New Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson made an impresion in Chicago loss.

-- Photo By George Walker Iv | Ap

Believe it or not, there were a few things from Sunday for the Titans to be encouraged about.

Atop that list was the play of Tennessee’s rebuilt defensive unit, which dominated the game Sunday and gave an indication that an aggressive, attacking style is back for the Titans.

That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise as new Titans defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, in his first game in that role, comes from the Gregg Williams school of defense. Williams was the team’s defensive coordinator when it first arrived in Tennessee some 27 years ago.

On Sunday, Wilson’s style was front and center for most of the game, frazzling and frustrating 2024 No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.

Though the Titans only sacked Williams twice in his NFL debut, Tennessee defenders had eight tackles for loss on the day, five quarterback hits and held Williams to just 93 yards passing and a less than 50% completion percentage (14 of 29).

Chicago was just 2-of-13 on third downs, and really accomplished very little offensively all game long.

Until the Tennessee offense can come around and learn not to turn the football over, and until special teams miscues are curtailed, it looks like the defense will have to carry this Titans team for the foreseeable future to keep them in games.

“It’s frustrating to lose, but I’m motivated,” defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons said after the loss. “The way we played on defense is what we expected. We came into this game with a lot of confidence up front and pretty much the whole defense. We wanted to make them earn everything and we did. … It’s something we can build off of.”

That was the positive part of the defense’s start. The negative is something that reared its head again from last season. While Simmons is pleased with where the defense seems to be heading, he said more is needed, especially in creating turnovers. Takeaways were something that was in short supply last season as the Titans had only 13 takeaways (six interceptions and seven defensive fumble recoveries) all of last season.

Their only takeaway Sunday came courtesy of Julius Chestnut recovering a muffed kickoff.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to get the ball,” Simmons says.