At long last, the pre-season is over and we can get ready for some real football.
The Titans ended the pre-season last night with a decent enough effort. I was impressed when the starters were in the game--at least on offense and defense. The defense looked great at times, especially early when we got a solid rush on Brett Favre and forced an early fumble that we cashed in for a touchdown. Early on, it looked a lot like the Monday night game from last year in which the Titans went up to Green Bay and just throttled the Packers for the entire nation to see. And as excited as I could get about that, I do find myself wondering--it seems as if the Titans in the pre-season have shown brilliance against teams who they seem to "have their number" such at Atlanta and Green Bay. Will this actually translate into success against other teams such as Indy, Baltimore and Pittsburgh on opening day?
And PacMan got introduced on the jumbo-tron. He got a few choruses of boos when he took the field....but it was nothing compared to the boos that rained down when PacMan couldn't do something as simple as handle a punt. He lost not one but two punts...Green Bay bailed him out on the first one by committing a holding penalty. See, Adam, this is why the pre-season is important and you should have been in here at training camp, not out starting fights with Big Daddy Gaddy. Jones was pulled quickly after this by Jeff Fisher. I know that he's been a big investment, but I seriously wonder if cutting our losses isn't still a good idea here. If you can't count on at least holding on to the stinking ball on a punt return and you're gonna get burned on pass coverage since you held out, then what good are you to the team? My answer: none at all.
Of course, it was interesting to go to this game while Vandy was starting off the season. I tell you I have to love the bandwagon Vandy fans that were near me. We got news late in the third that Vandy had won--I'd heard it from a guy who had a radio tuned to the game in my section. Now, I can understand being excited and heady that you'd just won your first season opener since Clinton was in office, but come on...I really don't think USC is quaking in their boots at the prospect of a USC vs Vandy Sugar Bowl come January. Nor does a win against Wake Forest mean you are going to beat Tennessee at home this year. Don't get me wrong--it was a good win for Vandy and it's nice to see that after years of hearing "oh we've got a good senior QB and a better defense" for that to actually be how you won a game (despite being ripped for over 200 yards rushing) but it is what you do with it that matters. If you use it as momentum to win some games you should, steal one that you shouldn't, then it's all good. I swear, it reminds me of Georgia fans who in 2001 went nuts when they beat Tennnessee and then their team got ripped by Florida. The win is only meaningful if you do something with it--like go to the SEC title game in Atlanta. Otherwise, it's a nice win, but overall meaningless.
And ya know, as much as I love my cell phone, I get annoyed with people who use them. I didn't really mind the people behind me using it to get updates on the college games or to find each other in the stadium. But the people in front of us who were talking to other people in the stadium and then standing up so they could wave across the field, thus blocking the view of several rows around you...come on! I mean, sure during the interminable TV timeouts, go for it..but during actual play of the game! And unless your friends are Superman with super deluxe zoom in vision, I don't think standing up and waving is gonna help. Also, I know that in the stadium we all want to be on the JumboTron...but here's the thing--when you're nine rows from the top of the stadium, odds are the cameras aint' gonna shoot up that high.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 9/02/2005 07:50:00 AM |
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