Given up for dead after a dismal start to the season, the Titans finally showed some life Thursday night.They battled back against the Steelers and beat them 26-23 when Rob Bironas kicked a 40-yard field goal on the final play of the game at LP Field.
"It wasn't about the Steelers -- they are a good team," Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. "It was about us, we were struggling. We still made mistakes, but it feels good to come away with a win."
The Titans tied the game 23-23 with 4:19 left in the fourth quarter on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Hasselbeck to Kenny Britt. It capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive that took 3:59 off the clock and hyped up an LP Field crowd overloaded with Terrible Towels.
BOX SCORE:Titans 26, Steelers 23
After Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham misfired on a 54-yard attempt with 49 seconds left, the Titans got the ball at their own 45 with a chance to win it.
They capitalized on their opportunity.
On third-and-5 from the 45, Hasselbeck found Jared Cook open for a 25-yard gain to put the ball at the Pittsburgh 25 and put the Titans in range of a victory.
Bironas then made his fourth field goal of the night.
"It feels awesome," Cook said. "It feels like we kind of got the train going in the right direction. There was a lot of tension (coming in), tension around the city of Nashville. It was pretty tough, but we knew we had to stick together. That's what we kept telling ourselves. Now we can try and turn this thing around."
The Titans lost four of their first five games by at least three touchdowns and looked lifeless last week in a 30-7 loss to the Vikings. The Steelers (2-3) are winless on the road.
Hasselbeck was 25 of 44 passing for 290 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Roethlisberger was 24 of 40 passes for 363 yards and one touchdown.
Titans running back Chris Johnson had his second-best game of the season, with 91 yards on 19 carries.
When the Steelers took a 10-3 lead in the first quarter on an 82-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Mike Wallace, Titans fans braced to see a familiar script play out.
But the Titans fought back.
A 38-yard field goal by Bironas cut the lead to 10-6, and blocked punt by Tim Shaw gave the Titans the ball at the Pittsburgh 1. Two plays later, the Titans made it 13-10 on Jamie Harper's run.
Another Bironas field goal, from 47 yards, gave the Titans a 16-10 lead on the final play of the first half.
The Steelers took the opening kickoff of the second half 65 yards on 11 plays, and cut Tennessee's lead to 16-13 with 9:03 left in the third quarter.
The Steelers took the lead 20-16 early in the fourth quarter, however, on a one-yard run by running back Baron Batch.
The Titans' next drive ended when Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons intercepted Hasselbeck's ill-advised throw. Pittsburgh had the ball at the Tennessee 48 and went on to kick a 52-yard field goal for a 23-16 lead with 8:18 remaining.
After a 10-day break, the Titans travel to Buffalo on Oct. 21.
"The football gods were looking down on me tonight, and they were looking on the Titans," Britt said. "We needed this win. We had to have it. We all stuck together, and no one listened to the negativity outside the team. Now we gave everybody something good to talk about again."
Jim Wyatt writes for The Tennessean, a Gannett property.
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