Ryan Tannehill still hasn’t gotten over the 19-16 loss to the Bengals in the divisional round of the postseason. The Titans quarterback played one of the worst games of his career, going 15-of-24 for 220 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions.
The Bengals scored two field goals off Tannehill’s turnovers, including the game-winner on the final play.
Tannehill, though, has learned to live with what happened.
“It’s a deep scar,” Tannehill said Tuesday. “It was a lot of sleepless nights. Every time I closed my eyes I was rewatching the game in my head. Didn’t get a whole lot of sleep for weeks and weeks after the game. I was in a dark place. It took me awhile and a lot of work to get out of it. It wasn’t something that went away easily, and it’s still a scar I’ll carry with me throughout the rest of my life.
“Just like a cut on your arm. It starts ouff as a wound. You’re able to heal from it, and it turns into a scar. It never leaves you, but it’s always there, and it can remind you. It fuels me. It fuels me.”
Tannehill said he has sought therapy “for a little while now,” but this offseason marked the first time he really leaned on someone to help pull him out of a “dark space.”
“I’ve kind of worked through it,” Tannehill said. “Like I said, it’s a scar that sticks with me. Therapy, you know, talking to people. Time. All of the above. It was tough. It was tough. It’s not a situation you want to be in. You prepare so long and so hard to put yourself in that position to go chase your dreams, and to go out and play beneath the standard that I have for myself, it stunk. It hurt. A lot sleepless nights, a lot of reflecting, rewatching the game over and over in my head. But, yeah, it took a lot of work to get through it. It wasn’t a day. It wasn’t a week. It was weeks and weeks and weeks to get through it. A lot of sessions. At this point, I can look back at it and recognize it for what it was and learn from it and move on.”