David Climer details the rapidly diminishing power Jeff Fisher wields over the future of the Titans. We've seen his personnel powers stripped as Mike Reinfeldt has put his fingerprint on this roster, and Bud Adams has asserted his continuing power on all things Vince Young. Jeff Fisher has the biggest challenge of his career ahead of him to get this team to the playoffs, and probably beyond the first round, if he wants to keep his job. If you've watched Fisher in these situations over the past decade, you'll know enough that very few people have won when betting against him once the coach is on the ropes. He's taken a 1-4 team to the AFC Championship before, taken an 0-4 team with a rookie QB and inconsistent defense to the playoffs and rallied a team surrounded by a media circus to a 13-3 record. Snapping the defense out of its funk and getting this team to the postseason might just be Fisher's next miracle performance.
All of this is to say that while I have significant problems with some things that have happened over the past few years, you're kidding yourself if you think Jeff Fisher isn't a damned good coach. He didn't decide that this team would play home games in Houston, Memphis and Vanderbilt Stadium over a 4 year period, he didn't send this team into salary cap hell (that was Floyd Reese) and he didn't draft a QB who couldn't handle the grind of the NFL (that was Bud Adams), but he has found a way to win games as every one of those situations went south. He has also put together one of the best coaching staffs in the NFL, kept this team together through their worst times and made an uncountable number of players perform to the best of their abilities. (Don't believe me on that last part? Name the players who played better elsewhere after starting for the Titans. It's a damned short list.)
No matter what bs he's been handed, Jeff Fisher has never walked out, never been questioned in the media by his players and he's never backed down. That's why he's the coach of this team, and it's why I always believe we can find a way to win.
Paul K flashes back to his September 30th profile of Rusty Smith which highlighted his work ethic and consistent improvement while working with the scout team all year. Barring two earth-shattering performances, I expect Fisher will go back to Collins when he's healthy, but Smith has every chance in the world to grab this offense by the balls against terrible passing defenses over the next two weeks.
Best news of the week (outside of Young's MRI preventing this thing from becoming an unstoppable debacle) is that Jason Jones' ankle injury doesn't look serious. Jones has only a mild ankle sprain. It's unclear if he'll miss much or any time at this point, but the faster he gets back on the field the better our defense will be.
Jump!
More love for the Titans' starting QB from his hometown.
Marc Mariani is up for Rookie of the Week honors, so go vote early and often!
Jim Wyatt knows 5 things about the Titans. On a side note, major props to Jim Wyatt for being the source of breaking news since the locker room incident after the game. We've hammered the local guys a lot lately because significant stories were broken by national guys like Jay Glazer and Mike Lombardi, but Wyatt has owned the breaking news lately on all things Vince/Adams/Fisher.
John McClain details just how humiliatingly terrible Houston's pass defense is, but Football Outsiders says it best:
The Texans' defensive DVOA improves since they kept the Jets somewhat in check for 58 minutes, but they still end up as the worst defense we've ever tracked through 11 weeks.
Randy Moss went back to his hometown of Rand, West Virginia on his day off to give back to 70 needy families by passing out Thanksgiving food.
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