The Tennessee Titans got four return touchdowns in a five minute span wrapped around the first half and used those to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 38-20, in the season finale at LP Field today. Zach Brown returned two Chad Henne interceptions for scores and Darius Reynaud returned two punts for scores as part of the barrage.

It looked early like the game would be a shootout on both sides, as the Jaguars scored touchdowns on their first two possessions and the only reason the Titans didn't score two of their own was Nate Washington failed to catch the deep downfield pass by Jake Locker. Little did we know, though, that neither offense would find the end zone again, as both teams reverted to their normal stretch of incompetence. The score didn't move from 14-7 until Brown finally took advantage of one of Henne's repeated attempts to give them the football. The Titans extended their lead to 38-14 with a Rob Bironas field goal, then the Jaguars returned a blocked punt late for the final score.

With four return scores, the Titans didn't get as many chances to run offensive plays as they otherwise would have. Chris Johnson unsurprisingly struggled to find running room. Locker finished 9 of 15 for 152 yards with a couple drops and took two sacks. Collin Mooney got five carries late in the game. Taylor Thompson and Brandon Barden seemed to get a little bit of playing time with Stevens out. 

Defensively, the Titans struggled tackling early once again. In the second half, they got to Chad Henne a lot, as they did in the first matchup. This time, Derrick Morgan led the way with two of the six sacks. Tommie Campbell got to play corner for Alterraun Verner in the second half. Jaguars tight end Marcedes Lewis had a career-high 103 yards receiving, because of course he did. Akeem Ayers and Jason McCourty failed to haul in catchable balls before Zach Brown's first pick-6.

Well, a win is a win. The Titans finish the year at 6-10 and will probably have something like the 10th pick in the 2013 draft. I'll have more on this game later this week, I'm sure, but on to the offseason.

I didn't do Enemy Intelligence this week. Given the nature of Week 17 and two teams going absolutely nowhere, my only prediction is that if one team cares, it will win the game. If neither team cares or, somehow, some way, both teams care, the Titans are slightly better than the Jaguars and playing at home. The line of TEN -4 looks reasonable to me, but anything from a close game to either team winning by multiple scores wouldn't surprise me.

Here are your inactives today:

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS: OL Eben Britton, DE John Chick, DT Jerome Long, CB Antwaun Molden, OL Uche Nwaneri, RB Montell Owens, TE Allen Reisner

TENNESSEE TITANS: OL Daniel Baldridge, DT DaJohn Harris, C Kevin Matthews, CB Ryan Mouton, QB Rusty Smith, TE Craig Stevens, WR Damian Williams

For the Jaguars, Nwaneri had a concussion and was ruled out. Owens, who has some moves and a tendency to bounce everything and not run with enough power, apparently tweaked something in warmups and is a surprise scratch. That means more carries for Richard Murphy, who didn't stand out to me. Apparently Keith Toston gets the start. He hasn't had a carry in two seasons. Really.

For the Titans, Collin Mooney is active after being added to the roster. Matthews and Stevens were already ruled out. Mouton and Williams both sit after being listed as questionable, while Jamie Harper, Chris Johnson, Scott Solomon, Will Witherspoon, and Kendall Wright all play with the same designation.

I'll be interested to watch Byron Stingily, whom Munchak said this week will be getting the start at right tackle. Expect Mike Otto to still play some as a blocking tight end with Stevens out. I'll be curious to see how much the Titans use Taylor Thompson, who seems disfavored under Loggains, and Brandon Barden, who has yet to see a snap on offense. Al Afalava apparently gets the start at strong safety for Jordan Babineaux, which is a rearranging deck chairs thing in my book.

As always, I'll be chiming in during the game on Twitter, so follow and yap at me there if you wish, and will also have the normal postgame recap of what I'm sure will be the game of the year.

So it has come to this. Late last season, I wrote a post on a Titans offense that was fundamentally nonfunctional. Three hundred seventy-six days later, the offense is once again fundamentally nonfunctional, for similar but not exactly the same reasons. For this post, though, I'll concentrate on one of the differences. In that post a year ago, I declared Matt Hasselbeck was neither the problem nor the solution. I'm having a very hard time saying the same thing right now of Jake Locker.

Three weeks ago, the great Greg Cosell of NFL Films discussed Locker on his weekly podcast with Adam Caplan. I've mentioned Cosell's thoughts on here before, and I think it's worth excerpting his comments in detail. First excerpt:

Thanks again to Shane Clemons, who runs the fine Jacksonville Jaguars blog, The Jaggernaut. Shane joins us this week to give us a Jaguars viewpoint in this week's question and answer exchange. You can read my answers to Shane's questions here. Following are his answers to our questions.

Total Titans: One of our regular readers, Scott, asks, "Like the Titans, the Jaguars failed to take a step forward this year. Both teams actually look like they are moving in the wrong direction and have multiple weaknesses. With that in mind, where do you see the team going in the draft? Is it time for another QB, or are they satisfied enough with the Gabbert/Henne tandem for at least another year?"

According to the NFL, if the season ended today the Titans would have the eighth overall pick in the 2013 draft.  Since there are still a full slate of games to be played, the Titans will draft somewhere from fifth to thirteenth, depending upon the outcome of some of those games.

If you want to know who to root for on Sunday, as it affects the Titans' draft position, here's your info.

Continue Reading

The Titans' 2012 season will mercifully come to a close on Sunday as they host the 2-13 Jacksonville Jaguars, whose fans are also probably quite glad their season will be coming to an end.  We'll be joined in our final question and answer exchange of the season by Shane Clemons of the Jaguars blog The Jaggernaut.  If you have any questions for Shane about the Jaguars, please leave them in comments and I'll pass them along.

I hope all of you have had a very merry Christmas.  Best wishes to you and yours for continued happy holidays.

The NFL this year is keeping track of player participation on a weekly basis and releasing that information to the media. Here's how the Titans lined up in Week 16.

Offense (59 total)
QB: Jake Locker 59
RB/FB: Chris Johnson 37, Jamie Harper 22, Quinn Johnson 12
TE: Craig Stevens 49, Taylor Thompson 21
WR: Kenny Britt 54, Nate Washington 47, Damian Williams 22, Michael Preston 19, Lavelle Hawkins 12
OL: Deuce Lutui 59, Michael Roos 59, Byron Stingily 59, Fernando Velasco 59, Mitch Petrus 37, Kyle DeVan 22

Defense (78 total)
DE: Derrick Morgan 62, Kamerion Wimbley 61, Jarius Wynn 23
DT: Sen'Derrick Marks 54, Jurrell Casey 52, Mike Martin 26, DaJohn Harris 15, Karl Klug 7
LB: Zach Brown 70, Akeem Ayers 48, Tim Shaw 41, Will Witherspoon 39
CB: Jason McCourty 78, Alterraun Verner 78, Coty Sensabaugh 41, Tommie Campbell 7
S: Michael Griffin 78, Al Afalava 60, Jordan Babineaux 18

Xavier Radii, Patrick Bailey, Brandon Barden, Beau Brinkley, Darius Reynaud, and Tracy Wilson each only appeared on special teams. Daniel Baldridge and Matt Hasselbeck did not appear in the game.

Notes: