Threnody for Clown Car

Put me out of my misery now. It’s only the second Monday of the NFL season, and for the Titans, it might as well be day one of next year’s NFL Draft. This season is cooked. I sure hope you’re a Vols fan, or heck even a Tide or Dawgs fan, because none of us will get any joy out of the Titans in 2024. So much hope is already deflated and there is no one to blame but ourselves.

After week one’s choke in Chicago, there were a number of bright spots that made fans believe we could shake off a road loss and bounce back at Nissan Stadium. A solid defensive performance and a resounding performance from the offense in the first half had Tennessee looking like a playoff team. Some boneheaded mistakes in the second half resulted in a loss, but again, it was just one game.

Yesterday, the defense came out like gangbusters and instantly shutdown the Aaron Rodgers-led offense. Will Levis was clicking with his wideouts and the offensive line provided adequate protection. Even when there were breakdowns, Levis managed to climb up in the pocket and deliver dimes to open receivers for positive plays. In other moments, he’d scramble and get down safely after substantial gains. To cap off the opening quarter, Calvin Ridley took an end around for a touchdown to get the Titans on the board first. All was well in the world once more… Until it wasn’t.

Another promising drive in the 2nd quarter ended tragically when, once again, Will Levis tried to be a hero and shovel the ball off to Tyjae Spears. The ball had other ideas as it bounced in every direction except the one Spears needed. The Jets recovered and debauchery ensued. 

New York tied the game up late in the first half on a Braelon Allen 12-yard TD catch from Rodgers before Nick Folk knocked home a 41-yard field goal to give the Titans a 10-7 lead at the half. Another strong defensive performance would not be enough, however.

The Jets took control in the 3rd quarter on a Breece Hall TD catch and Zuerlein PAT to go up 17-10. Calvin Ridley would respond with a spectacular catch from Levis to tie the game later in the same quarter, but the offense would go mute the rest of the afternoon. Allen scored again for the Jets and would only need one more stop to finish off their first win of 2024.

The Titans had their opportunities but ultimately would come up empty on 4th and goal to fall to 0-2. Even with fifteen games remaining, statistically the season may already be over. Since 1990, only 11% of teams that have started 0-2 have made the playoffs, per the Rich Eisen Show. With the late game struggles, it’s going to take everything short of a miracle for the Titans to make the postseason. The silver lining is that the AFC South is full of 0-2 teams, with only the Texans, at 2-0, managing to keep their head above water. MILES HARRINGTON

🔨 When You Have a Hammer… Two weeks ago, the mayor gave an example of “bias profiling or problems” with LPRs by citing an incident that took place during Nashville’s LPR pilot last summer. According to O’Connell, “a non-native English speaker” was pulled over after acquiring a car out of state. “But, in an unfortunately common occurrence,” he said, “the car dealer reported the car as stolen, even though it was legally purchased.”

Fox 17‘s Dennis Ferrier followed up on the incident during Friday’s roundtable. “I pulled the incident report,” he told O’Connell. “And yes… the car was reported stolen out of Houston….She did not have a driver's license, she did not have a bill of sale, she did not have a registration. I just think it didn't have anything to do with her being Hispanic.”

“I don’t– didn’t– suggest that it had anything to do with race,” O’Connell responded. Rather, he submitted that he was using it as an example to explain the potential pitfalls of using LPR scanners. “It had to do with a series of transactions along the way,” he said. “And as a demonstration of how…inserting data into the system by an interested third party could result in a police interaction for somebody who is not involved in a car theft.”

“If a police officer pulled behind the car and saw this plate and it had been stolen from Texas, they would pull that person over anyway,” Ferrier countered. “But the point was,” responded O’Connell, “this was raised in discussion from communities expressing concerns about it, and it did prompt a policy review on our side.” The mayor then went on to explain that while he used the incident as an example, it was not the reason for the LPR slowdown: “There was clearly still a lot of interest in the program from communities that felt like their concerns had not been absorbed in the policy response.” MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

🪪 Bumbling on the Ballot? After Ferrier questioned O’Connell about LPRs, we inquired about the mayor’s decision to keep a long-term, adjusted-cost estimate off the transit ballot, despite voting to display a 15-year estimate for Megan Barry’s transit initiative six years ago. When asked if he thought adding the adjusted figure doomed the former mayor’s sweeping referendum to failure, O’Connell replied: “I wouldn't say that it sabotaged it, but I think there was also a lot of complexity in that discussion that year. But… I guess I would say it this way: I was prepared to vote for it with the initial recommendation, but we had an argument made by a lot of our citywide leaders, that they thought that they did need that number.”

In 2018, O’Connell agreed that the extra figure would give voters clarity and transparency. This time around, the mayor says, “simplicity” is optimal for his ballot due to “how much goes into a lengthy ballot initiative” and “the number of words you have at the very end of the election ballot.” You can read more about how O’Connell has changed his tune here.  MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

🚨 Freddie’s Public Safety Bills Lastly, the mayor is looking forward to a robust conversation about his four public safety bills during tomorrow night’s Metro Council meeting. “I am legitimately interested in hearing public comment on those, which I imagine there will be some,” he said during a roundtable two weeks ago. “I'm very interested in council member deliberation on those because what we heard from several council members, lots of Metro employees representing different departments, people participating or trying to participate in [the] public comment hearing when we had disruption in this building, was that a lot of these steps would be very welcome.” 

While the bills haven’t been pulled for public hearing, Nashvillians can address the legislation during the public comment period and council members will be able to take them off the consent agenda and discuss them during second reading. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

DEVELOPMENT

• Five Points commercial building listed for $3.3M (Post)
• Convenience market set for The Nations (Post)

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

🎸 Built to Spill @ Brooklyn Bowl, 7p, $32.50, Info
+ There's Nothing Wrong With Love 30th Anniversary Tour

🎸 IDLES @ Marathon Music Works, 8p, $58.64, Info

🪕 Bronwyn Keith-Hynes @ Dee's Lounge, 6p, $10, Info

🪕 Val Storey, Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle & New Monday @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info

💀 Grateful Monday @ Acme Feed & Seed, 8p, Free, Info

🕺 Motown Monday @ The 5 Spot, 9p, $5, Info

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