Tony Pollard runs for 161 yards and 2 TDs as Titans outlast Shedeur Sanders and Browns 31-29

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cedric Gray isn't concerned about Tennessee Titans fans wanting the first overall NFL draft pick for the second straight year.

The second-year linebacker and everyone else in the Titans locker room were focused on getting their second win of the season.

Behind a strong running game along with key plays on defense and special teams, the Titans snapped a seven-game skid as they held off the Cleveland Browns 31-29 on Sunday.

“We hadn’t won since Week 5, so it feels amazing,” said Gray, who had a team-high 10 tackles and a fumble recovery. “I’m not worried about the No. 1 overall pick. We’re ballplayers. We got heart every time we step on the field.”

Tony Pollard rushed for a career-high 161 yards and two touchdowns as Tennessee averaged 5.3 yards per carry. The defense forced a pair of turnovers in the second half and the special teams blocked a punt, with those plays leading to 17 points.

“This is complementary football. Big plays in all three phases,” said interim coach Mike McCoy, who picked up his first win in seven games since he replaced the fired Brian Callahan.

Cam Ward, the top overall pick in April’s NFL draft, completed 14 of 28 passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns, his first game with multiple TD tosses. Ward also threw an interception but was sacked only once, the first time this season hadn't been taken down at least twice.

Cleveland's Shedeur Sanders passed for 364 yards and three touchdowns in his third start, and he also ran for a score in a matchup of rookies. According to the NFL, Sanders joined Cincinnati's Joe Burrow as the only rookie QBs with at least 350 passing yards, three touchdown passes and one rushing score in a game.

However, Sanders threw a costly interception in the third quarter that led to Tennessee’s go-ahead TD.

The Titans (2-11) had a 31-17 lead with 6:17 remaining before the Browns scored a pair of touchdowns. Sanders had a 7-yard scramble with 4:27 left and threw a 7-yard TD pass to Harold Fannin Jr. with 1:03 remaining, but the Browns (3-10) missed both of their 2-point conversion attempts.

Cleveland attempted an onside kick, but it was recovered by Tennessee's Chimere Dike and the Titans ran out the clock.

Pollard, who had 25 carries, had a career-high 65-yard TD run late in the first quarter to give the Titans a 14-3 lead. After Cleveland rallied to take a 17-14 halftime advantage, Pollard put the Titans up for good with a 32-yard carry off left tackle. The third-quarter touchdown came two plays after Titans safety Xavier Woods picked off an ill-timed deep pass by Sanders and returned it 35 yards to the Browns 38.

After Gray recovered Dillon Sampson's fumble and returned it 19 yards to the Cleveland 8, the Titans extended their lead to 28-17 on Ward's 5-yard TD pass to Chimere Dike.

Joey Slye's field goal made it a two-touchdown advantage. That came after James Williams Sr. blocked a punt.

“Some of the things that happened that game, we expect more from our run defense,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. “We got to protect the ball. We had a punt blocked, and obviously not getting either the 2-point plays really off is frustrating. So that’s on all of us.”

Sanders completed 23 of 42 passes and was the Browns' first rookie quarterback since Baker Mayfield to have a 300-yard game. Fellow rookie Fannin finished with eight receptions for 114 yards and a touchdown.

“I would say as time goes on, those decisions and those things, you know, will slim down. And we won’t be in situations where I have that feeling, like, I got to make something happen," Sanders said.

The Titans scored a touchdown on their opening drive for the first time this season when Ward hit Ayomanor on a crossing route for a 14-yard score. Ward was 4 of 4 for 48 yards on the eight-play drive. Tennessee came into the game as the only team without a TD on an opening drive.

“About time, honestly,” Ward said. “We have to continue to be efficient. I have to be efficient, throwing to my guys open, putting it in their radius to make plays.”

Sanders had a strong second quarter to help the Browns take a 17-14 halftime lead.

He found David Njoku in the left corner of the end zone on third-and-goal at the Titans 1. With 2:47 remaining, Sanders gave the Browns the lead with a 60-yard pass to Jerry Jeudy, the receiver's second TD this season.

Cleveland's Myles Garrett became the 14th player to record 20 sacks in a season when he got to Ward in the second quarter. With four games left, he needs three sacks to break the NFL record of 22 1/2 shared by Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and Pittsburgh's TJ Watt.

“I think we really were licking our chops for the pass and they stuck with the run, and we really should have been focused on stopping the run,” Garrett said.

Titans: OT Dan Moore suffered a neck injury in the third quarter.

Browns: WR Malachi Corley (concussion) and Njoku (knee) were injured in the second quarter. C Ethan Pocic (Achilles tendon), CB Denzel Ward (calf) and WR Cedric Tillman (concussion) left in the second half.

Titans: At San Francisco next Sunday.

Browns: At Chicago next Sunday.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) runs the ball for a touchdown as Tennessee Titans defensive tackle T'Vondre Sweat (93) gives chase in the second half of an NFL football game in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) visits with his father Deion Sanders, right, during warmups before an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Browns tight end David Njoku (85) catches a touchdown pass as Tennessee Titans cornerback Darrell Baker Jr. (39) defends in the first half of an NFL football game in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/David Richard)

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Jerry Jeudy (3) sprints to the end zone after catching a touchdown pass as Tennessee Titans cornerback Darrell Baker Jr. (39) gives chase in the first half of an NFL football game in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/David Richard)

Tennessee Titans running back Tony Pollard (20) runs the ball for a touchdown in the first half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the U.S.-Israel military campaign is completed — but said “most of the people we had in mind are dead.”

The president, who four days ago had emphatically called on Iranians to “take over your government” once the U.S.-Israel bombardment ends, appeared to drift further away from the idea that the war presents an opportunity to end the theocratic rule that has been in place since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Trump said that many Iranian officials his administration had viewed as potential new leaders for the country had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli campaign that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and many other top officials.

Trump has not publicly identified anyone whom he views as a credible future leader for Iran. And it’s unclear what, if any, outreach the White House had with Iranian officials since the war started.

“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. “Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”

Trump said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran’s last shah who is trying to position himself for a return should Iran’s Shiite theocracy fall, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over leadership in Iran.

“It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate,” Trump said, adding that it may make sense for “somebody that’s there, that’s currently popular, if there is such a person” to emerge from the power vacuum.

Trump's comments came as he hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his first in-person engagement with a foreign leader since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran.

Trump said he wanted to avoid a “worst case” scenario where “somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person.”

“That could happen. We don’t want that to happen,” Trump added. “You go through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who was no better.”

The White House has stepped up its push to counter criticism that it moved unnecessarily quickly to launch a war of choice against Iran.

Trump’s decision to strike last week followed lengthy negotiations by the president’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner with the Iranians — talks the U.S. increasingly viewed as an effort to stall any progress.

After the most recent round of discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, last week, Witkoff and Kushner told Trump that reaching a nuclear agreement similar to one that former President Barack Obama struck in 2015 was possible, according to a senior administration official.

The official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity, described it as a potential “Obama-plus deal” and Witkoff and Kushner believed such an agreement would take months, but was possible.

Still, even as they expressed their willingness to pursue diplomacy and “fight for every point that we can” if that’s what Trump wanted, the negotiators stressed to the president that the Iranians were not willing to make a deal that would be satisfactory to the U.S.

Meanwhile, Trump sharply criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday for Britain's reluctance to join the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said, blasting Britain’s reluctance to let U.S. warplanes use its bases.

Starmer had initially blocked American planes from using British bases for the attacks on Iran that started on Saturday. He later agreed to let the United States use bases in England and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to strike Iran’s ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not to hit other targets.

The president also sought to push back on criticism from some of his staunchest allies over the decision to go to war — questions that grew louder after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the U.S. had decided to strike because “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”

“And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio said.

But Trump rejected the notion that the White House had been dragged into the conflict by Israel. “We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack,” Trump said. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”

Merz said during his visit with Trump at the Oval Office that Germany is “looking forward to the day after” the Iran war is over.

He said Berlin wants to work with the U.S. on a strategy for when the current Iranian government no longer exists.

“We are having a high interest in common approach and common work and what we can do,” Merz said. “And this is this is important not just for the Americans,” he said. “This is extremely important for Europe and extremely important for Israel and their security.”

Merz also noted surging oil prices were damaging the world economy, laying down an argument for finding a quick endgame to the conflict.

The president acknowledged that oil and gas prices were going to rise as the U.S. remains engaged in the strikes — yet argued it would be fleeting.

“We have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before,” Trump said.

The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday to about $3.11 in the United States, according to the AAA.

AP writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Fatima Hussein and Michelle L. Price in Washington, and Jill Lawless in London contributed reporting.

President Donald Trump meets with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump, right, talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)