NASHVILLE, Tenn. – If things ended right now, the Titans would be the fourth seed, AFC South champions hosting Baltimore for a highly anticipated playoff rematch.

It’s a pretty good spot to be in, even considering they are carrying a two-game losing streak.

Courtesy Los Angeles Chargers

What’s uncommon about it is that the Titans are about to fill two key spots with newcomers, and not because of injuries.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – He took the blame for wasting the second pick of the second-round in 2016 on Kevin Dodd and now Jon Robinson is swallowing the remainder of a one-year $9.5 million guaranteed contract for Vic Beasley.

Photo: Jon Robinson by George Walker, The Tennessean via pool.

And while I respect a guy willing to say, “My bad” I’d much rather be respecting one who could find a pass rusher.

Robinson, in his fifth year on the job, drafted one-trick pony Harold Landry in the second round in 2018. He inherited Jurrell Casey, Derrick Morgan and Brian Orakpo. [Unlocked]

By BLAKE BEDDINGFIELD, special correspondent

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- This game started out feeling like the Buffalo Bills vs. the Titans early in the year. The Bills took the Titans lightly because of all the distractions surrounding the Titans’ COVID-19 issues.

The Titans looked overconfident early against the Bengals, because of all the injury issues the Bengals had with four starting offensive linemen and their starting RB out.

The Bengals have just enough offensive skill players to make suspect defenses pay.

Tennessee underestimated rookie quarterback Joe Burrow and the Bengals wide receivers.

But the Titans grossly underestimated the Bengals offensive line full of replacement players.

CINCINNATI – Mirror time, everyone.

Get up there, that’s right, nice and close. Make sure your pads are off, and get skinny. You’ve got to leave room for everyone who dons two-tone blue.

I see Johnathan Joseph, I know he’s standup from when I covered him some in Houston and based on his rep so I appreciate that.

Someone go find Vic Beasley. COVID-19 arrangements have made it so I don’t know him at all, we’ve never met, but the reputation that proceeded him to Tennessee said he liked to go walk around the parking lot when the team hung out in the locker room, and I want to be sure he’s around.

Mike Vrabel’s not going to hide, and neither is Job Robinson so that’s good.

Following a horrific 31-20 loss at Paul Brown Stadium to the not-in-your-class Bengals, the Titans are on a two-game losing streak and it’s become clear the offense can’t do all the work because it’s not so good that it can just roll when it hears a whistle.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Bengals’ defense is 28th versus the run and 25th versus the pass. The statistics match the poor Bengals’ defensive personnel.

Cincinnati traded longtime defensive end and pass rusher Carlos Dunlap this week to the Seattle Seahawks.

Veteran defensive tackle Geno Atkins is not the same player he once was. He relied on quickness, balance and body control with outstanding hand use, and was a disrupter and productive run-down player and pass rusher. But he is now slower off the snap and lacks the size and strength to make up for his dip in quickness.

With the decline of Atkins and trade of Dunlap, the Bengals defense lacks a front-line NFL player. That means the Bengals have average NFL starters or backup level players on their defense.

Matchups against the Bengals' defense

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – During Mike Vrabel’s 38 regular-season games as Titans' coach, he’s grown as a guy who controls and manages a game.

In last Sunday’s loss, I was surprised when he burned a timeout with 10:33 on the clock in the third quarter with the Steelers facing a third-and-7 at the Titans’ 12-yard line.

The Titans had only 10 men on the field before stopping the game.

“There was an injury situation,” Vrabel said. “Failure on my part to properly communicate a substitution within the drive. We ran into a substitution issue because of an injury. I have to be better.”

It was an unusual moment, as it's far more frequent in a close game that Vrabel has timeouts at his disposal that he winds up not needing than that he regrets having used one too soon.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans’ defensive woes are plentiful, but the headliner is clear: a third-down defense that is alarmingly bad.

Through six games the Titans are allowing opponents to convert at a 47.7 percent rate, worst in the NFL. On third-and-7 or more it’s 53.8 percent and on third-and-11 or more it’s also 58.8 percent. (Thanks to Johnathan Hutton for those precise breakdowns.)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Derrick Henry mostly runs over people, then can outrun them. His stiff arms have become something fans look forward to and opponents get shamed by. They are a marquee element of his power game.

So it came as a surprise in Week 3 when Henry went up and over the Vikings defense to convert a fourth-and-1 in the second quarter to help set up a field goal, and when he later scored his second touchdown of the game from the 1-yard line by again going vertical, again not through but above the defense.

Photo: CBS

“Leading up to Minnesota, I hadn’t gotten in the end zone,” said Henry, who now has seven touchdowns. “We were right there and I said, ‘I’ve got to fly in here like Superman.’”