clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Oakland Raiders @ Tennessee Titans Defensive Recap: Best Front 4 in the NFL?

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

There was a lot of talk before the season about needing a major upgrade on the defensive line.  Pretty much everyone that posted here, myself included, thought that the Titans were crazy for not using a first day draft pick on a defensive lineman.  Of course there was White, who has been remarkably quiet about how right he was.  If I were him I would have something in my signature calling everyone else an idiot.  Anyways, this Titans defensive front is playing better than anyone else in the league.  Check out this paragraph from an article in today's Tennessean:

LaBoy turned one of his two sacks into a forced fumble and a recovery. Odom had a sack, three quarterback hurries, a forced intentional grounding penalty and two passes batted down. Haynesworth and Vanden Bosch each had a sack, too.
That is pretty remarkable, and it tells the story as to why the Titans are winning games.  They are giving up next to nothing on the ground, and they are harassing opposing QBs when the drop back to pass.  Yesterday they gave up only 92 yards rusing and 143 yards passing.  They are also getting off the field on 3rd down, only allowing the Raiders to convert 5 of 16 opportunities yesterday.  That is something they were terrible at last year.

I hope the Titans are able to re-sign all of those guys.  Odom, LaBoy and Haynesworth are all free agents at the end of the season.  Mike Reinfeldt should be negotiating with all of their agents now.  Their price is just going to continue to go up with every passing game.

The Titans secondary played much better than they did last week.  Michael Griffin was given his 1st career start at safety and from all accounts played well.  Jim Schwartz said that when a safety goes unnoticed in a game that probably means he played well.  I am really excited to see what the combination of Griffin and Chris Hope is going to do for this team.

It is great to know that when the offense is struggling the defense is going to pick up the slack.  The Titans will be able to hang with any team they face as long as the defense continues to play as well as they have been.  This team is really starting to remind me of the 1999 team.  I am not saying they are as good as that team was yet, but it seems to be a very similar make-up.  If that doesn't make you excited I don't know what will.