After pointing the finger at Damian Williams last week, Jared Cook is getting the stern looks for his inconsistent play. Palmer is very pleased with Jared Cook's improvements so far, but Cook has to put some of the sloppy mistakes behind him if he wants to make more plays like the monster one he made in Cleveland.

 Damian Williams is taking last week's criticisms as a challenge, which is exactly what he should be doing if he wants to thrive in this league,

 Jake Scott indicates that the offensive line is taking more of the internal blame for the struggles in the run game after the entire offense reviewed this year's game tapes over the bye week:

It is not him," Scott said of Johnson. "Trust me, it is not him. ... We don't have assignment busts, and we haven't really had assignment busts all year. It is just a matter of doing everything a little bit better, doing things more aggressively and knocking people off the ball."

 Craig Stevens is pushing to get as healthy as possible before Sunday's game against the Texans, and he's at least gotten to the point where he can practice.

 Here's a video previewing some of the extensive upgrades to LP Field the Titans announced yesterday. I'm excited about all of these upgrades, especially the huge video screens, which will greatly improve the ability to watch events for free from the Shelby Street pedestrian bridge.

 PFF makes this point about Jason Jones, which you can take for what it's worth since Jones is being asked to do something entirely different in Gray's scheme:

Tennessee Titans: Last year Jason Jones was able to get pressure on 1-in-11 pass plays. This year he has only been able to get pressure once every 20.

 Boclair looks at how easy this division should be to win.

 Rusty Smith talks about the harrowing experience that was his first start against the Texans last season. This quote, however, was a complete facepalm moment:

"You grow up whenever you're out there on the field, especially the poor job that I did, which is debatable by some,"

No Rusty, it's absolutely not debatable how terrible of a job you did in that game. There were a lot of things stacked against you, but you let them tumble over and crush you.

 Blaize Pennington of TitansTouchdown.com lists the 5 best games in Titans-Texans history.

Jeff Diamond has another article on SI.com, and he tells this anecdote about the Titans' first season in Nashville, and Jeff Fisher's first successful avoidance of Bud's firing squad:

In July 1999, Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams hired me as president and promptly told the media it was "playoffs or pink slips" for coach Jeff Fisher and general manager Floyd Reese after three straight 8-8 seasons for the Oilers-turned-Titans. So while Titans fans didn't expect much, the owner held the opposite view, and I figured he had brought me in to be his axe-man.

Even those of us in the Titans organization who were optimists by nature were tested when quarterback Steve McNair was injured in a close season-opening win over a bad Cincinnati team, but backup Neil O'Donnell did a great job until McNair's return seven games into the season. We finished the regular season 13-3, beat Buffalo in the Music City Miracle playoff game, then won as road underdogs in Indy and Jacksonville to go to Super Bowl XXXIV, where we lost to the Rams on the game's memorable final play.

I'll always remember a happy Super Bowl week in Atlanta leading up to game day, and the widest grins were on the faces of the coach and GM who knew they had escaped the owner's guillotine.

Email me with links, thoughts and complaints at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com and be sure to follow me @AugustWest_MCM