FO drops the DVOA ratings that will surprise a lot of folks out there: Kansas City sits atop the overall rankings, with the Titans coming in 4th. The offense jumped to 12th, while the defense is still holding strong at 3rd place. The key takeaway: this team is playing better than any other 5-3 team in football. The 'crack open a bottle of whisky' moment of this week: The Titans have the 7th hardest future schedule in all of football, but at least the Texans and Colts both have harder predicted schedules.
Lets consider the 'is Vince Young a legit NFL quarterback' question dead. He's firmly entrenched in the top 10, period. Anybody who isn't convinced by now won't be convinced even if he retires with a fist full of Super Bowl rings. Anyone who points to Vince's low number of pass attempts also needs to invent some examples of games not in New York where he should have been asked to throw it more.
Kerry Collins has not played well at all, but he's continued a long tradition of Titans back-up QBs who have come through with crucial wins in our biggest seasons. Neil O'Donnel had some big wins in '99 and 2000, Billy Volek had a big win before lacerating his spleen in 2003, and Kerry found a way to make some throws against the Eagles. Of course his terrible play was the icing on the cake against the Steelers, and he had some bad throws last week, but we could still do much worse in a back-up QB. Hell, plenty of teams can't find one QB who can win in this league, and we've got a top 10 QB (yeah I said it... /spits on the ground) and a back-up who at the very least gives us a shot against most teams.
Be sure to check out the first effort at writing a column by a blogger you'll be pretty familiar with! Click on it twice, because my man deserves the page views!
Terry McCormick gives you 3 reasons to be happy, and 3 reasons to has a sad over the bye week. Somebody in town needs to pay attention to these columns and see how it's done...
The Tennessean Knows 5 Things about the Titans. Apparently one of them is that standardized weekly-columns driven mostly by slideshows covering the local NFL team are an easy way to fill space.
McCormick also breaks down the Titans' situational play calling from last week. The run/pass ration on 2ns and 3rd down are not great signs...
Vince Young, who is a legitimate top 10 Qb in the NFL by the way, is opening a steak house in Austin, Texas. It's a scrappy move by Young to open a restaurant where he's a virtual unknown.
Peter King show that you can be an astute savant and a blathering idiot in one list, as he delivers his 2010 mid-season All-Pro Team. The highlight is Titans DT Jason Jones, while the low-lights include:
• WR Davone Bess (I couldn't make that idiocy up)
• Cameron Wake, a one-note pass-rush specialist who is currently dominating at... 6th in sacks among all linebackers
• Earl Thomas a very good rookie for sure, but he couldn't hold Michael Griffin's jock strap this year
• and finally, Bill Belichick for coach of the year. How in the hell does he win it over oh, I don't know, Todd Haley who has the Chiefs banging, or Mike Tomlin for navigating the Rapelithsberger-less Steelers to a 3-1 start and continuing to make sure his QB's TV works at every hotel before they check in. Give me one even passably believable reason that Belichick should be COY that doesn't have anything to do with the 3 Super Bowl rings he won back when they were cheating?
I really, really can't stand the Chargers.
Jon Runyan went to the Super Bowl with the Titans and the Eagles, and now he's headed to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent New Jersey. Expect him to sponsor a bills to repeal the tax on indoor tanning and revisions to the Presidential Fitness that replace sprints with fist pumping.
The bye week is a great time to add some links and get some love at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com, and be sure to follow me on Twitter @AugustWest_MCM