Will Levis became a meme on Sunday afternoon. The Tennessee quarterback dropped to his knees with hands on his helmet mid-play following an atrocious pick-six that cost the Titans dearly in a 24-17 loss in Chicago.
Midway through the fourth quarter, with the Titans clinging to a 17-16 lead that was once 17-0, Levis was under siege on a third-and-6 near midfield. Instead of eating the pigskin, the quarterback attempted to flip it away. The ill-advised play went the other way for a Tyrique Stevenson touchdown and a Bears lead.
“Bonehead play,” Levis said, via the team’s transcript. “Just recency bias from getting away with it the last time I did in the game. Just trying to throw it in the dirt, and when you’re getting taken down, you don’t know what’s going to happen with the ball when it comes out. Was really just trying to dirt it. In that situation, you try to handle it with a zero check or something. First time bringing zero to the ballgame or just take the sack. Might be one of those times to just take the sack. So one the things of a lot of the things that I can learn from this game.”
First-year head coach Brian Callahan lamented the poor decision.
“We can’t have that,” he said. “We can’t have an interception for a touchdown when we are up 17-16 at midfield, and the way our defense was playing, it’s killer. It’s killer.”
The Titans defense dominated the interior, stonewalling the Bears offense at every turn, holding Chicago to 148 total yards and No. 1 pick Caleb Williams to 93 yards, a 48.3% completion rate and a 55.7 passer rating.
However, Tennessee gave up a blocked punt touchdown and the pick-six to lose the contest.
The Bears became just the third team in the last 20 seasons to come back from a 17-plus point deficit and win despite scoring zero offensive touchdowns.
Levis finished 19-of-32 passing for 127 yards with a TD, two INTs and three sacks taken. His 52.5 passer rating is the lowest in any game he’s attempted at least 10-plus passes.
Outside of two first-half drives, the Tennessee offense couldn’t stay on the field. The Titans generated zero first downs on six of their 13 possessions and fewer than two first downs on 11 drives.
“It’s gut-wrenching. It’s tough,” Levis said. “Having a 17-point lead and giving them the game, I can’t remember a loss in my career where I feel like I kind of handed it over to them. It’s hard for me to deal with that. We know it’s a team effort. There are things as a team we can point at and look at. They didn’t win that game. We lost that game. We know that. Credit to them. Happy for Caleb and that team, but that’s tough.
“Like for us to have the punt block, the interception, the fumble, the big kick return to get them in field goal range. Our defense did a heck of a job all day not letting them drive the ball. We got to come out with a W and make sure we do our part on offense. So as long as our defense plays like that we can be really, really good team.”
Callahan will likely not make any referendums after one game, even with the catastrophic mistakes. But if the “bonehead” plays persist from the second-year QB he played no part in drafting, how long of a leash will the new coach allow?
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