I just felt like we needed to go a different direction and maximize the skill sets of the players. I think this boils down to doing what we think is best for the football team moving forward, and taking the next step,” Robinson said. “At the end of the day, we felt like we needed to go down a different path to move forward.”
Robinson said he has already started the process of searching for potential candidates to take over this Titans team but did not identify any type of timeline on when that call might be made.
