4 Things I noticed in our win on Sunday

This was a great win for our squad, coming off a disappointing second half "performance" against the Bengals. I'd like to just go over a few things I noticed in this win.

The Run Game:

This was fun to watch. Anybody else miss the thrill we used to get out of seeing CJ hit the hole and have a chance to make guys miss? Well, I personally felt that thrill a few times on those runs near the end of the game. The offensive line was pretty good in run blocking too, barring a few plays where it just broke down on them. Even then? Before, those broken plays would result in a 3-4 yard loss, but you could see CJ recognizing it was broken and actually diving forward to either get back to the line of scrimmage or gain 1-2 yards, which is really what we've wanted him to (at least) do for a while now. The run game was also working pretty well in the Bengals game too, though with limited snaps. This is the second week in a row CJ has looked good.

That's good too, because he was running out of excuses for not playing well.


Damian Williams:

Yes, yes, yes. This is what we wanted from you, Damian. Your tippy-toe ESPN-Top-Ten-making catch in the back of the endzone was awesome last week, no doubt. But this game, it was consistent good catches that we saw. This is really what we've needed from DWill since Britt went down and Washington ended up gimpy after that last game. Let's hope this consistenty not only sticks with him, but spreads to the likes of Donnie Avery, whose bad route running lead to H-Beck's only pick of the game.


Colin McCarthy:

Way to go, rookie. I don't know if you guys noticed, but McCarthy was playing a chess game with Cam Newton for most of the game. Cam would shift the play, and suddenly Colin would be shifting the defense or flipping the OLB's around.

It may be only one game, but he definitely looked like an improvement from Barrett Ruud. He did well stuffing some runs, and made a few good open-field tackles on guys that are hard to bring down; Two things Ruud has not done well in any game all season.

Chris Palmer:

Yes, our offensive coordinator. After an abysmal performance by his squad in the final 30 minutes of last game, he actually had to watch the offense go completely cold going INTO the second half. What did he do? Coming out, he was able to make adjustments. The most glaring adjustment was something our CBS announcers pointed out earlier in the game: The defense was keying in on Sarge. Whichever way he was going, they'd all flow there, knowing CJ always follows the Sarge. After the second half, Palmer started calling a whole lot of counter plays involving both Sarge and CJ, faking out the entire front seven of the Carolina defense, resulting in either medium or huge gains.

In one of my earlier fanposts about the then-struggling running game, I pointed out that if even one thing goes right, our running game will vastly improve. I believe both the improved O-line run blocking, and CJ starting to get his vision back, are two things that will greatly benefit us against the upcoming meat of our schedule.

Let's face it; The Texans are clear favorites to win this division, have the easier schedule, and will probably go into the first postseason game they play and choke so bad people will think they're that other NFL team from Texas. This is our rebuilding year, so expectations were low regardless, but hey, let's at least try to go out with a bang, not a whisper. (TWSS)

I can think of at least 10 other fanbases that are in worse positions with crappy teams right now. We need to count our blessings here with our team. At least we're not 0-10 and having to decide between starting Curtis "Paint me a loser" Painter, or Dan "Two 0-16 teams in one career!" Ovalorksky.

By the way...

Jake Locker > Cam Newton.

/sips two-toned Titans koolaid

/abuses SBN formatting feature

Poll

Titans finishing record this year?

6%

12-4

5 votes

9%

11-5

7 votes

67%

10-6

49 votes

4%

16-0

3 votes

9%

1,000,000-0

7 votes

2%

I don't care. I just want to watch golf!

2 votes

73 votes | Poll has closed