Titans-Texans inactives, gameday thread

Written by Tom Gower on Nov 28, 2010 11:48.

The list of inactives is out for today's game, and includes the following names:

HOUSTON TEXANS
LB Xavier Adibi, WR David Anderson, TE Owen Daniels, QB Matt Leinart (#3 QB), CB Brice McCain, DE Jesse Nading, DT Malcolm Sheppard, G Kasey Studdard

TENNESSEE TITANS
DE Dave Ball, WR Kenny Britt, WR Lavelle Hawkins, S Robert Johnson, DT Jason Jones, T/G Troy Kropog, QB Chris Simms (#3 QB), LB David Thornton

Two lineup changes for both teams today, as Joel Dresseen replaced Owen Daniels at TE and rookie Daryl Sharpton sends Zac Diles to the bench at WOLB for the Texans, while Sen'Derrick Marks starts at DT for Jones and Jacob Ford gets the start for Dave Ball. For the Texans, DT Shaun Cody was questionable but will play today. For the Titans, Craig Stevens, Tony Brown, and Kerry Collins will all play despite being questionable. In a mild surprise, Collins is the backup to Rusty Smith while Simms is the third quarterback.

For more of my thoughts on the game, see the Q&As I did with Texans Tribune and with Texans Chick. Feel free to leave your comments here during today's game or follow my thoughts on Twitter.

Texans Tribune answers Total Titans' questions about the Texans

Written by Tom Gower on Nov 27, 2010 09:52.

Thanks to Mike Kerns of Texans Tribune, Bloguin's new Houston Texans site, for joining us in this week's question and answer exchange as the 2010 season heads into crunch time for the Titans.

Total Titans: Arian Foster seems to be having a great year for the Texans, maybe the best rushing performance the Texans have ever had. Why is he doing so much better than Steve Slaton did, and how much of it is him and how much is the offensive line?

Tennessee Titans - Houston Texans preview

Written by Andrew Strickert on Nov 26, 2010 06:35.

Photo by Andrew Strickert for Total Titans

Rusty Smith will get his first NFL start on Sunday.

The Tennessee Titans (5-5) will face the rival Houston Texans (4-6) in an important divisional matchup at Reliant Stadium this Sunday. The winner will stay in hot contention in the tight AFC South race while the loser will be in last place, with a tough uphill climb ahead of them.

This game could be called the Misery Loves Company game. The Titans have lost three games in a row they should have won. Houston is in a four-game losing streak and has lost their last two games on touchdown passes in the final seconds.

The game will also mark the first career start for Titans rookie QB Rusty Smith. Normally, it's tremendously difficult for teams to win in that situation but Smith and the Titans have one thing in their favor which will make the task a little less difficult. The Texans have the worst pass defense in the league and Football Outsiders also ranks them last in total defense.

Also, it will help some that offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger will be on hand to call the plays.

Upon further review: the Titans' third down struggles

Written by Tom Gower on Nov 24, 2010 23:18.

It's been sort of overlooked in all the hullabaloo related to the quarterback position, but the Washington Redskins entered this past Sunday's game with the worst third down conversion percentage of any team since the NFL started keeping track of the stat in 1991 or so, then converted 8 of their 16 third-down plays, including more in a single drive than they had in any single one of their previous couple games combined. So, I thought I'd take a look at all of those third down plays to see if there were any trends that could be gleaned.

As with every time I write about play breakdowns, the customary disclaimers: I'm doing this off television footage, not coaching tape. This means I won't see things that may be necessary to understand what happened. I don't know the actual playcall for either the Titans or Redskins-I can guess, and sometimes I can be fairly sure those guesses are pretty good, but I know I'm missing wrinkles. Much of the play in third downs and other key situations is based on a team's specific tendencies, which I do not know. I'll ascribe blame to players; when I do so, I'm reasonably confident I'm right, but that doesn't mean I am right. What you see in this are the dogs that barked, not the dogs that didn't bark.

Disclaimers made, on with the show.

Will Titans fans be stuck with both Fisher and Young?

Written by Andrew Strickert on Nov 24, 2010 17:17.


Can Vince Young and Jeff Fisher coexist?

From what we know, it doesn't appear Jeff Fisher and Vince Young will be able to coexist and have a normal boss/employee or coach/player relationship. One or the other will have to go in the offseason.

The fans in Tennessee seem to accept this and they fall pretty much into three categories:

Those who support Fisher and believe Young should go.
Those who support Young and think Fisher should leave.
Those who would like to see both of them hit the door.

However, this is a situation that could have an entirely different outcome which won't satisfy any of the above fan groups.

Owner Bud Adams has decreed a truce, demanding they get along with each other. He may be the only one who wants both men to stay. More thoughts on this, after the jump.

Titans' OC Mike Heimerdinger is very ill

Written by Andrew Strickert on Nov 24, 2010 15:05.

Mike Heimerdinger Photo by Andrew Strickert for Total Titans

I was writing something about Jeff Fisher and Vince Young when I learned Titans' offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger has been diagnosed with cancer (Jim Wyatt tweet). He's reportedly starting chemotherapy immediately.

Titans Radio's Jonathan Hutton said line coach Mike Munchak would take over the responsibility for the running game and QB coach Dowell Loggains will be in charge of the passing game. Loggains will also take over Dinger's play-calling duties.

It's quite a bump up for Loggains, who was the offensive quality control coach this spring. He was elevated to the position of QB coach after Craig Johnson took over as the RB coach following the departure of Kennedy Pola. For what it's worth, Loggains is supposedly highly thought of by Dinger.

Fight hard, Mike. You'll have plenty of people thinking about you and praying for you.

This sad news makes the Fisher-Young controversy seem less important for a while.

Titans-Texans question and answer exchange

Written by Tom Gower on Nov 23, 2010 22:59.

Another week, another Q&A session with the author of a blog covering that week's opponent. This time, it's with Bloguin's fine new Houston Texans blog, Texans Tribune, and its writer, Mike Kerns, as the Titans finally get to the heart of their schedule and crunch time against divisional opponents.

Post your questions here, and I'll include them in my email to Mike.

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Total Titans, selected as the best Tennessee Titans blog for its fresh, original content, is authored by Tom Gower and Andrew Strickert.