Taylor Lewan wary of buzz about Titans

The last thing starting left tackle Taylor Lewan wants to hear is that there’s a growing “buzz” about the Titans.

Yes, he understands they were the only team to score more than 40 points during the NFL’s opening weekend going into Monday night's games.

Yes, he understands that rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota became just the second quarterback in NFL history to throw four touchdown passes in his debut.

But as far as Lewan is concerned, the Titans would be just fine with the natural anonymity surrounding a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2008 — and that’s only produced one winning record during that stretch.

“Don’t start that. Please, dear God, no buzz,” Lewan said Monday. “We’re still the Tennessee Titans and people still think we’re an Arena League team. Let us be and let us try to win games.”

Lewan said he’d prefer the same kind of media attention the Titans have seen in recent years — which is to say not a lot outside of Nashville.

“The worst thing is (the media) all of a sudden showing our highlights,” Lewan said. “Look at any NFL commercial and tell me how many times you see of the Tennessee Titans — of us being the highlight. You know? People don’t like us. That’s fine. We’ll keep our heads down and work.”

Lewan doesn’t want any increased media attention to distract the Titans from building upon their opening week pummeling of the Buccaneers.

“I think just going off one win, people all of a sudden want to say the Titans are back,” Lewan said. “Let us establish something. Let us work. Let us keep going. Let us focus on our jobs.

“This is Week 2 coming up and the season has literally just started. We have so much more to improve on, and if we continue to do that, then we can talk in a couple of weeks.”

The Titans (1-0) should have no problem maintaining their focus this Sunday at Cleveland (noon, WTVF-5), considering what the Browns (0-1) did to them last season in Nashville.

In Week 5, the Browns made history by rallying from a 28-3 deficit to beat the Titans 29-28. It was the largest comeback by a road team in NFL history.

“We’ve got to have some payback for Cleveland,” Titans defensive end Jurrell Casey said. “They’re going to be ready to play, especially after a tough loss last week. We’ve got to come out there and show we’re consistent and that we can handle a good team.”

Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt said he likes the fact that his players don’t appear to have let their emotions get carried away after just one victory, even if it was a surprisingly one-sided win.

“One game doesn’t make success,” Whisenhunt said. “I think it’s great to do some things in a game that you feel like you could do based on what we did in camp. But we’ve got to continue this. Maybe that’s part of the reason our guys have the approach they have right now.”

Whisenhunt wasn’t about to bite when asked what it feels like to be on top of the AFC South, a position, incidentally, the Titans haven’t held since Week 7 of the 2011 NFL season.

“You know what, talk to me in about 14 or 15 weeks,” he said. “If that’s still the case, then we’ve got something.”

Reach John Glennon at 615-259-8262 and on Twitter @glennonsports.