Tennessee Titans

Titans Must Reduce Errors

2005-12-04T11:05:00.000-05:00

Tennessee have watched the equivalent of seven touchdowns and conversion points taken off their tally this season - due to penalties. They prepare to visit the as yet unbeaten Colts on Sunday.

"Every time we score a touchdown now we kind of tend to look around and make sure there are no flags and then we celebrate and get happy," right tackle Michael Roos said. Indeed if you have been watching that has been a sad case in fact.

In truth, not all the penalties and disallowed touchdowns have come at crucial moments and would not have been game-deciders - nevertheless a touchdown is a touchdown especially when they are seemingly hard to come by for the team in general.

It seems that that coach Fischer's message on flags hasn't been received - which is doubly disappointing due to the fact that much of the blame for penalties lies with the seasoned campaigners and not the rookies.

Brad Hopkins has nine accepted penalties, Pacman Jones has eight. Olson and Kinney, are next with five.

Fisher stated that all he could do was to keep telling them and keep reminding them. He will need to make sure it sinks in before the Colts games later today.

The Titans are getting +15.5 on the football betting spreads at the time of writing.
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Tennessee Preaches Sirmon

2005-11-11T15:18:00.000-05:00

Peter Sirmon, the Tennessee linebacker, missed the entire 2004 season through injury and came into this season healthy and recovered. He then sprained his knee, followed by a team-mate accidentally hurting his right ankle. This forced him to sit out two of the last three games.

Sirmon said of the injury: "It's something that goes up and down with me. Hopefully, this little bit of time will get it behind us."

The linebacker is probably looking forward to this week's bye. Sirmon has tried playing through the injuries most of the season. He was there as an emergency option but did not play in last week's 20-14 loss at Cleveland.

Sirmon has been working out carefully this week and both he and coach Jeff Fisher think the rest might help him put the injuries behind him.

"Hopefully soon. We just have to wait and see how the rest helps," Sirmon said.

The Tennessee Titans could use the Sirmon back on the field. The 6-2, 240 pound linebacker became their starter in 2002 and had three interceptions, followed by a 141 tackles in 2003 that ranked second only to linebacker Keith Bulluck.

Middle linebacker Brad Kassell has moved in to fill the void while Sirmon has been off the field. Fisher said having Sirmon on the field helps the Titans line up correctly with a settling effect on the defense. He is more than just a player.

"He'll trigger things. He'll offer subtle reminders across the board. Those kind of things are very, very important. When a guy's ninety-nine percent sure of what to do and it's reaffirmed, then he can play. Those are the kind of things Pete does for us. It looks as if things will be behind him once we get on the practice field next week." This would put Sirmon's comeback game on track for Nov. 20 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

He still ranks sixth on defense with thirty-two tackles and has a sack and a fumble recovery.

Titans Focus On McNair Protection

2005-11-03T13:02:00.000-05:00

In the Titans' first seven games, their quarterbacks have been sacked just eleven times. Then Oakland Raiders came along and sacked McNair six times.

Against the Cleveland Browns, the Tennessee Titans will have to protect McNair against the blitz.

"We've got to do a better job of protecting Steve (McNair), and as a receiving corps we've got to do a better job of getting open for him," Erron Kinney said. "If we do those things we'll be all right."

McNair experienced a recurrence a back injury late in the game against the Oakland Raiders when he had a hard landing on a tackle. He missed practice yesterday but is expected to back today.

The six sacks at the hands of the Raiders were the most allowed in a McNair start for four years, when the Baltimore Ravens sacked him six times.

No Quarter Given

2005-10-28T10:08:00.000-05:00

The Tennessee Titans are not that great - in any quarter, yet they could make things better with second-quarter improvements. In seven games they've been outscored 63-19 in the second quarter.

Arizona outscored the Titans 10-0 in the second quarter on Sunday, adding further to Tennessee's woes in the period.

"We've got to do something different," Erron Kinney said. "The thing that is frustrating it we're missing carry-over somewhere. We practice during the week, we execute, we work hard, we make things happen, we do the right thing out there in practice.....we come out the first drive and we do that (make the plays) we do the things we're supposed to do...and then all of a sudden we fall apart and I don't know why, I don't know why everything gets off kilter. But it does and we've got to get it corrected."

After the loss to the Bengals, Jeff Fisher said he and his staff don't look at mistakes by veterans any differently than mistakes by youth, but after Arizona he said it was the veteran mistakes that killed them in the second-quarter.