The Titans players and coaches may not be celebrating 4-0, 

"We still have a chance to go 4-12," Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck said,

but the fans are.  And why not?  This is the best start in the history for this fanchise.  There is still a long way to go, as Bulluck said, but 4-0 is a heck of a way to start.

The game yesterday was another good statement by this team.  This defense proved again that they are among the best in the league.  Sure, they gave up some yards, but they forced four turnovers to set up some easy scores and held the Vikings to 17 points.

The offense was exactly what it needs to be for this team to win.  They took care of the ball, though they were pretty lucky to put the ball on the ground three times and only lose one , and they took advantage of the short field when the defense gave it to them.  That is all they need to do with a defense that is as good as this one is.

I love watching the first drive of the game under Dinger.  There is not an offensive coordinator in the league that is better right out of the gate (I have absolutely no stats to back that statement up.  It is just a gut feeling.)  The first drive yesterday went 74 yards in 11 plays and took 4:51 off the clock.  The only thing I didn't like about that drive was the play calling on the final third and two.  I thought they should have put The Round Mound (What about the FOX announcers stealing that from us?) in and take two down to pick up the two yards if necessary.  It would have been a huge statement for the offensive line.  Instead they settled for a 20-yard Rob Bironas field goal.

The defense forced the first turnover of the game on the Vikings' first drive.  The offense turned that fumble recovery into 7 points with a 1-yard touchdown run by Chris Johnson.  This was mentioned in the game thread, but I wish Crazy Legs would cut out the high stepping.  That could come back to haunt him at a very inopportune time.

The next Vikings' drive was not so good for the defense.  That drive went 10 plays for 80 yards and was topped off by a 28-yard touchdown run by Adrian Peterson.  Michael Griffin should have stopped Peterson short of the goal line, but he took a bad angle.  All in all the defense did a good job of against AP, holding him to just 80 yards on 18 carries.

The Titans' offense stalled in the red zone again on the next drive and settled for a 32-yard field goal from Bironas.  The Titans offense has been great in the red zone so far this year.  That is interesting because most of us thought that Alge Crumpler would be the player that would cure those woes, but he has been non-existent in the red zone.  It was big for Kerry Collins and company to answer the Vikings' score.

Speaking of Collins, he played another decent game yesterday going 18-35 for 199 yards.  There was some debate in this morning's link post about his play as compared to Vince Young's.  The biggest number I am looking at is his turnovers, and through 3 full games he has turned the ball over 1 time (I give the fumble lost yesterday to Kevin Mawae).  I have little doubt that VY could be putting up similar completion percentage, yardage and TD numbers, but there is little doubt in my mind that he would have turned the ball over more than once.

The next Titans' touchdown came off an AP fumble that was recovered by Tony Brown.  That was the drive with the controversial Justin Gage call.  I don't think Gage made the line to gain, but I also didn't think there was evidence on the replay to overturn it.  The Titans got a break there, and they took advantage of it.  We need to remember that as the season goes along, because just like last year with the Chris Chambers non-catch catch, there will be a call like that that goes against the Titans.  That is just football.

It was big that the Titans headed into halftime with a 20-10 lead.  The 10 point lead was part of the reason that AP only carried the ball 18 times.  The other part was the game plan put together by Jim Schwartz.  Remember two years ago when someone started a website called firejimschwartz.com?  It is amazing what a guy can do when he gets good players to work with.  He threw everything at the Vikes' yesterday, including 5 man fronts, 4 man fronts, 3 man fronts, and zone blitzes.  I will be surprised if he isn't a head coach next season.

The second half was much the same as last week.  The Titans went into super-conservative mode and let the Vikings hang around.  The play of the day came off the foot of Craig Hentrich.  AP had just scored his second touchdown of the game to make the score 23-17, and the Titans' offense had just squandered the only good kickoff return of the season from Chris Carr.  The Vikings were gaining some momentum, but that punt just killed it.

The Titans put the game away on that drive when Nick Harper intercepted Gus Frerotte, and Crazy Legs scored a 6-yard touchdown on the next play.

A few more thoughts:

• The KVB hit was not dirty.  Frerotte needs to stop crying
• Tarvaris Jackson probably wishes he never got in the game.  He was in for 3 plays and was sacked twice.
• Against a defense such as the Vikings, The Round Mound should only be in there in short yardage situations
• I want to see more screen passes
• I hate the Ravens 

Now it is Ravens week.  I cannot put in to words how much I hate that team, but I will try this week.  For now we enjoy 4-0.

  The first step in solving any problem: admitting you have a problem...

 Preview for tonight's game pitting the Tennessee Titans against the ghost of Bret Favre, with one note sure to make the defensive line salivate:

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who's been sacked nine times this preseason, will start. Back-ups Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn are also expected to play. 

  ESPN's team preview for the Titans (fist bumps to Paul Kuharsky and John Clayton for their predictions).  The common theme from their experts:  'The Titans would win most divisions, but will finish 3rd in the AFC South.'  Of course, that got us into the playoffs last year...  

Also notable: 4 of our top 5 players by their rankings are in the defensive front 7, and Tulloch fans will be especially glad to see their guy get some pub: 

Best player who won't start: Linebacker Stephen Tulloch. He made a ton of plays in camp and it's hard not to like the way he hits. But the Titans will stick with steady Ryan Fowler in the middle, and Tulloch will back up Fowler, Keith Bulluck and David Thornton.

 ESPN Scouts Inc. shows us the play Hook 'em probably watch 9 million times while Vince Young was at Texas: the Shotgun Option.

 Halfway through his preseason Power Rankings Mike Florio from Profootballtalk.com decides to start "mailing it in", so what better time to start talking about the Titans!

 Pat Kirwin brings a little perspective on the historical significance of Week 3 of the NFL preseason: SPOILER ALERT (there is none).

Kevin Mawae was recently on Jim Rome is Burning with good thoughts on Vince, the players union and Crazy Legs Johnson.

 Interesting tidbit on new Titan DB Tuff Harris: Fisher's son Brandon played LB at the University of Montana with him... ok, that may be using the word 'interesting' rather loosely, but none the less.

 Bonus pic: after all of the dumb stuff The Falcons pulled against the Titans' first teamers last week, I kind of enjoyed seeing this pic from later in the game...

If anyone has a Titans related link they'd like to submit for the Morning Links shoot me an email at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com

The City Paper Confidential. 

TOPIC OF CONVERSATION: What else, but the fight between center Kevin Mawae and defensive tackle Tony Brown. The Titans were in a blitz period and Brown became entangled with Mawae, who was pass protecting in the pocket. After a bit of jousting, Brown shoved Mawae, and the melee was on with a host of players involved, including Enoka Lucas pinning Jacob Ford to the ground.

You don't hear about Mawae getting fired up too often.  These things happen as camp goes along.  The article also mentions that Keith Bulluck and Lavelle Hawkins sat out practice and are unlikely to play Friday night.  LenDale White also sat out which allowed Chris Johnson to get all of the first team reps.

The Tennessean camp report mentions that the receivers dropped a lot of passes today.  Awesome.

Defensive end Jevon Kearse busted through the offensive line and stopped running back Chris Johnson in the backfield.

There hasn't been any mention of him making plays in camp in the last couple of weeks, so that is really good to hear.

Kevin Mawae, who is currently the NFL Players Association president, had this to say of Matt Ryan's ridiculous deal:

"As a guy who has been in the league for 14 now going on 15 years and being around other veteran guys, for a young guy to get paid that kind of money and never steps foot on an NFL football field, it's a little disheartening to think of," Mawae said. "It makes it tough for a guy who's proven himself to say 'I want that kind of money' when the owners, all they're going to say is, 'Well, you weren't a first-round pick.' 

"And I know there is sentiment around the league amongst the players like, 'Let's do something to control these salaries and control these signing bonuses' and things like that, and I know that's something that the owners are talking about and I'm sure that's going to play in to this round of negotiations for this collective bargaining agreement."

The rookie contract structure is probably the biggest problem with the current labor deal.  Picking in the top 5 can be more of a curse than a reward after a bad season.  Think about the ramifications this deal will have if Ryan is terrible.

Teresa Walker of the AP has an interesting article about Mike Reinfeldt's approach to the salary cap.   I haven't agreed with a lot of his draft day decisions, but I think he is very smart when it comes to dealing with the cap.  The Titans currently have a lot of cap room for 2008 and 2009, so the Michael Roos deal is front -loaded.  The reason the Titans got into so much cap trouble before was because Floyd Reese back-loaded every contract he did and all of the big numbers came up at the same time.  I love the approach, and hope he can get similar deals done with Albert Haynesworth and David Stewart.

Mike Heimerdinger is working with Vince Young on his footwork first:

"We're trying to fix his feet,'' Heimerdinger said. "Just getting his feet underneath him when he throws — he just always seems to be off-balance and throws just with his arms and not with his feet. … If we can get that fixed, it will give him a chance to throw an accurate ball more often.''

 As the article mentions, and I am sure you have noticed, VY throws without his feet set a lot which tends to cause his throws to sail.  VY seems to be taking the coaching well:

"I feel like 'Dinger is getting me prepared to play, to take it to the next level,'' Young said. "… This is my third year; I'm getting a lot of reps and film work. I really feel like I have a lot of help and all I have to do is stay focused and work hard. I'm getting better; we're all getting better.''

Kevin Mawae, who said after the season last year that VY needs to become a student of the game, is already seeing improvement in that area:

"I think Vince feels more comfortable,'' Mawae said. "I made the comment at the end of the year last year that he needs to take the next step and become a student of the game and I think Heimerdinger is helping him do that.

"He is seeing more things on the field and communicating a little better with the offensive line and making checks and things like that. It is still early and we have a lot to do. But we have a lot of time for more improvement, not just for him but for everybody.''

I am really excited about what Dinger is going to bring out in VY.  We are going to see more of the special things that we saw in his rookie season