The history isn't good when it comes to defending the coaches after this loss.
The Jaguars are 2-20 in their last 22 games. Both wins come from the Titans.
Each year of Mike Munchak's tenure there has been a signature loss to a horrible or win-less team, that the the Titans had no business losing to. The 0-13 Colts in 2011. The Jaguars again last year who only won 2 games total.
That being said, the coaches preached both publicly and privately all week long that the Titans couldn't and wouldn't look past the Jaguars. They've been in this spot before and wouldn't make the same mistake. Is it the coaches fault if the team comes out flat?
Here's a quote after the game from Bernard Pollard:
Pollard on how much is on players vs on coaches: "if coaches have to motivate us then we're piss-poor horrible."
— Jonathan Hutton (@hutton1045) November 10, 2013
There weren't any gross misuses of timeouts or clock management. There were no play call gaffes or personnel issues. Perhaps you could point to the late flag throw by Munchak as a coaching error, but coaches coach and players play, right? Is the team coming out flat or playing poorly really on the coaches?
You can preach all day long to the players to not take a game lightly, but they are human and they have lives outside the facility. They played a tough game the week before and all knew about the big game in just four days to take on the current division leader.
The Titans also started poorly with a rare Chris Johnson fumble, followed by an interception and another fumble on a hand off, and then ended on a third fumble by Fitzpatrick. Excessive turnovers will make any game an uphill battle.
The Titans suffered an accumulation of injuries at multiple positions before or during the game as well. David Stewart, Jake Locker, Damian Williams and Brian Schwenke to name a few.
The bottom line is that there are numerous circumstances that contributed to this loss, but the history of ineptitude when in this position can't be ignored. So should Munchak shoulder the blame? And how offensive was this loss?
Before the season, everyone acknowledged that the Titans needed to show improvement, to beat the teams they should beat and stand toe to toe with the better ones in the league. To a degree they have done that up until this point.
As far as I'm concerned, this was the one pass for the rest of the year. It's still the NFL and they still only lost by 2. An improved team with an above .500 record was my expectations, and I a m trying hard to leave them there. I submit that last years team would have never rallied back and would have lost in similar fashion to the way the Colts lost to the Rams. Could Munchak and company redeem themselves with a win on Thursday night? For me the answer is yes, though I feel many are already ready to move on from this regime.