Occasionally during the dead points of this offseason, we’ll look back at some of the quirks, highlights, lowlights and follies from recent years. Today, we relive a turnover-filled win for the 2000 Titans.
In modern NFL history, exactly nine teams have won despite committing exactly seven turnovers. But the only team to do so in the last 28 years is the Tennessee Titans, who somehow beat the Cleveland Browns on Nov. 19, 2000 despite a remarkably sloppy offensive performance.
In fact, by this era’s standards, it’s nearly impossible to believe the Titans won that day despite recording seven turnovers.
It helped that the 13-3 Titans had one of the best defenses in NFL history that season, and that the 3-13 Browns were almost certainly the worst team in the league. They couldn’t do much to take advantage of Tennessee’s miscues, losing 24-10 in a game that was scoreless at halftime.
But Tennessee sure left the door open, turning the ball over on four consecutive series to start the game (three interceptions and a fumble). But Cleveland could amass just 38 yards off of those turnovers, punting three times and throwing an interception on the first play of the fourth of those drives.
Tennessee also fumbled at the conclusion of its sixth drive, turning it over inside the Cleveland 40-yard line for the fourth time in one half. And it got worse when quarterback Steve McNair threw his fourth interception of the game on the first series of the second half. That one resulted in a pick-six, and Cleveland would also kick a field goal right after a McNair fumble later in the quarter, but those would be the only 10 points the Browns would score. The Titans, who found the end zone for the first time on their second possession of the third quarter, would go ahead with a touchdown on the drive after the McNair fumble that led to the field goal, and they wouldn’t turn the ball over for the final 20 minutes.
A great team suffered a hell of a scare as a result of seven turnovers on its first nine possessions, but Tennessee regrouped and scored on each of its final three drives. Those 17 unanswered points were eventually the difference between a win and a loss, and the Titans are the only team in the last quarter-century to win despite coughing it up on seven occasions.
In fact, only four teams this century have won despite turning it over six times. And one of them — the Jaguars — also did so against the poor Browns.
