Led by the efficient play of Vince Young and the elite playmaking ability of Chris Johnson, the Tennessee Titans notched their first victory of the season in their 30-13 rout of the Jags.
Young completed 15 of his 18 throws on the afternoon, including a beautiful short toss to Nate Washington for a touchdown in the corner of the end zone. CJ was magnificent as usual, galloping for 228 yards on 24 carries that included TD scampers of 52 and 89 yards.
More on today’s Tennessee Titan victory…after the jump.
Welcome back to the starting lineup, Vince
I liked what I saw from VY today. He was confident out there, making plays with his legs in addition to completing the throws that he needed to make. As I mentioned earlier, his TD toss to Nate W. was a pretty impressive. On another play, he quickly avoided a Jaguar defender by pivoting in the opposite direction and almost simultaneously releasing a dart in the awaiting hands of rookie Kenny Britt for a first down.
By no means do I expect Vince to be a savior. However, he did provide somewhat of a spark out there today by energizing the crowd with his running ability and efficient passing. No offense to Kerry Collins, but there were several occasions where Vince was able to make plays in situations where Collins would have probably either taken a sack or threw the ball away.
With the team still sitting at 1-6 and their playoff aspirations all but eliminated, the Titans had nothing to lose by handing over the reigns to Vince, who didn’t disappoint via his solid performance.
What more can you say about CJ
Entering today’s contest, CJ was undoubtedly the team’s MVP. Johnson continued his stellar play in 2009 with a scintillating 228-yard performance against Jacksonville.
He’s quickly become one of the league’s most exciting players and it’s great to have the privilege of witnessing such a dynamic playmaker do his thing on a regular basis.
Even when the team is losing (which has been the case in all but one of this year’s games) CJ is a pleasure to watch.
Some thoughts on the defense
With the exception of Maurice Jones- Drew’s two long touchdown runs, the Titans did a solid job on defense for the majority of the afternoon.
One of the D’s biggest accomplishments was their harassment of David Garrard on a consistent basis. After torching the Titans in the first meeting, Garrard only threw for 139 yards while also being intercepted twice this time around. Jacksonville’s signal-caller was also sacked four times by the Titan defense.
A key behind today’s success for the Titans’ defense was the return of veterans to the starting CB positions. No offense to the M&M rookies (Mouton and McCourty) but I felt a lot more comfortable seeing Cortland Finnegan and Rod Hood defending opposing receivers. It was also great to see Mr. Indispensable a.k.a. Vincent Fuller out there after missing several games due to a broken forearm.
Final random thoughts
- Welcome to Nashville, Rod Hood, who contributed with an interception today.
- Welcome to Nashville, Part II: Punter Brett Kern placed three of his four punts inside the 20 on the afternoon. He isn’t going to make us forget about Craig Hentrich, but not a bad debut by Mr. Kern.
- Welcome back, Smash-mouth: The Titans rushed for 305 yards today. They also dominated time of possession by having the football for close to forty minutes. That’s Titan football, folks.
- Kevin Kaesviharn isn’t going to remind anyone of Devin Hester, but unlike others before him, at least he was able to avoid the disease known as fumble-itis.
- Kudos to the offensive line for keeping Vince’ jersey relatively clean. The Jaguars registered a goose-egg in the sack department for the afternoon.
What are your thoughts/impressions on the Titans’ first victory of the 2009 season?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Kudos also to Bud Adams for pulling rank over Fisher and giving the team the spark it needed by forcing him to start Young. I have not been one of those people who was caling for Young to play earlier in the season. And I continue to have concerns about the long term success of the Titans with young at the helm, but it was time to play him after that debacle in New England. The team needed a major change just for change sake. I had believed up until the New England Game that Collins gave the Titans the best chance to win. I ceased to believe that after that game.
The other reason that Young has to play is that the Titans need to see what Young can do, so they can prepare for next year. This year is over. Next year is what they are playing for now.
Congratulations to Vince Young for stepping up when his name was called and putting in a good performance, and thanks to CJ for making sure that this game could not slip away.
Although the playoffs are out of reach, it’s still nice to look forward to some possible wins. Go Titans! Go Vince! Beat the 49ers!
Vince Young didn’t win this game but he didn’t lose it either. It was really the prefect game to get his confidence up. I also liked the fact that he spread the ball around to different receivers. its the kind of football this team needs him to play. But if he starts throwing picks and forcing throws then i want to see what John David Booty can do.
The Titans looked like a different team yesterday. The o-line had its best game of the year, dominating the Jags, especially in the second half. The WRs were finally able to hold on to the ball. The d-line gave the Jags line a lot of problems. It was good to see David Thornton come back from the MIA list.
And while I’m giving out some recognition, one lady made a point of showing me her lucky socks before the game, telling me this was the first time she wore them this year. I’ll have to tell her to keep wearing them.
Young only threw three bad balls the whole game, and fortunately all ended up as incompletions. The receivers really helped him out, catching balls that they had been dropping previously.
In addition to the return of Young, we also got to see the return of KVB and the pass rush. While it was nice to have Finnegan and Fuller back, and Hood starting rather than a rookie, that was probably the biggest difference in the pass defense. The tackling on the two MJD runs was ugly, but fortunately that was about the only blemish on an otherwise very good game by the D.
This was the first game all season where one (or two, or three) phase(s) of the game didn’t suffer a complete meltdown. I can’t recall the last time I saw them block an extra point, but it came at a great time.
Still feels like ‘06…
Where has this team been all year?
I have to eat crow, at least for now, and give Vince Young credit for his performance. I thought he played within himself, and was the beneficiary of excellent blocking and a solid day running the ball, even without CJ’s two long ones.
It was nice to see the receivers hold on to the football.
It was nice to see the DL get pressure, and just as nice to see the Titans bring blitzers at the last second rather than lining up on the line of scrimmage and allowing the opposing offense to adjust the protection accordingly.
I liked seeing Finnegan play on the left side.
Thanks to the umpire for that nice pick of Holt on Hood’s INT, and thanks to Cox for juggling that ball in the first quarter. It was good to catch a few breaks.
I didn’t get to see much of the game because I am stuck in Wisconsin for another month, but from the footage I have seen, Vince’s throws looked VERY accurate. The Collins apologists have said that’s one thing that he has over Vince, but Vince looked much more crisp and on target than Collins has in quite a while. Maybe that has something to do with the lack of drops this week. Vince looked better than Collins in every possible facet of the game. I know it’s only one game, but it certainly looks like Vince has used his time on the bench quite well. Man, it’s good to see him back there again!
Vince certainly looked comfortable out there and here’s to hoping that he’ll continue to play well moving forward.
As always, thanks for commenting guys.