SB Nation - Mark Jones

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: There Was A Time I Could Move, There Was A Time I Could Breathe Edition

August West — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:30:51 -0000

More photos » by John Russell - AP

You know what I'm digging? The realization that we may actually see some exciting plays on offense, even if the results are inconsistent. Maybe we'll finally see a few plays that make us stand up and cheer, if nothing else.

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In Facepalm news, kick returner Mark Jones won't be able to go on Sunday thanks to a hamstring injury he aggravated earlier in the week. Dane Looker and C.J. Jones caught punts on Thursday as the team tries to decide if they need to sign someone for the interim.

Hey, after what we've seen this season we've all got a right to be beyond worried about the return game sans Jones.. heck, we could even feel some Paranoia in B Flat Major... by The Avett Brothers! Can't wait for their show at the The Mother Church (a.k.a. The Ryman, home of the original Grand Ole' Opry) Saturday night.

Vince Young is back in the saddle again, and of course everyone in the football-covering national media is talking about it... examples here, here, here and here.

Follow us through the jump to find out what pisses LenDale off...

Think the Titans' record is due to lack of effort? Then LenDale White would like to have a word with you in this back alley:

"It pisses me off," running back LenDale White said. "I know all the people on my team work hard. I know that everybody does when we go out there for game day. I know everybody out there was fighting to get a win. Everybody went out there and prepared to get a victory.

"Nobody quit on us. We gave effort. Believe me, we did what we could. We tried very hard, but it is what it is."

Forgive me for not shouting hooray over the fact that Collins takes losing well.

Paul K asks, so if Fisher knew Vince Young was getting the nod, why did he waste first team reps by splitting them up on Wednesday? Shouldn't Vince get the most practice time possible?

David Boclair delivers a timely list of costume suggestions for Nashville sports figures, including this gem:

Alge Crumpler ought to sport the Lester Hayes look.

After all, the Tennessee Titans' tight end has had some issues with fumbles at inopportune times. There was the one against the Ravens in the playoffs, which brought an end to the team's 2008 season. Then a remarkably similar one on the first drive against the Colts two games ago seemingly started a stretch in which the team since has been outscored 90-9.

Hayes, of course, was the Oakland Raiders' defensive back who famously kept a gooey adhesive dubbed "stick'em" on his socks so he could rub it on his hands throughout the game — an act that later was deemed illegal by the league.

That type of goo would have to be good for Crumpler.

I love Thom Abraham's show (he, along with his sometimes co-host and former Titan Brad Hopkins, put this together), but this Terrible Towel business has to stop. Your weakness is defined by your superstitions. I mean the people of Pittsburgh have an excuse for this crap: they're surrounded by damned run-down nuclear plants*... you'd expect that to mutate some brain cells. (* - edited for accuracy)

If you see anything good or Titans related on your travels around the internets, be sure to send it to mcmaugustwest@gmail.com!

Tennessee Titans Fall to 0-4 with 37-17 Loss to the Jaguars

Jimmy — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:24:34 -0000

More photos » by Phil Coale - AP

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And it wasn't even that close.

I really thought the Titans could turn it around after last week. Sure the Titans lost to the Jets, but the defense played better after the first half. I felt like if they fixed the special teams play, which they appeared to do with the addition of Mark Jones, things would get better, and the Jacksonville game was the perfect place to start.

Instead all today did was prove what many of us had feared since the loss to the Texans; this team simply isn't very good. Good teams don't start 0-4. Jeff Fisher, Keith Bulluck and whoever else can say whatever they want about the abilities of this team, but until they do something on the field to prove otherwise, they aren't a good team.

We will spend some time this week breaking down the game, but honestly, I just don't feel like doing it right now. The Titans were bad in all 3 phases of the game again. Kerry Collins appears to be done. I know I have spent a lot of time trying to squash the KC/VY debate, but it is time to make a switch. Collins has looked horrible in the last two games, and he is turning the ball multiple times a game.

Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows I am a HUGE Jeff Fisher fan, but there are a lot of things about this season that are on him. It is time for him to swallow his pride and turn it back over to Vince Young.

That is all I have to say right now. Feel free to sound off in the comments.

Tune in for MCM Radio tonight at 9 p.m. central. We will have the chat room up and going for any questions you might have (we will not be taking calls after last week's debacle). You can listen live here.

What is Wrong with the Tennessee Titans?

hal41605 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:31:03 -0000

More photos » by Bill Kostroun - AP

Have Jeff Fisher and the Titans ever fallen so far short of expectations?

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"And you may ask yourself: Well....How did I get here?"

-David Byrne and Brian Eno

Nothing about the Titans season has gone as planned. A team that most people expected to at least be among the 10 or 12 best teams in the league sits at 0-3. On the bench, one of the most respected coaches of the last two decades holds in his hand a roster that returned all the crucial, marquee players, save one, from a team that went 13-3 last year. It's a roster full of Pro-Bowlers and other assorted veterans, some of whom have rings on their fingers from their previous destinations. The rookies on that roster belong to a highly regarded draft class that provided much to be optimistic about during the preseason.

The Titans lost a coordinator, but promoted from within in hopes of maintaining a great system. They lost an All-Pro, but put trust in the best in the business, Jim Washburn, to turn another nobody into a somebody, yet again, as he has done so regularly throughout his tenure in Tennessee. The players were steaming mad and itching to complete some unfinished business after squandering one of the easier roads to a Super Bowl one will ever see last season with the fiasco at home against Baltimore in early January. This was a team that had absolutely every reason to come storming out of the gates, tough schedule or not, and assert themselves as a contender early on.

And they now sit at 0-3.

The Titans have problems, big problems in all three phases of the game. Some are personnel based, some are errors in execution, and still others are coaching related. After the jump, my take on the State of the Titans and what must happen, starting on Sunday with Jacksonville.

Special Teams

Special teams is by far the worst unit on this football team this season. It is basically impossible to find anything good to say about special teams, as their dead last DVOA ranking would suggest. The Titans have allowed a blocked kick, missed a kick, and done worse than nothing on both kick and punt returns. Football Outsiders gives separate values for each phase of special teams, and an examination of each phase tells you exactly what you already know if you have been paying attention. The best parts of the Titans special teams are the kick and punt coverage units, which both rank near the middle of the league. On field goals and extra point kicks, only 5 teams have done worse so far this season. On kick returns only the hapless Rams are worse and no team in the league is below the Titans on punt returns.

Plenty has already been written about the Titans decision to go without an experienced return man this season. The decision to let Chris Carr walk was, I believe, justifiable based upon his insistence that he have a regular role on defense in the secondary-a role he simply wasn't that good at. But Chris Carr signed with the Ravens on March 18^th. There is no excuse whatsoever for not using the next 5 months between losing Carr and the beginning of the season to find a guy who can return kicks and punts. There simply isn't. This is the first of two massive blunders that the front office made this offseason that should have never been allowed to happen. The Titans recently went crawling back to return specialist Mark Jones, whom they cut after an injury plagued training camp, but how effective he is going to be remains to be seen, considering he failed a physical in Carolina less than a month ago. It must be said, however, as long as he doesn't fumble away touchdowns for the other team, he's an upgrade.

Pass Defense

The Titans pass defense, which has been infuriatingly inept, is currently ranked 29^th in terms of raw yardage and 26^th by Football Outsiders' DVOA metric. From where I sit there are two causes, one schematic, one personnel. In terms of scheme, the Titans are trying their hardest to stick with the Schwartz system of only rushing four lineman 90% of the time. While I have no problem with this being our core philosophy, Defensive Coordinator Chuck Cecil has to do a much, much better job of recognizing when our four-man rush simply isn't getting the job done and blitzing more accordingly. When Roethlisberger was getting all day on every single play in the second half against Pittsburgh, Cecil's failure to adapt and do what was necessary to get more pressure was a huge part of why the Titans lost that game. It should be noted that our four man line ranks 10^th by DVOA against the pass and is towards the top end of the league with 7 sacks this season. It is not the case that our line can't get pressure on the QB, it's that they cannot do it consistently and they cannot do it late in games when they have spent the majority of the game on the field. The line misses Albert Haynesworth, no question, because he made everyone better, but I still think this defense can be just as nasty as last season with a little more imagination in regards to how they bring pressure.

The personnel aspect of our passing defense woes begins and ends with Nick Harper. When you have a cornerback averaging almost 9 tackles per game and who has no pass defenses in 3 games, you have big problems. It has become obvious that Nick Harper simply does not have enough left in his legs to be effective. The pass rush may not be as potent this season, and I do think that is part of the problem, but Nick Harper is leaving receivers open early and often, so it's hard to imagine that he would be serviceable even with more QB pressure. In fact, several times when the Titans have blitzed, it has been Nick Harper's man that served as the safety valve on a quick slant. Through the first three games, it is almost impossible to avoid the conclusion that Harper, at 35 years old, simply cannot play corner effectively in the NFL anymore.

The decision to let all of the experienced back up corners walk this offseason, when they knew they had a starter who was going to be that old, was, in my opinion, the biggest blunder made by the front office this offseason. It is no secret that once a corner loses his legs he is next to worthless in this league. Wide receivers are just too fast. By letting our depth at that position walk, especially Eric King, and only adding rookie replacements, the front office went "all in" on the bet that Harper would be fine this season. It looked like a sucker bet during the offseason, but the events of the first 3 weeks have cemented the choice to not pursue another quality, experienced cornerback as an unmitigated disaster.

While there have certainly been other scheme and execution problems in the secondary, such as Michael Griffin and Chris Hope simply not living up to their Pro-Bowl performances from last year and simply not being as good when asked to cover longer than last year, not having a good 2^ndstring option with which to replace Harper has been, and may continue to be, a fatal error. Now that Vincent Fuller and Cortland Finnegan are both banged up, this blunder will only become more and more costly, as replacing Harper will not be possible if the Titans are too busy dealing with injuries to other players at the same position. If the Titans go quietly into the night the season, this will be as much the reason as anything else.

Offensive Scheme

There are always plenty of opinions about the merits of having a "game manager" at quarterback and even more opinions about what, exactly constitutes a "games manager". Well, Titans fans, the answer is simple. Last year Kerry Collins was a game manager. This year, he is not. The distinction basically centers on how many and what kinds of throws the quarterback is asked to make every game. Last year, Kerry made very few passes deep down field, and got the majority of his completions through tight ends and running backs. As a result, Kerry was among the best at protecting the ball last year and not taking sacks. He made quick, precise throws to short and mid-range targets and it was exactly what a team with a dynamic rushing attack and a bruising defense needed: a game manager.

This year Kerry Collins is no longer being asked to be a game manager. Last season he attempted roughly 26 passes per game. Through three games this season he has attempted 35, 33, and 37 passes, on average 9 more passes per game than last season. Last season, 150 of the team's 265 completions went to people who didn't play receiver, or 56.6%. So far this season the count is 30 to 28 in favor of receivers, or 51.7% in the other direction, a swing of over 7%. Going forward, the Titans need to reestablish their low risk brand of passing game, and getting Bo Scaife and Jared Cook into the game plan after injuries will be key.

Simply put, Collins is being asked to make more plays in the passing game, and make plays he has-both good and bad. Kerry only threw 12 TDs all of last season but is on pace for 21.3 TD passes this season. Last season he averaged 167 yards passing per game. This year he is averaging over 40 more yards per game with 210 yards per game. It becomes clear that when you ask Kerry to do more, he can do more. But what has not yet been said and what most people have probably been thinking while watching the games is that Kerry is also making a lot of mistakes. Kerry was only intercepted 7 times all last season, roughly 1.7% of his passes. This season he has already been picked off 4 times at a rate of 3.8%--more than twice as often as last season. The other big change has been in the sack department. When you make more throws to wide receivers down field, the quarterback is asked to hold the ball longer. Kerry has already been sacked 5 times after being sacked just 8 times last season.

So the situation seems clear. When we ask Kerry to throw the ball more often, especially down field to wide receivers, we get a lot more production of every sort: more yards, more TDs, more critical mistakes. The Titans have seemingly forgotten what made Collins so successful last season and are currently asking him to do more than he is capable of doing without significantly increasing the number of negative plays he makes. Last season, Collins threw less than 11 incompletions per game. This season he is up to almost 16. The Titans have lost the time of possession battle, a crucial stat for a Jeff Fisher team, in every game this season. Adding 5 clock-stopping incompletions per game is part of that. The other part of that is what we aren't doing when we are busy throwing the ball too much.

Last season, Chris Johnson and Lendale White combined to average just over 28 carries per game (remember, Collins averaged 26 passes per game). That number is down over 3 carries per game this season, and it's Lendale's carries that are really suffering. He is down to only 7 carries per game from his average of 12.5 carries per game last year. So not only is the increased load on Collins' shoulders causing him to create turnovers that we cannot afford, it is also contributing to the marginalization of Lendale White, and is thus neutering the vaunted 1-2 punch in the running game.

Lendale is in a contract season, lost all that weight and now we are choosing to pass the ball 35 times a game instead of milking our running game like we ought to. Lendale has NEVER been this good, and the Titans have never used him less. In a word: stupid. Our mediocre at best run blocking (a dark secret about this team that is rarely talked about) has been less than effective much of the time, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that Chris Johnson can't move the pile or wear down defenses. Astute ESPN columnist Paul Kuharsky pointed out how almost half of CJ's touches have gone for a yard or less. Chris Johnson is that fastest man alive in football pads, but Lendale, slimmed down though he may be, delivers a load that Johnson cannot begin to simulate. The Titans desperately need to get him more touches, especially early on, in order to keep the ball moving forward on the ground and to put a strangle hold on time of possession. Lendale's touchdown run against the Jets was an absolute thing of beauty, showcasing an incredible mixture of strength and agility. A big part of the reason why we are losing games late instead of winning them is because we aren't pounding the rock on offense, milking the clock and wearing down the other team. For someone who has watched the Titans ever since they existed, this seems like Jeff Fisher Football 101, but astoundingly this version of the Titans have seemingly forgotten that lesson.

Coaching and Management

As someone who generally regards Jeff Fisher as the best coach in football without a ring, this final section is particularly difficult to write and think about. The simple fact is that, besides the draft, the coaching and player personnel staffs have done a borderline awful job since the end of last season. From a coaching standpoint, this team has been terrible at making in game adjustments. Beyond that, this team has lost its identity.

On offense, the smash mouth, run first philosophy that defined this franchise has gone out the window in favor of a near 60/40 split in favor of the passing game. The Titans have trailed this season, but never to a large enough margin to justify abandoning the run. Offensive Coach Mike Heimerdinger needs to get his head back on straight and remember what it is that this team does well. Yes, the Titans have upgraded their wide receiver corps substantially, but none of those additions comes close to justifying this kind of swing in philosophy.

On defense, the coaches should have realized that losing Albert Haynesworth would hurt our pass rush, at least to some degree. If you know there is a pretty good chance that there will be a decline in quarterback pressure, leaving a 35 year old out there at corner with no quality backup is foolish. I don't think Albert's departure has to be such a big deal, but if the coaching staff continues to use the exact same scheme as if he were still on the roster, the impact of his departure will continue to be magnified.

From Here on Out

As far as I am concerned, last year was a blueprint for exactly what this team needs to be about: clock control (via a run first attack and a safe passing game), winning the turnover battle, stuffing the run and not giving up big plays. The Titans, through three games have failed at three of those four key tenets. Looking at it that way, it should be no surprise that this team finds themselves exactly where they are at this point of the season- on life support. There is simply no way to be successful when you combine a team straying from its identity with the killer lapses in execution on the field. If these Tennessee Titans expect to right the ship and make something of this season, it is imperative that they take a good long look in the mirror and remember what made them tick last season. It is by no means too late to turn things around, but it has to start Sunday against the Jaguars. Stop asking Kerry to be something he is not, reintegrate Lendale into the offense, figure out how to bring more pressure through blitzing, and hope that Mark Jones can get the job done.

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: K-Horns Edition

August West — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:06:16 -0000

More photos » by Dave Einsel - AP

Hey Houston: Run Defense. You're Doing It Wrong.

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Steadfast reader/commenter Pigskinpundit knows it: Bedazzlers fans really, really don't like us. I guess it's from all of those beatdowns we handed-out during their glory days, and the now infamous remark Fisher made about Alltell stadium being one of our home stadiums. Here's a pretty good re-cap of the history of this rivalry from a Jacksonville bent.

You mess with the K-Bull, you get the horns... and a good stiff kick in the ass is a large part of what this squad needs right now:

"I can’t really say we have a winning attitude, because if we did, we would have won some games," Bulluck said. "This team needs to establish themselves in this game."

Mark Jones is being given the rarest of gifts in the NFL: a second chance. The most interesting tid-bit here though is Bulluck's continued chirpiness:

"I definitely feel better about having someone who has experience returning and handling the ball,'' linebacker Keith Bulluck said. "It's about time we got somebody.''

Jason McCourty and Ryan Mouton are going to be counted on very heavily in Jacksonville this weekend. Also, maybe we haven't seen the last of Chris Henry?

Fisher said the Titans could re-sign Henry to the practice squad.

The AOL Fanhouse looks at how crucial it is for us to go at least 2-1 over the next three tough games. As Kimmy's link noted yesterday, after we're through this stretch the schedule really breaks our way for the first time all year.

Matt Bowen at National Football Post looks at the challenge we have ahead as well.

Maurice Jones-Drew is coming off a week where he was named the AFC Player of the Week, but lets hope we don't sell-out to the run quite as much as we have in the past...

If there's anything you would like to share with the MCM community, please take advantage of the comments, fanshots and fanposts to do so! Or, you can always email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com.

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: Peter King = Thought Leadership Edition

August West — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:46:26 -0000

More photos » by John Russell - AP

Lost in the shuffle last week was the tremendous performance of William Hayes.

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Donnie Nickey is having a little fun simulating Troy Polamalu in practices this week as the Titans prepare for the Steelers... which for some reason involves a rather large wig.

LenDale White is pumped for info about the towel stomp yet again, and he's still singing the same tune of unrepentant pride. Of course, you gotta love how NBC is showing footage of it in their promos. (Also note that in the Tennessean link Fisher sounds pretty confident that we may end up signing return man Mark Jones again this season.)

Peter King is a friggin thought innovator, whose tremendous mental faculties leave his mad-hater theories and wild ruminations somewhere in the ether beyond the perceptions of us mere mortal football fans. Prepare to have thine mine blown again:

It was never much in doubt, but Vince Young won the backup job over Patrick Ramsey. Know what I wonder? Why not let Young take five Wildcat snaps a game?

Follow us through the jump to find out more in-depth information about last weeks' cuts...

So Chris Henry is still on this roster only because Quinton Ganther would have been out 4-6 weeks after the calf injury he suffered against the Packers. That's a little more understandable, but Q had done so much better than Henry since day one, I'd almost still contend that he'd be worth putting on the PUP list for a while.

Shortly after we cut him, the Steelers signed Tuff Harris to their practice squad... I wouldn't really be too worried about the Steelers pumping him for information since, as Paul K noted here as well, there probably isn't much he can tell a guy like Dick LeBeau about some else's defense that LeBeau doesn't already know just from the film room.

The Sporting News ranked all of the position units around the league, and the Titans got lots of love: 2nd in running backs, 2nd in offensive line and the best secondary in the league.

R. J. White at the Fanhouse delivers one of the best season preview pieces you're liable to see on the interwebs.

Mark Jones = Not healthy. Maybe that had more to do with him getting cut than his see-saw performances.

This is just confusing, to me...

2009 NFL Cutdown Day- Open Thread

BigBlueShoe — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:26:53 -0000

By 6pm today, all NFL teams must trim their rosters down to 53 active players. At noon tomorrow, teams may begin making claims for waived players. Teams can also begin signing players to their practice squads.

For the Colts, they've already begun cutting down the roster, releasing Dante Hughes, Steve Justice, and Nick Graham. They need to make 19 more cuts to get to 53. This is your open thread for the Colts cuts and other teams roster moves. We could see some very interesting roster changes, like the Titans cutting Mitch King and Mark Jones.

Throughout the day, we'll update this frontpage story with news about Colts players cut.

[UPDATE]: And the first surprise cut today is Adrian Grady.

[UPDATE]: The Bills have cut former-Colts running back Dominic Rhodes. Also, PTF's douchebag-in-chief, via fellow douchebag extraordinaire Tom Curran, is saying the Colts have cut Marcus Howard. No confirmation yet.

[UPDATE]: The Eagles have cut ties with Dan Klecko.

[Shake UPDATE]: Marcus Howard, John Matthews and Walter Mendenhall have been cut.

Tennessee Titans Cut Four Players Including Mark Jones and Paul Williams

Jimmy — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:55:42 -0000

More photos » by Mark Humphrey - AP

Missed it by this much. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

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The Titans have already started to trim the roster down towards the required 53 with four cuts this afternoon. The number doesn't have to be 53 until tomorrow, but the Titans started today by cutting return man Mark Jones, wide receiver Paul Williams, offensive lineman Jason Murphy, and wide receiver Phillip Morris.

Obviously Jones is a bit of a surprise to me because I projected him to make the 53 man roster this morning but nothing earth shattering so far. I have no idea who they are going to use on punts considering the only three people they used in preseason to return punts were Chris Davis, Ryan Mouton, and Jones.

[UPDATE]- Scout.com is reporting Casey Cramer has been cut as well.

[UPDATE #2]- Rocky Boiman and Josh Stamer have also been cut.

[UPDATE #3]- Demarcus Faggins- HE GONE!

[UPDATE #4]- Tuff Harris and Nick Schommer gone. They are killing my 53 man.

[UPDATE #5]- Fernando Velasco out.

[UPDATE #6]- Playmaking tight end Mathew Mulligan released.

[UPDATE #7]- The most famous preseason punter in NFL history, AJ Trapasso has also been let go.

[UPDATE #8]- Shake's boy Mitch King will not be joining the 2009 fun.

[UPDATE #9]- Tanard Davis the latest casualty. We don't need no stinkin corners.

[UPDATE #10]- Cory Lekkerkerker no mas.

[UPDATE #11]- Rodney Ferguson II gone. That's 17 today. 5 more cuts to make.

[UPDATE #12]- LaJuan Ramsey and Ryan Durand cut.

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: Feats Don't Fail Me Now Edition

August West — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:42:03 -0000

More photos » by Mark Humphrey - AP

The Titans-Packers game, as seen by Hype Williams...

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Mark Jones, Jason Jones, Vince Young and Dominique Edison all gave us a lot of hope from all over the roster with their play last night.

I know what VY was thinking when he broke out on that nice scamper last night: Feats Don't Fail Me Now... by Little Feat!

Matt Jones and Samie Parker impressed, but Mike Reinfeldt made some very clear statements that we'd most likely not sign any of these guys.

Follow us through the jump to see who Goodell is going after now....

If anyone won last night, it was sure as heck Dominique Edison, who looked spectacular out there for a rather unheralded rookie...

.... well he and Mark Jones, who certainly showed what he can do and somewhat made up for the disastrous game against Cleveland, won.

Nothing like having the back-ups wax the last meaningless opponent on the schedule to build a little momentum heading into the season.

Der Commissar Goodell is looking into the signing of Albert Haynesworth for evidence of tampering by the Redskins, Bucs and Giants. We almost certainly won't get anything of value back, but a little justice could go a long way.

Here's another NFL pundit picking us to finish 3rd in our division, while putting the Texans on top. I'm starting to feel bad for any Texans fans who may actually buy into this idea that you only need like 5 good players to win this division... you can tack a 1 in front of that number and just be getting started.

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: Getting Healthier By The Day Edition

August West — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:57:53 -0000

More photos » by David Richard - AP

In Fisher speak, this means good job. Not great, but good. Great gets the kick dance and the fist pump all at once!

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PRAISE WHOMEVER IT IS YOU PRAISE IN TIMES LIKE THIS because Jason Jones returned to practice yesterday!!! It's his first practice in over a month, and makes me feel so much better about the D-Line being ready for opening night against the Steelers.

What's the best news we could here after that? David Stewart is back at practice as well!!! Those are the two injuries I've been most worried about this preseason, because as much as we need Nate Washington and Nick Harper, we can win without them. If we can't absolutely dominate both lines, though, we would struggle against any team.

The Titans have already made a fan out of Mike Silver, and now Pete Prisco is on board with our boys! Check out his camp wrap, where he rates the Titans as the best team he saw. Now, unfortunately he didn't get to 'see' the Patriots camp because of low visibility from across the river Styx in Hades. (h/t to smashville)

Follow us through the jump to find out that there are no Vince Young links, which will drastically effect my over/under on today's comments...

Is there an ethnicity that gets a more awesome response from people than telling them you're a Native American? I submit that there is not. Either way, Tuff Harris would know, because he grew up on the Crow reservation in Montana. Here John Glennon retells the amazing story of how Tuff got his name (no clues on the Tarintino-style spelling), and details his work to use his success to uplift his community and inspire native american children everywhere.

The jokers at T-Rac's Posse put on their serious cap for some preseason thoughts and impressions. If you don't get a kick out of their work, then it's probably your fault, not theirs.

A belated tip of the cap to whomever sent me this gem from Paul Kuharsky (mbh2x?): if you listened to the latest edition of MCM Radio you heard Jimmy and I gush about Ganther's ability to help a little in a lot of ways for this team, and Paul K is here to agree.

Mark Jones is going to get another chance to make this roster as the return specialist, but if you read the Jason Jones link above, you know that his struggles last Saturday have been par for the course in his short time with the Titans.

From the mind of Mike Florio: Officer Taylor's new assignment? Ninja Patrol!1111!!1!!11!!!1!

Lets hope our D has a little better first series in this game than they did in the meeting last year.

I was all set to make fun of an Eagles fan pretending to know about the Titans, but I must say, this is a pretty good season preview. Bravo, sir.

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: Can't Leave Well Enough Alone Edition

August West — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:42:29 -0000

More photos » by David Richard - AP

Raise your hand if you were also cussing at the screen when this play happened.

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Tonight's Dateline on NBC (airing at 9:00 CT) will focus on the murder of Steve McNair (the promo is on the right side of the page). There's almost no way this ends in a way that adds a damn thing positive to Steve's legacy. It'd be nice to think they could just leave well enough alone, but that's not the day and age we live in.

VY is guaranteed the no.2 spot on the depth chart despite generally erratic play in the preseason.

We all know Mark Jones' debut on Saturday was a major disappointment, but he's guaranteed to have at least the Green Bay game to show some of the skills that we signed him for.

Follow us through the link to find out if VY's fortune spells out Ramsey's doom...

Fisher sounds like he wants to keep Ramsey around as well, meaning it's yet another position group where we'd have a stretch of personnel. The 53 man roster cuts are going to be spicy.

Terry McCormick writes about how the Titans are using last season's disappointing end to fuel a more successful run this year.

Paul K has some notes from the game last Saturday including one that I didn't notice on TV:

Cornerback Cortland Finnegan worked on the left instead of his usual spot on the right, getting some work in case the Titans need to shuffle or for an occasion when he might draw a particular receiver and have to follow him over there.

Since Cort is clearly the no.1 CB, it's great to see the team try to get him used to both sides of the field, that way teams can't just shuffle their top WR's positioning to get away from him.

Yahoo! delivers some notes on the AFC South after the next to last preseason contest.