NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It's been a bit since we gathered to discuss a win, and while Titans 17, Carolina 10 was no pretty painting, it did get Tennessee back in the win column and get the team out of a place where any doubt could continue to grow.

The defense made a monumental play, the offense got Derrick Henry into the end zone twice and the Titans took advantage of some really bad clock management and coaching by Frank Reich. 

So the team's fourth win and fourth home win is something worth celebrating, no matter who it came against or how they got it or the depressingly anemic second-half offense.

We also got to see how bad the Panthers are and what Bryce Young is about at this point.

We gathered to discuss all that and whatever else was on your mind -- including conflicting reports about Mike Vrabel's future -- after the Titans pulled to 4-7.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Proud football players aren’t fast to reveal doubt. But the way the Titans had played through 10 games, it was hard to believe some had not snuck into their locker room.

“Any doubts? Yeah, it probably crept in, we’re humans,” Arden Key admitted after the Titans beat Carolina 17-10 for their first win since Oct. 29. “So yeah, it definitely crept in. It’s OK for it to creep in. But it ain’t OK for it to stay. This builds our confidence. We went on three road trips, lost, came home and we had to get the win. If we had lost today, it would have been crazy.

“It’s not a relief,” he said, exhaling a giant sigh to show the degree. “Like it’s a quick (breath),” he said, letting out a much less significant sigh.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Flip around through some high-level stats and you can find something that jumps out at you pretty regularly.

After Will Levis’ fourth start, I noticed the big difference between his first and second-down completion percentages.

By BLAKE BEDDINGFIELD, special correspondent

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – This is just the opponent the Titans have been waiting for, a 1-9 team with a rookie quarterback who has zero playmakers around him. The Panthers are 30th in total offense and their rush defense is 24th.

It sounds like a good matchup for the Titans who have lost 14 of their last 17 games.  

The problem is the Titans aren’t the only team looking to find a win. The Panthers are thinking the same thing about the Titans -- that they can find their rhythm in this matchup.  

Like most rookie quarterbacks, Bryce Young struggles not only because of the transition to the NFL but because he lacks of playmakers the team has put around him. The Panthers lack a top-tier player on any of level of their offense.  They traded their best wide receiver, D.J. Moore, to acquire Young. This is not an ideal scenario for any young signal caller.  

Conversely, Will Levis is in a much better position having Derrick Henry and DeAndre Hopkins around him.  

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Back in the spring and summer the Titans talked about several areas where they hoped to improve in the 2023 season.

Looking back specifically at them now, it's remarkable how the team has failed to make progress, or even regressed, in these areas of focus -- scoring, protection, speed, takeaways and limiting explosive plays among them.

That's where we start this week's edition of The Paul Kuharsky Podcast.

The new episode awaits you on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeart and YouTube, which is also embedded below.

Other subjects I dive into:

By MIKE HERNDON, columnist

The Titans looked completely overwhelmed in Jacksonville on Sunday, falling behind 27-0 before eventually falling 34-14 in a game that felt even more one-sided than the final score suggests. Tennessee ran just 38 offensive plays in this game, tied for the second least in franchise history and the lowest total for any team since 2017.

As usual, the offensive line was a major issue, allowing pressure on nine of Will Levis’ 20 dropbacks during the game. However, something that hasn’t gotten as much coverage as it probably deserves is the struggles of the Titans' defense.

Most expected this unit to rank near the top 10 in the league coming into this season, but they’ve fallen well short of that mark. From a scoring standpoint, they’re 17^th in the NFL, allowing 21.4 points per game. They’re 22^nd in total yards allowed per game and rank 20^th in Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA).

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. 

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

As I sit and type this review of the Titans' 34-14 loss in Jacksonville on Sunday, I cannot help but feel like I have written this piece four to five times already this season. Did the Titans play at an extremely low level on Sunday? Yes. Was it surprising? Absolutely not. 

Many of the same issues and themes that have led this Titans team to the proverbial NFL gutter throughout the season once again reared their ugly heads against a team coming off a 34-3 drubbing just seven days prior to the Panthers coming to town. Poor pass blocking, no running lanes, no consistent (or early) separation from targets, virtually no offense outside of trick plays, high snaps, getting off-schedule early…the list goes on.

Virtually everything that contributes to negative, inefficient offense was on display in Duval County on Sunday.

By BLAKE BEDDINGFIELD, special correspondent

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans were not the better team Sunday. And looking forward to the rest of the schedule, outside of Sunday against the Carolina Panthers, that will be the case in the rest of Tennessee's games. 

Playing against their division rival makes these comparisons even more important because they play them twice a year. 

A 2022 late-season trade by the Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons was a shrewd move giving the Jaguars and their young offense another playmaker.  

The Jaguars' addition of Calvin Ridley was exactly what Trevor Lawrence has been missing and his production of seven receptions, for 103 yards and two touchdowns is a big lift for a team needing red-zone production.