AP

With the Tennessee Titans losing by 21 at home to the Patriots on Sunday and running back Chris Johnson mustering only four rushing yards on 11 carries, the finger pointing has begun.

A league source tells PFT that players are grumbling about offensive coordinator Chris Palmer, who is in his second season with the team.

Given Sunday’s struggles, the emerging question is, basically, “What has this guy ever done?” Well, the 62-year-old coach has been coaching since the early 1970s, with more than 20 at the NFL level. But he’s never been with any NFL team for more than four years (he was the Texans offensive coordinator from 2002 through 2005), and he flamed out in two years as the first coach of the reconstituted Browns.

Palmer’s biggest success came in New York, where he served as quarterbacks coach for the 2007 Giants. He retired from the NFL after the 2009 season. Given that he was back in the NFL in 2011, it’s fair to wonder whether he was nudged out of New York.

Regardless of Palmer’s past (and he likely has forgotten more about football than 99.9 percent of the population will ever know), his present includes a team that came out of the gates in sluggish fashion — and that now is searching for someone to blame.

It could get better in San Diego on Sunday, when receiver Kenny Britt returns and the Titans face a Chargers team with a head coach who has survived despite periodic player grumbling. If it doesn’t, look for the grumbling to continue.