Demarco Murray - Titans Ever On

A Look Around the League (The NFL on REO)

We take a quick trip around the league. (1, 061 words)

“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”

How amazing was the Colts vs. Bills game on Sunday? The records didn’t matter. The actual game-play didn’t matter. All that mattered was the snow. It was an ugly game for on-field execution, but is was a beautiful game for aesthetics. Seeing giant, super-human type athletes slog through the snow was about as fun as it gets. Seeing clouds of snow explode after every tackle or diving catch was mesmerizing. And even though Adam Vinatieri missed two field goals, watching him nail the game-tying extra point from over 40 yards away was one of the greatest kicks I have ever seen.

I hope we get a few more of these types of games this season. They make some of these less interesting matchups much more enjoyable.

The NFL Needs To Change (The NFL on REO)

The NFL has a lot of problems. What are they and how do we fix them? (1,569 words)

The NFL is in trouble. That’s the bad news. The good news is that most of the problems with the league can be corrected, as long as the NFL acts decisively and quickly.

The NFL is best seen as a giant battleship. It’s enormous and built to last, yet its size makes it unwieldy and difficult to change course quickly. Right now, it is the biggest and baddest ship on the water, but it is headed in the wrong direction. To make matters worse, it has dozens of small cracks along its hull that are slowly taking in water. Not one of those cracks is enough to sink it, but collectively, those cracks will eventually bring it down.

Titans Tuesday: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”

We saw the best and the worst the 2016 Tennessee Titans have to offer. What does it all mean?

The Tennessee Titans’ loss to the San Diego Chargers was a microcosm of the 2016 Titans’ season. There was a lot of good. There was a little more bad. As I have said many times before, the Tennessee Titans are a team that is playing with very little margin for error. They cannot afford to make mistakes; especially not big mistakes as they did on Sunday. When the Titans play a clean game, they can beat almost any team in the league. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be capable of playing mistake-free football in consecutive games.

Titans Tuesday: Run Like the Wind!

The Tennessee Titans are on a one game winning streak!

Welcome to the new and improved Titans Tuesday. From this point on, these articles are going to be quick and easy little numbers and will be spotlighted on the sidebar of the website. I took last week off because I was on vacation and unable to watch the game. I’ll sum it up: The Titans lost because they turned the ball over too much. That seems to be a common theme with this team.

Titans Tuesday: Do Better

We examine exactly why the Tennessee Titans lost to the Raiders on Sunday.

The Tennessee Titans are 1-2.

They could easily be 3-0.

They could easily be 0-3.

Where does this leave us? How good or bad is this team?

At this point, I don’t think anyone knows for sure. There are plenty of positive signs for the team, but there are also plenty of negatives. As head coach Mike Mularkey said after the loss, “We have to coach better, we have to play better, and I think they have to officiate better. All of us have to do things better.” Many Titans’ fans believe the team would have defeated the Oakland Raiders if it were not for three questionable calls/no-calls at the end of the fourth quarter.

Titans Tuesday: What Do We Know?

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

We are two weeks into the 2016 NFL season and it is clear that we know very little. Even so, I believe there are a few things we can have some certainty about when it comes to the National Football League:

1. The New England Patriots could plug in yours truly as their new quarterback and would probably finish the season 11-5.

If you are a fan of the Patriots, this is just so fun and exciting and heartwarming, it’s enough to make a man blush. If you are not a fan of the Patriots, you are probably cursing, ranting, raving and throwing out wild accusations of shenanigans and tomfoolery. Or, if you hate Tom Brady more than you hate the Patriots, you are smiling like an idiot hoping the team’s success in these first four games is enough evidence to prove your longstanding thesis: Tom Brady is massively overrated.

Titans Tuesday: The Rule of Three

How the Titans lost a game they should have won.

“The rule of three or power of three is a writing principle that suggests that things that come in threes are funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things.”¹

At its most stripped down, the Tennessee Titans’ 25-16 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday came down to three plays. Three awful, catastrophic, and horrifying plays. If you were to remove those three plays, the Titans win the game. I am convinced of that. Of course, many things could have appeared in the vacuum created by the absence of those three plays, but we are not omniscient and do not know what might have been. We can only hypothesize and formulate conclusions based on the data and knowledge we possess.

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Titans Tuesday: Fill in the Blank

In this edition we talk about the schedule, the third preseason game and how the Oakland Raiders are the armpit of the NFL.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I have no idea what this article is going to be about today. I nearly decided not to write an article today, but I would hate to let down my 37 faithful readers. I will press on, writing one word after another until an idea hits me.

Last week, I promised that we would look at the Titans’ regular season schedule, so, I guess that is as good of a place to start as any. “Officially”, the Titans should have one of the easiest regular season schedules in the league, since they finished with the worst record in the league last year. Some years, that works out well, and this year seems to fall in that category. Frankly, I haven’t been thrilled with the schedule for the Titans the past few seasons. Too many tough matchups early on, or a bye week that falls at the wrong time, or too many road games early in the schedule seemed to lend to the death spiral that has been the Tennessee Titans in recent history.

Titans Tuesday: Exotic Smashmouth

We recap the first preseason game of the year for the Tennessee Titans.

When Mike Mularkey was hired as the head coach of the Tennessee Titans earlier this year, he described the kind of team he was going to build: Physical. Tough. Smart. He also used a phrase to describe the offensive philosophy and system the team would be implementing going forward: Exotic Smashmouth. What did he mean by that? Simply put, the Titans are going to be a run heavy team with a healthy splash of creative play calling that will highlight their talented and physically impressive rookie QB, Marcus Mariota. It’s a throwback system and philosophy with a new paint job and a few new wrinkles.

Titans Tuesday: Winning Back the Fan Base

Can the Tennessee Titans win back their fans?

Apathy

It is one of the worst things that can happen to a professional sports’ franchise. Anger, frustration, and even pure hatred are almost more desirable than apathy. You want the fans of your team to feel something, anything. But sometimes, things get so bad that apathy is the only reaction that feels natural.

That is where the Tennessee Titans have been for the past few seasons. Due to a mind-numbing combination of poor on-the-field performance and astounding incompetence from the ownership, the franchise has found itself as the laughing stock of the NFL. The Titans don’t merely lack respect from the rest of the league and the media; they aren’t even taken seriously.