The one that got away

Jeff Fisher is a genius. He purposely didn't go for the game-winning field goal in the waning moments of the Texans game to accomplish two goals. Goal one was to make next week's game against the Steelers mean something. Goal two was to give the Steelers that little bit extra needed to somehow score the game-winning touchdown pass. Hey Ravens fans, did that look a little bit like what the Titans did to you earlier this year? I'm just sayin'.

There is no good explanation why Fisher passed on the field goal when Bironas made an even longer kick earlier in the game. In fact, had Bironas attempted and made the kick, he would have kicked 13 field goals in the past two games against the Texans.

Fisher said that he regretted passing on having the wind at the Titans' back for the fourth quarter. I guess the kick was out of Bironas's range from his point of view. OK, but throwing a streak to Justin McCareins wasn't the best play in the book. The Texans must have seen what the Titans have seen all year, and left McCareins open all day. He didn't come through that often.

It's weird how the team abandons the run when they're behind. Chris Johnson was stuffed at times yet averaged 5 yards a carry. I thought he'd be a bigger part of the offense down the stretch, especially when the Titans had the ball at the Texan 40 with three minutes to go.

The season's going one of two ways. Either we're in the midst of a season-ending collapse that we'll second-guess for the rest of our lives. I mean seriously, how many more times will the Titans be in this position. The other option is that like the 2005 White Sox, the Titans will come close to blowing it, only to persevere in the end. Lose to the Steelers next week and we're looking at the former.

Albert Haynesworth could miss some time, and that's not going to help. The Titans might be able to get pressure on Roethlisberger even without Haynesworth and VandenBosch. I'll be at the game, and much less confident than I was before today's game.

It's always hard losing games like this. Teams on "magical" runs don't lose games like this.