FanPost

A Stroll Through the Titans' 2005 Season

Quick explanation: I wrote a Titans' blog of sorts for about 10 years from 2005 to 2014. Recently, I contemplated going back to my old posts, editing them way down, footnoting them with stats and modern-day commentary in order to produce what would essentially be a decade-long fan diary to be titled something along the lines of "Bad Luck, Bad Decisions, and Bad Football: Ten Years of Tennessee Titans' Fandom." Great idea in theory...if you happen to be a Titans' historian/freak. Unfortunately, the reappraisal of my old blog posts revealed that the vast majority of them are moderately-to-completely hysterical hyperventilations and/or knee-jerk rants usually involving the excoriation of Tony Beckham. In the end, however, I was able to salvage my first year on the beat, 2005, and, thus, if you're a hard-core Titans' fan, it's pretty interesting: Steve's final year, Pacman's first, and, otherwise, a whole bunch of bad football. SBNation appears to accommodate my footnotes, so definitely read them (added in 2016), because they are obviously the best part.

September 11, 2005: Titans at Steelers: L, 7-34

The Titans' season got off to a flaccid start yesterday with a 34-7 loss to the once-hated rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. I say "once-hated," because, if you are a semi-hysterical Titans' fan, like I am, it's impossible to hate anybody after that performance yesterday but the Titans themselves and CB Tony Beckham,[1] in particular.

Roethlisberger only completed nine passes,[2] but my uneducated guess would be that seven of them were to whomever was being guarded by Beckham, including the bomb to Antwaan Randle El in the 2nd quarter that ended any real competitive football game that had been taking place. Randle El didn't even appear to make a move and still had Beckham beat by five yards. Coming a play after Drew Bennett abruptly ended a Titans' scoring drive by causing an interception on the Pittsburgh 6-yard-line, it was apparent then that the team was devastated, the game was over, and the Titans' season was going to be a long one.

The secondary, epitomized by Beckham, looked completely outmatched against the Steelers. Lamont Thompson, who the Titans just signed to a 5-year deal, appeared slow, while Pacman Jones, after his extensive holdout, was in street clothes, although, even without practice, I would not think he could conceivably do worse than Beckham.

In regard to the offense, as one friend of mine noted during the game in reference to 3rd-year-man and former 2nd-round pick, Tyrone Calico: "You can't teach coordination." Calico certainly appears to have lost his confidence, and the hands and foot skills have followed. Drew Bennett also got off to a lackluster start as the team's #1 threat. Although he had one big catch, he couldn't hold on to a McNair bullet on the Pittsburgh 6-yard line; instead, the ball flew up into the air and was picked off in a huge momentum swing.

One bright spot for the offense was tight-end production from 2nd-year man Ben Troupe, Erron Kinney, and rookie Bo Scaife. Troupe looks much, much better than he did last year; he appears thicker and far more confident. Kinney had multiple sure-handed catches, while Scaife seemed game as well in limited action.

Steve played well. He looked sharp and eager and threw crisp passes throughout the game. Unfortunately, the game was over after a quarter and a half. The sacks and fumble were caused by weak protection as everything started to crumble in the 3rd quarter, but I obviously still have confidence in Steve's ability to produce.

The stalwart D-line, i.e. The Whitewash: Vanden Bosch, Travis LaBoy, and Clauss,[3] seemed to be getting decent penetration early, but, penetration doesn't matter so much when the penetrators bounce right off the opposing players they are trying to tackle and fall down.

Rob Bironas (and I'm not entirely sure who that is) missed his only field-goal attempt from 47 yards. Why is it so hard to get a decent kicker in the NFL?

Titans v. Ravens, September 18, 2005, W: 25-10

Yesterday's shellacking of the Ravens really took me back to the days of yore, when the mustachioed gentleman that is Kyle Vanden Bosch (also known as Kyle Van Boschen, according to our CBS sportscasters) was a man-eating defensive lineman for the...uh, Cardinals, right? Actually, before Vanden Bosch mysteriously showed up on the Titans' doorstep in the middle of the summer, I can't say I knew anything about him. But, ‘tis the 2005 Titans. With three sacks yesterday, Vanden Bosch helped punctuate a dominant performance by the Titans' defense that included an interception returned for a touchdown by Brad Kassell (known on ESPN as Brian Kassell), a safety by Rob Reynolds (not to be confused with Ryan Reynolds, the star of "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place"),[4] and only 14 total rushing yards allowed to go along with the 6 sacks enacted on the Ravens' back-up-and-soon-to-return-to-the-bench quarterback Anthony Wright.

Kudos to Vanden Bosch and, in particular, the defensive line and the linebackers, who both definitely responded to a miserable performance in last week's loss. But, before we start erecting nude statues in Van Boschen's honor on Demonbreun,[5] last year in the Titans' 5-11 season, the team had one very solid win over an esteemed opponent in the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football.[6] In that win, everything seemed to click and the game turned into a highlight reel. Unfortunately, none of those highlights were replayed for the rest of the year. So, yesterday's game was a great one and it's always a good feeling to beat the Ravens and, in the process, clue everyone in to the steadily declining career of Ray Lewis (he seems to do more after the play while rubbing the tackled player's face into the ground then he does during the play with a good hit), but I will reserve any sort of real judgment of the situation until we have completed the next two games, at St. Louis and at home versus the Colts.

I am happy to see, however, that Tony Beckham split time throughout the game with Pacman Jones. Pacman had a pretty decent debut; he was definitely fired up and, although several passes were completed on him, he was always right there in position to make a tackle. Also, the pass interference penalty (on Pacman) was not consistent with the refereeing in the rest of the game. By playing half as many plays, Beckham didn't have nearly as many opportunities for mistakes, and, thus, the only time I even heard his name was when he made a great read and deflected a pass to Clarence Moore.[7] Maybe, if Beckham isn't in that much, the opposing offense can't plan their entire day around him.

The rookie wide receivers continue to impress. Brandon Jones and Courtney Roby both had a number of catches with Roby snagging a long one on 3rd down in the 3rd quarter. Calico also made two tough grabs and was playing like his job is in jeopardy, which I believe it is. Bennett played decently well, but, again, he let one ball slip through his fingers that could have very easily been intercepted.

Rob Bironas, who was 3-3 yesterday with field goals from 39, 29, and 47, is apparently the best kicker in the league. I love this guy!

Titans at Rams, September 25, 2005: L: 27-31

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Titans squad that day, the score stood 24-10 with but a quarter and a half to play.[8] And when the offense stalled again—all half it had been the same, a pall-like silence fell upon the blue-clad fans of the game. A straggling few got up to go in desperate unrest. The others clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast. They thought, "if only Steve could but get a decent shot at that. We'd put up even money now, with Steve at the bat." But upon that stricken multitude, grim melancholy sat; for there seemed but little chance of Steve getting to the bat. But around the bend Van Boschen appeared with a fire in his eye.[9] And fleet-footed Odom scooped the fumble up on his first most nimble try. And, suddenly, again the ball was lying on the ground, and gimpy Peter Sirmon found that no one else was around. And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred...

...there were over two minutes to go and the Titans, down four, had the ball on our own 20-yard-line with our best player, the former NFL MVP, Steve Air McNair somnambulating onto the field, poised for another come-from-behind win, a season-shaping victory, facing a chance to make a statement to all those naysayers who had picked the Titans to finish last or third to the last in the league, to snub those writers who told Matt Leinart two weeks ago to "check out BBQ joints in Nashville" or who cannot say anything about our team without referring to its "youth," to those sportscasters who still call our players by the wrong names (Woolfork, yesterday[10]). Here was a chance to forge a new identity, a unique character for this formless squad of nobodies, an opportunity, to paraphrase Brian Billick during the Ravens' 2001 Super Bowl run, "To pick up the fiery gauntlet and go roaring through the temple of champions while letting out a blood-curdling yowl to the Amazonian queen,"[11] i.e., it was a chance to win the game...but, alas, mighty Steve has struck out.

Although he drove the team 50 yards down the field, the comeback slowed to a trickle. After one spiked ball, Calico jumps offside to make it 3rd and 8 with about 40 seconds to go from the Rams 28-yard-line. My initial thought is that we need to go ahead and make the first down, because, at that point, we still had the time to be tackled, probably one more time, in the field of play. Then we would, basically, have about 3 shots into the end zone. Instead—I don't know if this is the fault of the play-caller or the decision-maker behind center or a combination of both—on 3rd down, we throw the ball into the end zone to a triple-covered rookie who never once throughout the whole play had a step on his man. Incomplete. Then on 4th and 8, McNair, rolling out of the pocket, has Chris Brown, wide open with running room, directly in front of him for a quick dish, but, instead...opts to throw the ball 5 yards out of bounds?

Steve tossed two touchdown passes yesterday and drove the team down the field on that last drive, but, it really says something about your team, when you actually feel more comfortable with your defense with one of the more porous secondaries in the league on the field than you do your offense, which is lead by your best player. Throughout his career, Steve has never really been known for being pristine; he always made a handful of mistakes, just never really when they mattered. And his clutch play when it did matter always overshadowed a little bit of sloppiness. But his coolness under pressure almost looked like fatigue yesterday when CBS showed a shot of our hero on the bench, seemingly with his eyes half open, before the final drive. Being unfazed under pressure is one thing, taking a nap on the bench in the middle of the game is another.

I actually feel pretty sorry for Calico at this point. He made a good catch in the middle of the field for a good gain and you could almost see how excited he was to do something productive. He was gleeful for a brief moment, and then he got lit up and the ball tumbled to the turf. I don't know how he's going to recover his confidence after a game like the one on Sunday. In fact, I see him sliding more and more towards irrelevance as the #3 or #4 receiver with each passing day. In a way, it's a bummer, because Calico is extremely young under a lot of pressure and I feel bad for a guy who so desperately wants to do well, but, at the same time, there are younger players in more pressurized situations who don't make the kinds of mistakes he's been making.

Otherwise, let's say Leonard Little is a lion, and rookie Michael Roos is a kangaroo hopping around confused and on the wrong continent; well, then, yesterday, Little ate Roos's face off. Ex-Vol Little single-handedly did more for the Rams' cause then, arguably, anybody on the team. McNair consistently got hit and hit hard, and was (hopefully) out of sorts by the end of the game, while the offensive line consistently couldn't do anything about it.

Vanden Bosch again played way beyond his means, name, and reputation. The mystery, however, is over. Kyle Vanden Bosch is a 5th-year pro out of the University of Nebraska and is originally from Larchwood, Iowa.

Bulger[12] may have been picking on Pacman during their last scoring drive and the Rams seemed to be able to complete just about any pass across the middle of the field at any point during the game. But, for the first time, I think I'm going to give the secondary the benefit of my aching doubt. Pacman was assigned to one of the best receivers in the league in Torry Holt, and Bulger and the Rams have an established and impressive passing offense. With that said, however, the Titans are going to have to do something better and do it quickly because I can see Peyton and the sleeping giant that is the Colts offense waking up and having a fun time at The Coliseum next Sunday as they throw the ball all over the likes of Tony Beckham, Michael Waddell, Reynaldo Hill, and Lamont.[13]

Finally, I already have to sit through a heap of commercials every time I want to watch a football game, so I would think that the referees would want to keep the pace of the game up a bit. The veteran they had officiating our game, however, moved about as quickly as a pile of gravel while calling over twenty penalties between the two teams. Maybe if the referee hadn't been so terribly slow, our quarterback wouldn't have to take naps on the sidelines?

October 2, 2005 - Titans v. Colts -€” L, 10-31

I have to sort through a couple of hundred nonsense emails each week from many of my adoring readers that are usually along the lines of "Rob Reynolds + Cody Spencer[14] = the future of the Titans' franchise" or "If you put Lamont Thompson on Tyrone Calico and then threw the ball up in the air, would both of them just disappear?" But, this week, I had one substantive missive:

EWS: "Stuart, I liked your blog for Week 3. But (and I know you do too), I still believe in Steve. He looked great marching them down the field on that last drive. Here is what I think happened: First of all, we never should have spiked the ball on 1st down. We had rhythm. The Rams were reeling. By spiking the ball, we allowed them to regroup. I recognize that the clock was running but we still had plenty of time. Perhaps we didn't have a play called, but there should be a default play: everyone run hooks. Second, after the Calico penalty, I think Steve got impatient. At this point, he still doesn't trust his receivers. They have given him no reason to. No wide receiver has made a big play using athletic ability. They've only caught balls that any average wide receiver in the NFL should catch. That is why he checks down to Erron Kinney so much; Kinney is the only guy he trusts. Clearly however, Steve made a bad throw on the toss to Drew. He didn't set his feet. And the interception to Gateway Archuleta was inexcusable. We had them. I must confess that I loved Steve's comments after the game though. For what he didn't say. He didn't apologize. He didn't make excuses. He didn't let some white sportswriter that looks approximately like me feel like Oliver Cromwell. He said he missed it. Things happen. End of discussion."

I agree with a lot of Emailer #1's thoughts and his wise words definitely caused me to reevaluate my tough critique of the man, Steve. Yeah, he made a bad throw, but maybe he made the bad throw for all the right reasons. Maybe, he was just trying too hard, maybe he was hoping for a big-time touchdown pass to Bennett that would go far beyond just one win in this one game. Maybe he was foreseeing a game-winning grab that would give Drew much more confidence and help establish a much-needed rapport with his #1 that still doesn't exist to this day. So, maybe it was worth the risk because when a quarterback has absolutely no confidence in his receivers to actually catch the balls that are thrown their way, what hope does a team have?

This past offseason, we gave away two receivers in order to save money: Derrick Mason to the Ravens and Justin McCareins to the Jets, both of whom had proven that they were capable of playing on a very high level in the NFL. Then, we convince our warrior quarterback to come back after he was contemplating retiring -€” honestly, who would want to put themselves and their broken sternum in harm's way week after week to play for a team with no adequate receivers? Imagine if Steve was throwing the ball to Randy Moss each week....[15] Then we surround him with three rookies, an uncoordinated, oft-injured, unconfident 3rd-year man -€” of course, last year I was lamenting the fact that we didn't have Tyrone Calico; I kept thinking if only Calico hadn't been hurt then Steve would have somebody to throw the ball deep to. I loved Calico last year when he had two busted knees and couldn't play a down[16] -€” and Drew Bennett, a great #3, a pretty good #2, but not a #1 wide receiver. (Drew actually had a quote recently where he said that last year he wasn't even sure he wanted the ball thrown to him.). Yesterday, a pass that could have and would have been caught by the majority of #1 wide receivers in the NFL for a big gain and possibly even a touchdown was, instead, turned into an interception. That's Drew's 2nd interception this year. We may not have had the defense to stay with the Colts throughout the second half, but, at this point, there is something to be said for playing a good team close and making a game interesting. I believe it's the only way for these many, many young players on our squad to gain experience and confidence.

October 9, 2005 -€” Titans at Texans: W: 34-20

We are one again. Everything works. We are the best team in the league.

EWS, guest blogger: "At the end of the first half, our punt returner Thurman,[17] fair-caught a ball at approximately the 45-yard-line. Apparently, some arcane rule provides that a team may free kick after a fair catch. Fisher knew the rule and was prepared to capitalize and sent in Bironas for a "free-kick" from the 45. Essentially, Bironas was able to kick off unmolested and if the ball went through the uprights, we got three points. No one but Fisher, including Rob Bironas and the CBS announcing crew, knew what was going on. Bironas kicked off into the right corner of the end zone. I think he was aiming for a touchback. Oh well. Fisher will have a good story at the next raucous meeting of the NFL Competition Committee."

October 16, 2005 -€” Titans v. Bengals: L: 23-31

I'm having a hard time blaming this one on Lamont Thompson. Don't get me wrong, Lamont Thompson did not appear to play any better than he usually does. In fact, the only time I really saw him was when Chad Johnson was catching a 30-yard pass over him and he was responding with his signature move: tackling a receiver after that receiver has just made a really big catch. But he is not at fault today and neither is the rest of the defense, including our completely crazy cornerback, Q-bert Jones. The much-maligned defenders held one of the best offenses in the league to 17 points and made several very necessary plays when they were needed: the 4th down stop in the first half, the goal-line disruption instigated by Big Al Haynesworth and finished off by Big Play Rob Reynolds,[18] and Keith Bulluck's (uncalled) horse-collaring of Rudi Johnson[19] on 3rd and short that gave our offense one last chance at a game-winning drive. No, the defense did what was necessary to set our team up for a win. Instead, the big accusatory finger is centered directly at the offense and, inevitably, its leader, the man Steve McNair.

No one is going to question Steve's physical toughness after the 10 years he has played as a man's man in this brutal league, but yesterday, maybe, one could question his mental fortitude. The chink in the armor is not any sort of nervousness under pressure or lack of confidence in his own abilities, but rather his tendency to get so easily frustrated. His body language throughout the second half, but especially after the interception returned for a TD, made it look like the Titans had already lost the game...even when we were winning. He was moseying on and off the field like he was on a team with a whole bunch of nobodies and he was doing everything he could do but was getting no help. That may, of course, usually be the case, but, yesterday, these nobodies were playing like halfway decent somebodies, most of the time. In fact, Drew was basically mistake-free and made a brilliant catch on a 3rd and long over the middle, and although rookie Brandon Jones had one dropped pass, he also played his best game of the season and was on the receiving end of a great-looking over-the-shoulder grab on another 3rd-and-important play. Further, as much as I would like to, I cannot blame Tyrone for the first interception. That good-for-nothing 2-yard slant, where our completely unconfident 3rd-year man is being mauled by three different defenders is not a good play call and not a good quarterbacking decision. That's three chances now that Steve has had to produce a 4th quarter game winning drive, and, unlike the days of yesteryear, none of them were shut down by the clock. We've, instead, just thrown them away.

Maybe we could channel some of the defense's energy onto the opposite side of the ball because Keith Bulluck sure showed his killer instinct when tearing down Rudi Johnson on a play that really mattered; Pacman Jones shows that he has a killer instinct he just may not be able to fully wield it as of yet as he went toe-to-toe with the best wide receiver in the game, Chad Johnson, all the way down the field before the referees stepped in and called two nonexistent pass interference penalties. (He then further showed his, not really killer instinct, let's say, "spirit" as he slammed his helmet on the ground on the sideline and then chased the head referee down after the game like an insane person). But, the offense? Once again, I actually felt better with the defense on the field, because, at least, then, the worst thing that could happen would be an opponent scoring a touchdown, which, in the grand scheme of things, is much less harmful than an opponent taking the ball away and returning it for a touchdown, which is a momentum swinger and a killer.

Finally, for the annals, in a post-game press conference, Carson Palmer[20] made a statement about wanting a one-on-one match-up between PacMan and Chad Johnson and how it made him "lick his chops."[21]

Mid-week news:

Drew Bennett had surgery to fix a thumb he dislocated in last week's loss and is not expected to return for a good long while (3-6 weeks). So, here we are, exactly where we half-expected to be, about to start three rookies and Calico.

October 23, 2016 -€” Titans at Cardinals (1-4), L: 10-20

Yesterday morning, on an ESPN pre-game show, Ron Jaworski reported rather vaguely that the start on Sunday by Billy Volek[22] was more than just a one-game replacement for McNair; it was a fundamental shift for the Titans' franchise. With McNair slated to get a $50 million bonus at the end of the season,[23] with his continuing physical ailments, and with the already sorry state of the season, team officials expect him to retire or be released and for Volek to take over the reins permanently. But, according to Jaworski, what Titans' team officials were really hoping for would be a chance to take Matt Leinart in the draft, so that Leinart could team up with ex-coach and current Offensive Coordinator Norm Chow at Tennessee and lead the Titans into a new era.

I am skeptical. Unless we lost every game for the rest of the season, I doubt we would have a chance to draft Leinart because the draft doesn't usually just match up college players with their old coaches for convenience's sake. And, although we aren't very good, we still periodically are playing like a half-way decent team, who can certainly still beat the other really bad teams in the league, which means we wouldn't and shouldn't be at the bottom of the barrel at the end of the year.

But, after yesterday, maybe everything has become clear. Maybe, yesterday, before our very eyes, the Titans disintegrated from a respectable, prideful team that had a chance to win 6-8 games this year into, perhaps, one of the worst in the NFL with the worst offense that has ever dared to don the Titans Kleenex-blue, playing in the worst game in the history of the Titans' franchise.[24] Maybe Leinart will turn into a great pro quarterback,[25] but, honestly, why are we jockeying for draft position during the 7th game of the season? And with our recent record in the draft, why do we put so much stock in it and how do we know that we would even take Matt Leinart if we were given the chance? Wouldn't Floyd (Reece) rather roll the dice on some unproven prospect from Northeast Montana that he found living in a cave?

The worst part about yesterday's game was that our much-maligned defense actually played well. Pacman (According to our sportscasters, his name is now pronounced "Pacmun" with the accent on the first syllable, like Johnson) was a menace, Lamont Thompson actually made a significant play, the secondary was knocking balls away, making interceptions, shutting down wide receivers, Fat Albert was busting through the line every single down, and Sir Van Boschen of Larchwood walked away with another sack and a half. All in all, the defense was impressive, which means the game stayed close until very late, until Hour 4, when Volek went down for the count.

For those who think it is time for the Age of the Volek, here he is...the wave of the future, the wave of the future, the wave of the future, the wave of the future.[26] Whenever Steve plays, even this year when he seemed to be frustrated and moaning half the game, he brings with him a certain gravitas, like he is someone who has seen and done many things, who can't be ruffled (even when he is obviously completely ruffled and makes a bunch of mistakes), who commands attention and respect from his players. Watching Volek play, especially at Arizona in front of 5,000 fans[27] who had to be asleep for the amount of noise they made, I felt like I was watching a game reincarnated from the Titans' ill-advised season playing in Memphis at the Liberty Bowl, before we had pride as a team, before we had become majestic one-time AFC Champions. In short, he does not appear to command respect or, otherwise, offer an opportunity to win. So, asking Volek to take over a team is unrealistic. It would make more sense to try and trade him now when he still has value, because, from what I could tell, Matt Mauck[28] could be a competent back-up, or, at least, would do something other than stand around waiting to get sacked before throwing a 1-yard out to our 4th-string tight end.

Indeed, in a day full of absolutely ridiculous plays, none made me laugh harder than the pass from Matt Mauck to Bo Scaife on our final drive that hit Scaife in the back of the head. It just seemed to work as a joke on so many levels. One, it was funny-looking, because, you know, the ball isn't supposed to be thrown into the back of the head of somebody who isn't looking. Two, practice-squader Mauck, who played relatively decently in his one drive, especially compared to Volek, was throwing the ball to one of our four tight ends, rookie Bo Scaife and I couldn't help but wonder...why do we have four tight ends when we only have one good linebacker and one proven, good receiver and why is our third-string tight end in the game on the final drive and why are we throwing it into the middle of the field when time is not on our side and, wait, why am I still watching this absolutely depressing game? The answer? There is no answer, none of it makes any sense. But, the usually reliable tight ends played as poorly as the rest of the offense with Kinney racking up two very hurtful penalties and Troupe dropping a couple of those 2-yard-out plays that we run multiple times every game. You throw the ball to a big tight end who has to twist around backwards to catch it while all the time he knows he is going to get his legs taken out from under him seconds later and, if by some bit of luck he happens to avoid that tackler, he'll be taken down by the tackler directly behind him for a 2-yard gain. And, if he's extra-lucky, he won't be hurt on the play.

Further, one botched field goal that could have kept us in the game + 25 blocks in the back on punt returns = Loss.

Tennessee's last fourteen drives: Punt, Fumble, Punt, Interception, Punt, Punt, Downs, Punt, Punt, Downs, Punt, Fumble, Downs, End of Regulation.

October 30, 2005 -€” Titans v. Raiders: L, 25-34

`We shot ourselves in the foot? It's more like we shot ourselves in the face. We're killing ourselves." - Albert Haynesworth

Yes, we shot ourselves in the face yesterday and have quickly plummeted to the depths of the NFL. The most disturbing part is that, maybe, we didn't just shoot ourselves in the face yesterday, maybe we did it a long time ago, or maybe we've been doing it every draft for the last several years and we just don't even know quite yet the depths to which we have plunged.

David Climer wrote an editorial for The Tennessean recently where he basically asked the question: if we're "rebuilding," then around whom? If the Titans' most recent run in the upper echelon of the NFL was built around Steve, Eddie, Jevon Kearse, and Derrick Mason, are we now building around...Keith Bulluck, Albert Haynesworth, Drew Bennett, and Pacmun Jones? Are these players solid and consistent enough around which to build a franchise?[29]

In the last three drafts, we have taken Pacmun Jones (West Virginia) and Michael Roos (Eastern Washington), Ben Troupe (Florida) and Travis LaBoy (Hawaii) and, finally, Andre Woolfolk (Oklahoma) and Tyrone Calico (MTSU). There appears to be a tendency to use our second round picks on players from non-major conferences that Floyd thinks will develop into major contributors. There is a sense (from fans, at least) that with the three second-rounders (Calico, LaBoy, and Roos), we could have very easily waited a few rounds and still probably been able to get them.

At the same time, our first rounders over the last three years haven't quite worked out so well, either, and perhaps this fact is more responsible for our recent weak performance than anything else. Woolfolk's play has been spotty; he's been racked with injuries; and, last night, The Tennessean reported that a rookie out of Florida, Reynaldo Hill, will be permanently taking over his starting position. Troupe seems to have tons of potential, but, for some reason, this year, we don't even seem to play him that often -€” our third-string tight end Bo Scaife lead yesterday with 5 catches for 16 yards...with a long of 16 -€” and Pacmun Jones, of course, has his own problems. But, if you look at the recent history of the Titans' franchise, our major, big-time players have all come from major conferences: Eddie (Ohio State), D-Mase (Michigan St.), Kearse (Florida), Chris Brown (Colorado), Kevin Carter (Florida), Samari (FSU), Bulluck (Syracuse) and, Steve, although not from a big-time conference was the talk of the nation his final year at Alcorn State and was a verified football phenomenon, not an unheard of transplant from Estonia.

Furthermore, another question inevitably arises when watching our completely bottom-of-the-barrel football team: if we are in such dire straits with our salary cap problems and yet we have absolutely nobody on our team, where is all of our money going? The answer: to the offensive line which allowed 6 sacks yesterday and a solid helping of untimely penalties.

2005 Titans Salaries

(Player, years in NFL, year contract ends, total pay)

Steve McNair

10

2006/2009

$ 7,142,000

Brad Hopkins

12

2006/2009

$ 4,880,333

Keith Bulluck

5

2009

$ 3,115,333

Benji Olson

7

2007/2009

$ 2,989,250

Adam Jones

0

2008/2009

$ 2,200,000

Peter Sirmon

5

2006/2008

$2,021,667

Drew Bennett

4

2006

$1,730,000

Albert Haynesworth

3

2007

$1,576,668

Justin Hartwig

3

2005

$1,430,000

Zach Piller

6

2009

$1,307,429

Billy Volek

4

2008

$1,290,002

Andre Woolfolk

2

2007

$1,227,500

Craig Hentrich

11

2008

$1,148,750

Erron Kinney

5

2008

$1,070,000

Brad Kassell

3

2005

$1,000,000

Tank Williams

3

2005

$958,333

Ben Troupe

1

2007

$750,002

Travis LaBoy

1

2007

$705,002

Travis Henry

4

2009

$682,000

Lamont Thompson

3

2009

$655,000

The defensive line had two sacks yesterday, but I don't really remember them. They must have come during one of those times where Raiders quarterback Kerry Collins[30] just ran out of bounds for no reason, because from what I could tell the D-line got virtually no pressure on Collins and he was able to sit back and pick apart our secondary whenever he wanted.

Pacmun is sure going to get a lot of attention for his lackluster effort on the final touchdown pass to Jerry Porter and, it's well that he should. Both touchdowns came against our 5'8'' #1 pick out there, but I find it difficult to blame him for all of our woes. Yes, he is extremely immature, doesn't seem to take criticism well, doesn't always play as hard as he should, and may have some anger management issues (to put it mildly), but, he has shown flashes of true ability. After the personal foul nullified his brilliant punt return -- ten minutes after the play ends they call a 15-yard personal foul penalty for a block out of bounds? From the only view we had via blimp cam, there was no significant contact, no big hit, tackle, gang pile, knock-down or anything of the sort. The Raider ran out of bounds and our players followed him and they may have been slapping at each other while that was going on. It had absolutely nothing to do with the play. It was a killer and completely unfair and Pacmun obviously didn't respond very well. But I see flashes of a Deion Sanders in Pacmun, an athletic phenom, who doesn't like tackling all that much, but who can break a punt return or two in a moment's notice. Pacmun developing into a Deion Sanders would be a best-case scenario, of course, but, for now, we need to understand that he is still a rookie making rookie mistakes and yesterday wasn't totally his fault. Just partly.

November 6, 2005 -€” Titans v. Browns (2-5): L, 14-20

After losing in successive weeks to the Cardinals, Raiders, and Browns, I have no confidence that we will win another game the rest of this year. In this particular embarrassment, the things that usually kill us, the penalties and turnovers, were virtually nonexistent. We had only two penalties and one turnover, which occurred on a last second desperation heave; instead, this time around, we just got significantly outplayed by a much, much better football team, the 2-5 Cleveland Browns, who lost to the Texans just last week and who have Trent Dilfer as their quarterback.

These days, when watching the Titans, I force myself to wait until a couple of seconds (or, last week, 5 minutes) after every play before I allow myself to process the visual information I have seen on the screen, and before I admit to myself that, indeed, it did actually occur as it seemed to right in front of my eyes. For instance, sure, Jarrett Payton just took a hand-off from our punter and scrambled for a first down on a 4th and 2, but, I need to wait a couple of more seconds before celebrating until the referee men give their approval, so, wait, wait, wait, hup, there it is, the yellow flag. The flag wipes it all away.

It seems bizarre to me that football, of all sports, seems to be the one most interested in precision. Of course, while, on the one hand, referees have flags to throw to attempt to rectify what possibly went wrong during the play, on the other, the league simultaneously recognizes that these judges can sometimes miss what happens with the ball and, thus, we use video surveillance as back-up. But for some reason, when considering minor scuffling between players on the other side of the field, we assume they don't need any help and are always going to get it right?

Yesterday, the refs held up the game for about 5 minutes, while they met in the middle of the field. Eventually, they made a decision that something that had happened several minutes before, a two-yard loss by the offense, didn't actually happen because some offender (on the offensive side of the ball) fouled it up, and, thus, we needed to do it over. So one of the referees stood there and then threw a flag straight up in the air and it nearly landed on his head. Only, the penalty was immediately turned down by the non-offending team, because they obviously didn't want it.

All of which makes me question the actual entertainment value at issue here. For instance, I just watched one series of commercials, then I saw one kickoff that was kicked out of the end-zone, and then I watched another series of commercials. Then, when we finally get back to the game, one minute of game time goes by, during which my team runs the ball twice for -2 yards and then the quarter ends and I watch another series of commercials. Then we come back for 3rd and 12 and we throw an incomplete pass. We punt, no punt return, another series of commercials.

Play of the Game: Tank Williams' attempted tackle of the Browns' Jared Wright [31]on Wright's third quarter touchdown run, the first of his career and the first Browns' rushing touchdown in 13 games. So, if Tank was a "tank" out there, then just-promoted practice squadder Wright was a tank-busting bomb or, instead, let's say, if Tank was a Koosh ball, Wright was a dull knife or, like, a dog or something.

To tell you the truth, I quit watching after our second failed fake punt of the day, the Hentrich to Justin Sandy[32] bullet, so I didn't get to see our team's remarkable comeback from 10-down to 6-down.

November 20, 2005 -€” Titans v. Jags: L, 28-31

November 27, 2005 -€” Titans v. 49ers (2-8) -€” W, 33-22

It appeared in our game yesterday that the Titans who had lost the last five games were playing in the first half. That's the team that has everyone talking about draft picks and has fans despairing and waiting for turnovers and penalties. They moped on and off the field; they seemed uninterested and bored, like they didn't mind making a huge penalty or giving up a game-changing play. Then, in the second half, we played like the team we are supposed to be, or else the team we are whenever we play the worst of the worst teams in the league. We had some sort of a better attitude. We wanted to win and so we did.

I know "chemistry" is an oft-used, or else a too-oft-used-and-abused phrase when mentioned in regard to team sports, but it seemed to be true yesterday: none of our individual units, our particular elements were coalescing into any identifiable whole, anything worthwhile or useful. If, for instance, we were trying to produce table sugar (C12H22O11), then you could say that in the first half we had 45 different atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen haphazardly flitting about, with nothing really to attract them together. Thus, it surely wasn't a surprise when these atoms started accidentally slamming into each other and forming Frankenstein-like monstrosities, mistakes, botched results, unnatural outcomes: a 10-yard-holding penalty that looked exactly like a 35-yard touchdown run, a Pacman touchdown on a trick play that immediately transformed into a Brad Hopkins block-in-the-back,[33] an interception returned by Keith Bulluck down to the 7 that slowly congealed into another lame Bironas field goal, and a two-minute drive that combusted into a player lying on the ground in agony as an opponent scampered over 50 yards for a touchdown (the 5th time an opponent's defense has scored on us this year). Then, all of a sudden, the second half starts, we come together as a unit and start producing what we were originally designed to produce: points, touchdowns, victories.

Steve played his best game of the year against the worst defense in the league, and I did like what I was seeing from Roydell Williams. If Steve can find somebody he likes, a guy who can catch the ball deep, a guy he trusts, then that would be a good thing. But, wouldn't you just one time like to see Steve sprint into the huddle, bring all his players down, and say something like "We are not about to lose to the 49ers here in Nashville, not today, not any other day. We're going to win, right here and now. Let's go." Maybe that's not his style or maybe he says it and I just don't know about it, but there's a killer instinct there somewhere that needs to reemerge and it hasn't been making itself known through heroic last-minute victorious actions, so maybe a few words are necessary.

From my seat in the stands, the crowd at The Coliseum seemed very supportive of Travis Henry[34] (although I'm not sure we should take seriously much of anything from the Titans' crowd since one guy near me kept yelling something about how Chris Brown wished he were Marshall Faulk[35] and another supporter in front of me fell asleep in his nachos at the midpoint of the third quarter). If Henry can put a couple of solid games together here at the end of the year, you have to wonder whether or not we will release him or try another go-around at our two-headed running combo next year.

At one point during the game yesterday, after a long Barlow[36] touchdown run was called back on a hold, Bulluck started trying to rev up the crowd, waving his arms around and getting everybody pumped up. It seemed a little odd for all of us to be cheering a penalty, but, then again, after our year this year maybe Bulluck was just trying to remind us that other teams have killer penalties as well and we should be happy that the 49ers had a touchdown called back on them (although we still won the battle with 2 TDs called back yesterday to their 1).

December 4, 2005 -€” Titans at Colts: L, 3-35

There are plays in every team's season that if they had happened just a tad bit differently the entire outcome of the year would have changed. This year, for the Titans, I can count about 150. Here were three from yesterday: Ben Troupe's dropped TD pass, Bo Scaife's dropped TD pass, and Drew Bennett's dropped TD pass. I don't think we really had a chance to beat the Colts, but, in order to win games, those sorts of plays have to be made. And what the Titans wanted and needed to do yesterday was to try to build a little bit for the future, try to convince everyone on our team that we could indeed play, for a little while, with the Colts, and that individuals on our team can actually make plays when they are necessary.

Peyton and Steve shared the MVP award in 2003 and, inevitably, yesterday, CBS showed a graphic of "Since 2003" that shows that Steve has been mediocre while Peyton has risen to solo prominence. All of which is true and all of which doesn't take into account our off-season salary cap dumps or the fact that Steve now has a one-thumbed Drew Bennett and a ten-thumbed Tyrone Calico to throw the ball to, and the fact that in 2003 Steve McNair was the most valuable player in the NFL, that he single-handedly dragged his team into position to beat the Patriots in a frigidly cold Foxboro, while Peyton imploded the following week against the same Pats squad. No one seems to remember these two games because of Peyton's recent greatness, but, that year, no one can honestly argue that Peyton deserved the MVP more than Steve did.

Steve played pretty solidly with no interceptions and about four perfect passes to his receivers/tight ends in the end zone. Unfortunately for us, none of those passes were caught. Right now, Steve is playing better than he was during the first couple of games of the season although I would love to see him go one or two games with no turnovers whatsoever, no INTs and no fumbles. Yesterday, it looked like the days of old (2002) -€” that is, Steve played well, he just had nobody to throw to.

December 11, 2005 -€” Titans v. Texans (1-11): W, 13-10

EWS, guest blogger: 1. I honestly believe that there are probably forty colleges, including Vanderbilt, that have better receivers than we do. Bennett looks and plays fragile and he has shown zero explosiveness this year. In past years, he did. Perhaps living the high life as the resident Great White Hope has sapped his legs. He was never a no. 1, but he sure as hell is not now. Calico will not be on the team next year. And that is it. Listening to talk radio today, I had to shake my head at the apologists who longed for the good ole days of Brandon "20 catches for 280 yards in his entire career" Jones. I mean, is this what we have come to? Longing for the rookie 3rd round pick who could not even start in college?

2. McNair has no weapons whatsoever. His receivers drop balls. Ridiculous.

3. I hope we re-sign Vanden Bosch but hope that we do not pay an arm and a leg. He had one good year.

4. Haynesworth is good. He is young and talented and will therefore leave the Titans after next year.

5. Thank God for Pacmun Jones. He cares. And he is a playmaker. He is also playing pretty well at CB.

6. Lamont Thompson is not a playmaker. There was a reason he was cut by the Bengals.

7. Floyd has to take the blame for a huge chunk of this.

8. I don't think Chris Brown is the long-term answer at RB.

9. It would not surprise me if Jeff Fisher is coaching another team next year. I think he might see how the wind is blowing and jump ship while he is still marketable.

10. We could end up 5-11 and still not have a top 10 pick. There are that many bad teams in the NFL this year. For what it is worth, I think we will end up 4-12 and pick 5th or 6th.

December 18, 2005 -€” Titans v. Seahawks: L, 24-28

A team with nothing to lose hasn't really lost anything when they lose, but that doesn't mean that fans of that team won't still suffer agony after another disappointing defeat, right? Because, instead of mailing in the season, like they seemed to be doing in the middle of the year when they dropped games to the Cardinals, Browns, and Raiders, the Titans are now, for some reason, playing pretty well, or, at least, they played pretty well for three quarters yesterday. And, thus, when watching them play, a fan cannot go home at halftime; instead, this loyal fan is lifted up with encouragement, dragged along until the bitter end grasping for hope or luck, before, as usual or, maybe, these days, as always, being crushed when something inevitably disappointing happens. I was even gaily imagining a good headline for the blog today: Team Loyalty Pays Off: Titans Beat A Good Team For No Good Reason, but, instead, I had to fall back on the usual, something negative about Lamont Thompson, the 76th best safety in the league. Because I'm not going to point any fingers or blame anybody on the team for that loss yesterday, but, if I were to do that, they would have to be Lamont Thompson and Chris Brown. I don't expect much from Lamont Thompson, but, on 3rd and goal from the 1, when you have an opportunity in the open field to take down an opposing player, to knock him back and make a huge play for your team, and instead you just grab a hold and ride him into the end zone, I feel you should be called out for it. It wasn't even Shaun Alexander, the best running back in the league; it was a wide receiver, a player the safety is supposed to be able to knock backwards.

But, someone I do expect something from is our star running back Chris Brown. When even the wide receivers were making plays, when Ben Troupe had the biggest game of his heretofore unspectacular career, when Steve, for three quarters, looked like an MVP again, Chris Brown offered no support to the rest of the team, and did virtually nothing except not gain 1 yard on a critical 4th and 1 from inside the 10. If Brown makes that yard, we win (although, honestly, why give it to Brown on that play? Why not roll Steve out? Why not give it to Jarrett Payton[37] who always seems to have a little pep in his step?). And if Lamont makes one big tackle, things might have been a little different, but that is what has happened this entire year. We play teams close, but right when we really need something to happen, it doesn't and, usually, the exact opposite of whatever we need to happen happens and we lose.

The question has arisen in the sports media recently about the future of our man, Steve McNair. Most writers are saying he will probably be a salary cap casualty this year or that, maybe, he will retire. Anyone who follows the Titans closely know that he does not look like he will be retiring at the end of the season, although if the Titans do cut him then perhaps he will, instead of pulling an Eddie George and going somewhere else for one unspectacular season. Ultimately, however, I think if the Titans cut Steve it would be detrimental to the team and to the team's loyal fan base. For a guy who has, literally, given his body and soul to a franchise, who, in many years, single-handedly willed our team to victory without any offensive weapons, a guy who has been surrounded by the likes of Eddie Berlin and Tyrone Calico and yet still has managed to be one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL, to hang him out to dry when we have absolutely no one, as of right now, to come in and play for him, would be disappointing. He is, perhaps reluctantly, the team leader, the face of the Titans, the only one who is left that remembers how to win. If he leaves, who will the Titans look to for confidence on game day? Chris Brown? Drew Bennett? OJ Small?[38] He is not the vintage Steve of old, and, nowadays, he does not always make every single big play like he used to, like, yesterday, when he made two pretty poor throws on 3rd and 4th down on our final drive. Steve may not be playing NFL MVP-ball, but, then again, who is?

Perhaps, he could just be transitioning into another stage of his career, a stage, during which, we should actually surround him with good players, offensive weapons, people who will take the burden off of his shoulders to win games. Or, maybe, he is tired of getting hit and has about one year left, but he should play that year with the Titans, not because we would be doing him a favor, but because we need him as much as he needs us.

December 24, 2005: Titans at Dolphins (7-7): L, 10-24

January 1, 2006: Titans at Jags: L, 13-40

Well, I wanted to wait just a little while after the end of the Titans' season this year before writing my review of the squad, just to try and avoid knee-jerk hysteria and, perhaps, give a more reasoned, responsible, and, perhaps, positive take on the 2005 regular season. And it seems to have worked. It's only been a couple of weeks since the absolute embarrassment that occurred at the hands of the Jaguars and, for some reason, a lot of people are talking about us: the press, local and national, loyal Titans fans in Nashville. In fact, I even have a whole bunch of friends from all around contacting me to talk about the Titans. People seem to think that we have done something special. Why? Well, for one, the Jets and the Packers won their regular season finales, which meant, because we have the weakest strength of schedule in the league, we jumped from the #6 pick in the upcoming draft to the #3 pick. Second, Texas beat USC in a dramatic Rose Bowl National Championship game with Texas QB Vince Young playing unbelievably well by racking up over 400 yards of total offense, while leading a game-winning drive with only seconds to play. And, finally, Vince Young decided to forego his final season in college and declare himself eligible for the upcoming NFL draft, which means, somehow, the Titans have stumbled into being guaranteed one of three unbelievably impressive, franchise-style prospects in the draft in April: Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, or, as most are predicting, Vince Young.[39] So, good work Titans! We successfully blew the season and, now, we have a chance to really turn things around by taking a stud rookie with our first pick of the draft.

All of these recent happenings don't change the fact that our team finished the season in absolute shambles, but there's nothing like unreasonable expectations and desperate anticipation to really make a fan feel good about his team.

But, lest we forget, Steve has definitely lost something that is essential to his game: the passion to win. When you combine rumors about McNair boozing hard and heavy at local Nashville bars two days before a game, along with published reports of his lack of an effort to create rapport with his rookie receivers, on top of his inconsistent play and seemingly resigned-to-failure attitude by the end of the year, we have a serious problem with our warrior quarterback and all-around team leader. Steve has to find a reason to want to play and want to win and, hopefully, the drafting of Vince Young could provide just that. Steve and VY allegedly have a father-son relationship after VY started attending Steve's quarterback camp years ago. If, by drafting VY, we could inspire Steve to one or two more years of vintage Steve football as he buckles down to teach Vince, the Titans would benefit in the short and long terms.

But here we are, about to score one of the top three players in college football last year, and, so, after the worst season in Titans' history, things are looking up.

[1] As noted, Tony Beckham was the object of much of my kneejerk ire in the early part of 2005, although, to be fair, the statistics appear to back me up: From 2002-2007, Beckham, out of Wisconsin-Stout, played five years in the league -€” four with the Titans and 6 games in 2007 with Detroit. In his career, he started 6 games total, including these first 2 in 2005. He finished with 1 interception and 10 passes defended.

[2] Roethlisberger was 9 for 11 for 218 yards and 2 touchdowns.

[3] Jared Clauss was a rookie 7th-round draft pick out of Iowa. In a two-year career, he started two games and recorded 0.5 sacks.

[4] What's more amazing than the "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place" reference is that a Ryan Reynolds reference is still relevant 12 years later.

[5] Actually, if we had erected a nude statute of Kyle Vanden Bosch in 2005 and put it on Demonbreun where it would stay until the end of time, that would have been a bold and arguably brilliant artistic decision.

[6] The Titans won 48-27 on October 11, 2004.

[7] One of the great, entirely forgotten match-ups of NFL lore: Beckham v. Moore, 2005. Clarence Moore was a 6th-round draft pick for the Ravens out of Northern Arizona. In a three-year career, he started eight games and had 353 yards receiving.

[8] This is a bastardization of "Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888" poem by Ernest Thayer (written in 1888). It seems a tad clichéd, but, even with eleven years to consider, it simply works too well to take out.

[9] KVB used to wear red contacts during games -€” a fact that happily might have long since left the confines of any normal person's brain to float free into space.

[10] To be fair, Woolfolk was always hard to say.

[11] That's a paraphrase, although not really much of one.

[12] Bulger was 21 of 28 for 292 and 3 TDs in this game.

[13] Yikes.

[14] In his five-year career from 2004-2008, the first two with the Titans and last three with the Jets, Spencer, a special teamer out of North Texas, started zero games at linebacker and recorded 53 tackles.

[15] Actually, don't imagine Moss in a Titans' uniform. I'm still trying to get the image out of my head.

[16] A bit like I apparently loved Justin McCareins in 2005.

[17] Over two years, Andrae Thurman played in 17 games in the NFL. In five games for the Titans in 2005, he returned nine punts and two kickoffs for a total of 73 return yards.

[18] Again? Why do I have no recollection of this person?

[19] Rudi Johnson had 18 rushes for 80 yards and a touchdown on the day.

[20] Palmer was 27 for 33 for 232 and 2 TDs for a passer rating of 121.2.

[21] What, perhaps, is more amazing than use of the phrase "licking my chops" is that Carson Palmer is somehow also still relevant twelve years later.

[22] Rather astonishingly, Volek played another five years in the league after the 2005 season, but this was the last time he ever started a game. He was 18 of 32 for 198 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception on the day.

[23] That makes no sense now and made no sense then.

[24] Needless to say, friend, there is much worse to come.

[25] He won't.

[26] Completely clutch The Aviator reference from Stuart. 2005 was an epic year.

[27] Official records claim there were 39,482 people in attendance.

[28] LSU's Matt Mauck played in two games in his pro career and had a total of 136 yards passing with a long of 17.

[29] Replace Bennett with Roos? Yes.

[30] Collins was 17 of 29 for 238 yards and 3 touchdowns.

[31] His name is actually Jason Wright, out of Northwestern. In this game, he had 11 rushes for 27 yards and this one touchdown. He ultimately had a 7-year career totaling 1214 yards from scrimmage.

[32] Sandy played in 3 games over a two-year career, both with the Titans. He finished with four tackles.

[33] Another Pacman touchdown called back.

[34] Henry had 100 yards from scrimmage on the day: 13 rushes for 86 yards and 1 catch for 14.

[35] I still don't understand what that means.

[36] The 49ers' Kevin Barlow had 14 carries for 40 yards and the score, along with 17 receiving yards.

[37] Payton had one year in the league, this one, and finished the season with 33 rushes for 105 yards and 2 touchdowns, along with 6 receptions for 30 yards.

[38] Florida's O.J. Small played two games in his career -€” both with the Titans -€” and caught one pass for 6 yards.

[39] Ahhh, yes, what a glorious summer!