For Tennessee Titans' sake, Will Levis needs to be himself, not Patrick Mahomes | Estes

Leading to Sunday’s home opener, the “it was just one week” vibes were thick around the Tennessee Titans. It was a generic, though common, reaction for an NFL team digesting a bitter start in Week 1.

You rinse and learn, and you clean up the mistakes.

But what happens if you don’t? What if Week 2 is uncannily similar in its aftertaste?

The Titans’ 24-17 loss Sunday to the New York Jets wasn’t just an identical final score to last weekend’s loss to the Chicago Bears. It was largely the same defeat, the Titans undone by the same “inexcusable” errors — to borrow a word Brian Callahan is employing a lot already as a first-year head coach.

Isolated occurrences have become trends. Rather than one blocked punt, the Titans now have a problem protecting their punter. Instead of one costly, wholly unnecessary turnover by the Titans quarterback, Will Levis now has a problem with colossally dumb mistakes that are big enough to overshadow everything else he's doing.

It baffles the mind, frankly, that Levis — by all accounts an intelligent person — could stew all week on his idiotic flip interception in Chicago and then go out and do the same thing again. This time it was backward for a fumble, and it was on a third-and-goal with the Titans likely about to take a 10-0 lead had Levis just accepted a sack.

Even Callahan, who’s as low-key and composed a football coach as you’ll find, lost it with Levis on the sideline. The coach’s verbiage was clear as day on television and he spoke for an entire fan base at that moment:

What the (bleep) was Levis doing?

“He’s a grown-up,” Callahan said later, “and he knows better.”

This must be insanely frustrating for Callahan, as it’s just insane, period.

Levis, otherwise, isn’t playing terribly. He threw for more yards (192) on Sunday than Aaron Rodgers (176). Had a higher completion percentage, too. Levis, for the most part, made good decisions and took what was there and nearly led the Titans to a game-tying score in the final moments. He ran for 38 yards, including a 21-yarder and “he did slide today, in case anybody cared about that,” Callahan said.

But no one cares about that. They are too busy trying to figure out what the (bleep) Levis is doing.

Me? I've concluded that it stems from a competitive desire to make something out of nothing. Or as Titans receiver Calvin Ridley spun positively: “I don't think he's trying to do too much. I think he's a winner. I think he wants to win.”

That's great in moderation, sure. But taken to extremes, it reveals an unhealthy overconfidence. Levis doesn't yet understand what Callahan and others who have been around the NFL learned long ago: There are certain improbable plays that only the rarest of quarterbacks can make. That’s why everyone marvels when Patrick Mahomes does it.

Except Levis isn’t Mahomes. When he tries unsuccessfully to be Mahomes, he ceases to even be an average NFL quarterback. He’s suddenly flirting with career failure and getting chewed out on the sideline by a coach who specializes in mentoring quarterbacks to not repeat dumb mistakes. With that, Callahan's patience is wearing thin.

“I’ve told him a million times at this point, 'You're one of 11. Just do your part. It's all that really anyone is asking of him,’” the coach said. “ . . . Something is not quite making sense, because we keep having it happen.”

Levis must know this.

And that should tell you something important:

He can’t help it.

He really can't, y'all. This was the one week in which you'd have said, "No way he'll do that again." Then he did it again. Yet more alarming than the fumble itself was the way Levis described it afterward — honestly and transparently, in my opinion — as his default setting.

“It's got to be something that's more second nature,” Levis said. “I'm going to do everything I can to rewire my brain to make sure that when I'm in those situations I'm not making those decisions.”

This isn't a habit. It's a condition. He's telling you that.

Levis might be able to subdue it enough to get by and make a nice pro career for himself. But understand that the hero-ball attempts are never going away completely for him. They'll happen again.

Might be next week. (For those of us eager to dwell on something else, I hope not.) Might be next month. Might be next season. At some point, Levis again will feel compelled to grab a cape and it'll backfire.

He's not Mahomes, but that's OK.

If he'd just been content being Will Levis the past two weeks, his Titans might not be 0-2.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.