This is a page out of The General’s Sports Diary…
Dear Diary,
As I sit here and contemplate the apparent demise (in one season) of an incredibly strong franchise like the Tennessee Titans, I’m left to wonder how they got on this road and how they got on it so quickly.
Albert Haynesworthtook $100 Million to go to the Redskins (can you blame him?), Kyle Vanden Boschgot a year older, Chris Johnson and LenDale White don’t run in a “Triple Option”, Kerry Collinsgot a year older, Steve McNair died unexpectedly, the Music City Miracle is nearly 10 years old, Vince Youngturned into a basketcase and supposedly wanted to off himself, the franchise became a bastion of indecision, and the Colts reloaded without Marvin Harrison like it was no big deal.
The Titans had to take a hard line with Haynesworth. He wanted WAY too much money and they (rightfully so) said “We don’t need you THAT bad.” Maybe they did?…
Their defense can’t stop anybody and they just lost 59-0 to the Patriots. Maybe it was the combination of Vanden Bosch and Haynesworth that did the trick? Maybe Albert was more valuable than they thought. We can say all day that he isn’t doing anything in Washington, but Kyle Vanden Bosch got a year older and now he has no “partner in crime.” Maybe they need each other more than the Titans realized, because right now the Titans pass rush is non-existent.
Chris Johnson and LenDale White are excellent backs who run very well (and downhill) but they don’t run the “Triple Option” where you can literally NOT pass and win a game. Even if they did run a “Triple Option” defenders in the NFL are too fast for that and they would never make it to the edge. As great as they are they cannot save this offense.
Kerry Collins got a year older and has no targets to throw to. I looked this up: Kenny Britt (who?), Justin Gage (I forgot about him), Alge Crumpler (I thought he retired), LaVelle Hawkins (who?), Mark Jones (who?), Craig Stevens (who?), and Nate Washington (oh, him) are not a passing attack. It’s like taking a knife to a gun fight.What’s worse is that the pocket doens’t exist, so even if he had weapons they’d never get the ball. He had -7 passing yards last week…NEGATIVE FREAKIN 7. That’s impossible! Then, you have Vince Young lurking behind him all the time and Kerry’s wondering when Vince is going to be ordained “the man” again. Basically, it sucks to be Kerry Collins right now.
AND, they’ve put Vince into the game in the 3rd Quarter in two straight blowouts and he’s accomplished nothing. Is he the future or isn’t he? You didn’t trade him… I really think the Titans have no idea what they’re going to do with Vince, and it seems like they don’t want to know. It’s as if they think if they just close their eyes they’ll wake up like Bob Newhartand it will all be a bad dream. A Fantasy…a happenstance of the mind. They’ll be 4-2 or 5-2 instead of 6-0.
Sadly, this malaise may have been started by Steve McNair’s untimely death this 4th of July at the hands of his girlfriend. You can’t blame any guy on that team who doesn’t have his head in the game, whether they played with Steve or not, and is emotionally dead from that experience.
Heck, Jeff Fisher even looks like he’s aged 5 years in the past couple of months. He seems like he’s just standing there on the sideline in a daze saying “Damn, this is just Football, and I want to go home.” If Jeff doesn’t think he can take it anymore he needs to resign and go up to the front office or go to a new team (there are plenty of takers…he could even reunite with Albert Haynesworth in D.C.) Nobody can blame him for needing a change of scenery or something.
We talk all the time about teams quitting on their coaches. (The Jags do it routinely.) But, I can never think of a time when an entire franchise just laid down on the tracks and said “I can’t do this anymore.” I’ve never seen a team so deflated. I can’t imagine waking up one day and hearing on the news that my teammate, my friend was murdered and then having to see it everywhere for days and days and then going to practice and having to answer questions about it constantly. They fought in the trenches with Steve and now he’s gone. How do you deal with that?
I know the Quarterback who had this franchise within one foot of winning the Super Bowl wouldn’t want them to lay down and die. I know the man who almost won the Heisman coming out of Alcorn State wants more than this for his beloved Titans.
It’s sad to see such a good team just crumble like this. I feel like old memories are dying:
The Music City Miracle
One Yard From Winning The Super Bowl
I feel like I’m giving up a whole decade of my life and it sucks. It’s times to get up boys…it’s time to get up…
Some more thoughts from The General after the jump…
–If there are two guys off the same base and they are both tagged they’re both out, right? It is a coincidence that the Yankees and the Gators have gotten ALL of the bad calls in the past few days? At the end of the day sports is about money and I guess some umpires are on a quota. I know that officiating is bad all over sports, but this call is just pathetic. Suspend these people and get a better crew in there immediately.
– Who in a million years would have thought that the Saints would have the most feared offense in Football and you’d hardly remember that Reggie Bush plays for the Saints?
– A friend who is a Redskins fan suggested that Dan Snyder might hire Matt Millen to fix the Skins. Isn’t that a bit like asking Verbal Kint to show you how to use a gun?
– I wish I could be a fly on the wall in Kansas City where Scott Pioli keeps saying to himself “I can do this without Bill. I can do this without Bill.” (While he throws darts at a dartboard made of Josh McDaniels and Thomas Dimitroff’s pictures.)
– Manny took a shower at the end of a game he was taken out of. Is this surprising? Maybe that’s what he’s thinking about when he’s doing all that untimely poor hitting “Oh, hot shower, here I come!”