Once again this season, the expectations for the Titans' season have been wildly inflated by something that has nothing to do with our performance on the field. First it was Peyton missing the whole season, and now it's Matt Schaub headed to the IR. While the Titans are only one game back from the Texans, we can't take anything for granted with this team. We've just been too wildly inconsistent this season, the Texans have an easier schedule and (at least so far) they're running the ball better and playing better defense on a weekly basis than we have been. There are still a lot of games left, but I just hate to see people get wildly optimistic, then get angry when their expectations aren't met.
Oh wait, the Texans' back-up is still Matt Leinart? WE'RE GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!!!!11!!1!!
Feeling good? Here's a link to get you pissed off again. The only solace I can take from this is that they did leave the door open for Ruud to miss more time, and they could use McCarthy in a heavy rotational role. Either way, Ruud can't be on the field as much as he was before McCarthy's performance against Carolina.
The Panthers' one stud rookie, versus our whole group of very good rookie finds... who ya got?
Mike Munchak said Sunday's performance was much more in line with how he wants us to play on a week-in, week-out basis. Of course, playing a two win team each week would help a lot.
Munch says Chris Johnson might not be able to break those crazy 50+ yard runs in bunches like he once did, but he can still be one of the best in the league without those monster runs. Great point here, which you just feel like Jeff Fisher never paid enough attention to:
"We can't get all caught up in the fact that he needs to get a 60 [yard run] for us to win," Munchak said. "We need to get 130 to win. We're happy with that. That's enough to win a football game where you control the line of scrimmage.
"If he can bust a couple - great. Even when he was busting those big runs, we lost some games. So it doesn't mean you're going to win football games. I think it's getting him productive and us being efficient on offense that's the bottom line to winning."
Proof advanced/efficiency stats can be pretty overrated: Tim Tebow beat-out Matt Hasselbeck in DVOA last week, and Tebow went 2/8 for 69 yards. I've seen LaDainian Tomlinson have better games throwing the ball.
Ahh, classic Florio.
Email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com and be sure to follow me @AugustWest_MCM