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The Titans never quite got to good under Mike Mularkey last year. But they were at least clean, and they’re hoping toward building on that as they aspire to the first goal.

The Titans were the least-penalized team in the league after Mularkey took over for Ken Whisenhunt last year, and he’s maintaining an emphasis on discipline by bringing officials to his OTAs.

“It’s been a little up and down with the penalties,” Mularkey said, via Jason Wolf of the Tennesseean. “We had too many again today. A lot of them are false starts and offsides with the cadence. A lot of them are inexcusable. They’re in 7-on-7 . There’s no reason to jump when there’s no line, or D-line there.

“We just had a discussion about it. We talk about the penalties after every practice and what we’ve got to do to fix it, because we’re not going to be one of those teams that beats yourself on Sunday. So we’re going to keep addressing it.”

In the final eight games last year, the Titans committed just 34 penalties, and the Patriots had second-fewest with 39. That’s about the only similarity, as the Titans were 2-7 in Mularkey’s nine games at the helm.

But dragging refs in for OTAs isn’t Mularkey’s only step toward cleaning up his block. He also shows a chart at the beginning of each week showing the most penalized players, hoping public shame helps the problem.

“You’ve got to do something,” Mularkey said. “If you don’t do something, then it’s like you’re endorsing it, that it’s OK. It’s not OK. And so right now I know the O-line is running gassers.”

It’s an old-school approach, but with the Titans record lately, it’s clear other methods weren’t exactly working either.