Cam Ward knew it had been a long time since the Tennessee Titans had won after Sunday’s loss to the Texans dropped them to 0-4 and extended their skid to 10 games going back to last season.
But the No. 1 overall pick wasn't sure how long it had been.
"When is the last time Tennessee won? I don't know," he said. "I'm just trying to win. Everybody in this locker room, we want to win, and we have to win. That's really what it comes down to, no matter how we gotta do it. At some point we have to turn the tide."
It ties their longest losing streak since moving from Houston to Tennessee in 1997. Their previous 10-game skid came when they dropped the final 10 games of the 2014 season. It's the longest string of losses since Amy Adams Strunk took over as controlling owner in 2015 and has to sting to see her team lose 26-0 in her hometown.
Their most recent win came in a 32-27 victory over the Texans in Houston on Nov. 24.
Second-year coach Brian Callahan falls to 3-18 and is certainly on the hot seat as the Titans continue to struggle. He was asked about his job security.
"I show up and do my job, and we do it as hard as we can," he said. "That's everyone on our staff. We work our tails off, and we try to do everything we can to put ourselves in a position to win, and we haven't. That's the reality of our jobs in the league, so no, I don't think about that."
Houston (1-3) led 6-0 after three quarters but scored three touchdowns in the fourth to put the game out of reach.
The Titans were down 12-0 when Derek Stingley Jr. picked off Ward and returned it 20 yards. The Texans cashed in on that mistake when C.J. Stroud threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to rookie Jayden Higgins to push the lead to 19-0 with about 9 ½ minutes to go.
An 18-yard touchdown run by Woody Marks made it 26-0 with less than five minutes remaining.
The Titans were shut out for the first time since a 16-0 loss at Denver on Oct. 13, 2019. The offense has failed to improve this season despite the addition of Ward, who was 10 of 26 for 108 yards with the interception.
Ward knows he has to be better for the Titans to get out of the losing column.
"We are keeping a buck right now, we ass," Ward said, per the game's official transcript. "We're 0-4. At this point, we have nothing to lose. We dropped a quarter of our games and we've yet to do anything yet. We have to lock in, especially myself. Offensive line from the defensive line from the special teams to all three phases, we have to play together. We have not played together this year yet and that's just something that we want to preach about it every day, every day, we got to do better, and we're doing that, but it has to show up on Sundays. It hasn't showed up yet, but it's got to show up next week."
Despite the results, Callahan has been encouraged by his team's effort.
"Not playing well and not fighting are two different things," he said. "We didn't play well enough, but I don't think I'd question whether those guys wanted to play the game. They fought their tails off for the entirety of the game. You guys can make any conjecture that you want, but I don't see any effort issues in terms of how they're playing the game. We're not playing well enough. That's certainly part of it, but they went out and played hard today."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
