NASHVILLE — Penalties have been a major issue for the Tennessee Titans for a big portion of the season.

Head coach Ken Whisenhunt had enough and on Wednesday (and likely for the rest of this week at least), he brought referees into practice to throw penalty flags during the work.

The officials were from the Southeastern Conference and were replacement officials during the NFL’s last referee labor dispute.

“If it makes them realize that they have to work on those things even more in practice, then we’re accomplishing what we’re setting out to do,” Whisenhunt said. “Let’s face it, there are going to be penalties called during the game. It’s going to happen. If we can have a better awareness of how we’re practicing and work to correct those, maybe we can minimize those, which is what we have to do.”

As for the players themselves, they said the extra eyes watching their mistakes is a good thing, especially if it carries over and results in fewer penalties Sundays. Currently, the Titans have had 56 accepted penalties for 515 yards this season.

“Guys know they can’t make mistakes. We’re not gonna allow false starts, we’re not gonna allow holding,” quarterback Zach Mettenberger said. “We drew flags for both of those today. We’re making it known that we’re not gonna allow mistakes. That’s just a culture that we’ve got to start putting on everybody that that’s not gonna be allowed.”

As for what the consequences might be, players who commit infractions run the risk of being pulled out of practice as punishment. Tight end Delanie Walker said he had been through something similar when he was with the San Francisco 49ers.

“It’s a good thing to have them out there. It makes you think twice on doing something illegal and causing us some negativity. They were pretty good today,” Walker said. “The San Francisco 49ers did it at one point. It’s the same feel. You don’t want to be the guy that’s got to run after practice. That just shows everybody that you were the one that made the mistake. I think that’s something that’s in the back of everybody’s mind.”

Veteran cornerback Jason McCourty said he was happy not to be called for any penalties on the first day, and hopes that the Titans learn from their mistakes so as not to repeat them.

“I didn’t have any, so I was happy about that. I don’t want to face those consequences of coming out or whatever it could be. I think we had a few flags out there. There was a false start, but it’s good to have them on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays as opposed to Sundays,” McCourty said.