The Tennessee Titans kicked off the preseason against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium on Thursday night.
It was a homecoming for head coach Robert Saleh, who was the defensive coordinator there last season. Saleh was also the DC of the 49ers from 2017-20.
The Titans took a different approach to the preseason with Saleh. With former head coach Mike Vrabel, the Titans typically didn't play starters in the preseason for very long, if at all.
Saleh has also been adamant about his desire to play all four quarterbacks in the preseason. As a refresher, the Titans have Cam Ward, Mitchell Trubisky, Will Levis and Hendon Hooker.
After all the former New York Jets, 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs that the Titans added in the offseason, we finally got our first look at this team.
The 49ers got the ball first, as Brock Purdy didn't see the field. Former Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke went out there.
The 49ers started at their own 34-yard line, and the Titans looked like the old Titans. The pass defense left a lot to be desired, but the run defense was solid.
Tennessee got close to getting a sack on Rourke, as Cody Barton sprinted through the line, but he was shaken off, and the 49ers converted a 4th-and-4.
It may not have mattered either way, as the Titans had a defensive holding call on Alontae Taylor. The 49ers got into Titans territory, but a holding call derailed the drive, and they punted the ball away.
Then, we got to see this Titans offense go to work.
The offense looked clinical on its first drive. A 95-yard drive ended with a Tony Pollard touchdown. He might have been able to walk into the end zone with how well the line blocked for him.
Ward looked solid, throwing for 34 passing yards on the first drive.
The 49ers were stopped on their next drive, but would eventually tie up the game on a one-yard run from Patrick Taylor Jr.
Ward and the starting offense got three more drives together before Mitchell Trubisky and the backups came in.
To his credit, Trubisky did lead the offense into field goal range. The Titans retook the lead with a 39-yard field goal from Joey Slye.
As a whole, the Titans really stalled after that good first drive. Ward and the rest of the offense looked out of sync. The secondary continued to be a liability, as Cor'Dale Flott really struggled to contain De'Zhaun Stribling, the rookie out of Ole Miss.
Still, the Titans went into the break 13-7 after a 55-yard field goal from Slye. However, the first half showed that adding new faces to a team doesn't guarantee immediate success.
The moment everyone was waiting for came in the second half. Will Levis trotted out there for the first drive of the third quarter.
Levis didn't provide any memes, but he was sacked on third down on the opening drive of the second half.
The 49ers scored their first points since the second quarter on a field goal from Eddy Pineiro, closing the gap to 13-10.
Slye kept hitting the target, as he added another field goal with under three minutes to go in the third quarter to make it 16-10.
The Titans didn't do much the rest of the game. There was a great moment for Tennessee Volunteers fans, as Hendon Hooker entered the game as the starting quarterback late in the fourth quarter.
The Titans iced the game on Slye's fourth field goal of the night. This time, it was on a 58-yard field goal. Sounds like Slye was paying attention to the team's decision to work out three kickers earlier.
San Francisco made things interesting with a late field goal to decrease the deficit to 19-13. The game hinged on an onside kick by the 49ers, and K.J. Osborn hit the ball out of bounds to secure the victory.
This game revealed that the Titans still have a lot to work on, even in their first game with a new head coaching staff and new players. The Titans got the win, but this was not a clean game by any sense of the word.
We'll see if the Titans can look better in their game versus the Seattle Seahawks on Aug. 23 at Nissan Stadium.