A Note From the Game

If you want to see my thoughts on the loss yesterday, check out my comments on Chris' last post. And I pretty much agree with his thoughts as well. If this truly is a team capable of winning it all, then it was a good loss. I'm still not so sure.

But I have to say one thing about the game that I thought was in incredibly bad taste. Before the game, the genius' that run the in-game entertainment decided to have a fake Fireman Ed on the field, who I'm particularly fond of. The fake did a J-E-T-S cheer, which only let all the away fans yell a hearty cheer. Awesome. Then, they let out what I guess is our OWN cheer, a horribly country, yet stupidly corporate cheer, straight from the WWE; a "Whoooo" or some crap like that. I think Steve Austin does it or something.

And then? They made Ed into an effigy and threw him off the top of the stadium. On video, of course. Simulating the death of an actual person. I thought this was way over the top. It was enough to make me wish I'd just stayed home. I have HD there, and cheaper food.

Titans Exposed By Jets

I had seen a few Jets games this year, and I had followed a few Titans games, and just on a hunch it looked ugly. The Titans, of course, had been fortunate to win some games this year based on the fact that the teams they had played had just a few more flaws than they did. This matchup with the Jets, as I had mentioned to Jets fans, scared me.

The "bend but don't break" defense had its special charms. You could rely on the Titans to allow yardage between the 20s and then make a play or rely on mistakes to stop drives. But when you have a guy like Brett Favre and a variety of offensive weapons at his disposal, the "bend but don't break" just found the limits of its tensile strength.

We always wonder if there's such thing as a "good loss." It's better to see what glaring flaws you have and can't get away with in the playoffs before the playoffs begin. The Jets are a potential opponent in a very down year for the AFC. The NFC has re-emerged lately, and the Giants look like the class of the league. If the Titans are to match up with any playoff opponent like the Jets (and I think the Colts will also be a player in the end), they're going to need to work on that offense a little more. I think the Jets scoring at least 24 points yesterday was inevitable, and a turnover cashed in another score for the Jets. So the Titans only hope yesterday would have been to catch those passes they dropped and do some more freaking play-action and open up the field.

It still befuddles me as to why Jeff Fisher, a smart guy, doesn't ever want to use much play-action. Granted, I haven't seen a Titans game all the way through all year, but from what I've seen, deception is still not a part of the offense.

I'll take this stinging loss if it means beating the Jets in the AFC Championship game. That would be sweet, but there's a lot to clean up until then.

Ahh...Football

So, the Bills and Jets were playing one of those extremely nasty offensive games today. It was 6-3 Bills in the 4th Quarter, Jets with the ball, and a little over 6 minutes left when one of the announcers said, "I think the Jets are in 4-down territory here." Never before has a statement sounded so ridiculous, but so true, at the same time.

Of course, the Jets punted and then the Bills got a luck-and-skill 85-yard TD on the next drive. Like most announcers, this was pure proof that the Jets should have gone for it on 4th down, as if this was a completely predictable outcome in a game that had featured more punts than scores.

And with Chad Pennington struggling again, it didn't really matter what backup QB Kellen Clemens did in the last three minutes, he's got to be the new QB in town. Clemens didn't fare much better than Pennington, but I guess a guy who sucks and has arm strength is better than a guy who sucks and has no arm strength.

Boy, you gotta love sports.