The Titans need consequences after their 26-3 embarrassment, and two players should be the first player to feel them

Tennessee’s 26-3 loss to Houston demands more than another plea for patience. Dan Moore, Tyjae Spears and Alontae Taylor should face consequences, even if the alternatives aren’t comfortable.

It can always get worse. I won’t pretend otherwise. But the Tennessee Titans’ 26-3 loss to the Houston Texans is about as close to rock bottom as this team has been since last season’s 26-0 loss in Houston in Week 3.

That’s the game that ended with the infamous “keep it a buck” postgame press conference from quarterback Cam Ward. This one deserves its own lasting reaction.

The problem is that Tennessee has painted itself into a corner. So much of this regime is brand new that there’s nobody obvious to fire. You aren’t firing head coach Robert Saleh, offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, or general manager Mike Borgonzi right now. The organization already let three VPs go on the business side, and the fact that it leaked to Jared Stillman is the most damning part of the story.

So on our Titans-Texans postgame show with JT Ruhnke, I went with players. Two of them, specifically, plus one great addition from JT.

Left tackle Dan Moore was awful. I don’t know how else to say it.

Moore was the reason the second-quarter interception happened. He’s the reason Texans edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. ragdolled Ward on fourth-and-20, because Moore stepped on guard Peter Skoronski’s foot. He had two penalties. I’m charging him with three sacks (counting the Skoronski foot-stomp in that total).

Then there’s the viral clip. Moore does his best Nicholas Petit-Frere impression, kick-sliding like a video game glitch while the rusher runs right past his shoulder to get to Ward. I still don’t know where his eyes were.

Danielle Hunter ate his lunch all day long. Moore made his teammates worse, and something has to be done.

Enter Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson. Put the second-year undrafted free agent in a game uniform and start him at left tackle in Week 6 at Indianapolis. Maybe it isn’t him. Maybe it’s somebody else. But do SOMETHING.

For the record, JT disagreed, and his point is fair. He agreed with a take Easton Freeze has been on since Moore was signed in free agency two offseasons ago: he is serviceable until he faces the best in the game, and then he looks terrible. That’s his ceiling. JT doesn’t believe the roster has another tackle anywhere close to Moore’s level, and benching him could be an easy way to get your franchise quarterback hurt.

Before this game, there was no consequence for being 0-4. Patience. Saleh’s comment last week about how we’ll be laughing about some issues in Week 10, and how the scheme is so complex it just takes time. All of that talk has validated losing for over a month.

Progress within the margins matters, sure. But benching a highly paid veteran for one game sends the message everyone needs to hear: playing like that is not acceptable.

Running back Tyjae Spears is the other one, and this one stings a little.

You can see what Spears can still do. He ripped off a 27-yard draw on third-and-22 against the Eagles. He had a big-time screen that got called back on a questionable hold vs the Texans. But his bad is too bad right now, and that fumble just took the wind out of the sails.

Spears doesn’t look consistently explosive, and it takes him forever to get going once the ball is in his hands. The tough part is that the team doesn’t trust Nick Singleton as a pass-catching and pass-protecting back, so Tennessee may not have a clean replacement.

What worries me most is how fragile this team’s confidence is. One mistake, and the Titans can’t bounce back. It’s maddening.

JT’s addition was a good call. He believes the Alontae Taylor at outside cornerback experiment is coming to an end.

Taylor doesn’t look anything close to a CB1 out there. They sold us a fast, violent, aggressive defense, and the secondary has shown none of it.

Houston seemed to agree. Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said in his postgame press conference that Houston is trading for Marvin Harrison Jr. Apparently the Titans were a fine measuring stick for how badly the Texans needed another receiver. Reuniting with C.J. Stroud might be the only thing that gets Harrison to care about playing football, but that’s beside the point.

And yes, I can already feel you reading this wondering about a “firing” of QB Cam Ward. I’m not running from it. That’s a different conversation than my sacrificial benchings, and we got to it later in the show on the A to Z Sports Nashville YouTube channel. I’m sure we’ll talk more about it this entire week.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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