Sometimes, even when you win, you lose.
Just ask Billy Napier. He led Florida to a win over Mississippi State, then got fired the next day.
Classical scholars would refer to such a situation as a Pyrrhic victory, referring to the third century BC, when King Pyrrhus repelled the Roman Empire, but lost so many troops and top officers that he had no viable way to replace them.
In other words, you can win by losing, folks.
Let’s go for another example. Let’s say… oh, just for instance, you’re an NFL team in the mix for the top overall pick in the Draft but need to sustain that status by losing.
Such is the dilemma that faced — emphasis on past tense — the Tennessee Titans. It’s been a terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad season for the fellas in Nashville. Brian Callahan got the heave-ho in mid-October and, let’s be honest, the Titans probably could have canned him before that and no one would have batted an eye. The Titans entered December still stuck on one win and “hey, they didn’t get completely blown out this week” became a discussed positive for a dismal-looking franchise.
The NFL is designed to help bad teams get better, though, and the best way to do that is through the Draft.
The Titans had the top overall pick last year and it yielded Cam Ward. While being No. 1 in back-to-back Drafts doesn’t speak well for how competitive a team has been, it’s a good way to get better in a hurry. Keep it, and add a talented complementary piece. Or trade it for a haul, which is what the Chicago Bears did and reaped major results.
All you have to do to get that No. 1 pick is finish with the worst record in the league.
And the Titans were well on their way.
Until Sunday. When a Kansas City Chiefs team that already has been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs and lost its quarterback and had a slew of key players sitting out for the game in Nashville, the Titans saw easy prey and they bounced.
We get it. Kansas City was a tempting target. For all of those issues the Chiefs faced, the problems magnified when quarterback Gardner Minshew, who was only playing because Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL last week, also tore his ACL.
But victory, in this case, comes with a price. By beating the Chiefs and tallying their third win of the season, the Titans join a traffic jam of three-win teams… all of which are behind the pair of two-win teams in the league, the Giants and Raiders. With games remaining against the Saints and Jaguars, the Titans saw their chance of getting the top overall pick in the Draft drop to less than 1% according to a simulator by The Athletic and their chances of getting a top-five pick also dropped under 50%.
That’s a heavy price to pay for beating a scuffling Chiefs team.
So, anyway, good job I guess, Titans.
Good job beating an unmotivated, undermanned Kansas City team and getting knocked out of the driver’s seat in the pursuit of the top overall pick.
You may not get the first pick in the Draft come April, but you’ll always have this ‘L.’
‘L’ Of The Week Archive
Oct. 20-26: Mississippi State football
Oct. 27-Nov. 2: Carson Beck
Nov. 10-16: That Texas state trooper from the A&M-South Carolina game
Nov. 24-30: The University of Arkansas
Dec. 1-7: Virginia football
Dec. 8-15: Joel Klatt