Offensive Rookie of the Year

MCM Winner: Chris Johnson, RB, Tennessee

AP Winner: Matt Ryan, QB, Atlanta

August West:

I'm stunned by how good he has been this year.  After watching 4-5 games his senior year at BC I seriously thought Ryan was grossly over-hyped and would be Joey Harrington at best in the NFL.  EPIC FAIL for me on that one.  The question now is, how will he progress?  He could stall like Roethlisberger or take off like Peyton.  Either way, I'm glad he's in the NFC.

Jimmy:

I love CJ as much as anyone, but the choice here is Ryan.  Rookie quarterbacks just don't come into the league and do what that guy did.  Most people were picking the Falcons to win 2-4 games this season.  Ryan led them to the playoffs.

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NFL.com is doing their own set of awards and some Titans are on the list.

Click here to vote for Coach Fisher for 2008 Motorola Coach of the Year.

Click here to vote for Chris Johnson for 2008 Diet Pepsi Rookie of the Year

Click here to vote for Albert Haynesworth 2008 GMC Sierra Defensive Player of the Year.

It is pretty awesome to have a guy from the Titans nominated for all three of these awards.

Obviously Joe Flacco has the brighter upside, but which guy do you want THIS SATURDAY?

We have heard all week about how remarkable Flacco is, and how much scarier the Baltimore offense is this time than when these two teams met in October.  After looking at the numbers I just don't buy it.  Flacco's season numbers are pretty much the same as Kerry Collins.  People will throw out that looking at the numbers from the whole season aren't fair because Flacco is a rookie. 

OK, let's take his last 6 games of the regular season:

Pretty much the same. 

Flacco is getting a lot of praise for his play in the game against Miami.  Why?  Because he made 1 nice throw to Derrick Mason on the sideline?  He was 9 of 23 in the game against the NFL's 25th ranked pass defense.  The Titans are 9th.

The closest comparision I can find between the two for this game is how they performed against the Steelers this season.  We will just count Flacco's second game against them since the first one was in 3rd game as a starter (although it was the better game).  Flacco was 11 of 28 for 115 yards with 0 TDs and 2 INTs in week 15 at home.  (16 of 31 for 192 with 1 TD and 0 INTs in the week 3 game) Collins was 20 of 29 for 215 with 1 TD and 0 INTs week 16. 

Advantage: Collins.

Collins has similar numbers, but he has been here before.  If he has shown us anything this season, it is that he has learned a lot of lessons from his time in the NFL.  There have been a couple of bad games this season, but overall he has been really good at protecting the football. 

Collins has taken over some games for the Titans this season.  The Ravens, Bears, and Colts games all come to mind as games where the Titans could not run the ball but were able to pull out a win simply because of Collins.  Plus Collins has had some games in his career where he has put up some really good numbers.  Flacco never has.  It is crazy to think a rookie has an advantage over a veteran when the numbers are this similar. 

I'll take Collins.

-Much thanks to August West for his assistance with this post.

They said on the radio this morning that Dave Ball is out, but good news that Albert Haynesworth and Kyle Vanded Bosch were full participants.

Jimmy here to answer any questions you might have. 

 I think we are all pretty familiar with all of the things going around this game at this point, so I won't go into some long post about it.  Say whatever you want, but one thing is for sure, this is going to be a slobber-knocking game that both teams will be feeling for days after it is over.

So anyway, leave any questions you have below. 

Cast your vote below for Comeback Player of the Year.  Award recap post tomorrow.