Titans thoughts and predictions.

Tennessee Titans (0-3) at Jacksonville Jaguars (1-2)

I'm really hoping this is just a dream. The AFC's best regular season team last year, the Tennessee Titans, are now sitting at the bottom of the AFC South with an 0-3 record. Yes, they have same number of losses as last year's squad already.

Unfortunately, this is not a dream and that's the beauty of the NFL - a team can fall so fast within a year's span and vice versa. I mean, look at some of the surprising teams this year. The Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers are sitting at 1-2 and third in their division. Credit the fact that All-Everything safety Troy Polamalu is out, but still it is surprising nonetheless. AFC East champion Miami are with the Titans in the ranks of the winless. With the announcement that Chad Pennington is out for the year, it looks like with one more loss, they will be in rebuild mode for the rest of the year. Jake Delhomme has carried his horrific play from the playoffs into the regular season, as his countless mistakes have made the Panthers another one of the winless squads.

However, despite the Titans' 0-3 record, you can look deeper into the games and see some positives. First of all, the offense is better than last year's. Kerry Collins makes his one to two mistakes every game, but what middle of the pack quarterback doesn't? The explosive Chris Johnson is second in the league in rushing yards and a slimmed down LenDale White looked pretty good in limited carries against the Jets. The receiver corps is leaps and bounds better than last year, when Justin McCareins had to be in during meaningful snaps. The acquistion from Pittsburgh, Nate Washington, looked like a nice signing over the last two games; despite a few drops last week. Justin Gage is looking more and more like a number one target, minus a few drops from him as well. And the rookie from Rutgers, Kenny Britt, looks like he'll be an absolute stud. The former Scarlet Knight has brought down multiple clutch catches and should expand his role with offense as the season goes on.

The run defense has been stout as well. Right now they are allowing 60.7 yards per game, good enough for 2nd in the league. They held Willie Parker, Steve Slaton and Leon Washington to 19, 34, and 46 yards respectively. However, there is a reason that the Titans are 0-3.
Santonio Holmes, Andre Johnson, Jerricho Cotchery...what do these names have in common? They are all their respective team's number one receiver and they all have had a 100+ yard receiving day against the Tennessee secondary. Holmes duplicated his Super Bowl stats in week one, with nine catches, 131 yards and a score. Andre Johnson proved why he might be the best receiver in the league with a 10 catch and two touchdown performance. And despite the rain, Mark Sanchez found Jerricho Cotchery with most of his throws, evidenced by the eight catches for 108 yards and a trip to paydirt. There's one more thing that at least Johnson and Cotchery had in common.

Nick Harper. The new defensive coordinator Chuck Cecil has played Harper on both Johnson and Cotchery for at least 75% of the game and that very controversial plan has backfired in a big way. Harper is too slow to be a strictly man corner and he's better fitted in a cover two scheme. Add to the fact that he's getting up there in years and might have two or three tops left in his career, that should give enough reason to put him on the opponent's second receiver.

And then there's the special teams play, which has hurt and cost us in all three of our games this year. Opening night at Pittsburgh - Rob Bironas misses a field goal and has another one blocked. The Steelers win the game in overtime by three. If Bironas makes just one of those kicks, Tennessee could have easily been starting 1-0. Ryan Mouton fumbles a punt and Houston proceeds to score off of it. Another three point loss that could have easily been a win. Then last week against the Jets, the rookie out of Hawaii muffs up again. He fumbles a kick and a punt, and New York captializes on both of them for touchdowns. That's 14 points there and with the final being 24-17, taking away those turnovers could have gave Tennessee the win.

I think Tennessee gets back on track here. David Garrard is the worst quarterback we've faced all year and his receivers aren't exactly the greatest either. Cortland Finnegan is doubtful and probably won't play, so rookies Ryan Mouton and Jason McCourty will start. This worries me a little, but I still believe. This team is far too talented to be 0-4.

Tennessee Titans 27, Jacksonville Jaguars 21