The Tennessee Titans, remarkably, have scored under 14 points four games in a row. That doesn’t happen often – just 20 times in the last 10 years. Does such a dry spell mean that we should all just ignore their offense going forward? Or do such offense tend to eventually get healthy?
I’m interested mostly in Week 9 – the here and now – so I will focus on their upcoming game against New Orleans, which is soft defensively. But rather than looking at the Titans and Saints themselves right now, I will instead look at how similarly futile offenses have fared in the past.
Of the 20 that I found over the last 10 years, two closed the season with their streak. So toss those out. So there are 18 such previous examples that can be measured.
Of those 18 teams, a third actually won their next game. The composite record of this group was 6-12, which is a little higher than I would have expected.
The scoring, though, wasn’t particularly good. They averaged only 15.4 points as a good. Only a third made it into the 20s in scoring. Three got shut out entirely, and 8 others didn’t score more than 17 points.
| FOUR STRAIGHT GAMES UNDER 14 POINTS (next game) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | Result |
| 2005 | Oakland | lost 21-30 vs. N.Y. Giants |
| 2007 | Miami | lost 13-40 vs. N.Y. Jets |
| 2007 | * Miami | lost 17-38 at Buffalo |
| 2008 | Washington | lost 24-27 vs. San Francisco |
| 2008 | Cleveland | lost 0-14 vs. Cincinnati |
| 2008 | * Cleveland | lost 0-31 at Pittsburgh |
| 2008 | Cincinnati | won 30-13 vs. Washington |
| 2009 | St. Louis | lost 6-28 vs. San Francisco |
| 2009 | Oakland | won 13-9 vs. Philadelphia |
| 2009 | * Oakland | lost 0-38 vs. N.Y. Jets |
| 2009 | ** Oakland | lost 16-24 at San Diego |
| 2011 | St. Louis | lost 27-34 vs. San Francisco |
| 2011 | St. Louis | won 31-21 vs. New Orleans |
| 2011 | Kansas City | won 10-3 at Chicago |
| 2011 | * Kansas City | lost 10-37 at N.Y. Jets |
| 2011 | Indianapolis | lost 19-27 vs. Carolina |
| 2011 | Cleveland | won 14-10 vs. Jacksonville |
| 2012 | Kansas City | won 27-21 vs. Carolina |
| 2015 | Tennessee | ??? |
—Ian Allan