Second Half Errors Doom Tennessee Titans in 25-16 Loss To Minnesota Vikings

NASHVILLE, TN — For 30 minutes, the Tennessee Titans looked nothing like a team coming off a 3-13 season.

Unfortunately, NFL games are 60 minutes long.

After controlling the game for much of the first half, limiting Minnesota Viking All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson to 22 yards on nine carries and benefiting from misses by kicker Blair Walsh, the Titans took a 10-0 lead into the locker room in Sunday's season-opening game at Nissan Stadium.

Even drives that didn't result in points were promising and it was a just reward when DeMarco Murray soared and dove for a touchdown on a play-action pass from Marcus Mariota that, coming out of the full-house power-I formation more common to high school playbooks than the NFL, perfectly captured the team's new "Exotic Smashmouth" offensive ethos.

After Cordarrelle Patterson took the second-half kickoff 61 yards, the Titans held strong, limiting the Vikings to two yards, but Walsh finally found his footing and got the Vikings on the board with a 50-yard field goal, starting a run of 25 straight points by the Vikings, a storming comeback made all the more frustrating in that Minnesota accomplished it without scoring an offensive touchdown. After another Walsh field goal, Eric Kendricks returned a Mariota interception 77 yards to give the Vikings a 12-10 lead at the end of three. Walsh added two more field goals in the fourth and Danielle Hunter added a 24-yard fumble recovery.

The Titans had a chance to close it within one score after Murray caught his second touchdown pass with 32 seconds remaining after a strong two-minute drill drive for Tennessee. Rather than kicking the extra point to close the gap to eight, the Titans opted for the two-point conversion attempt, which failed, delivering the final 25-16 margin.