NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Sometime last year, I pulled into my garage and saw what looked like a weird crack in the wall in front of me. I filled with dread over the idea that I had a big issue that would cost a whole bunch of money to fix and got out of the car grudgingly, slowly making my way over to assess the damage.

It was no damage, just the back of Frank Wycheck’s head!

For a home game against the Falcons in Oct. of 2015, the Titans had some of those giant cutout heads in the crowd and Frank’s was one of them.

I managed to commandeer one and it wound up in my garage. If I remember correctly, he faced out for a time, but as friendly as we were, I quickly realized it was a little too much to face him every time I pulled in, and I flipped him around and then forgot he was there. The thick cardboard edge against the wall later fooled me into thinking it was a fissure.

The irony is, I actually did want to see Frank more. All of his friends did. And outside of work for a long time he’d say, "Sure, buddy I’ll see you there" and then most often no-show. His deflecting grief for it was simply just part of the dance of (kind of) being in Frank’s circle.

Frank Wycheck, a beloved everyman tight end for the Oilers and Titans who went on to broadcast for Titans Radio and a successful Nashville morning show, passed away in the Chattanooga area Saturday, his family said.

He was 52.

A statement from the family: "At this time, it appears Frank Wycheck fell inside his Chattanooga, TN home and hit his head on Saturday morning. He was found unresponsive that afternoon. Wycheck moved to Chattanooga,TN this past summer to be closer to his family. He leaves behind two adult daughters, Deanna and Madison, both married, and three grandchildren - Leo, Stevie and August." 

Wycheck moved back to the Philadelphia area where he grew up around 2019 and worked at his alma mater, Archbishop Ryan before relocating to Chattanooga.

Frank John Wycheck was a sixth-round pick out of Maryland in the 1993 draft and after two shaky seasons, he was a $100 waiver claim by the Oilers in 1995.

By BLAKE BEDDINGFIELD, special correspondent

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – On paper, this is a mismatch. The way the teams are playing currently, this is a mismatch. Given the confidence displayed on the field by both, this is a mismatch.  

So what can the Titans do to not be embarrassed on Monday Night Football? 

They will be without one of their better players in Jeffrey Simmons who tends to rise to the occasion in games like this and would be one spot that wouldn’t be a mismatch in favor of Miami.

This is gut-check time for veterans Derrick Henry, DeAndre Hopkins, Harold Landry, Teair Tart, Denico Autry and Amani Hooker.  

The team needs to simplify this game. Take it drive by drive. The Titans need to go old school on the Dolphins and run the clock out.

Win time of possession by a considerable margin. Win the line of scrimmage in the run game and allow Henry to impose his will on the defensive front and undersized linebacker corp. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The way the Titans have responded, or appeared to have responded, to outside talk of Ran Carthon's performance and background is odd and goes against what their PR philosophy has been for a long time.

He recently spent time contradicting himself in an ESPN.com article that was half about him, saying he stays in the background because this part of the season isn't about him.

It's odd in the middle of their 4-8 season of struggle.

That's where we start this week's edition of The Paul Kuharsky Podcast. The new episode awaits you on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart and YouTube, which is also embedded below.

Other subjects I dive into:

By MIKE HERNDON, columnist

Trying to describe anything about the unhinged AFC South tilt that was Titans-Colts on Sunday at Nissan Stadium feels futile. That was, simply, one of the weirdest football games that I have watched in quite some time.

The Titans, who most believed would be closer to where the Colts are currently – 7-5 and battling for the AFC South – dropped to 4-8 overall and 0-3 in the division while losing three of their best players to injury in the process. Prognosis on return varies from season-ending (Ryan Stonehouse) to “likely to miss a few weeks” (Jeffery Simmons) to “has a chance to play Monday night” (Derrick Henry), but it’s safe to say that any hopes of a miraculous playoff run from this Tennessee team can be put to rest at this point.

Give Mike Vrabel’s team some credit though. They didn’t lay down, at least not in this game. It was a backyard brawl from start to finish. However, in the end, they came up short, as they so often have over the past 19 games, a stretch that has seen them go 4-15.

By JAKE DOWNARD

Jake Downard is a law student who creates NFL and NBA content focused on analytics on Twitter as @JakeAndBall. He also works with fanspo.com. A glossary of the analytics terms he uses is at the bottom of the piece.

For a glossary of the metrics and terms used in this post, please see this earlier file.

Will Levis has played enough in the 2023-24 iteration of the Tennessee Titans offense for us to reach some general conclusions on his rookie year. I do not know what could transpire in the next five weeks to starkly change my opinion for better or for worse. He takes too many risks at times and may need to dial it in a notch. At times, he has struggled with the underneath throws; the layups, if you will. 

There are a ton of contributing factors involved in these struggles, but they’re the type of struggles you expect to see with a rookie QB, especially with the personnel currently surrounding him. On the flip side, he is extremely tough on the field and comes across as motivated, smart, and vocal off the field. He has a ton of tools to become a productive, game-changing starting QB in this era of the National Football League.

By BLAKE BEDDINGFIELD, special correspondent

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tough loss for the Titans. Not only losing to a team without their best offensive player, injured running back Jonathon Taylor, but with a dysfunctional quarterback who tried multiple times to gift-wrap the game to the Titans.  

Maybe the worst part of Sunday’s loss was potentially losing three of their better players for a significant time in Jeffrey Simmons (knee), Derrick Henry (concussion) and Ryan Stonehouse (leg injury).

This was an ugly game for the Titans and the two blocked punts were a game-changer for the Colts who struggled to score touchdowns.

What happened on those blocks?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans special teams coach for the duration of Mike Vrabel’s tenure in Nashville, Craig Aukerman has headed up units that have regularly been mediocre at best – 14th, 19th, 24th, 18th and 16th in comprehensive rankings compiled by Rick Gosselin.

When Vrabel was out with Covid and missed a preseason game against the Bears in 2021, he put Aukerman in charge of communicating with players.

He didn’t communicate much of use to them Sunday, when they were the central figures in a 31-28 loss to the Colts at Nissan Stadium, dropping the team to 4-8 and prompting his boss to once again absorb all fault for all that all went wrong in the phase of the game that too often hurts a team that just can’t afford it.

Titans fans regard Aukerman as one of Vrabel’s best buddies. I have no idea about their relationship outside the office, but it’s clear why the people who buy tickets and merchandise draw such a conclusion.