The Tennessee Titans employ a rare player this year: a quarterback who has thrown for more interceptions than touchdowns this year. You don’t see a player like that finish out the season very often because 13 touchdowns to 15 interceptions is not good at all.
I didn’t realize how bad Titans QB Marcus Mariota’s stats were until I saw those numbers. You complain about Alex Smith throwing for only 20-something touchdowns and then you look at Mariota and ... yikes.
The Chiefs defense thrives off of turnovers. They have forced 12 turnovers in the past three games. It’s not a good recipe to rely on turnovers in the postseason because most teams in the playoffs are good and don’t turn the ball over a lot.
The Titans are not one of those teams. They have turned it over in every game dating back to Week 4. They are -4 in turnover differential on the season season which is in the bottom third of the league. The Chiefs should win the turnover battle in this game and if they do that they should win the game.
One other stat I noticed: the Titans haven’t scored more than 24 points since October. The Chiefs defense hasn’t given up more than 20 at home in over a year.
The way I see it, the key to this is the Chiefs offense not going in the tank. Play well on offense and they should win.