At some point the Tennessee Titans will have to learn that you must play football for 4 quarters. Yet again we saw this team play like crap for one half, and play well in the other. This time it was an inversion of the Bengals game, but the results was the same.

One thought I had late in the 4th quarter: How big are the smiles on the faces of our draft scouts? Colin McCarthy played much, much better than Ruud again, and Jake Locker played like a young Steve McNair. His play will certainly be the headline over the course of the week, along with the health of Hasselbeck, who left the game in the third quarter with an apparent elbow/forearm injury.

Locker, the last of this year's crop of first round QBs to play in the regular season, showed me why they took him over guys like Gabbert and Ponder. His mobility kept plays alive while the offensive line forgot how to pass block and limped through injuries to Stewart and Harris. Locker let a few passes go high, but he's got a cannon for an arm and never panicked in the face of pressure. The tempo on offense was notably different after he tried to clean up for what has to be Hasselbeck's worst performance of the year. I doubt it will be enough to unseat Hasselebck just yet, but it's got to make Titans fans feel much more confident about the future of the QB position in Nashville.

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Well, that sucked.

After a strong first half the Titans managed to get out coached and out played for the entire second half. We didn't move the chains once after halftime until the final drive, when the Cincy safeties were playing 40 yards off the line. The defense couldn't get a stop at any point in the third quarter, and had no answer for the Andy Dalton to AJ Green connection when it counted. The linebackers and safeties got shredded by Dalton, ensuring that we'd lose in the exact way I begged them not to on Wednesday.

The lone upshot of this game was the first glimpse of the real Chris Johnson in the first half. He was decisive, elusive, and best of all, fast. He didn't have the 80 yards runs we used to see, but he got consistent yards on the ground and as a receiver.

On the flip side of that, our offensive line got clobbered in pass protection all game. The Bengals'  D-line is about as good as I can remember seeing from a 4-3 defense in a good while, and Dave Stewart is going to have nightmares about Carlos Dunlap for a long, long time.

And of course, Jared Cook had to mare his best game of the year with an unforgivable fumble.

Join Jimmy and I at 9:00 CST for MCM Radio, where I'll be doing the only thing a man can do in times like these: trying to find a bottle of George Dickel big enough to crawl into.

I noticed over the last few weeks that several people were asking questions about LP Field and the gameday experience that several of us get to enjoy several times a year. I thought it might be fun to let y'all in on what we see that you don't on TV.

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The Titans lined-up with a much better team than the Saints from the opening series, and the performances on both sides reflected it. While the Titans’ defense dominated, the offense struggled to find any rhythm with Matt Hasselbeck in the game.

Now, a good chunk of that can be blamed on the consistently mediocre Jamie Harper, but it was really frustrating to see Hasselbeck bail on so many plays: skipping the screen pass off the grass and throwing away at least two more balls on 3^rd down jump to mind. With so many WRs jockeying for position, and Kenny Britt dying to get some rhythm and reps, why just give up on a play?  At least give the guys the chance to surprise us.

Outside of Locker (skip through the jump for more on that), the defense was the story of the night. Granted it helped that the Saints started a QB and RB who are virtual locks not to make the roster, but the first team DT rotation shredded the New Orleans protections, and the secondary swarmed to make plays all game long. The final result is best summed up in the +5 turnover ratio. There were issues at times with the run stopping, but nothing that worried me too much.

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David Boclair says Tommie Campbell was riding a stationary bike during the game to say loose (maybe he could teach Kenny Britt how to do that). Here is what Campbell, who just a few years ago was a janitor at an airport, had to say about what was going through his mind after his interception according to Boclair:

"I tried to find out where the fastest guy on the field was," Campbell said. "So I took off running. … Being out there with guys like [Devin] Hester, guys I’ve seen on the video game, that was the first time for me. So it was different, you know?"

Mike Munchak said his team was flat last night according to Jim Wyatt:

"I thought we were flat, especially on the offensive side," Coach Mike Munchak said. "We just never got ourselves going. … We can definitely play better and we can definitely make plays."

I sure hope it was just a case of the team being flat and not the sign of some bigger problems. The performance from the defense last night is a cause for concern, but it is just a preseason game. That is what I keep telling myself.

It is always good to win, whether it counts or not, but this team should not walk away from this game feeling very good about themselves. The defense looked pretty terrible all night long. At one point I had to double check and make sure Chuck Cecil wasn't over there calling the plays. Jay Cutler picked them apart pretty badly.

The offense didn't look as sharp as they had in earlier games, but that is somewhat to be expected against a defense as good as the Bears.

Click through the jump to see my bullet point thoughts that I posted as I watched the game.

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Here are three people who did not help themselves last night:

1. Michael Griffin- Griff needs to learn that when he is the safety he has to stay over the top.  That was a problem for him last season, and I was really hoping the new staff would fix that.  They haven't yet, but it is still early.
2. Lavelle Hawkins- The Hawk had a chance to make a play on a ball from Matt Hasselbeck last night but just couldn't quite be there.  NewsToTom tells me I need to give up on the dream of Justin Gage not being on this team, but I still think it can happen with the emergence of Hawkins.
3. The second team offensive line- They really tried to get Jake Locker killed last night.  He probably felt like he was back at Washington with all of the scrambling he had to do, and he wasn't able to step into most of his throws because people were in his face.

Here are three players who really stood out in last night's loss to the Rams:

1. Jamie Harper- Harper was in the three down section last week after tip-toeing in the hole all night long.  Last night he looked like a completely different player.  He was running with authority, and he even punished a defensive back at the end of one of his runs.  Harper really upped his stock last night and looks like a lock to make the roster.
2. Cortland Finnegan- Finnegan was all over the field last night.  He tipped the ball that Alterraun Verner picked off, and I am pretty sure that Sam Bradford had nightmares about him last night because he was in Bradford's face all night long.  The idea of Jerry Gray to put Finny in the nickel and let him blitz looks like a very good one.
3. The interior offensive line- The biggest question mark this offseason, outside of who was going to play quarterback, was the interior offensive line.  They were terrible last night year, but they were blowing holes wide open for the running backs last night.  I have had faith that Mike Munchak and Bruce Matthews could fix them.  They sure look like they are on the way to doing just that early on.