Five reasons the Eagles lost to the Titans | Paul Domowitch

The five top reasons for the Eagles' 26-23 overtime loss to the Titans:

Giving up a bunch of yards and touchdowns to Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson and the Bucs' track team is one thing. Allowing Marcus Mariota and his limited arsenal of receivers to do that is another.

For the second time in three weeks, the defense couldn't defend the pass. It started early when cornerback Jalen Mills was beaten on a third-and-3 wheel route by Corey Davis for 28 yards on the Titans' first possession, setting up a Ryan Succup field goal.

Mills also was at least partially culpable on a 51-yard completion to Davis in the fourth quarter on the Titans' go-ahead touchdown drive, and picked up his weekly pass-interference penalty on the Titans' first touchdown drive late in the third quarter.

But there was plenty of blame to go around. Nickel corner Sidney Jones was beaten by wide receiver Tajae Sharpe for an 11-yard fourth-quarter TD that put the Titans ahead. Jones also was called for a critical pass interference on a fourth-and-4 throw to Davis on the Titans' game-winning TD drive in overtime.

Earlier on that drive, Mariota somehow managed to complete a 19-yard sideline pass to wide receiver Taywan Taylor on a fourth-and-15. The Eagles were playing five across on the play, but the outside defender, safety Corey Graham, neglected to slide over and cover Taylor, who easily picked up the first down.

Then, on a third-and-10 at the Philadelphia 10-yard line, Davis lined up in the slot and beat rookie corner Avante Maddox for the game-winning touchdown.

Davis, the Titans' 2017 first-round pick, finished with nine catches for a career-high 161 yards. Mariota's 344 passing yards were the second-most of his career. He completed 69.8 percent of his attempts.

Carson Wentz, sacked five times last week in his first game back from his knee injury, was sacked four more times Sunday and taken to the ground more than a dozen other times.

The Titans put constant pressure on him with blitzes and stunts. All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson had one of his poorer performances, struggling with linebackers Derrick Morgan and rookie Harold Landry. Landry beat Johnson for a game-changing sack early in the fourth quarter. The rookie forced a fumble that Tennessee recovered and turned into points.

The protection problems began early when Titans defensive tackle Jurrell Casey beat left guard Stefen Wisniewski to force an incompletion on the Eagles' first possession, and linebacker Jayon Brown came up the middle untouched on a blitz to force another hurried incompletion by Wentz on third-and-9.

Titans cornerback Malcolm Butler came off the edge untouched and sacked Wentz on the Eagles' second possession. Early in the second quarter, Casey, a three-time Pro Bowler, split left tackle Jason Peters and Wisniewski and blew up a third-and-10 play.

Late in the first half, the Titans' ability to pressure Wentz killed another potential scoring drive. After the Eagles drove from their own 14 to midfield, safety Kenny Vaccaro came on a blitz and forced an incompletion. Then running back Wendell Smallwood made a poor decision on a blitz that allowed linebacker Sharif Finch to sack Wentz.

Smallwood had a good day running the ball (39 yards on five carries) but not a very good day in pass protection. Darren Sproles can't get back soon enough.

After the Titans made it a 17-10 game late in the third quarter, Wentz was sacked twice in three plays. On the first, Brown blew by Johnson and got to Wentz, while tight end Dallas Goedert was getting pushed into Wentz by Morgan.

On the second sack, Landry just beat Johnson, getting under his pads and around the edge and forcing the fumble that caused a major momentum shift.

This game was lost in the red zone. The Eagles, who were tied for eighth in red-zone offense going into the game (7 TDs in 10 red-zone opportunities), converted just one of four against a Titans defense that has allowed just two red-zone TDs in its first four games.

The Eagles' defense, meanwhile, allowed a Titans offense that was tied for 29th in red-zone effectiveness to score three touchdowns on four trips inside the 20.

It allowed Mariota to break containment on his 2-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, and then had a horrible size matchup on Davis' game-winning TD catch when the 6-foot-3 Davis was covered by 5-9 rookie Avante Maddox. That's probably not a matchup you would have seen if Rodney McLeod hadn't gotten hurt, because Malcolm Jenkins probably would have been on Davis.

Wentz, the NFL's top-rated red-zone passer last season, completed just four of nine passes inside the 20. Mariota was 5-for-7 with 2 TDs.

The Eagles usually are a pretty good tackling team. Not Sunday. They had numerous missed tackles, many of them costly.

Maybe none more costly than cornerback Ronald Darby's whiff on running back Dion Lewis on a flare pass in overtime on a fourth-and-2 play at the Eagles' 32-yard line. Linebacker Jordan Hicks was responsible for Lewis but was blocked by wide receiver Sharpe. That left Darby one-on-one in space with Lewis. Lewis blew through Darby's tackle attempt at the 30 and gained 15 more yards before finally being brought down.

The elusive Lewis, who finished with nine catches for 66 yards, escaped tackle attempts by Hicks and Mills on another completion in the first quarter, gaining 11 yards on a second-and-12 play.

Corey Graham had a costly missed tackle on a 17-yard catch-and-run by Lewis late in the third quarter on a second-and-22 that helped keep alive the Titans' first touchdown drive and put them back in the game.

This goes on the low end of the reasons the Eagles lost, but it still contributed to the defeat. For whatever reason, Alshon Jeffery's return did not bring out the best in Nelson Agholor. The fourth-year wideout was targeted 12 times but had just five catches for 22 yards.

Eagles receivers had four drops Sunday, and Agholor had two of them. He dropped a pass on a third-and-21 play on the Eagles' second possession that would have given them a first down. Later, he failed to hang onto a pretty important third-and-6 pass from Wentz on the possession between Succup's 33-yard field goal and  Sharpe's go-ahead touchdown catch.

The second pass was thrown 4 yards in front of the sticks. But if he had hung onto it, he had just one defender in front of him and enough space to elude him and pick up the first down. But it became a moot point when he dropped the pass. The Eagles ended up punting, and the Titans drove 75 yards to take the lead.

Agholor, who led the Eagles in receiving first downs (nine) and third-down catches (six), had just two catches for first downs Sunday and didn't have any third-down receptions.