Zach Brown's playtime has been increasing for most of the season after the Titans selected him in the second round of this year's draft. First he played weakside linebacker against the Chargers when Will Witherspoon shifted to the middle against the Chargers. Then, beginning in the Vikings game he took away some of Witherspoon's snaps at inside linebacker and eventually got them all. Finally, in the last two weeks, he's displaced Akeem Ayers in the nickel.

Against the Bears last week, Brown played every snap except two (one of them the first snap of the game, which shows the oddity of valuing all players by starts) and led all linebackers in snaps for the first time this season. In addition to time on the field, he also hit the statsheet, leading the Titans with 10 credited tackles (7 solo), two of them for a loss, and also recovered a fumble.

Because I was interested in how Brown was developing, and whether some traits I saw in his earlier play were still present, I decided to take an in-depth look at Brown's play against the Bears. What I found was, well, after the jump.

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As we prepare for this week's game, we'll do another question and answer exchange with a blogger from the other side.  This time, we'll be joined by Daniel Eliesen of Phins Phocus, who will share his thoughts on the Dolphins with us.

If you have a question for Daniel, please leave them in comments and I'll pass them along to him.

The NFL this year is keeping track of player participation information and releasing it to the media. Here's how the Titans lined up in Week 9's loss to the Bears.

Offense (57 total)
QB: Matt Hasselbeck 57
RB/FB: Chris Johnson 52, Quinn Johnson 16, Darius Reynaud 3, Jamie Harper 2
TE: Jared Cook 35, Craig Stevens 28, Taylor Thompson 10
WR: Nate Washington 45, Kenny Britt 43, Kendall Wright 26, Damian Williams 25
OL: Steve Hutchinson 57, Deuce Lutui 57, Michael Roos 57, David Stewart 57, Fernando Velasco 57

Defense (69 total)
DE: Kamerion Wimbley 60, Derrick Morgan 58, Scott Solomon 11, Pannel Egboh 10
DT: Jurrell Casey 66, Sen'Derrick Marks 59, Mike Martin 8, Karl Klug 4
LB: Zach Brown 67, Colin McCarthy 56, Akeem Ayers 41, Tim Shaw 13
CB: Jason McCourty 69, Alterraun Verner 59, Coty Sensabaugh 31, Ryan Mouton 8
S: Michael Griffin 69, Al Afalava 36, Jordan Babineaux 33, Robert Johnson 1

Xavier Adibi, Beau Brinkley, Tommie Campbell, Kevin Matthews, and Tracy Wilson each only appeared on special teams. Mike Otto and Rusty Smith dressed but did not play.

Analysis:

It started ugly, with a fumble by Kenny Britt on the first play. It got a little bit better, as the Bears became the first team not to score against the Titans on their first and second possessions. Then, the Titans had the ball again. Brett Kern had his punt blocked and returned for a score. The Titans got a safety the next possession, but were forced to punt, a punt Devin Hester returned inside the 10. 14-2. Matt Hasselbeck was intercepted by Brian Urlacher, who went to the end zone. 21-2. Chris Johnson fumbled the first play the next drive. Three plays later, 28-2. Then, the first quarter ended.

The 28 first quarter points was the most the Titans had ever allowed at home, though of course they've only been playing games since 1960. It would be 31-5 at half and 37-12 at the end of the third quarter before Jay Cutler tacked on two touchdown passes to Brandon Marshall and Chris Johnson actually made a safety miss on an 80-yard touchdown to produce the final score of 51-20.

There were probably a couple positives from this game (CJ did better than I expected, even before his late run), but frankly right now I don't really care. The Titans were a bit unfortunate to get down quite as much as they did quite as quickly, but on the whole this looked like a very good team (Chicago) taking a very bad team (Tennessee) to the woodshed and beating them like a red-headed stepchild. Sanity later.

The inactives are out for today's game at LP Field between the Titans and the Bears, and here they are.

CHICAGO BEARS: TE Brody Eldridge, WR Alshon Jeffery, DT Amobi Okoye, DE Chet Ozougwu, WR Dane Sanzenbacher, DT Matt Toeaina, OL Edwin Williams

TENNESSEE TITANS: LB Patrick Bailey, DT DaJohn Harris, G Leroy Harris, WR Lavelle Hawkins, QB Jake Locker, OT Byron Stingily, LB Will Witherspoon

For the Titans, David Stewart is active and in the starting lineup. Safety Tracy Wilson, added back to the active roster yesterday, is also active. Will Witherspoon is out after being listed as questionable, while Tommie Campbell, also questionable, makes his return to the lineup after missing the past two games. There were no surprises for the Bears.

Feel free to leave your comments here during today's game. I'll be chiming in on Twitter, so follow and yap at me there. I'm back home this week, so the customary recap will be up shortly after the game ends.