I think a lot of Titans fans and ESPN got a bit too excited about what the addition of Randy Moss would mean to this team. Listening to the hype, he was supposed to make us more explosive, more dynamic and to lead to great things for an offense that was already one of the tops in the league in terms of scoring and our passer rating. And while double coverage on Moss may have allowed Chris Johnson to gain some more yards yesterday, a lot of what I saw was more of the same from the Titans.
Maybe it's because Moss only had a few days to come in and get adjusted to things. Or maybe it was that our first half quarterback was overthrowing guys due to a busted fingers. I love Kerry Collins, but the best thing that happened to the Titans was he got injured and we had to put in Vince Young. Young looked better and watching him move around, I wondered why he was held out the first half. His ankle looked fine to me.
Where we looked terrible was on defense. Two games in a row that we can't cover across the middle of the field and we get gashed. Antonio Gates two weeks ago, Anthony Fasano this week. At what point after the same guy keeps gashing you time after time after time (esp. on third down and longs) do you stop and say, "Maybe we should cover him or somehow scheme to take him out of the game plan."
Apparently, if you're the Titans you just allow him to continue to run free and lose the game. Come on, Chuck Cecil. Make a friggin' half-time adjustment!
Living in a town with two sports call in shows, one associated with the Titans and one that's not, it's interesting to listen to the Monday morning quarterbacking. The non-associated one has an interesting take that Nashville is still just happy to have a team and that on-field results don't matter much, but that's slowly changing. At the center of that is questions about the coaching staff and their future.
One vocal group's central argument is that Fisher is a mediocre coach, at best. And that while he'll put up the occasional great year like the 13-3 a couple of years ago, there are too many 8-8s in there to bring his overall winning percentage down to average. Looking at it, I think it's not that Fisher is a mediocre coach, but I think his best days of coaching with the Titans may be fading. He's got his system and it worked well. But it's getting old and he doesn't seem to be adjusting it or assembling the coaches around him to adjust it like (dear heavens, it pains me to say this) Bill Belachick does with New England. As I look on the situation, I find myself wondering if it's becoming a situation like the one Dallas faced with Tom Landry a few decades ago. You've got an entrenched coach, beloved by the community and many pundits, who maybe has his glory days behind him. But the fond memories of those glory days are carrying him and it will take someone who will truly take a huge amount of ill-will and hatred by the fandom and the pundits to make a change.
Should the Titans do it? I'm not sure yet.
But I'm starting to lean towards the side of wanting a change. But only if it's the right change...
Labels: Titans
posted by Michael Hickerson at 11/15/2010 12:59:00 PM |
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