{"id":113729,"date":"2025-10-14T06:36:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/?p=113729"},"modified":"2026-02-18T14:31:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:31:38","slug":"nfl-week-6-recap-titans-brian-callahan-fired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/analysis\/nfl-week-6-recap-titans-brian-callahan-fired\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 6 Recap: Titans Fire Brian Callahan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Titans fired head coach <strong>Brian Callahan<\/strong> after falling to 1-5.<\/p>\n<p>In Callahan's career in Tennessee, his record by quarterback was far from good.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">2-10 with <strong>Will<\/strong> <strong>Levis<\/strong><br \/>\n1-4 with <strong>Mason<\/strong> <strong>Rudolph<\/strong><br \/>\n1-5 with rookie <strong>Cam<\/strong> <strong>Ward<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While it is hard to win with this caliber of quarterback, the hope was that with the No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward, the trajectory would improve.<\/p>\n<p>It has not.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"Brian Callahan Fired | Titans Offense Hits Historic Low\" width=\"1100\" height=\"619\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S6kQyCFcZu8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Not just with wins, but overall offensive stability and performance.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans started games poorly, with predictable play calling and bad schemes, which led to a historic inability to score points, forcing the team to play from behind most of the game.<\/p>\n<p>They used the #4 highest rate of 11 personnel in the first half of games.<\/p>\n<p>They were <em>EXTREMELY<\/em> predictable based on personnel when they started games.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at first half early downs, when the coach can implement what he wants and is not restricted by game state at all:<\/p>\n<p>If they had 3+ WRs on the field, 89% of the time they passed from shotgun, averaging:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>3.3 air yards\/att (#32)<\/li>\n<li>21% of attempts went 10+ yards (#32)<\/li>\n<li>16% of attempts went beyond the sticks (#30)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Despite almost everything being thrown short, it wasn't quick at all.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans had the #2 highest pressure rate (43%) because Ward held the ball for 2.8 seconds, #5 longest.<\/p>\n<p>Holding the ball long to throw short is the opposite of ideal.<\/p>\n<p>And despite the shortest target depth in the NFL, the Titans had the lowest completion rate in the NFL on these passes, with just 48%.<\/p>\n<p>And keep in mind, they were in these 3+ WR sets on 67% of passes, #5 highest rate in the NFL, so most of their offense was this nonsense.<\/p>\n<p>When they had fewer than three receivers on the field on these early downs, it was almost always a deep shot:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>11.8 air yards (#3 in NFL)<\/li>\n<li>50% of attempts went 10+ air yards (#3)<\/li>\n<li>55% of attempts went beyond the sticks (#1)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ward operated in shotgun only 22% of the time (#29) and 70% (#5) of the time used play action to throw the ball deep down the field.<\/p>\n<p>With the passing game being so predictable based on personnel usage, the defenses had a head start knowing what was likely to occur.<\/p>\n<p>They then could focus on slowing the run game, which wasn't difficult.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans averaged -0.29 EPA per rush on these early down runs, #31 in the NFL.<\/p>\n<p>Their explosive run rate was 1.6% (#30).<\/p>\n<p>The offensive line, coached by Callahan's father, ranked #31 in yards before contact per rush (0.52).<\/p>\n<p>Overall, it was a bad scheme that was far too predictable and offered no aid to a team with substandard personnel across the board.<\/p>\n<p>The result of this incompetence on offense in the first half of games?<\/p>\n<p>The Titans scored one first half touchdown on 37 drives.<\/p>\n<p><em>ONE<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p>They averaged 0.92 points per drive (#32).<\/p>\n<p>They reached the red zone on 8% of drives (#32).<\/p>\n<p>They averaged 18.5 yards per drive (#32).<\/p>\n<p>To show you how bad this is, there hasn't been another team since 2013 to have over 35 offensive drives in the first half of games and fewer than 2 offensive touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>There are just 3 other teams since 2000 with over 35 offensive drives in the first half and only 1 offensive touchdown:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2013 Jaguars<\/li>\n<li>2002 Bengals<\/li>\n<li>2001 Redskins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\t<div class='sfa-image-adds' style=\"margin-bottom: 20px;\">\n\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/newsletter\/'>\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Sharp-Football-Analysis-Newsletter-Ad.jpg\" class=\"attachment-size-full size-size-full\" alt=\"Sharp Football Analysis Newsletter\" \/>\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Titans fired head coach Brian Callahan after falling to  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"NFL Week 6 Recap: Titans Fire Brian Callahan","_seopress_titles_desc":"Warren Sharp outlines why the Titans decided to move on from Brian Callahan and outlines where the team can look to improve moving forward.","_seopress_robots_index":"","mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-113729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-articles"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls":{"medium":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-300x201.jpg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-150x150.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-768x514.jpg","custom-size":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-694x685.jpg","custom-size-content":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-300x300.jpg","podcast-custom-size":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-350x350.jpg","homecustom-size-content":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-500x500.jpg","viz-thumb":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-255x140.jpg","amp-wp-small":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-100x100.jpg","amp-wp-large":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-738x430.jpg","amp-wp-normal":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-230x160.jpg","blog-large":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-669x272.jpg","blog-medium":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-320x202.jpg","recent-posts":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brian-Callahan-Fired-Week-6-700x441.jpg"},"appp_media":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113734,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113729\/revisions\/113734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}