Titans Can’t Give This One Away

When you haven’t had a winning season since 1993, you take a victory any way you can. Even if it’s one of the ugliest ever in the NFL.

Neil O’Donnell threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Yancey Thigpen in the third quarter as the Titans survived an NFL record for penalty yardage in beating Baltimore, 14-11, Sunday for the franchise’s best start since 1992.

“If there’s such a thing as playing bad and winning, you saw it today,” Titan Coach Jeff Fisher said.

Tennessee (4-1) won its 10th consecutive AFC Central division game and stayed atop the division despite being penalized 15 times for 212 yards. The previous record was 209 yards by Cleveland against the Chicago Bears in 1951.

Left guard Bruce Matthews, the 17-year veteran USC who played in a 30-21 loss in 1985 in which the Houston Oilers had 188 yards in penalties, was happy to take the victory.

“We’ve lost pretty before. It feels good to win ugly,” said Matthews, who also was flagged for a false start in the second quarter. He switched back to guard last week from center after Scott Sanderson ruptured a disc in his back.

It got so bad at one point that the Titans couldn’t even get a punt off. Craig Hentrich punted three times consecutively in the third quarter, with the first two nullified by an illegal player downfield and then Anthony Dorsett ran out of bounds and came back into the play.

But even with the Titans trying to give the game away, the Ravens (2-3) couldn’t move the ball without help. Two pass-interference penalties totaling 96 yards set up two of Matt Stover’s three field goals, and Baltimore got its final two points when Ray Lewis stopped Rodney Thomas in the end zone for a safety.