Gary Estwick details the long road Titan CB Nick Harper took to the NFL after stops in division II Fort Valley, the CFL and a Subaru nicknamed 'Doo Doo Brown' (named for this super-awesome 1991 rap song, which contains one of the best old school breakbeats/bridges you'll ever hear starting at about 1:50).

 One more win, and we clinch the Titans' first AFC South Division crown since 2002.

 I'd like to thank the Colts for making that task much easier by injuring Derek Anderson's knee, meaning we'll be facing for Miami Hurricane legend and perennial NFL 3rd stringer Ken Doresy.

 Apparently VY refused to speak to the Nashville media after the Lions game, but did speak to a reporter from Westwood One.  That's not going to win VY any supporters and makes him look like a baby.

 William C. Rhoden wrote a very good feature on Vince Young last week, and ends it with  a good observation when you piggy back this comment with a list of the most recent first round QB draft success like Cutler, Rivers, Flacco and Ryan:

Young’s benching is the end, for now at least, of new-age quarterbacks on the brink of redefining of the quarterback position. With Michael Vick behind bars, Young on the bench and Donovan McNabb morphed more or less into a pocket passer, the league’s quarterback pool has reverted to the statue-like signal-callers who hang tough in the pocket, protected by rules designed to keeping defensive linemen and linebackers at bay.

 Jim Wyatt breaksdown the AFC playoff race.

 PFW says the comments LenDale made last week were indeed as quickly squshed as the report made it seem, and there's no doubt the big man will get another healthy dose of work against an awful Browns team this week.

 AOL Fanhouse driveler Will Brinson brings us some video of LenDale White using some salty language during the Lions game, giving an army of slightly racist commenters the ammo they need to start with the whining.

 Scout.com with Foxsports.com on MSN (high-fives for corporate synergy!) breaksdown how ugly of a mismatch we're going to see Sunday. You can definitely blame the Browns skuckiness for why this game didn't get flexed to primetime.

There's a whole lot of internet out there, so if you have a link you'd like to submit for tomorrow's Morning Links, email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com!  (Be sure to include your commenting handle so I can give you semi-anonymous credit.)

Good to see Nick Harper and Jason Jones were full participants in practice.  Hopefully they can both be back next week if not tomorrow.

Other than seeing the Titans get back in the saddle after Sunday's loss, I'm excited about because Thursday's game will give us a long look at the WR I'd hope we break the bank for when he gets sick of the Ford family: Calvin Johnson.

 Teresa Walker knows what's up:  we need to get back to pounding the ball, and making them pay with the play action pass when they get 9 guys in the box.

 Nick Harper and Jason Jones returned to full practice yesterday!!! Harper's value is obvious, but Jones has been pretty productive as one of the first D-lineman to come off the bench.  He could be a beast due to match-ups over the next few games if he's really healthy

 If the Titans win and Indy losses this week, we'll clinch a playoff spot.

 A Nashville sized hat tip to LenDale for being a man and apologizing for those stupid comments after the game Sunday.  It was also good to hear from several people who were at the game that Vince was the first one there to cool LenDale off on the sideline as the big man bickered with RB coach Ernest Byner over playing time.

 Paul Kuharsky updates us on the Pro Bowl voting (vote or die, as Puffy once said); if you'd have told me in June that Crazy Legs would be getting more votes than LaDainian Tomlinson at this point, I would have said 'That's awesome, future man!' and posted it in the links.

 Peter King doesn't like a few ticky-tack things about the Pro Bowl voting, while I'm more than a little hacked about a few trends with it as well: Like how Bret Favre is leading the QB spot in the AFC?  I thought only lineman got in on reputation even if others *cough*Philip Rivers*cough* are playing light years ahead of them.

 We've slipped to a season-low 4th place in the Football Outsiders' DVOA stat for defensive efficiency.

 Your weekly Benadibilty Index report: still crushin' it.

 Jim Wyatt delivers 5 things we should know about the Titans - Lions match-up, including these ugly numbers for the opposition:

The Lions play every Thanksgiving, and some believe they save their best performances for the special occasion. That’s an outdated belief, however. The Lions have lost four straight — by 11, 17, 20 and 32 points — and six of their last seven on Thanksgiving. The Lions are 33-33-2 overall on Thanksgiving. The Titans/Oilers, meanwhile, are 4-2 on Thanksgiving (1-0 at Detroit, 1992). Their last Thanksgiving game was 1997, a 27-14 loss at Dallas.

There's a whole lot of internet out there, so if you have a link you'd like to submit for tomorrow's Morning Links, email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com!  (Be sure to include your commenting handle so I can give you semi-anonymous credit.)

Chris Carr is going to need to step up big again with Nick Harper out.

Jeff Fisher arrived at Titans practice yesterday via parachute after jumping from a perfectly good helicopter with soldiers from the 101st Airborne!  Hopefully that'll be the extent of our free-fall this season.

 Terry McCormick delivers the first real news on why the heck Nick Harper has been hurt: Harper broke his ankle last year and didn't know it until he had off-season surgery!  When the crack healed calcium deposits formed and those have been giving Harper significant trouble.  He's the football equivalent of 'day-to-day'.

 How I've done these links for so long without a single Kige Ramsey link I have no idea, and to those who aren't aware of this cat I apologize.  He may be the web's most visible Titans fan, and an example of everything that's so right with new media.

 Jeremy Green makes-up for his disaturous analysis of the Titans' 2008 draft by penning this article about something I've been contending all year: the Titans have the best O-Line in the NFL.

 ESPN The Magazine has an excellent story written by NFL players on their personal security away from the field, and the fist installment is written (quite well, might I add) by the Titans' own Kevin Mawae.

 Brandon Jones got a $15,000 fine for his Pacman impression during last weeks game, and now he's going to appeal it.

 Crazy Legs and Houston's Steve Slaton have both excelled in one area that usually stifles rookie RBs: pass protection.

 PFW profiles Chris Carr and his impact on the Titans' season.

 Former Panther Kris Jenkins has revitalized his career with the Jets this year, and the match-up between he and Mawae will be a great one to watch.  Hopefully though, that match-up will be over shadowed by the blur of blue and dreads that streaks past both of them.

 That Bendability index we've been keeping an eye on?  Still crushin' it.

 How good is our pass defense efficiency according to Football Outsiders?  We're leading the league at -33.4%.  2nd place are the Packers at -30.7%, but third place are the Steelers all the way down at 24.5%!

 Don Banks did a ton of research on the history of ties in the NFL and came up with some gems, including this one from the Oilers of yore.

The Houston Oilers actually made the 1969 AFL playoffs with the unlikely record of 6-6-2. They went a nicely balanced 4-2-1 at home, and 2-4-1 on the road.

There's a whole lot of internet out there, so if you have a link you'd like to submit for tomorrow's Morning Links, email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com!  (Be sure to include your commenting handle so I can give you semi-anonymous credit.)

 Wow.  Last year I thought Mercury Morris was being a real jerk about the Pats because he didn't want anyone else to be perfect.  Turns out, he just didn't like the Pats being anointed in week 5. As such, he likes our Titans because they're earning it every week, and they're playing old fashioned football.

 Music City Miracles now has some stiff competition in the blog game, and it's from studly middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch!  Make sure you check out the man's blog, because it really is a good look into the life of a burgeoning Pro Bowler.

Congratulations to David Thornton for winning this year's Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for the Titans.  The son of a preacher, Thronton's community service and charity work also brought him the honor with the Colts in 2003.

 On the injury front, Eric King may be back before the end of the year after re-fracturing the same arm that landed him on the IR last year, while Boom King, Harper, McCareins, and Jason Jones will all have a shot at playing Sunday against the Jets.

 Next time someone cracks on the Titans' offense, you tell them this:

Among AFC teams, only the Jets, Chargers (254) and Broncos (248) have scored more points than the Titans, who have rolled up 244 points.

 And I will remind you that our defense is still only giving up a stifling 13.1 points per game.

 This week's Yahoo! Team Report touches on the defensive reserves who have come from no where to cover for what could have been costly injuries.

 DJ Gallo jokingly summed up everything I assume media folks are saying a little louder every week that we keep winning:

The Tennessee Titans are now 10-0. They are clearly a legitimate Super Bowl contender, yet they hail from a non-major media market. How annoying. How rude.

 Kissing Suzy Kolber picks-up the torch of the recently ended Fire Joe Morgan ot roasts Peter King's latest column, and the results couldn't have gone better:

PK) Tennessee has to sign Kerry Collins to a fair-market deal, even if it means Vince Young has to sit behind him for two more years … or if it means the Titans lose Bud Adams’ favorite boy toy.

KSK) Never thought Bud Adams and Kevin Spacey had so much in common, did you?

 A former 2nd round pick of the Titans in 2004, Ben Troupe just got cut by the Oakland Raiders after agreeing to an injury settlement.  That's not exactly a career builder.

 Our condolences go out to the family, friends and fans of former Oiler defensive tackle Orville Trask, who passed away last week at age 73.  Trask was an Original Oiler, the franchise's first captain and a corner stone of 2 AFL championship teams while rocking the blue and white.

There's a whole lot of internet out there, so if you have a link you'd like to submit for tomorrow's Morning Links, email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com!  (Be sure to include your commenting handle so I can give you semi-anonymous credit.)

Good to see that Michael Griffin is no longer on the injury report, and that Ahmard Hall and Nick Harper were back on the field.

Cortland Finnegan

We all love Finnegan.  He has proven this season that he is already an elite corner in this league, and he will probably get even better.  Cort plays with a toughness and intensity that makes it impossible not to root for him, but that same intensity gets him in trouble at times with dumb penalties.  Grade: A.

Continue reading this post »

Jim Wyatt comes through with 5 things we know about the Titans, including this reassuring tidbit:

... since the NFL realigned its divisions in 2002, the Titans are 16-9 against the NFC. That includes a 7-2 mark in the past nine games, and one of those was a 30-17 rout of the Vikings in Week 4. The Packers, meanwhile, have won their past five meetings with AFC teams.

 Before we start thinking the Packers are just an offensive power, Gary Estwick points-out that the Green Bay defense leads the NFL in interceptions and is only 1 defensive touchdown away from breaking a team record that has stood since the Lombardi era.

 And when the Packers leave Nashville, they will know thy name is the Boom King!!!

 Very good sign your team is having a good year: the 1972 Dolphins get nervous enough to start knocking your team.  I'd love nothing more than to crush their record, and not even be nice about it.  These petty jerks' schtick got old decades ago, and they wouldn't win 5 games in today's NFL.

 This week's Yahoo! Team Report notes that LenDale is on track for an astounding 22 TDs this year.  If LenDale gets that many we aren't going to be losing many games. 

 This is sure to make BBS happy/have a fake conniption, as I'm sure Nick Harper was much 'classier' when he was a Colt:

Cornerback Nick Harper was a member of some excellent Indianapolis Colts teams -- the 2006 Super Bowl XLI champions, a 14-2 squad and two others that went 12-4 like the title team.

Of course he's going to pump up his current situation as a starter on the 7-0 Tennessee Titans, but you'd also think he wouldn't want to diminish the successful teams he was a part of in his past.

So how does he think these Titans rate against the best Colts teams he was on?

"This team is probably better," Harper said. "Up there we had a high-powered offense that put up points. Where here, our offense is putting up points but we're making a lot of plays on defense."

 The Titans slipped to 3rd in Football Outsiders DVOA ratings this week, but we're the number 1 pass defense in the NFL... so we got that going for us.

 Props to stupendous reader BigW for passing along Kissing Suzy Kolber's LOL NFL for this week.  The Peyton Manning picture is priceless.

There's a whole lot of internet out there, so if you have a link you'd like to submit for tomorrow's Morning Links, email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com!  (Be sure to include your commenting handle so I can give you semi-anonymous credit.)

There are very few things that make me happier than watching the Titans beat Peyton Manning.  I have hated Manning for years, and seeing that sad look on his goofy face brings me so much joy.

Chris Carr opened the game with a bang when he returned the opening kickoff 42 yards.  I was very critical of Carr early this season, but he has turned out to be a solid return man for this team.  He is going to take a kickoff to the house before this season is over.

The Titans opened with a very efficient first drive as they always do under Dinger.  The only bad thing about the drive was that the Titans had to settle for a field goal after a 3 yard completion to Bo Scaife on 3rd and 8.  It is frustrating to see a throw to a guy that isn't going to pick up the necessary yardage on 3rd down, but it is possible that all of the other receivers were covered, and Kerry Collins dumped it to Scaife to avoid taking a sack or throwing into traffic.

The Titans defense, playing without Kyle Vanden Bosch, had a good opening series.  It was tough watching Peyton have all day to throw last night, but Schwartz stuck with his gameplan and didn't blitz hardly at all.  The "Bend but Don't Break" defense worked again last night.  I applaud Schwartz for not over-reacting and sending a bunch of people.

The Titans did nothing on their next possession, and bad punt from Craig Hentrich gave the Colts really good field position.  Peyton hit a big pass to Dallas Clark, who seemed to be running free in the middle of the field all night long, and then another 10 yard pass to Clark for a touchdown.

The Titans next drive ended with a field goal as well.  You really saw the Titans philosophy shift on this drive.  They had pretty much decided they were going to attempt to throw the Colts out of their 9 man front.  The Titans proved last night that they can win a game when the other team takes the run away from them.  Some may call the Titans offense anemic, but it is putting up more points per game than the "explosive" Colts offense.  The excuses are really piling up over there.

But I digress.  That was it for the scoring in the first half.  Rob Bironas missed his first field goal of the season after Chris Hope's first interception of Peyton.  Maybe Bironas missed because they didn't shoot off the cannon before he kicked the field goal.

The Colts marched right down the field for a touchdown to open the second half.  That put the Titans behind 14-6, and started Tony Kornheiser's monologue on how that was it for the Titans.  They weren't built to come from behind with Collins at quarterback and blah, blah, blah.  It was enjoyable to watch him flip as the game went on.

Collins shut Kornheiser up by taking the Titans 80 yards on 17 plays.  Only 7 of those plays were runs, and 3 of those 7 runs came from inside the 5.  The Titans then went for 2, and Dinger made a great play call with a play fake to Smash where Ahmard Hall slipped out of the Titans backfield and was wide open in the end zone.

The next Colts drive was what won the game for the Titans.  The Colts decided to go for it on 4th and 1 from the Indy 49.  Not only did they not get it, their play was absolutely blown up by the Titans.  Dominic Rhodes was stopped by Stephen Tulloch for a 1 yard loss.

You could feel the momentum build even more with that stop.  The Titans were able to take the lead on one big throw from Collins to Alge Crumpler and a 48 yard Bironas field goal.  That gave the Titans the lead back at 17-14.

The Colts didn't learn from their first mistake and decided to go for it on 4th down again.  Nick Harper jumped the route on a pass intended for the washed up Marvin Harrison and knocked the ball away.

The Titans anemic offense took the ball 66 yards for a touchdown to push the score to 24-14, and that was your ballgame folks.  It wasn't the end of the scoring though because Peyton gave the ball to the Titans again with another interception.  Chris Johnson took the first play of that drive for a 16 yard touchdown run, and there was much rejoicing in Nashville.

The Colts added another TD in junk time to make the game not look so lopsided, but if you watched the game you saw the Colts hang around for three quarters but get exposed in the 4th quarter.

7-0 is a fantastic start, but there is still a lot of work to be done this season.  The 4 game division lead is awesome, but the race is not over.  The Titans will actually have to play some good teams the next 3 weeks.  We would love to win all 3, but going 2-1 in that stretch will keep the Titans in the driver's seat not only in the divison, but also for home field advantage in the playoffs.