The defense played a pretty good game Friday night.  The Raiders are going to have a pretty good offense this season with the running back combo of Justin Fargas and Darren McFadden.  JaMarcus Russell looked pretty good as well.  That TD pass to Zach Miller was a perfect throw against good coverage.  My only real complaint about the defense was they didn't get much pressure on Russell, and when they did, they allowed him to move around and make some plays.  The only player that could bring him down, oddly enough, was Reynaldo Hill.  Some thoughts on individual defensive players:

Eric King- King had an up and down night.  He looked silly early when he got juked out of his pants, but came back to make a break up a pass intended for Ronald Curry on 3rd down.  Later Curry put a move on him that left him standing still.  After seeing King start one game, I would say he is better than Reynaldo Hill, but he is not anywhere close to starting over a healthy Nick Harper.

Stephen Tulloch- I really like watching Tulloch play.  He did get blown up by Fargas outside linebacker positions so he is the next guy on the field if any of the linebackers get injured.

Albert Haynesworth- Fat Albert blew a couple of plays up.  He looks to be in good shape and ready for another Pro Bowl season.

Cortland Finnegan- That was money well spent.  He is always around the ball, and he is always knocking people off of their feet.  He made a really nice play against the screen pass to keep it from becoming a big gainer.

William Hayes- The kid looks athletic.  He was in the backfiel a couple of times and made a nice play to stop McFadden on a stretch play.

The passing game was terrible Friday night.  There is really nothing else to say about it.  Vince Young and Kerry Collins both seemed completely lost out there, and the receiver didn't do anything to help them out.  The Titans actually ran the ball really well.  Some individual thoughts:

Vince Young- VY looked great on the first series.  He made a great throw to Bo Scaife, who had a good game, on the second series, but it was all down hill from there.  The biggest things I noticed was that VY was back in the habit of not setting his feet and stepping into his throws which is what keeps him from being accurate.

LenDale White- White looked shifty and ran the ball hard all night. 

Chris Johnson- I was so sad when he missed the ball on his first kickoff return chance.  CJ is an impressive runner.  He was very close to breaking another TD run.  The one thing he did wrong Friday night was not concentrate on balls thrown to him.  It looked like he was looking to run before he caught the ball.

Justin Gage- He only made one catch, but it was a good one on a ball that was not well thrown.

Paul Williams- He has to be on life support at this point after another bad penalty and another couple of dropped passes.

Lavelle Hawkins- This was the coming out party for The Hawk.  He got lit up on the first pass he caught and help on.  The 51 yard TD catch was awesome.  He made a nice move after catching the ball to spring himself free.

Ingle Martin- Martin did a really good job leading the team down the field to set up the winning TD pass.  The Titans will probably only carry two quarterbacks on the roster, but Martin is looking he might deserve a spot.

The Titans built a lot of momentum in their preseason opener against the Rams.  It is very important for th em to continue that momentum tonight against the Oakland Raiders.  Here are some things to watch for:

Offense

• The Titans ran all over against a bad Rams defense last Saturday night.  The Raiders were not good against the run last year (ranked 31st giving up 145.9 ypg).  The Titans will be playing without starting right tackle David Stewart.  Keep an eye on his replacement, Daniel Loper.  This is his chance to step up and prove he can be a viable option if one of the tackles goes down during the season.
• While the that Raiders were really bad against the run last season, they were really good against the pass (ranked 8th giving up 195.8 ypg).  Keep an eye on Vince Young tomorrow night.  I want to see him go through his reads and make good, quick decisions.  I also want to see him deliver passes with accuracy to give the receivers the chance to make a play.
• Speaking of the receivers, it would be really nice to see at least one of them step up and prove they can be a consistent, reliable option for VY.  Justin McCareins will get his first chance to prove just that tonight.
• Quinton Ganther should get carries against better competition tonight.  We he be able to have similar success?  His roster spot is probably on the line.
• What will Chris Johnson do to impress us in this game?  He is going to be returning kicks, and I cannot wait to see him do that.

Defense

• The defense was really solid last week against the Rams.  How will they handle a rushing attack that features two very talented backs in rookie Darren McFadden and Justin Fargas.  Can the Titans shut down this attack like they did last week?
• JaMarcus Russell has a cannon for an arm.  Will the Titans front four be able to pressure him enough to keep him from being able to get the ball downfield to his receivers?
• The Titans need some reserve defensive lineman to prove they can get the job done if one of the starters gets injured.  Which guy is going to step up?

This game should be pretty entertaining because the competition is better, and the starters should play longer.  Come back during the game and join the open thread which will be up a couple of hours before the game.

The Titans have finalized an agreement to practice with the St. Louis Rams during training camp.  The practices are expected to be held at Baptist Sports Park and will be open to the public.

The Titans hosted 4 safeties yesterday including Adam Archuleta, Deke Cooper, D.J. Woolfe and Rocky Schwartz.  If they were to sign any of these guys it would just be for depth purposes behind Michael Griffin and Calvin Lowry.

There is a pretty interesting article about receivers and their transition to the NFL over at Football Outsiders.  It talks about all of the different reads the receivers have to make pre and post snap in order to run the correct route.  It will be interesting to see if Mike Heimerdinger can do a better job of having Vince Young and the receivers on the same page than Norm Chow did.

The Oakland Raiders have agreed to a contract with Darren McFadden.  The deal is 6 years and $60 million with $26 million guaranteed.  That is a lot of money.

I was on the Football Guys podcast yesterday.  Click here to listen.