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Show of hands: who saw that coming? Honestly, when was the last time you saw the Titans thump a team so resoundingly that we pulled our starters in the 4th quarter?
A week after the Titans were humiliated at home, the exact same crew of players went down to Miami and exacted revenge of an epic proportion. Sure, Miami couldn't get out of their own way at certain times, but from the first snap of the game you could tell this defense was on a righteous mission to inflict domination that nobody in teal and orange was going to stop. How else can you explain the most porous defense in Titans history suddenly holding the Dolphins to 3 points, force 4 turnovers, tally two sacks and deliver scores of big hits all day long. The was nobody on that roster who wants anything to do with Sen'Derrick Marks, Jason McCourty, Zach Brown or Colin McCarthy.
I hope Jerry Gray found a real comfortable chair up their in the booth.
On offense, Jake Locker worked off some rust from his six-week layoff, but used his legs and his instincts to make big plays when we needed them. Perfect example: Locker stumbling to the ground after a play fake to Johnson, popping up and ripping off a 20 yard gain that was one tap away from being a 65 yard TD. From that point on Locker looked much more settled, and threw for two gorgeous touchdowns to Wright and Cook. He also missed a deep throw to Britt early in the 4th quarter, but overall it was a crisp and gutsy performance that clearly got the rest of team excited.
I can't end this recap without a tip of the hat to Jarius Wynn for notching a sack in his first start as a Titan, Michael Griffin for solid tackling and coverage all day, Coty Sensabaugh for being all over the place in the secondary and Chris Johnson for continuing to run like a man possessed. Over the past 7 weeks, CJ only has one game where he averaged less than 4.7 yards per carry and totaled fewer than 91 yards, but the best part is: he's done it all with only two runs over 21 yards.
Bud Adams laid down the gauntlet last weekend, and Munchak was able to get these guys to respond. Hopefully this is a turning point for this team, and they'll realize how they need to prepare every single week.