QB Cam Ward's improvement offers hope for future amid Titans' struggles

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are starting to see more than a glimmer of hope from an absolutely miserable season with rookie quarterback Cam Ward growing up with each passing game.

Interim coach Mike McCoy couldn't praise Ward's performance enough even as the Titans lost their 10th straight home game in a 30-24 defeat to Seattle.

“It’s taking that next step, and that’s what he’s done,” McCoy said. “We’ve been saying it from day one, the way he competes, the way he works every day. When we first came in in the offseason program, the early mornings, staying late, things like that, it’s starting to pay off.”

The No. 1 overall pick helped Tennessee score a season high in points and run a season-high 68 offensive plays and holding the ball a season-high 37 minutes, 25 seconds.

Ward also scrambled for a season high in yards with his first rushing touchdown and threw for 256 yards with one TD.

Better yet, the rookie finished his third straight game without an interception and didn't fumble despite being sacked four times.

The Titans (1-10) have been blown out at times this season and even shut out Sept. 28 before coach Brian Callahan was fired. But they've strung together three straight losses by a touchdown or less.

Tennessee is 5-6 against the spread this season according to BetMGM.com.

“The only thing that matters the win or loss,” Ward said.

The rookie class. If anyone's looking to grade first-year general manager Mike Borgonzi, the Titans started a season-high five of their nine draft picks against Seattle. That's the most for any Titans' game since at least 2005 when five or more draft picks started six times that season.

Tennessee wound up playing a season-high 10 rookies in a season where nine have played in four other games. Rookie tight end Gunnar Helm had a team-high six catches for 51 yards, a season high. Safety Kevin Winston Jr. had a team-high 10 tackles.

“That gives a lot of hope,” Ward said of the production of the rookie class.

Self-inflicted penalties continue to help the Titans be their own worst enemy for a team with 102 penalties for 599 yards this season. They cleaned those up in McCoy's first two games as interim coach. But they had 10 for 63 yards against the Seahawks with two wiping out first downs.

Worse, plenty are penalties the Titans should be able to eliminate. Unnecessary roughness, a chop block, too many men in the offensive huddle after a 25-yard pickup on third down. The last came as the Titans were trying to recover an onside kick in the final minute only to be flagged for illegal touching.

Chimere Dike. The rookie from Florida continues leading the NFL in all-purpose yards with 1,760 after having 232 combined yards. He has topped 200 all-purpose yards in three of the past four games. Dike has a chance to threaten Darren Sproles' league record of 2,696 all-purpose yards in 2011 with New Orleans.

Derrick Mason is second all time in the NFL, and Mason has the Titans' record of 2,690 in 2000.

Dike also tied the franchise record for longest punt return set by Pacman Jones on Nov. 19, 2006, at Philadelphia, with a 90-yarder for a TD. He became the seventh rookie since 2000 with at least two punt return TDs, a group that includes Devin Hester (three) and Tyreek Hill (two).

Jihad Ward. The outside linebacker has 3 1/2 sacks this season, but he was flagged for a pair of penalties against Seattle.

LT Dan Moore Jr. played only 33 snaps before a knee injury, and C Lloyd Cushenberry missed nine offensive snaps with a late ankle injury. DL Shy Tuttle is in the concussion protocol.

9 — Teams currently with a winning record the Titans have played so far this season with a combined record of 76-46.

The NFL's lone one-win team wraps up a four-game homestand Sunday by hosting the Jaguars (7-4) for the first game between the AFC South rivals this season. The Titans already have been swept by Houston and Indianapolis inside the division.

Of the final six games, the Titans face only two teams with losing records in Cleveland (3-8) and New Orleans (2-9) in a season that could net Tennessee a second consecutive No. 1 overall draft pick.

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Seattle Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, bottom, breaks up a pass intended for Tennessee Titans tight end Gunnar Helm (84) during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Tennessee Titans wide receiver Chimere Dike, center, scores a touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) gets a completed pass away during the first half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Tennessee Titans interim head coach Mike McCoy congratulates quarterback Cam Ward (1) after a touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

NEW YORK (AP) — Technology stocks are recovering some of their losses on Friday, and bitcoin has halted its plunge, as Wall Street bounces back from big losses taken earlier in the week, at least for now.

The S&P 500 rose 0.9% and was heading for just its second gain in the last eight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 610 points, or 1.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.

Chip companies helped drive the gains, and Nvidia rose 2.9% to trim into its loss for the week, which came into the day at just over 10%. Broadcom climbed 3.4% to eat into its drop for the week of 6.3%.

They benefited from hopes for continued spending by companies on chips to drive their forays into artificial-intelligence technology. Amazon, for example, said late Thursday it expects to spend about $200 billion on investments this year to take advantage of “seminal opportunities like AI, chips, robotics, and low earth orbit satellites.”

Such heavy spending, similar to what Alphabet announced just a day earlier, is creating concerns of their own, though. The question is whether all those dollar will prove to be worth it through bigger profits in the future. With doubt remaining about that, Amazon’s stock tumbled 9.6%.

The tentative trading means the S&P 500 is still flirting with its worst weekly loss since November, and its third in the last four weeks. Besides worries about big spending on AI by Big Tech companies, whose stocks are the most influential on Wall Street, concerns about AI potentially stealing customers away from software companies also hurt the market through the week.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, steadied itself somewhat following a weekslong plunge that had sent it more than halfway below its record set in October. It climbed back above $68,000 after briefly dropping around $60,000 late Thursday.

Prices in the metals market also calmed a bit following their own wild swings. Gold rose 0.7% to $4,924.40 per ounce, while silver fell 3.2%.

Their prices suddenly ran out of momentum last week following jaw-dropping rallies, driven by the desire among investors to own something safe amid worries about political turmoil, a U.S. stock market that critics called expensive and huge debt loads for governments worldwide. By January, though, prices were surging so quickly that critics called it unsustainable.

On Wall Street, the recovery for bitcoin helped stocks of companies enmeshed in the crypto economy. Robinhood Markets jumped nearly 12% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Crypto trading platform Coinbase Global rose 6.6%. Strategy, the company that’s made a business of buying and holding bitcoin, soared 15.1%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked higher in Europe.

That was even though Stellantis, the auto giant whose stock trades in Milan, lost roughly a quarter of its value after saying it would take a charge of 22 billion euros, or $26 billion, as it dials back its electric vehicle production. The automaker acknowledged “over-estimating the pace of the energy transition” and said it was resetting its business “to align the company with the real-world preferences of its customers.”

Stocks fell across much of Asia, but Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.8%. It benefited from a 2% climb for Toyota Motor, which said CEO Koji Sato will step down in April and will be replaced by the company’s chief financial officer, Kenta Kon.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.20% from 4.21% late Thursday.

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.

Traders Edward McCarthy, left, and Edward Curran work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Bob's Discount Furniture President & CEO Bill Barton rings a ceremonial bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as his company's IPO begins trading, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Robert FInnerty Jr. works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Michael Conlon, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Jeffrey Vazquez works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)