Titans blogger and Football Outsiders scribe Tom Gower analyzed every pass play Vince Young was involved in on Sunday. His sharp eye picked up on some key things I didn't notice watching it in real-time. The take away from this great work is that there was plenty of blame to go around for coaches, receivers, linemen and CJ. I was saying the same thing after the game on MCM Radio: there were a lot of guys you could have benched for making mistakes that day, so why pick the one player who could really use that rough day to build on and grow from as a leader and a quarterback? At this point I have faith in Vince Young's ability to bounce back and overcome Fisher's increasingly common brainfarts, but I sure wish he'd have gotten the chance to show us how he could play after 3 horrendous quarters when things go from tough to seemingly impossible. Oh, wait, he has shown us what he can do down 21 points after 3 putrid quarters of turnovers, punts and stalled drives: WIN. Madman Defensive line coach Jim Washburn will be in crutches for six weeks after injuring his knee during a player collision on the sideline on Sunday. I have no doubt that there's some sort of pool going in the locker room to see who Washburn throws a crutch at in a fit of anger first.
Fisher called out two particularly egregious blown calls last Sunday, both of which seemed to indicate that the concept of officials 'protecting the passer' didn't extend to Vince Young or Kerry Collins.
Follow us through the jump for significantly more optimism and kind words...
Among the plays that could have completely changed the tenor and the results on Sunday you can add the fumble that Jamie Winborn mishandled while trying to pick it up and run for 6 points. I'm not blaming Jamie, because that's a tough thing to pass on when you're looking at a loose football with an empty endzone in the background, but damn that would have been a big play.
As we posted on Sunday, the Titans are currently no. 1 in total defense after playing two teams featuring QBs who looked like they'd struggle in the UFL. Speaking of the UFL, I actually watched a quarter of a game last weekend before I realized that nobody wants to watch a game featuring stars like (former-Titan) Tim Rattay, Brooks Bollinger and Dominic Rhodes.
If there's anything we can all agree on coming out of these two disparate weeks it's that when you remove the emotion attached to the names of the guys who left, Jason Babin & Will Witherspoon > Kyle Vanden Bosch & Keith Bulluck. Those two signings have been major successes right off the bat, which bodes very well for this defense.
Rustmeister has thoughts on Sunday's debacle and the response of some MCM writers and commenters.
Condolences go out to the teammates, family and friends of Kenny McKinley, who took his own life yesterday. McKinley was a star WR at South Carolina before being drafted by the Broncos two years ago and playing in eight games as a rookie. McKinley was on the IR after sustaining a knee injury.
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