Five by five

Before I get too far into today’s game description, let’s get a few things out of the way. The Arizona Cardinals are a very good team. They’re going to be a tough out in the playoffs. I bet that they beat the Vikings next week. That defense is strong and hits hard. The receivers catch anything in their area code and both running backs are hard to bring down.

During this modest winning streak, we had yet to see the Vince Young who made the “wow” plays to lead the team to improbable victories. He had led the team to game-winning field goals but nothing like the 2006 season. Today, we got the 2006 treatment.

Before we got to the screaming (but the good time), we had a super boneheaded play. After Vince completed a fourth and one pass to Kenny Britt, there were eight seconds left in the half. A field goal was assured. Vince scrambled. Calais Campbell pulled a Mathias Kiwanuka, bouncing off him. There were two seconds to go. Vince needed to throw the ball away to allow a field goal attempt. He didn’t. The clock ran out. We knew that this play would be critical.

The game was a full on bore fest when Chris Johnson took over. As usual, he looked totally bottled up but was averaging five yards a carry. He took a handoff up the middle and once he had run 20 yards, he was gone. 85 yard touchdown. The Titans were up 13-3.

The game was over. Matt freaking Leinart wasn’t going to lead the team to victory, was he? Well, the Titans forgot about special teams. LaRod Stephens-Howling was a backup running back at Pitt. The Cardinals drafted him in the sixth round. He took the kickoff and went 98 yards for a touchdown. Could the Titans draft a guy like this? Please? Stephens-Howling later would down two punts inside the two yard line. If a special teams guy could single-handedly win the game, he was the guy.

After a really bad pitch to Chris Wells, who did the rookie thing by continuing to run backwards, a Cardinals drive seemed to be stalled. It wasn’t. Leinart made throws and Timmy Hightower took the ball in for the score.

With less than five minutes to go, Vince Young started a drive from the two-yard line. He hit Kenny Britt for 51 yards. Britt lost the ball on the play. Ugh. The Cardinals needed a few first downs. They couldn’t do it. The punt landed at the one yard line.

The Titans had 157 seconds to go. 99 yards. Chris Johnson couldn’t be a factor. It was fourth and four three plays later. VY threw the ball at the defensive back’s head. Britt made the catch. The next play was one of those ‘plays of destiny’, as Calais Campbell tipped the ball directly to Bo Scaife. Five plays later, it was fourth down again. The Cardinals blitzed on third down and it worked. They blitzed again and Young threw a short out to Hawkins. There was a Jared Cook sighting. He caught a pass and turned the corner inside the ten yard line. The Cardinals called a time out to regroup.

Four downs, nine yards to go, 21 seconds, two time outs. Any play is available. They could try to run Chris Johnson, or even run the option, which had not been tried to date. Young missed Scaife on first down. Scaife stopped on a post pattern. On second down Young started to run but hesitated and was brought down at the 11. The tension I had felt for the entire drive was growing. On third down, Young hit Washington inside the five yard line. Touchdown. Except that Washington dropped the pass. Here’s our goat, because an 11-yard pass is too much. The Titans called time out. The Cardinals called time out. It was endless. I couldn’t imagine what it would have felt like to be at the stadium. The play occurred right outside the end zone in which my parents stood.

There were six seconds to go. Vince dropped back. He moved up, throwing the ball. I saw Kenny Britt jump. I knew what was going to happen. Touchdown. The clock operator may or may not have run an extra second off the clock to ensure no additional Stephens-Howling return. I jumped up and down and probably surprised my Funk Bar and Grill hosts. They gave me high fives. That might have been the most exhilarating rally ever.

An 18-play, 99-yard drive with three fourth down conversions. Are you serious? Now, the Titans are officially playoff contenders. When the game ended I thought they were one game out. They are, but only if the Steelers lose. And they already lost to the Steelers, so technically they are two games behind. A ten-game winning streak is most likely necessary for this team to be a playoff squad. They only need to win five in a row, and they’ve already done that. Next week’s game in Indy just got a lot more interesting.

Real men run the option

For three weeks, I resisted the siren call. The Titans were back, Vince Young is reborn, Chris Johnson is crazy good and the defense has stopped sucking. So what. None of the six losses had been erased. There were still issues to be resolved. As a long-time fan, I was beyond being taken by these ebbs and flows.

Last night, I drank the Kool-Aid. Actually I didn’t drink anything besides water, and maybe that helped. You can measure a team by how they respond when a game is not perfect. The special teams coverage was bad. The pass D gave up more than 300 yards. Covering Andre Johnson was just a theory. Chris Johnson didn’t score a TD. Bironas missed a field goal.

They still won.

When the game was over, Vince Young’s stats looked like 2007. 12-22, less than 120 yards passing, one TD and one turnover. After he threw a near-interception in the third quarter he got very conservative. But he kept moving the team. On too many third downs to count, he looked downfield, found nothing and took off. He always went out of bounds. The one time he didn’t led to the turnover.

The defense gave up 300 yards passing, but that was about it. The Texans made Chris Brown their main ball carrier. He averaged 3.3 yards a carry and never got untracked. Steve Slaton made a few plays but dropped a big third-down pass. It was like a turnover.

After a first half in which the Texans seemed poised to take a big lead but ended up tied, it was a tense second half. Kris Brown missed a field goal. Bironas made a field goal. Brown made one. Bironas missed one. With five minutes to go, the Texans drove but weren’t able to get past midfield. The Titans started from the five-yard line and I knew that one first down was all the momentum they needed.
When Kerry Collins led the Titans to a dramatic last-minute victory in Baltimore last year, it took a penalty to jump-start things. On the opening play of the final drive, the Texans took Chris Johnson down hard. It looked like a horse collar. The call was a horse collar. As the announcers said, Johnson’s dreads would make giving him a horse collar almost impossible.

After a false start penalty, of which the Titans had plenty, Johnson ran for 22. He couldn’t quite make the TD escape but had lots of these runs. On second and short Crumpler appeared to catch a pass but it was ruled incomplete. Vince scrambled for a first down. A short third-down pass got Bironas in range and it was game over. Almost.

Horrible kick coverage got the Texans in position for a tying field goal. With eight seconds left and a time out, the Texans didn’t try to get closer. They had Schaub take a sneak to get into a favorable spot for Brown. Brown then pulled a Vanderjagt, missing the kick so badly that there was no doubt.

I laughed when he missed, but feel for the guy now. He missed two kicks last night, and a game-tying try last week in Indianapolis. It’s possible that the Texans could be 7-3 if not for these misses. Being a kicker has to suck at times.
There was one second left for the victory formation. The victory was so exhilarating that I couldn’t sleep for an hour and will live on Diet Dr Pepper for the rest of the day.

Oh yeah, the line on T-Rac Posse’s post game story is mine. The wildcat truly is for pussies. Real men run the option.

Post #400 = Fantasy Football Time

The world cannot continue without a fantasy football update from yours truly. My teams are all at or above .500 again. My local fantasy keeper team moved to 5-5 while crushing the hapless Commish. I did so despite Andre Johnson's bye week and sub-par performances from Cedric Benson and Miles Austin. With Benson's injury I'm wondering if I should cut bait. I have to pick a starter out of Jonathan Stewart, he of the good score every other week, and this is the other week, Kevin Smith who is not much of a factor for the Lions, and Matt Forte, who's getting enough garbage receiving stats to remain afloat. It won't last. Brandon Marshall has no QB (Chris Simms is just another pretty face) and Austin's scoring has decreased weekly since his breakout performance against the Chiefs. I could make the playoffs with one win but I'd like two.

In z34 I lost to the three-time defending champ. My division lead is down to a game. I play the Patriots, a team with a three game worse record than me but 50 more points scored. I need two wins. Tony Romo could do well to not suck and give me a chance.

I thought I was the golden boy in z17, but I've lost two games in the past month. My final game of the season will be a showdown with the other two-loss team in my conference. The winner gets a bye and the loser plays a wild-card game. Last year I came back with two wins in the final two weeks to sneak into the bye which helped me take home the title. Michael Turner is out and I'm pretty thin at RB. LenDale White has fewer points than Garrett Wolfe. Dwayne Bowe just got a four-game suspension for being a moron. My IDPs need to step it up.

After falling apart for a few weeks, my Masters team moved back into a tie for first place. The playoff settings are a bit weird. There are four "syndicates". You play every team in your syndicate. Four teams make the playoffs in each syndicate. There's a confusing system involving teams with best records and points scored that determine playoff eligibility. If I win this week I'm all but assured of making it at least one more week. I'm third in points, and play the worst team in the syndicate. I need to pick up a RB2 this week in waivers. Luckily there are a few candidates.

Four for four. That's the goal. Talk about high expectations.

Big day for Byrd and "the bird"

When I originally planned to come up to the Titans game this weekend, I did not have high hopes. It was between the Colts and Patriots game, aka the worst time to judge the Titans’ merit. I decided against seeing a Jags rematch since I didn’t want to see them lose in two states to the same team. Obviously, I missed out. The Bills had a better record than the Titans, so a win wasn’t a sure thing. When looking at the Bills, I had to wonder: how did this team win three games? It was like in my fantasy league last year, where our Commish had the worst team perhaps ever yet managed to win five game. Some weeks you show up. Some weeks you lose at home to the Browns.

I had low hopes, even with a two-game winning streak. One win was easy. Everyone in the league had won a game. Two games still felt fluky. The Jags were masquerading as a playoff contender and the 49ers beat up on some weak NFC West teams. The Bills were still the Bills, and even though their defense was statistically inferior, they did pick off a lot of passes and Vince was overdue.

My first stroke of luck was the weather. I didn’t expect to wear shorts to a November game. In the last game, played late in the afternoon, my mom ran through the fountain after the game. No one joined her. The fountain was dry yesterday.

One of my favorite pastimes during the walk to the stadium is the jersey game. See what jerseys Titans fans actually paid money for. Tyrone Calico? Check. Neil O’Donnell? Not present.

It wasn’t a good day for Titan jersey watching. It was a good day for Bill jersey watching. I noticed that most fans preferred the throwback. Either it was a Thurman Thomas, a Steve Tasker, or the current-day “stars” like Trent Edwards, Marshawn Lynch, or (no refunds available, sorry), T.O.

Roscoe Parrish was my favorite pick on the way to the stadium. Honestly, there weren’t too many opposing fans. Bills fans were nearly as scarce as Texan fans. Once I got inside and accepted my cheapskate freebie of a pom-pom (good for sunscreen purposes only), I saw the winner. A guy in a Mohawk had a O.J. Simpson jersey. Do they even sell them anymore? For throwback purposes, I did like the Doug Flutie look.

I know my friends at T-Rac’s Posse are tongue in cheek in their love for the Titans’ “six-time Pro Bowl mascot”. I wondered where the furry guy was when I got to my seat. The announcer, called the “voice of T-Rac”, said that he was stuck in traffic. But was he? Nope, the raccoon-like creature was hanging from one of the light towers. Jeez, I hope the guy makes more than the $50 a game the cheerleaders get.

I guess the mascot budget went up this year. Mr. Rac has at least half a dozen different vehicles. After he infamously ran over Saint scrub QB Adrian Peterson in a preseason game, you’d think that his license would be revoked.

To welcome me back, the Titans promptly went three and out. The Bills drove down the field and scored when they showed this new-fangled offensive formation. You won’t believe it. A running back took the snap, pretended to run, and get this, threw the ball to Lee Evans. The secondary must have thought that a running back wasn’t allowed to throw because they decided to let Evans score uncontested like it was a flag football game. I was not amused.

There was no quit in this team, much unlike the JV squad that went to New England. After starting with a Dave Stewart false start (welcome back, Dave!), the team steadily moved down the field until Chris Johnson got bored and decided to end it by turning on the afterburners. In three weeks he’s gone from a good player on a bad team to the number one fantasy running back.

The Bills went three and out. Vince threw a long pass. I said “no way”. Way. Kenny Britt brought it in. Seriously, I’d almost like to see a dropped pass just so I knew that all of the drops earlier this year weren’t a cruel joke. On third and ten, certain that a field goal was upcoming, Vince threw a ball behind Nate Washington. Washington, naturally, reached behind, caught the ball and ran in for the score.

A long Chris Johnson run led to a field goal. It was 17-7. Wasn’t this defense supposed to be quite sieve-like? T.O. burned Finnegan although he couldn’t corner for the score. No matter. Lee Evans scored. Jeff Fisher must think his head is going to blow up if the score isn’t close.

Midway through the quarter, Vince Young made his mistake. He threw downfield for Lavelle Hawkins and Jairus Byrd, the rookie interception machine, got the pick. The Bills couldn’t do anything but the Titans refused to call a time out.

It must be tough to be a coach in the NFL. Near the end of the half, you have to decide if you’re trying to run out the clock or trying to score. The Titans couldn’t decide which way to go. The Bills didn’t call a timeout until third down, with the clock down to 30 seconds. Naturally the Titans had three long gains, but were only able to get a feeble 60-yard field goal attempt from Bironas.

I was not thrilled at the half. Wasn’t this supposed to be an easy team? Chris Johnson had a lot of long gains but seemed to get stuffed on every other play. VY had been decent but not spectacular. The defense thought they were playing the Colts.

The first drive didn’t help my attitude. The Bills could not be stopped. On an incomplete pass, our neighbor yelled “T.O., you suck!” He yells this at every opposing player. They pay him no mind. T.O. paid mind. Two plays later, he caught a 37-yard pass. “You still suck!” the man defiantly yelled. That’ll tell him. The Bills finally petered out after an eight-minute drive.

The offense responded. Chris Johnson had another 20-yard run, and on second down Vince finally took off for a first down. That’s what he has to do. If he can run for first downs in situations where a pocket passer would take a sack or throw an incomplete just three times a game, it’s going to translate to points.

The drive ended in punt from the 36. I hate punts from inside the 40. It’s Fisher ball. It also worked. The Bills had a third and one. Edwards did a sneak. A Titan player pushed him forward. First down. OK, he must have been pushed sideways, because he didn’t make it. I wanted to make a “no one’s been that excited about a few inches since their wedding night” joke. It’s not much better in print.

It was third and 2. Could this team break through? Chris Johnson for 23 good enough for you? 20-yard gains are starting to get boring, to be honest. On another critical third and ten, VY took off. He stretched for the end zone. I was fine with him being short, as he got the first down. The Titans challenged the call, and I thought it was mainly because they were going to have to burn a time out anyway. First and second down were busts. On third down, Chris Johnson was hit in the backfield. Somehow he bounced off and scored. I saw LenDale White on the sideline, I swear. He may have been holding a squeeze bottle of Cabo Wabo, but that’s unconfirmed.

Later, on third and 14, Chris Johnson saved the drive with a twisting 15-yard reception. I remarked that he had to have been close to or at 100 receiving yards. In clock-run-out mode, White came in. CJ had his traditional four-yard-loss run on third down to make the field goal more interesting. Bironas made it. The game seemed clinched, but we knew better.

Actually we knew exactly right. Edwards threw to Vincent Fuller, who was not wearing a Bills throwback jersey. He’s no Ted Washington.

Ryan Fitzpatrick entered the game. He threw a pick six to Rod Hood. Nick Harper must know that his time as a Titan is almost up when a guy the Titans picked up off the street is outplaying him. No, Nick, take some more time to recover. We got this one.

It was time for the end game fun of people sneaking into our section to get the rare thrown glove or shoe from a player. Wait a sec, was an old man in a thrift store unmatching blue suit sneaking onto the field? He faced the fans and gave them the hook ‘em horns sign. OK, that’s kind of cool. Then he turned to face the field and gave the double middle finger. If he were just a random guy, someone with a butterfly net would have nabbed him. This unhinged and quite possibly drunk guy was the team’s owner. Bud Adams is 86 years old. He must have been pissed at Ralph Wilson for getting into the Hall of Fame this year. Who knows. There was some grudge, because Adams gave the Music City Salute twice more before his handler pushed him back onto the golf cart and he left.

Here’s video of Adams giving the Bills “the bird” from his suite. Roger Goodell was in the booth, but hopefully he was taking a whiz during that exchange.

Adams was fined $250,000 for his gestures, but that’s couch cushion money for him. Maybe his buddy Vince will front the money. After all, they’re a team. Plus it’s probably a tax write off.

Three wins is a trend. I’d be more excited if I believed this team could win seven more. The defense is still iffy. The offense isn’t bad, and with Chris Johnson, every play is a possible TD. Vince back in Houston should be interesting. I’m going to be tired at work next Tuesday.

Music City Miracle redux

Let’s talk really quickly about my NFL Network experience today. I’ve watched the 30-minute version of the Music City Miracle replay. This afternoon they showed the entire broadcast. Things that surprised me:

There was a yellow first-down marker on the field. I thought that was a recent addition.

It really was a Jeff Fisher kind of game. He had the exact strategy that led to many future playoff losses. They were the better team and found a way to lose. Until they didn’t.

The announcers, upon first viewing of the game-winning kick return, were convinced that it was a forward pass. Luckily there’s an upon further review here. It’s hard for announcers to backtrack on their original statements. You could tell that they didn’t want to turn tail.

It is interesting how we’ll see a movie on TV or in this case a replay of a football game, and even though we know the outcome we have to watch. We had to see McNair throw the ball directly into a linebacker’s forearm, and Frank Wycheck caught the pass, although on that brutal day the catch wasn’t clean or easy. What a brutal game it was. All the Titans did was run Eddie George directly into a tough Bills D line. I don’t expect the line to be as tough tomorrow.

Do Bills fans think that they were denied a deep playoff run? I would assume that the Colts would have beaten them the following week, and we’d have a Manning Super Bowl visit early or a Jacksonville bid, and most likely a loss, to the Rams.

I also find it funny that in the first season of Fringe that the main FBI agent who had experiments performed on her in a child lived in, wait for it, Jacksonville. Is that the kind of experiment that made men like to dress up in leopard spots? In that case, be afraid, be very afraid of the future.

Titan fans through the ringer

What's happened to Titan fans? We've been through the emotional ringer over the past 15 months. The team was a playoff squad in 2007, but predictions for 2008 ranged from wild card to last place in the division. During the season-opening ten-game winning streak, the national media did not believe that the team was for real until a Sunday night win over the Colts. Fans, used to close games no matter how good the team was, didn't know what to do with the winning streak and the fact that almost all the games were not in doubt. This wasn't the Titans they knew. Then the Jets came in and blew them out. The air was out of the balloon. A middling finish was seasoned by an impressive win over the second best team in the AFC.

A playoff disaster tore the hearts out of fans who hadn't seen a postseason win since Vince Young was a freshman at Texas. It became apparent in the offseason that the window was there. Brady was hurt. Peyton took half a season to recover from a knee injury and had a typical first-round playoff defeat. The Steelers didn't have their usual stalwart offensive line. The Cardinals were hot but beatable. No Titan fan will be able to resist wondering that might have been for years.

Each new season brings a fresh optimism, especially for the 31 teams who didn't win a title. The experts deemed the Titans frauds, relatively speaking, each and every one of them predicting the in-flux Colts to win the division and the Tennessee franchise to struggle to make the playoffs. We had been dissed before. It was no big deal.

It was when the team lost three heartbreakers to start the campaign. That was tough, but deep down all fans knew that a good team was there. There were too many mistakes and opportunities missed. We were frustrated but hopeful. A blowout in Jacksonville made no sense. A home loss to the Colts was less devastating although it put the team back in their place, far from first place in the division.

The Patriot game was a new low. It was apparent that the team had lost all confidence. There was nothing to hang one's hat on. No fan base had ever dealt with such highs and lows within a season and a half. It was torment. As the bye week progressed, most people just wanted the season to end. There wasn't anything to play for anymore.

Fisher jerseygate aside, things turned around during the off week. A visit from the same Jaguars team that toyed with the Titans a few weeks ago turned fruitful. Chris Johnson completely emerged in this game, and another point of torment was that this running back was posting the best yards per carry average since the NFL merger. And the team had one win? How? The defense still had flaws but made up for it with opportunistic play. Vince Young came back.

Tell me if any quarterback in NFL history has had Vince Young's career trajectory. College superstar turned rookie savior turned disappointment. A knee injury early last year all but ended his season, and almost his career. I don't think that Kerry Collins is necessarily a better quarterback than Vince, but he was the better quarterback last year. He was better with that defense and a set of hands-challenged receivers. He was veteran and made the plays he needed to make when he needed to make them. It's hard to believe I would write this after VY led the team to three double-digit comebacks in his rookie year. There were no such comebacks in 2007. The mojo was gone.

It's apparent that he's the right QB for the 2009 team. His resurgence, along with the team making turnovers instead of committing them, has turned the season around. It's turned around so much that fans have a new emotion. Overconfidence.

How could fans of a 2-6 team be overconfident? Look at last year's record.
Remember that Vince was the QB in similar circumstances in 2006 and a team that started 3-7 nearly made the playoffs. The Bills are awful. It's safe to assume that the Titans should win. In this kind of season, nothing should be taken for granted.

Can you blame us, though? Save the Rams game, this is the last shot for fans to really believe that they're going to win, instead of wishing so. Let us pretend that Alge didn't fumble that ball. Let's imagine what the Ravens would have called had they been penalized for the delay of game on the third-down conversion that got them into field goal range.

Double time

I would again like to thank the Don Funk Sports Bar and Grill, partially sponsored by me, for hosting another football Sunday.

The Titans won again. Due to Missouri’s mind-numbing inability to score touchdowns in the second half, I am no longer focusing on the Titans’ disappointing season. I wonder how many wins it will take for me to forget. Two isn’t enough.

There have been two weeks of Vince Young doing everything asked of him to win. The people who supported him before still support him. The haters will always hate. I am impressed, although three weeks of impressed would be better than two. Also we’ve seen Chris Johnson have the best two-week stretch a Titan RB has ever had. Johnson has 350+ rushing yards and five touchdowns. You know what, though? I’m not putting Johnson’s awesomeness in the negative category for Young. If you have to worry about the QB running and it helps the RB, all the better.

In the first game. Young threw mostly short passes and took no chances. Yesterday, Young tried the deep ball. Gage caught a couple of deep passes, including one of the best catches I’ve ever seen.

Young scored on a seven-yard TD in the second quarter. I thought that touchdowns were hard to come by. The 49ers scored two in the final ten minutes of the half, and Alex Smith looked like the better of the former top picks who were trying to shed the bust label in their second act. When Smith scrambled and found an inexplicably wide open Jason Hill, I was upset. The defense was not building on last week’s good performance.

Jacob Ford changed that. He hit Smith on a throw. Smith’s elbow forced the ball forward and the call on the field was an incomplete pass. After a challenge (with Jeff Fisher looking fresh in that three sizes to large shirt), it was Titans ball. Chris Johnson gained all 36 yards on the drive. Touchdown.

It was the defense’s turn to frustrate Titan fans. The 49ers held the ball for what seemed like forever. A third-down stop inside the ten yard line held the 49ers to three points.
At this point the 49ers had mostly shut down Chris Johnson. That ended quickly. He found the corner and scored on an 81-yard touchdown. Or did he? Replay showed that his right heel scraped the white line halfway to the score. Could the Titans overcome the close call? After a negative play by Johnson, Young threw a deep pass to Gage. Two games ago, no Titan receiver could make a catch. Continuing this week, there were no drops. There is no good reason for this. Gage jumped up, Matrix style, took a hit at his peak height, and held onto the ball. That was the kind of play that let fans know that this team was different.

Young scrambled, Chris Johnson got a shot and even LenDale White had a carry. It was fourth and less than one at the two-yard line. It was time for Heimerdinger to do something really dumb. The advantage he had was that Chris Johnson would end up with the ball. He called an option run to the short side of the field. Young pitched the ball almost immediately. The 49ers would pin Johnson to the sideline for sure. But they didn’t. Johnson scored. The Titans took the lead.

The rest of the game had the kind of opportunistic defense that made last year so fun. Smith ended up with four touchdowns, including a clinching pick six by Courtland Finnegan. Jason Hill entertained us with the spank dance after the garbage time TD, but it was too late. The Titans won.

The Bills should be a win, but you never know. Young had one of his best games of his rookie year in Buffalo three years ago. A win would make the team 3-6, or 30% of the way to a pipe dream ten-game winning streak. If the Giants could go from 5-0 to 5-4, who knows. This is the National Football League.

Best of the RB2s

I am disgusted, appalled, and embarrassed by Missouri's performance yesterday. They lost to Baylor at home. They gave up 40 points to Baylor, a team that had scored a maximum of 10 points in any conference game. The North Division was up for grabs, so much so that last year's 6-6 Vanderbilt squad would have taken it with ease. Missouri could finish 5-7. It's possible. And if it does, Pinkel is a fraud. He's a fraud who could put on a Burger King crown, declare "I'm the Lizard King!" and the school would give him an extension and a raise. Is he the best coach in team history? I'm going to poke out my eyes now.

I have a major decision of great importance to make. It will determine my level of happiness for an entire week. If I do this correctly, I will be a contented man and nothing will be able to deter me. If I fail, I will be in a pit of despair so deep that even Vince Young won't be able to rescue me.

I have to decide on a starting running back. The candidates: Matt Forte, Kevin Smith, Cedric Benson, Jonathan Stewart. I feel like I have four number two running backs, but two could perform like number ones.

Forte's numbers are down across the board so far this year. He's on pace for fewer than 1000 yards. He's averaging 3.5 yards a carry, or about half of what Chris Johnson's doing. In seven games he has four sub-ten point games. In three games he's failed to rush for 30 yards. Last week he crushed a demoralized Browns team. He still didn't average four yards a carry. I would not be confident about this week's start. The only aspect of his game that's good is that he catches a lot of passes. Even that's not consistent. He has more than two catches in four out of seven games. That's a coin toss. Last year you could depend on ten points from Forte. This year it's not the case. The Cardinals are generally not a good rushing matchup.

At halftime of last week's game, Kevin Smith had almost 100 total yards. He was on pace to have his game of the year. Then a mysterious shoulder injury occurred, and Maurice Morris had 66 second-half yards. Smith is supposedly OK, but so far this year he has not performed well. The Lions suck and often have to pass in the second half of games. Smith should catch some of these passes. If you thought that Forte's yards per carry was bad, Smith's is worse. He averages 3.1 yards per carry. His receptions are lower as well, with only three 40+ yard efforts. One constant is that he has at least 15 carries per game. Sadly that projects to about 50 yards. He did score a safety last week. I didn't get credit. He's playing the Seahawks, a team that has given up lots of yards this year.

Jonathan Stewart has almost as many yards as the first two guys, albeit in much fewer carries. His first three games were horrible, with 23 carries for 99 yards and no touchdowns. Since then he's scored four touchdowns in four weeks. He's scored 10, 18, 3, and 21 points in those weeks. If you're shooting for a longshot, he's the player to start. The Panthers play the Saints, which projects to be a blowout. The Saints have given up more than 130 rushing yards in three of their last four, including 161 to the Falcons on the Monday night. Oh, if the Panthers could throw. At ten carries a game, I don't know if I can take the chance.

The last guy is Cedric Benson. A few weeks ago he matched up with the Ravens. All the "experts" told me to bench Benson. The Ravens were monsters on the football field, incapable of giving up positive yards to a running back. I did not believe them. Or I forgot to change my lineup. Either way, he scored 21 points in that game. He has a season low of nine, and has 20+ points in two of the past three games. I could see him getting shut down, although the last time he was shut down he still scored a TD and salvaged the week. He's a starter.

I'm benching Smith since he plays for the Lions, who hide their injuries so much that Belichick is impressed. Forte needs 20 touches to be a fantasy starter. He's made that number four out of seven weeks.

I think Stewart's the guy. I could get crushed but I'm swinging for the fences.
Next starter dilemma: Peyton Manning or Jake Delhomme? Tune in.

Perfectionist, meet fantasy football

For the hopeless perfectionist, there is a chance to realize your life-long dreams of being the best. It is in the world of fantasy football.

Even when the Patriots shut out the Titans and clearly looked like one of the best teams in the NFL, there was no way for Belichick to know for sure that he was the best. He could correctly surmise that other teams might have tried to stop the Patriot attack. What if there was an objective way to know which team, on a week-to-week basis was the best?

Enter fantasy football. Most leagues go with head to head scoring. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the league does. If you outscore your opponent, you win. Every once a while you play the what-if game with other teams, especially upcoming opponents.

The ultimate feeling is getting the high score for the league. If you outscore every team in the league, you know that you are the best. It doesn’t matter who you played. You would have defeated the Patriots, the Browns, and even the Saints.
In my local keeper league, I did just that last week. Due to the second consecutive six-team bye week, scores were lower across the board. Thanks to some garbage-time passes to Zach Miller, I exceeded 100 points for the second straight week. No one could defeat my total. I was champion. It’s a good feeling.

Yeah, I know, being the top scorer in week 8 pales in comparison to leading in week 16, aka championship week. Give me a break. I just met my 2008 victory total by moving up to 4-4 this week. I have a winning streak, which hasn’t happened since 2007. If Matt Forte could just play the Browns or Lions every week. . . yep, the team’s not perfect.

After last week’s 1-3 overall fantasy result, my teams rebounded to go 3-1. All of my teams are at or above .500. My cumulative record is 21-11. I might make the playoffs in all four leagues. It’s not perfection, but it will do.

They what?

It's hard to be surprised in today's world. Even in today's NFL there are weekly upsets and performances that no one can reconcile. It's the nature of the game, or at least the funny-shaped ball that never quite bounces the way you'd want to.

When the Titans were 0-6, the sky had literally fallen in Nashville. A once-proud franchise was in ruins. The head coach had lost his team. The retread offensive coordinator wasn't scoring points. The first-time defensive coordinator couldn't adjust. A quarterback who was the consummate leader last year started to crack.
The goal-line running back was less effective when the team never got to the goal line. When the chips were down, the receivers couldn't catch, and the offensive line wasn't blocking. The defensive line couldn't get pressure, the linebackers weren't consistently tackling and the secondary couldn't cover your grandma.

That ended yesterday, at least in the eyes of some fans. The sad thing, as I've learned from a few years of fantasy football futility, is that a win's a win and next week you have to prove yourself all over again. The team's still 1-6.

OK, screw that glass-is-half-full-but-with-a-bug-in-it claptrap. We won. In every game so far either the coach made a bad call or we had a bad turnover at the wrong time or the entire team decided not to try at the same time. This week, the Titans got the luck and made their luck. The game plan for Vince Young at QB was brilliant. Throw short, and if that doesn't work, run. Run even if you're not going to get the first down. A punt is not the worst thing. That offensive philosophy is Fisher-ball, but it doesn't work if the defense is lacking. Yesterday, other than a couple of serious breakdowns, it wasn't.

Would Jeff Fisher have started Vince Young if Bud Adams hadn't openly called for it in the press? I don't know. It was hard for Fisher to bench Collins because he signed Kerry to the extension with the promise that he'd start. That promise caused to further sour the relationship with Vince. But even if Kerry Collins is a better QB in the NFL and gives the team a chance to win that Vince doesn't always offer, the difference in talent isn't that stark. If Vince Young had not been injured in last year's opener, there's no way that he gets benched. Would the Titans have been a 13-3 team? It's hard to say. Any piece missing from that formula probably means that the season doesn't work the way it does.

2008 seemed back yesterday, despite the QB difference. When MJD had his second monster run to tie the score at 13-13, the team responded. Last year they always responded. They blocked the extra point and then the offense drove down the field to take the lead. That's what good teams do. That's what this year's team has not done yet.

People talk as if this team will run off a string of wins. I'm not so sure. The trip to San Francisco is going to be tough, and not just because the bridge is out. It's no longer an insurmountable obstacle. Vince is going to make some bad plays. Yesterday he had a couple of bad throws but played within himself. That's a tough thing for the former All-American to do. He could play well enough to justify the rest of his rookie contract.

No matter what, the team's going to need a QB heading into 2010. Either Vince is the starter or Kerry is the starter, and the other guy is gone. John David Booty isn't the backup QB of the future. If the Bucs are willing to let go of Josh Johnson, I'd love to have him.

I've gone this far without mentioning the main reason why the Titans put the game away. Chris Johnson set a franchise record with 228 rushing yards. I thought it was a Titan record, not a Titan/Oiler record. Nope. He surpassed Eddie George, Earl Campbell, and Billy Cannon. Johnson now has five 50+-yard touchdowns. He tried to single-handedly win the Texans game but the defense couldn't make one play and the offense kept waiting for him to make another play on his own. The 89-yard run that clinched the game was a classic. He didn't just outrun guys. He made a few moves, ran over a safety, and took off. His end-zone dive was a sign of exhaustion, not a showboating maneuver. The funny thing is he should have had three 50-yard touchdowns but he ran out of bounds on one of them.

Do you think the Titans will try to get him the ball more than 20 times a game now? The team had 300 yards rushing, which excuses Vince's 125-yard performance. Usually you're looking at a 10-22 passing day when Vince does that. He went 15-18 and made a few plays that no other QB in the league can make. That's good. Now do it again.

Should a 19-point road win be enough?

I need to be less critical. I gave Gary Pinkel all kinds of crap as Missouri’s offense looked sluggish in their 36-17 victory over Colorado. It was a more interesting game than the score indicated. Missouri led 33-0 after what I thought was a Belichickian move, a fake field goal with a 26-point lead. The Tigers were dominating on both sides of the ball and Colorado was clearly the inferior opponent. As the Buffs drove down the field, Missouri got a sack and they kicked a long field goal to cut the lead to 33-3. I noted on Twitter that the crowd’s cheering must have been sarcastic.

To open the second half, Colorado drove down the field and made the score 33-10. I’m at a three on the ten-point panic scale. Missouri just needs to score a TD and finish it. Gabbert had them driving but threw a pick six. The score was 33-17.
It was not a pretty half for Gabbert. The running game felt like Chris Johnson of the Titans. Either they’d get stuffed at the line or run for 10. The defense tightened and only Danario Alexander seems consistently worth a crap as a receiver. It was a defensive stop on fourth and less than one, a slow-developing play, that seemed to seal it. A field goal put the game out of reach.

I didn’t like the consistency of the offense. Earlier in the game on a fourth and goal from the one, Pinkel called the slow-developing run play from the shotgun. It was stuffed. Every run play seems to be slow developing and gets stuffed by a good defense. I’m not lying that Missouri could win their final five games and win the Big 12 North. They would be a worse team than the one that won the title the past two years, that those teams got stomped. Maybe the defense will mature. Alden Smith looks like a winner at DE. I’m not sure if that top-five DT they recruited this year is playing or not. Gabbert’s inconsistent and has thrown multiple interceptions in four straight games. I think he’ll get better as the year progresses and his ankle heals. Maybe this is a team for next year.

I should be happy for a 19-point win. Missouri finally won a Homecoming game. They traveled to OSU and lost, and hosted Texas for their own Homecoming (a curious decision). They are a good enough team to win their final four games. I’m not sure if they will, or if they should. Another title game loss might be more than my critical self can handle.