Sports

The Titans fell to 1-10 with Sunday's 30-24 loss to the Seahawks, but there will be a major silver lining to their losing season if it ends with quarterback Cam Ward on an upward trajectory.

Interim head coach Mike McCoy believes that Ward is heading in that direction. Ward threw for 256 yards and a touchdown against the Seahawks while avoiding an interception for the third straight game. Ward also ran for a season-high 37 yards and his first NFL touchdown while taking the Titans from being down 20 points to a one-score loss.

Ward was sacked four times, but they're coming at a lower rate than they did early in the season and he didn't fumble the ball. He also showed a knack for making throws on the move that fits with McCoy's belief that the first overall pick in the 2025 draft is making real progress.

“It’s taking that next step, and that’s what he’s done,” McCoy said, via Teresa Walker of the Associated Press. “We’ve been saying it from day one, the way he competes, the way he works every day. When we first came in in the offseason program, the early mornings, staying late, things like that, it’s starting to pay off.”

Given the overall makeup of the roster, the Titans might not win another game this season but more outings like Sunday for Ward should make for interest in their coaching job once the team's search really gets going in January.

The new kickoff formation introduces a factor that seems to be overlooked, by many. The Panthers seemed to completely disregard it last night.

After the 49ers took a 17-3 lead in the third quarter, the Carolina offense emerged from hibernation. The Panthers drove 68 yards in eight plays, capping it with an impressive 29-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Bryce Young to receiver Tetairoa McMillan.

With the score 17-9, the Panthers could have attempted the analytics-driven move that plenty of teams do after scoring a touchdown when down by 14 points: Go for two. Make it, and the lead is down to six. Miss it, and it's still a one-score game.

The Panthers opted to kick. It was good. 17-10. But an unnecessary roughness foul on the defense for hitting the snapper in the head/neck area gave the Panthers two options: Move the ball from the two to the one for a two-point try, or kick off from the 50 instead of the 35.

The Panthers didn't hesitate. They went for two, even though the play they called took no advantage of the shorter proximity to the goal line. They threw a pass into the end zone. If anything, snapping from the one instead of the two packed everyone together more tightly. Basically, the extra yard made no difference to the play. (And, as the attached photo shows, it failed.)

Consider what the Panthers could have done instead. Although a shift in the kickoff spot does not change the configuration of players at or around the landing zone, a kick from the 50 would have allowed the Panthers to kick the ball out of bounds.

By rule (and if the kick had gone out of bounds inside the San Francisco 25), the next 49ers drive would have started 25 yards from the spot of the kick. That would have put the 49ers at the 25, 10 yards behind the new touchback point.

It's a loophole in the rules that teams should welcome. Put the offense at the 25. Force the 49ers, knowing their lead had been cut to seven, to move the ball — and to not cough up a fourth interception deep in their own end of the field.

The Panthers seemed to not even consider the alternative. It was a knee-jerk "go for two" decision, with the same play they would have run from the two. It's fair to ask whether teams are even factoring into this decision the quick and easy ability to put the opponent at the 25 after the next kickoff.

It's an important tweak to the rules that isn't commonly known or discussed. It wasn't mentioned during the broadcast. It needs to become mainstream thought if/when a 15-yard penalty happens after a successful one-point try.

Keep the point, and give the ball to the opposing offense at the 25.