Add Tony Dungy to the list of believers in the Tennessee Titans, one of three unbeaten teams left in the NFL.
"They have been as impressive as anybody I've seen all year," says the Indianapolis coach, whose team is already 2 1/2 games behind Tennessee in the AFC South. "They're not turning the ball over, they're playing really hard on defense and making it tough for the other team to score. Consequently, they're 4-0."
The Titans take that mark to Baltimore on Sunday in what is bound to be a bruising game with another team that loves to punish opposing offenses.
Kerry Collins, currently the Titans quarterback, knows all about that. He faced the Ravens in the 2001 Super Bowl when he was with the Giants and was sacked four times, threw four interceptions and ended the game with a meager passer rating of 7.1
Except for Ray Lewis, most of those Ravens are gone.
But the defense is almost as good, tied for second in the NFL with 14.3 points per game allowed and carrying a team with a rookie QB, Joe Flacco, to a 2-1 record.
The No. 1 team in points allowed? Tennessee at 11.5. It features Cortland Finnegan, the league's leading interceptor with four, and Albert Haynesworth, who has five sacks from the defensive tackle position, a most difficult feat.
Flacco, Baltimore's first-round draft pick, is looking like he might become the team's first long-term quarterback since it moved from Cleveland in 1996. He wasn't supposed to start, but is playing because Kyle Boller is injured and Troy Smith got sick.
So far so good.
Flacco engineered a 76-yard fourth-quarter drive in Pittsburgh to send the game into overtime. The Ravens lost, but are just a half-game behind the Steelers in the AFC North and in position to challenge in a division where the Browns and Bengals are in danger of falling off the radar.
Collins, 35 and in his 14th NFL season, is obviously the more experienced QB. He is prone to turnovers under pressure, but since taking over for the injured Vince Young, he's been very good at doing what's in vogue now for QBs: "managing the game."
"So many things are just about knowing the situations, knowing when to take your shots and knowing when not to take your shots," says Collins, who will retain his job when Young is healthy.
"I know that I have been in every situation possible. Hopefully I make more good decisions in those kinds of situations than bad. .... I'm on a good football team. Are we a great football team yet? No, I don't think so. But finding ways to win and winning ballgames just keeps adding to the confidence, keeps adding to the makeup of your team."
