Jeffery Simmons' cameo, and 9 other notables from Tennessee Titans' win over Bengals | Estes

Taking a moment to go back and pinch the Tennessee Titans’ astonishing Sunday 27-3 beatdown of the Cincinnati Bengals, just to make sure it was real:

1. The Tennessee Titans had so much fun, defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons got to spike the football after an offensive touchdown that was thrown by running back Derrick Henry.

I promise it made sense if you were watching.

This was one of several creative twists used by Tim Kelly, who had by far his best game as the Titans' offensive coordinator. But this wasn't just a cameo to reward Simmons for all of his defensive heroics. He was used as an important blocker on a play that didn’t go to him. Henry took the snap and lobbed a touchdown pass to rookie tight end Josh Whyle, who then handed the football to Simmons to spike it.

“He did all right,” Henry said of Simmons with a smile. “Jeffery is the type of guy, anything that we need him to do to help us win. If he needs to come on offense and help block, that’s the type of guy he is. We love him, and he’s the heart and soul of this team."

The interesting part of this — well, one of the interesting parts — was that the Titans sent Simmons out there, and then did it again after the element of surprise was removed by a timeout.

“Call it again,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said was the message.

“It’s always a big man’s dream to be on offense,” Simmons told reporters afterward. “Hopefully, one day they’re going to throw it to me.”

2. The Titans dominated this game in a start-to-finish fashion that has been rare for Vrabel's gritty teams. They had more possession time than the Bengals in every quarter. That included a gap of 11:23 to 3:21 in the third, during which the Titans had a 15-play, 65-yard drive end in a field goal.

After driving 72 yards on 11 plays to open the game, the Bengals didn’t have another drive longer than seven plays or 30 yards until their final possession late in the fourth quarter.

“Nothing was good enough for us today, really,” Cincy coach Zac Taylor said. “We got beat in every phase and that’s up to every player. That’s on every coach that we’ve got. This was unacceptable today. … Tennessee controlled the game really from start to finish. They executed and beat us in every situation.”

3. The Bengals’ offense is clearly struggling with quarterback Joe Burrow playing through a calf injury, but the Titans were able to routinely blitz without paying for it by giving up a big play at the back, which was a positive step for a defense that too often has been allowing those plays.

“Trust me, it feels really, really good,” Titans safety Kevin Byard said. “Didn’t give up any big plays, any deep passes or nothing like that. As a defense, that’s putting it on tape and saying, ‘Hey, when we play like this, look at the results.’ . . . It’s a big monkey off our back that we were able to play good against obviously a really great quarterback.”

Burrow completed 20 of 30 passes, but Cincinnati didn’t have a play longer than 17 yards. Tennessee’s offense had six plays longer than 17 yards, including two runs (and one by Tyjae Spears that started with a fumble).

4. About that 22-yard run by Spears: Vrabel usually harps on ball security when asked about those types of situations. Not this time.

“Run where they ain't,” he said. “It's a guy making a play. That’s what this game's about. We got actions and we got responses. And Tyjae responded. . . . That's what this game comes down to. That's what I try to tell them.”

Spears, a rookie, continues to be quite valuable. He caught three passes and ran for 40 yards on five attempts, an average of eight yards per carry.

5. Byard made me laugh with a story prior to Henry’s TD pass after Simmons jogged on the field: “I was standing with Tyjae, and he was like, ‘I bet you we’re going to score right here.’ I was like, ‘Why would I bet when I want us to score?’

“So that was weird.”

6. Through four games, the Titans’ defense has forced seven fumbles (and recovered three), but it still has only one interception. That was Amani Hooker’s pick of Derek Carr in the opener against the Saints.

Meanwhile, the Titans’ offense hasn’t lost a fumble, but Ryan Tannehill has thrown four interceptions.

7. Receiver Chris Moore is seventh on the Titans with four catches this season, but he’s tied for second with 134 receiving yards. He’s averaging 33.5 yards per reception and had the day’s longest play against the Bengals (44 yards).

"As long as we execute our plays and we protect and we get open as receivers, we make plays," Moore said. "The offense gets rolling, and I feel like everybody on the team can feel that energy when we get rolling like that."

8. Props to kicker Nick Folk. He continues to be money for the Titans, improving to 10-for-10 on field goals after two more Sunday. It was overshadowed by how the game progressed, but Folk bailed out the offense with a 53-yarder on the opening drive after a third-down sack added 11 yards to the attempt.

9. Titans inside linebackers Azeez Al-Shaair and Jack Gibbens have been unsung heroes defensively, and each had good games against the Bengals. They combined for 19 tackles, three passes defended, two QB hurries and a tackle for loss. In all, the Titans finished with nine QB hurries to go along with sacks by Simmons, Arden Key and Trevis Gipson, who forced a fumble.

10. And one more quote from Byard: “We have to create some consistency of who we want to be as a team, and I think we kind of showed today that when we play really good defense and our offense is sustaining drives and doing what they do, we can be a really good team. But it has to be consistent.”

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

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Titans get crafty, and nine other notes from win vs Bengals