The Tennessee Titans got their best chance at a win in this young season in Week 4 against the Houston Texans, who also came into the game 0-3. However, the gap between the two winless teams was all too clear in Houston’s 26-0 victory. Needless to say, Titans No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward is having a rough welcome to the NFL.
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Tennessee is now 0-4, and after the winless Jets and Dolphins play on MNF later tonight, the Titans will be one of three winless teams left in the 2025 season alongside the loser of that AFC East clash and the New Orleans Saints.
Tennessee has allowed the fourth-most points (120) and the sixth-most yards (1,474) defensively. Ward and the offense haven’t done much better. They are dead last in points scored, with just 51, and have averaged an NFL-low 210.5 yards per contest.
The Titans have also given up 17 sacks, second-most in the league. They have no cohesion, and Ward has not really been given a chance to strut his stuff yet with his 28.0 pressure rate (third-highest). Nonetheless, he has disappointed individually, and he acknowledged that he played like “a**” in the shutout loss, before expanding the critique to include the rest of the team.
“If we keep it a buck right now, we a**. So, we 0-4. We a**. This one, we’ve got nothing to lose. We’ve dropped a quarter of our fu****g games. And we have yet to do anything, so we have to lock in, especially myself… We have to play together, we have not played together yet this season,” said the rookie.
#Titans QB Cam Ward: “If we keep it a buck right now, we ass. We've dropped a quarter of our fu****g games.” https://t.co/M7FJokx752 pic.twitter.com/mTXPOzM8Rg
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 28, 2025
That answer was certainly not what the reporter was expecting when he asked Ward that question, but he was no doubt chuffed that’s the answer he got. Media members and fans on social media complain regularly about “playerspeak” and “coachspeak,” a play on words referring to the “doublespeak” of George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel, 1984.
Basically, playerspeak or coachspeak means players and coaches regurgitating boring and bland talking points so they don’t get in trouble with the higher-ups or throw anyone under the bus. That’s why it’s so refreshing to see a player throw caution to their media training and speak honestly like Ward did.
After hearing (and laughing at) the Ward quote, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson was complimentary, saying, “I like my quarterback like that.”
However, the elder statesman of Night Cap podcast, Shannon Sharpe, took a different tack, arguing that those kinds of criticisms should be made in private.
“Nah, Ocho, that’s a conversation you have when we played, and you and I, we were around friends, that’s what we say. He can’t say that publicly… Ocho, he’s the quarterback, he’s got a C on his chest. You know he can’t say that.”
It does make sense to keep criticisms behind closed doors. But it’s a bit ironic to see a media guy like Sharpe criticizing Ward’s comments when they are exactly the kind of comments media people are always searching for and prodding. And let’s not forget, Ward criticized himself first and foremost.
Perhaps Ward’s honesty will be the catalyst for a turnaround for this group. Or perhaps his frustration will turn to apathy as the Titans remain at the bottom of the pile for a second straight year. Only time will tell.
