It's tough to say the Titans took care of business today, but we at least got the result we needed on the field in Houston. I'm with the rest of you in not knowing why Ahmard Hall, who has now fumbled every 19.4 times he has touched the ball in his career, got that crucial carry. While you can't guarantee that we'd have won or lost that game if the Texans kick the PAT, we certainly benefited greatly all day long from the fact that the game meant nothing to the Texans.
If course we aren't in a spot where just winning that game is enough: we needed help. In pretty much every way we needed help, we didn't get it. Granted, the Benglas dropped their critical game to the Ravens, but the Jets laid an egg against as inferior Dolphins team, Tebow got completely shutdown by the suddenly revitalized Chiefs and the Raiders are currently trading TDs for FGs while playing from behind. As such, the Titans' 2011 regular season ends today.
Many of us agreed that this exact situation was the best-case scenario back in the preseason, and it was a long shot when Kenny Britt went down for the year. This incarnation of the Titans just doesn't have the talent on the field to look like a playoff team week in and week out. Outside of a few head-scratchers against teams like the Jags and Ravens, we largely beat the teams we should have beaten and came up short against playoff caliber squads. That's not any easy thing to do when your franchise RB has the worst year in his career, and the passing attack's primary weapon misses 13 games.
Now we'll turn our focus to the NFL playoffs, and an offseason that should feature one of the wildest free agency periods we'll ever see. It's a shame we couldn't get one more game out of this squad, but the future of this franchise is still very, very bright. One more good offseason of good signings and drafting could put the Titans back atop the AFC South this time next year.
Jimmy and I will recap today's game, and everything that came after it, tonight at 9:00 CST on MCM Radio.