Titans' Michael Griffin: 'No excuses'

LANDOVER, Md. – The scene looked oddly familiar to last week.

Titans safety Michael Griffin sat in front of his locker, his uniform still on as he stared forlornly ahead following a difficult afternoon.

A week ago, the eighth-year pro could at least take solace in the fact that the Titans had beaten the Jaguars, despite a couple of significant mistakes on his part.

On Sunday, however, Griffin could find no such comfort. The Titans fell 19-17 to the Redskins after the veteran safety was burned on a couple of occasions.

Griffin was hardly the only Titans player to make a mistake, but considering his talent level — and the fact he'd played one of the better games of his career in Week 5 against the Browns — his shortcomings have been more glaring.

"No excuses," Griffin said as he talked about his performance over the past two weeks. "It's four plays in the (scheme) of I don't know how many plays we actually played. But I've just got to do a better job."

The trouble started early for Griffin, as he was the coverage culprit on the second play of the game — a 50-yard completion from Kirk Cousins to tight end Niles Paul.

Cousins executed a play-action fake and then rolled to his right, and just as it appeared Cousins might be getting sacked, he lobbed a pass to Paul, who had snuck behind Griffin down the right sideline.

The big play carried the Redskins to the Tennessee 29 and led to a field goal.

"I took my eyes off him," Griffin said of Paul. "So I have to keep my eyes on the man until the quarterback is down. I had my eyes in the backfield."

Griffin ran into trouble again on Washington's first drive of the second half.

Quarterback Colt McCoy connected with Pierre Garcon on a medium-range pass to the left side, one that should have been stopped right away had cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson not fallen down.

Wilson's slip allowed Garcon to turn up the sideline and produce a big gain, but it still looked as if Griffin should have been able to push him out of bounds.

Griffin instead appeared to take a bad angle, allowing Garcon to run 70 yards for a touchdown that put the Redskins ahead 13-10.

"When it came down to it, I was trying to cut off the middle of the field because I was the only person, the last man," Griffin said. "I thought I had enough room for the sideline to be able to push him out, but he had a little more room to squeeze through there and get by. It was just a great play by a great player."

Griffin had brighter moments, as he led the Titans with nine tackles and recorded his second sack of the season.

But the errors were reminiscent of Griffin's outing against the Jaguars, when he surrendered an early 59-yard completion to tight end Clay Harbor and also failed to hold on to a last-gasp onside kick attempt.

"At the end of the day," Griffin said, "I just have to figure out a way to get better."

Reach John Glennon at 615-259-8262 and on Twitter @glennonsports.