MMM...can I have a second helping?

Well, I was wrong. But for different reasons.

Here's what I was right about:

Edgerrin James would be able to run on the Titans defense (21 rush, 124 yards, 2 TD)
Steve McNair would be able to throw effectively (25/39, 273 yards)
Chris Brown would be able to run on the Indy defense (26 rush, 152 yards, 1 TD)

Here's what I was wrong about:

Peyton Manning would be challenged. He was not, and he only got sacked once on a botched play, and he was able to throw to whoever he wanted to.

Cause and effect: Here's where I got incensed at the Titans offense. This box score looks like those coulda, shoulda, woulda games played against the Ravens awhile back.

Time of possession: Titans, 34:55. Colts: 25:05. Ten minutes more time with the ball, and they had Chris Brown running 152 yards, Steve McNair throwing for 273 (better than Manning), and where did they lose it?

Short yardage situations, point blank. The big one was, at the Colts 3, a 4th and inches that apparently the Titans coaching staff thought the Colts wouldn't completely stack their defense for. Several 3rd and 1 plays were ran with the same thought. The Colts were losing the battle up front because they could not stop anyone...until they knew what was coming, of course. There are at least 3 such situational moments in the game and they ran Chris Brown on all of them. Who could blame them, right? Brown was torching their defense--but you can't run when the defense knows without a doubt you are coming.

Somewhere in a Titans playbook is a page that has never been hit by sunshine or a flood light or a desk lamp. That page contains information on how to run a playaction pass.

Could I, as a Titans fan, just once see a guy running 152 yards for the day, to set up this fabulous, underused play? Clearly, without any doubt, the Titans would have had huge numbers running this play because the Colts were thinking run on all of them. They couldn't stop anything, except that.

I believe the defense started to deflate after all that, and added to it was the play where they punted and the special teams guy apparently knocked the ball out of the end zone before it landed, pinning the Colts to the 1, but the call on the field was that he touched the end zone. The Colts then marched downfield and tied the game at 17 at the time. It was over after that.

Dan Dierdorf uttered the words with 2:21 to go and the score 31-17, "You see this and you think, maybe the possibility of going 0-2 motivated them to this win today."

Thankfully, when they started summing up the game a minute later, they came up with the real reason for this loss today, "The Titans will be spending a couple of days scratching their heads at all the missed opportunities in this game," Dick Enberg said. "Yeah," Dierdorf answers, "I can't help but think this game would have been completely different."

We're talking about a 10-3 score when the 4th and inches play happened. Think about 17-3 going to half. Think about two other situations where they should have gotten the 1st down, easily, that would have led to at least a couple of field goals--This game would have been at least 33-31, if we were even to grant the Colts the same score (I don't believe that's what would have happened).

There's my thoughts...All I can say is, "Dammit."