Well, that sucked.
After a strong first half the Titans managed to get out coached and out played for the entire second half. We didn't move the chains once after halftime until the final drive, when the Cincy safeties were playing 40 yards off the line. The defense couldn't get a stop at any point in the third quarter, and had no answer for the Andy Dalton to AJ Green connection when it counted. The linebackers and safeties got shredded by Dalton, ensuring that we'd lose in the exact way I begged them not to on Wednesday.
The lone upshot of this game was the first glimpse of the real Chris Johnson in the first half. He was decisive, elusive, and best of all, fast. He didn't have the 80 yards runs we used to see, but he got consistent yards on the ground and as a receiver.
On the flip side of that, our offensive line got clobbered in pass protection all game. The Bengals' D-line is about as good as I can remember seeing from a 4-3 defense in a good while, and Dave Stewart is going to have nightmares about Carlos Dunlap for a long, long time.
And of course, Jared Cook had to mare his best game of the year with an unforgivable fumble.
Join Jimmy and I at 9:00 CST for MCM Radio, where I'll be doing the only thing a man can do in times like these: trying to find a bottle of George Dickel big enough to crawl into.