2003 Tennessee Titans season | |
---|---|
Head coach | Jeff Fisher |
Home field | The Coliseum |
Results | |
Record | 12–4 |
Division place | 2nd AFC South |
Playoff finish |
Won Wild Card Playoffs (Ravens) 20–17 Lost Divisional Playoffs (Patriots) 17–14 |
The 2003 Tennessee Titans season was the team's 44th season and their 34th in the National Football League. At 12–4 the Titans posted the 15th season with at least ten wins in the franchise's history dating to their Houston Oilers days. Quarterback Steve McNair threw for 3,215 yards and 24 touchdowns to just seven interceptions; he also rushed for 138 yards and four touchdowns, all despite missing two games to injury, and was named the NFL's co-MVP with Peyton Manning of the Titans' division arch-rival Indianapolis Colts. Eddie George rushed for 1,031 yards and five touchdowns while Derrick Mason had 1,303 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. Justin McCareins had 586 punt/kick return yards and a return touchdown.
As of the 2016 season, this was the last season that the Titans have won a playoff game, making it 12 straight years since then, that the Tennessee Titan have failed to win in the playoffs.
|Weather= 77 °F (Cloudy) In a rematch of the 2002 AFC Title Game the Titans got a measure of revenge in a game that featured 28 combined penalties (17 by the notoriously penalty-prone Raiders). The Titans took an early 9–3 lead on a Tyrone Calico touchdown catch (with a missed PAT) and 50-yard field goal from ex-Raider Joe Nedney while the kicker who replaced Nedney in Oakland, Sebastian Janikowski, drilled a 47-yarder in the first quarter. Nedney himself was injured during the game, so Craig Hentrich came off the bench and booted three additional field goals for the Titans. The Raiders kept the game close as Steve McNair managed two touchdown throws and Rich Gannon added two for the Raiders, but Hentrich's 33-yard boot in the final minute sealed a 25–20 Titans win.
Peyton Manning defeated the Titans for the first time in three career starts in a 33–7 rout. Mike Vanderjagt kicked four field goals and Nick Harper snatched a Steve McNair INT and ran it back 75 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown. The loss put the Titans in an early hole in the AFC South division race.