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The Titans offense is 19-22 (86%) with 14 touchdowns and 5 field goals. 

The Titans defense has allowed the opposing team to go 29-32 (91%) in the red zone with 17 touchdowns and 12 field goals. The Bills were 1-1 with a TD last week.

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CJ may carry the flag, but the defensive line carries the torch on this team.

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On the way to 13 wins and the AFC's top seed in the 2008 playoffs, one unit truly defined the Tennessee Titans: (usually after that colon I'd write 'the defensive line' like it held some sort of impact or suspense, but come on, you read the title of the post).  Last year's defensive line was a nearly mythical beast -- like half Deacon Jones, half El Chupacabra, and half Manbearpig -- that relentlessly harassed offenses and disrupted any game plan that couldn't be executed in 2.3 seconds.  Mothers of quarterbacks and offensive linemen cried when they would discover heir husky pride and joys would have to face Big Albert and the gang the next week.  It was defense so good it bordered on sexy sometimes.

Well, that collection of talent was squandered in the playoffs, and the most dynamic talent on the line cashed in on a rebuilt image for a pile of monopoly money soaking in the Potomac Basin.  With Albert gone and coordinator Jim Schwartz headed to Detroit there was much speculation as to how, yet little doubt if, the defensive line could come close to making the impact they had the year before.  Sure Albert is gone, we said, but this unit was always a big rotation and that depth would be the key.  Jason Jones grew into a beast at the end of last season, and the ends will be better than ever!

Cut to week 6 of 2009 and we’re all feeling a little foolish after an 0-6 start and an especially emasculating 0-59 loss to the Patriots...

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This post is sponsored by Comcast and their NFL Red Zone channel, a new NFL Network channel. Want to see every touchdown from every NFL game as it happens as well as live look-ins to all of Sunday's games in key situations? Then you need Comcast's NFL RedZone.

The Titans offense is 10-13 (77%) with 7 touchdowns and 3 field goals.  They got in the red zone twice against the Jags and came away with one touchdown and one field goal.

The Titans defense has allowed the opposing team to go 23-26 (88%) in the red zone with 14 touchdowns and 9 field goals.  Jacksonville did not get inside the red zone last Sunday with both of their touchdowns coming on long runs by Maurice Jones-Drew.

Obviously a lot has been made about Jeff Fisher putting on a Peyton Manning jersey yesterday at a charity event here in Nashville.  Personally, I believe anyone that wears a Peyton jersey should be struck down right where they are standing, but that has more to do with my personal feelings about Peyton than anything else.

Let me start off by saying that I don't think what Fisher did yesterday in and of itself is a reason he should be fired.  A lot of people are saying that the thing Titans' fans should be the most upset about is the 59-0 beatdown the Pats put on our team on Sunday.  You will get no arguments about that from me, but that also doesn't mean I can't be upset about what he did yesterday.  And honestly, when I first saw this yesterday I wasn't all that upset about it.  I thought it was a stupid thing for him to do, but who really cares.  It was his reaction last night on his shows that really got me upset.

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Pondering why LenDale isn't getting the ball more. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

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Last week I wrote a post titled "Everything That is Wrong with the 2009 Tennessee Titans in One Drive," and darned if we didn't see almost the exact same situation in last night's loss to the Colts.  Here is the scenario:

The score was 7-6 Colts.  The Titans defense had just forced the Colts offense to go three and out.  A Mark Jones 15-yard return gave the Titans the ball at their own 32 yard line.  The first play was a run with Chris Johnson that got stopped for -3 yards, but wait, their was a defensive holding penalty on the Colts that gave the Titans a 1st and 10 at the 37.  LenDale White carried the ball on the next two plays for gains of 6 and 3 respectively.  So that sets up a 3rd and 1 against an undersized defense.  Instead of the obvious call, LenDale up the middle, the Titans decide to throw the ball 20 yards down the field to the sure-handed Justin Gage.  Of course, the pass falls incomplete.  Instead of lining up and running the ball on 4th and 1, the Titans decided to punt the ball back to Peyton Manning.  He, of course, leads the Colts right down the field for a touchdown.  Good thing we played the percentages there.

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Peyton Manning is my least favorite player in the NFL.  I told gramsey that the other day, and he scoffed at me.  The Hater can scoff all he wants, but that is a true statement.  It dates all the way back to his days at the University of Tennessee.  Thinking about how much I hated him made me curious as to how he has done against the Titans in his NFL career.  Follow me through the jump to see the answer.

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Pros: 

• We need to see what Vince Young has to offer before next year, and we need to see him for a long-term stretch.  We need to see if he can prepare like a pro, and handle adversity better than he did before: no whining, no dodging the press after a tough outing, no stories about throwing things in the locker room.  I want to see him take the hits like a pro, then brush it off and get back to work.  If he can't do that then he's toast in this league.

• I trust Vince Young in a primetime game/rivalry game more than a noon start. It's not as much a stats thing as it is a gut feel you got watching him in the past.  He loves the big stage and it's almost always brought out the best (see the 2007 MNF game against the Saints).

• If we're going to get a spark, then lets get it in the only game that could even possibly come close to mattering this year.

• While I don't know if VY will be much better than Kerry, there is almost no possible way he'd be any worse than a 5/6 TD/INT ratio and a 68.9 QB rating.

• I also know that unless he's complete mush between the ears, VY has to be somewhat better than he was in 2007 simply due to a better O-line, Chris Johnson and a VASTLY improved receiving corps.  All of those should mean that he can run more when he wants to, and not because he's being forced to.

• Vince doesn't fix our horrendous secondary, but he could give the D some time to rest by not creating so many 3-and-outs and changing the field position.

• Bob Sanders still isn't playing, and he won't be 100% if he makes it back this week.  I still don't buy that the Colts' D is that good (My analysis on stopping the Seneca Wallace-led Seahawks:  dismissive wanking motion).

Follow us through the jump for the cons...

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Have Jeff Fisher and the Titans ever fallen so far short of expectations?

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"And you may ask yourself: Well....How did I get here?"

-David Byrne and Brian Eno

Nothing about the Titans season has gone as planned.  A team that most people expected to at least be among the 10 or 12 best teams in the league sits at 0-3.  On the bench, one of the most respected coaches of the last two decades holds in his hand a roster that returned all the crucial, marquee players, save one, from a team that went 13-3 last year.  It's a roster full of Pro-Bowlers and other assorted veterans, some of whom have rings on their fingers from their previous destinations.  The rookies on that roster belong to a highly regarded draft class that provided much to be optimistic about during the preseason.

The Titans lost a coordinator, but promoted from within in hopes of maintaining a great system.  They lost an All-Pro, but put trust in the best in the business, Jim Washburn, to turn another nobody into a somebody, yet again, as he has done so regularly throughout his tenure in Tennessee.  The players were steaming mad and itching to complete some unfinished business after squandering one of the easier roads to a Super Bowl one will ever see last season with the fiasco at home against Baltimore in early January.  This was a team that had absolutely every reason to come storming out of the gates, tough schedule or not, and assert themselves as a contender early on.

And they now sit at 0-3.

The Titans have problems, big problems in all three phases of the game.  Some are personnel based, some are errors in execution, and still others are coaching related.  After the jump, my take on the State of the Titans and what must happen, starting on Sunday with Jacksonville.

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