The Titans are only ranked so high on my list (no. 27) because of Chris Johnson . Any team whose chances rely just about entirely on one player is usually not bound to get very far, though a good QB can sometimes serve as the exception to that rule. Their defense is, perhaps, THE worst to have ever seen a football field in a long time , ranking LAST in PPG against with 29.8 PPG and pass YPG against with 278.4 pass YPG, as well as 31st in total YPG against (behind only the Browns), with 390.2 YPG.
The only reason their defensive stats aren't worse is because Chris Johnson can run out the clock in excess, stealing time of possession from the other team (though not too much), to keep them from scoring and racking up yardage. The fact that the Titans rank 18th against the rush is a load of crap - it's not that they are much better at defending the rush (we may never know for sure), but it's simply that teams decide overwhelmingly in favor of passing against them, to compensate for the loss of time of possession from Chris Johnson's rushing, to secure a victory throughout the entire game every chance they get. The Titans' page/NE">Patriots">week 6 performance @ NE is one of the WORST EVER in NFL history, and they also allowed 193 rushing yards in that game. In fact, the Titans have NO defense to speak of! And if you take Chris Johnson out of the picture and Vince Young fails to live up to his modestly high expectations, the franchise is lost to the fire pits alongside the Raiders , Browns and Rams , in hell.
Chris Johnson is the ONLY reason the Titans won their last two games (2 TD and about 25 carries each game, rushing for 135 and 228 yards, respectively), though against relatively weak teams. A look at their game against Jacksonville in week 8 shows that the Jaguarsabsolutely dominated the time of possession battle (39:43 / 60:00) - not surprisingly, Chris Johnson's 228 yards that game was the most EVER in his career, And he broke his career rushing attempts record in consecutive games against JAC (24 att) and SF (25 att). In a nutshell - Chris Johnson IS the Tennessee Titans! He is their offense and defense, their alpha and omega; their franchise.
I would like to add, also: The change in QB also helped, but only because Vince Young has gone two consecutive games without a turnover, while Kerry Collins turned over the ball each time! BUT, Vince Young is not passing for much yardage. So in essence, he's only being used as a strategic peg to maintain possession of the football and to allow Chris Johnson the opportunity for more rushing. This is actually a dynamic, albeit cumbersome, game strategy on part of the Titans. But still, without Chris Johnson, the franchise goes gown to hell, unless Vince Young exceeds expectations some more. He already has exceeded expectations so far, I think.
Only thing that I would disagree with you is the Patriots - Titans game that you so called the Worst Ever in NFL history.. Yes it was bad, embarrasing and a total huge blowout Madden video game style, but.. The Titans played without CB Cortland Finnegan, S Nick Harper, and S Vincent Fuller. CB Michael Griffin [Pro bowler] was a game time decision with a neck injury, he did play tho. Do you see a trend? I do.. Their secondary was exposed and you know what happened next. O ya Kearse did not play either.. Who were the CBs subs? Rookie Jason McCourty starting his first game covering ... yes Randy Moss. And rookie Ryan Mouton... Finnegan back.. two Ws in a row..
The Titans could easy be 4-4 right now.. The Steelers, Jets and Texans game were heartbreakers.. just saying..
Only thing that I would disagree with you is the Patriots - Titans game that you so called the Worst Ever in NFL history.. Yes it was bad, embarrasing and a total huge blowout Madden video game style, but.. The Titans played without CB Cortland Finnegan, S Nick Harper, and S Vincent Fuller. CB Michael Griffin [Pro bowler] was a game time decision with a neck injury, he did play tho. Do you see a trend? I do.. Their secondary was exposed and you know what happened next. O ya Kearse did not play either.. Who were the CBs subs? Rookie Jason McCourty starting his first game covering ... yes Randy Moss. And rookie Ryan Mouton... Finnegan back.. two Ws in a row..
The Titans could easy be 4-4 right now.. The Steelers, Jets and Texans games were heartbreakers.. just saying..
Only thing that I would disagree with you is the Patriots - Titans game that you so called the Worst Ever in NFL history.. Yes it was bad, embarrasing and a total huge blowout Madden video game style, but.. The Titans played without CB Cortland Finnegan, S Nick Harper, and S Vincent Fuller. CB Michael Griffin [Pro bowler] was a game time decision with a neck injury, he did play tho. Do you see a trend? I do.. Their secondary was exposed and you know what happened next. O ya Kearse did not play either.. Who were the CBs subs? Rookie Jason McCourty starting his first game covering ... yes Randy Moss. And rookie Ryan Mouton... Finnegan back.. two Ws in a row..
The Titans could easy be 4-4 right now.. The Steelers, Jets and Texans game were heartbreakers.. just saying..
The multiple messages thing happens to me all the time, especially in player analyses! I must assume that you copy and paste your messages before sending them, in case "Error Code: -100" shows up. I hear you on that one! Only thing that I would disagree with you is the Patriots - Titans game that you so called the Worst Ever in NFL history.. Yes it was bad, embarrasing and a total huge blowout Madden video game style, but.. The Titans played without CB Cortland Finnegan , S Nick Harper , and S Vincent Fuller . CB Michael Griffin [Pro bowler] was a game time decision with a neck injury, he did play tho. Do you see a trend? I do.. Their secondary was exposed and you know what happened next. O ya Kearse did not play either.. Who were the CBs subs? Rookie Jason McCourty starting his first game covering ... yes Randy Moss . And rookie Ryan Mouton ... Finnegan back.. two Ws in a row..
The Titans could easy be 4-4 right now.. The Steelers , Jets and Texans games were heartbreakers.. just saying..Well, I didn't call the Patriots - Titans game THE worst game in all of NFL history, but just one of them. The biggest blowout also featured the most points scored by any one team - a 73-0 shutout of the Redskins by the Chicago Bears . 59 points and 73 points - a 13 point difference. Everyone who watched that game knows the Patriots could have easily broken the record if they wanted to. But I give props to Bill Belichick for exercising fundamentals over being a notoriety hog here (though some will adamantly disagree).
CB Cortland Finnegan is unquestionably one of the best cornerbacks in the game, adding a huge amount of integrity to the Titans' secondary. However, even with him playing the first two or so weeks of this season, I noticed serious flaws in the Titans defense right away - the week 2 loss against the Texans , at least at the time, was a total embarassment! It was a game Finnegan, Harper, Fuller and Griffin all played. Taking that into consideration, amongst other things, I isolated Kerry Collins throwing an interception in EACH game he's played as the main problem (amongst others), as well as Vince Young not throwing interceptions and allowing Chris Johnson to do more damage with increased time of possession as the apparent solution. But having Finnegan and Co. back will help the Titans tremendously. At best, they actually have a legitimate chance to actually surpass the New York Giants in my football rankings . Perhaps, now that I think about it, our input further instills hope in Titans fans to not give up on their team.
BTW, I own Titans' LB Stephen Tulloch in one of my IDP leagues - at the very least, he is extremely consistent, gets numerous tackles and it would be wrong to exclude him as an integral part of the Titans defense. And I actually did overlook the fact that Finnegan did return, looking back on my post.
The Titans seem to have gotten their D back together - especially the defensive backfield. I have to pick one of Cotchery vs JAC, Breaston vs SEA, or Evans @TEN to fantasy-start this week and, even with T.O. out or seriously hurt this weekend, I'm shying away from Evans. The Titans seem to be back. Since Boldin's back this week, I'll probably go with Cotchery.
Yes Cotchery!! No less than 75 yrds a game in the ones he played this season. Coming off a bye, he's healthy. Hopefully he gets in the end-zone against the worst pass D in the League and he'll have a terrific week.
The personnel for the Titans just hasn't changed enough from last year for me to believe that they are the 27th ranked team in the NFL. As their defense continues to get healthy, they will improve. Yes, Chris Johnson is just about the only reason the offense is productive, but adding or taking away one player from most teams could change the entire complexion of their offense. Just look at what Brett Favre has done for the Vikings. Think about what they would look like without AP. And I can't underestimate the psychological impact of getting a motivated Vince Young back. I don't think anybody knows who the real V. Young is, but thus far, he is leading a team who is looking to salvage a bad start to their season. And don't forget about Jeff Fisher. He has been around and winning for a long time for a reason.
Titans 41 Bills 17 Ahh, I would've been right on the money with this prediction, except that at 4th QTR, 1:34, the Titans scored again! I believe that their team will land at around no. 21 or so in next week's edition of my power rankings. I have to see what the calculations say, though. My prediction for that game is shown below:
The personnel for the Titans just hasn't changed enough from last year for me to believe that they are the 27th ranked team in the NFL. As their defense continues to get healthy, they will improve. Yes, Chris Johnson is just about the only reason the offense is productive, but adding or taking away one player from most teams could change the entire complexion of their offense. Just look at what Brett Favre has done for the Vikings . Think about what they would look like without AP. And I can't underestimate the psychological impact of getting a motivated Vince Young back. I don't think anybody knows who the real V. Young is, but thus far, he is leading a team who is looking to salvage a bad start to their season. And don't forget about Jeff Fisher. He has been around and winning for a long time for a reason. Yeah, the 27th ranked Titans have nowhere to go but up, and they already have! I always knew that the team had lots of untapped potential, and when the dynamics of the team align, at best, they can fetch a spot in the upper teens in my rankings. But I don't think it's possible for them to go higher up than that. The Jaguars and the Redskins winning might hinder their progress up the ladder, though.
I'm not going to say the Titans defense is great or even very good, but they are plenty underrated. You cannot judge their unit as they stand right now based on how their first six games went. They've changed for the better.
You got that right man.. absolutely absurd what he is doing.. pretty good prediction of your part. I thought it was going to be a 24-14 or something like that type of game.
i think the qb change has breathed new life into the team, they are motivated and showing effort that we had not scene since last year, i used them over th Eagles defense this week and it netted me 20 points, sure those dtds were late but it shows a team that executes down to the wire, and it also shows a team who has played better, and better, and better, three weeks in a row, they may not be a top 10 d, but they can certainly be used in a good matchup and offensive options may come about as Vince Young continues to catch his swagger
TD J.Cotchery 7 yd. pass from M.Sanchez (J.Feely kick is good) Drive: 5 plays, 61 yards in 1st QTR, 1:57 (7-0 NYJ)
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