Titans collapse in closing minutes

LANDOVER, Md. – When the Titans took the field with the lead in the closing minutes, quarterback Charlie Whitehurst envisioned the game ending with a kneel-down and a win.

It didn't happen.

When the offense failed to eat up enough clock, it was linebacker Derrick Morgan's chance to visualize the finish – the Titans slamming the door on the Redskins and celebrating a victory.

"A turnover on downs, or a long missed field goal," Morgan said. "That's how it was supposed to end. That's how it should have ended."

But it didn't.

Instead, another Titans game finished in nightmare fashion. The Redskins survived a battle of bad teams on Sunday at FedEx Field, winning 19-17 with a field goal as time expired.

The Titans (2-5) allowed a winnable game to slip from their grasp and are off to their worst start since 2009, when they started 0-6. The Redskins (2-5) snapped a four-game losing streak.

"Every game is critical for us with where we are. The thing we have to do is play better than we did today," Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "We just didn't make enough plays at the end unfortunately. But we shouldn't have come to that position."

With Whitehurst starting in place of Jake Locker (right thumb) for the second week in a row, the Titans managed to hang around.

When Whitehurst connected with Derek Hagan for a 38-yard touchdown with 7:41 remaining, the Titans led 17-16 and looked like they might eke out back-to-back wins. A blocked field goal in the closing seconds allowed them to beat the Jaguars last Sunday.

On this day, however, the Redskins blew past the Titans defense like a fence-jumper at the White House.

Behind backup quarterback Colt McCoy – who replaced a struggling Kirk Cousins at halftime – the Redskins moved 76 yards on 10 plays in just 3:14. Kai Forbath then kicked a 22-yard field goal on the final play of the game.

The Redskins celebrated. The Titans were left to answer for their mistakes.

A pass interference penalty on cornerback Jason McCourty was a killer on the final drive. It gave the Redskins the ball at the Tennessee 7 with 38 seconds left, and no one else stepped up to make a play in crunch time.

"It is frustrating," McCourty said. "As a defense we have to do a better job of getting off the field. I can't get a penalty on that drive. … It hurts. You play decent the whole game, and then you can't get off the field. We have to be able to finish and come out with a win."

Until the final drive, the defense had limited the Redskins to field goals except for one inexcusable gaffe – McCoy's short throw that wide receiver Pierre Garcon turned into a 70-yard touchdown. Cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson missed a tackle and safety Michael Griffin took a bad angle, allowing what should have been a small gain become a major play.

The offense was making enough mistakes to prevent the Titans from taking control, however, and a special teams blunder – Dexter McCluster muffed a punt –led to a Washington field goal.

And just when it seemed like the Titans might finally take control – getting the ball back with 5:32 to play – they went three-and-out. A holding penalty on center Brian Schwenke crippled prospects for a time-consuming drive to run out the clock.

"I felt like I cost this team the game with that penalty," Schwenke said. "If we're at first-and-10 we could've started to run the clock out and the game ends with us taking a knee."

In reality, the loss wasn't on Schwenke, who had two penalties. It wasn't on McCourty. It wasn't on Whitehurst, who was far from spectacular but did enough for the Titans to win.

There were enough mistakes – and blame – to go around the locker room.

"We dug a hole, and we keep saying each and every week what we are going to do," Griffin said. "But sooner or later, we have to turn that into action, myself included. It's frustrating. The last six years we've had a losing season. It's almost like déjà vu, saying the same thing every year. It's really getting old."

Reach Jim Wyatt at 615-259-8015 and on Twitter @jwyattsports.