I hit some of the high points in my quick recap immediately after the game, but now that we're about eight hours later and I've started to decompress a bit from the experience of the game itself, it's time to cover a bit more than those high points.

I've been very critical of the Titans' belief in the run game and their attempt to tell themselves they can run the ball, both in what I've written this season and what I wrote in the offseason about how ineffective their run-oriented formations and plays were. They came out throwing this game, with passes on their first five plays, and mostly kept it up. For the game, they had 42 Locker attempts and 15 handoffs to a back (14 of those to CJ, the other to Reynaud) despite leading for most of the game and never trailing by more than 7 points. It wasn't the zero rushes I asked for, but I can live with five handoffs in the first half.

Of course, if the Titans' offense wasn't much more efficient, Locker wouldn't have had the chance to throw the ball that many times. Jake Locker was virtually night-and-day different from the first two weeks in getting the ball out quickly and in a rhythm, and the passing game worked. He was far from perfect, appearing to misfire on a couple bubble screens that should be automatic, but overall finished a very good 29 for 42 for 378 yards and two touchdowns. Only five of Locker's passes are listed in the Gamebook as "deep" throws, which typically means 16 or more yards downfield. The rhythm passing game meant a very good Lions defensive line didn't record a single sack and was only credited with one quarterback hit.

The Titans take on the Lions today at LP Field at noon, with the game airing on Fox instead of the regular CBS. Adjust your TV and/or DVR accordingly.

As I wrote in Enemy Intelligence, the Lions have pretty much moved the ball the first two weeks, against defenses that are better than the one the Titans will roll out this week. To win this game, the Titans will have to score. To score, the Titans will need big plays. Given the Lions' defensive strengths and weaknesses, those big plays will very likely come from the passing game.

It'd be great if the Titans had a running game that could be sustaining and help drives continue, but they don't. Even when CJ was at his best, he wasn't a sustaining runner. Given Locker's status as a quarterback, the passing game won't be a drive-sustainer either. That leaves the Titans with the choice between two non-sustaining options, one of which could produce big plays and one of which seems very unlikely to. In my book, this means the Titans should be running even less than they are right now. I still expect them to try to run the ball, because I think they want to be able to do so, but don't expect it to produce much.

And now, your inactives today:
DETROIT: S Louis Delmas, OT Jason Fox, OT Corey Hilliard, DE Lawrence Jackson, LB Travis Lewis, QB Kellen Moore, TE Tony Scheffler
TENNESSEE: S Al Afalava, WR Lavelle Hawkins, G Deuce Lutui, LB Colin McCarthy, OT Mike Otto, RB Javon Ringer, QB Rusty Smith

For the Lions, corners Jacob Lacey, Dwight Bentley, and Chris Houston are all active, as is DT Corey Williams. Delmas and Lewis were both questionable. Jackson is apparently a bit of a surprise inactive as they keep up seven defensive linemen.

For the Titans, Sen'Derrick Marks makes his season debut, while fellow questionable players Otto and Ringer miss the game. Pity, as I was looking forward to Ringer's return to the lineup. With all five receivers healthy, Hawkins sits. I guess that means while he looked good in the second half last week Darius Reynaud is still your kick returner. Reports also indicate Jordan Babineaux is listed as the starter at safety for Robert Johnson after Mike Munchak and Jerry Gray both said this week they were happy with the Griffin-Johnson pairing.

Feel free to leave your comments here during today's game or follow me on Twitter, where I'll be chiming in from time to time.

This week, the Titans take on the Detroit Lions at home at LP Field on Sunday at noon. The Lions are coming off a 27-19 defeat at San Francisco on Sunday night football following a 27-23 home win against the Rams.

To get a better idea of the opponent the Titans face, I watched the Lions-Rams game and then re-watched the 49ers game. After the jump, what I've seen of the Lions this year.

Yesterday's game against the San Diego Chargers was really ugly, but it wasn't without a few bright spots. My post-game recap was pretty gloomy, so now it's time for a few reasons for optimism.

• Jake Locker's mobility was evident again on a big scramble to convert third down. That play also drew a stupid personal foul penalty and sparked a scoring drive.
• The Chargers fumbled the ball three times in their own territory when it was a two score game. It's just bad luck the Titans didn't recover any of those. The game might have changed if they'd recovered one or more of them.
• While they didn't recover any of the fumbles they forced, the Titans defense did get their first turnover of the year when Alterraun Verner intercepted a pass.
• A week after they failed to record a pass defensed against Tom Brady, the Titans had three passes defensed plus that interception.
• The Titans did a very good job defensively in the first half on first and second downs, producing a lot of third-and-long situations. As bad as that game felt, the Titans and the Chargers had the same offensive success rate in the first half.
• The Titans picked up four sacks on only 37 dropbacks. That's an excellent rate, plus they hurried Rivers on a number of occasions. On a different day, against a different quarterback, maybe even Matt Stafford next week, that kind of pass rush could be enough to get a win. A couple of those sacks even came on third down.
• The Titans scored on both red zone possessions yesterday and have now scored on every red zone possession this year.
• The Titans have now scored a touchdown on every possession beginning in opposing territory this year after converting Lavelle Hawkins' long kickoff return into 7 points.
• Kendall Wright scored his first of what should be a number of NFL touchdowns.
• Brett Kern and the coverage team had a pretty darn good day. Aside from one 55-yard punt that went into the end zone, his punts went 46 with no return, 63 with a 1 yard return, 49 with no return, 54 with no return, 47 with no return, and 47 with no return. Aside from the interception, the Chargers averaged starting at their own 24. They had to drive the field to score, not just take advantage of short fields.
• No reported new injuries.

And that's the bright side of life.

The NFL has started officially keeping track of player participation data and making it available to the media. Here's how the Titans lined up in Week 2.

Offense (42 total)
QB: Jake Locker 42
RB/FB: Chris Johnson 41, Quinn Johnson 3, Darius Reynaud 1
TE: Jared Cook 35, Craig Stevens 14, Taylor Thompson 2
WR: Damian Williams 39, Kendall Wright 34, Nate Washington 22, Kenny Britt 19
OL: Leroy Harris 42, Steve Hutchinson 42, Michael Roos 42, David Stewart 42, Fernando Velasco 42

Defense (81 total)
DE: Kamerion Wimbley 56, Derrick Morgan 50, Scott Solomon 31, Keyunta Dawson 26
DT: Jurrell Casey 56, Mike Martin 52, DaJohn Harris 32, Karl Klug 23
LB: Akeem Ayers 75, Will Witherspoon 71, Zach Brown 54, Tim Shaw 6, Zac Diles 6, Patrick Bailey 2
CB: Jason McCourty 80, Alterraun Verner 73, Ryan Mouton 19, Coty Sensabaugh 4
S: Michael Griffin 81, Robert Johnson 76, Jordan Babineaux 18

Rob Bironas, Beau Brinkley, Tommie Campbell, Lavelle Hawkins, Brett Kern, and Kevin Matthews each only played on special teams. Matt Hasselbeck, Jamie Harper, and Byron Stingily were active but did not appear in the game.

Well, this one didn't start pretty and it didn't end pretty. The Chargers took the opening kickoff for a touchdown, then scored on their second possession on a short field after an ugly Jake Locker overthrown interception. A three-and-out later, the Chargers were up 17-0 and it was a long day for the Tennessee Titans in their first regular season visit to San Diego since a 40-7 blowout loss six years ago this week.

The Titans managed to stop the bleeding there, and showed signs of life in cutting the lead to 24-10 late in the third quarter. A long kickoff return by Lavelle Hawkins, playing after Darius Reynaud and penalties gave the Titans the ball at the 11 and 5 after he took kickoffs out of the end zone in the first half, set up the score, and Kendall Wright took the ball in the end zone for his first NFL touchdown on a catch and run. From that point, though, the Chargers called 19 more runs over game's final two drives and produced two more touchdowns.

It's hard to find too many positives in this game. Chris Johnson didn't find much running room. Jake Locker badly underthrew two receivers five yards downfield right before the Titans' field goal and needed completions on two late throws to get to 15-30 overall and over 10 yards per completion. No receiver had more than 30 yards receiving until the final drive. Michael Griffin was one of the culprits in TE Dante Rosario's three touchdowns and was inconsistent tackling. Jason McCourty struggled at times with Malcom Floyd. The defensive line got their hand handed to them at the end of the game. Pass protection was faulty early, though the Chargers didn't end up with a sack. I'm sure I'll find something nice to write about later (Jake Locker is fast!), but right now I'm not seeing anything.

Take 24 hours, be mad, then get over it and think about beating the Lions next week.

The inactives are out for today's game between the Tennessee Titans and the San Diego Chargers, and here they are. For the Titans:

S Al Afalava, G Deuce Lutui, DT Sen'Derrick Marks, LB Colin McCarthy, OT Mike Otto, RB Javon Ringer, QB Rusty Smith

Nate Washington is playing after being listed as questionable during the week with the leg contusion. After he didn't pracitce this week, I expected him to sit, so that's a pleasant surprise. Kenny Britt, who was also listed as questionable, makes his season debut. Sen'Derrick Marks, questionable, will miss the game with his knee injury. Jake Locker was listed as questionable with his shoulder injury and will play, not that I ever doubted that.

For the Chargers,

OT Jared Gaither, NT Antonio Garay, TE Antonio Gates, RB Ryan Mathews, ILB Jonas Mouton, S Brandon Taylor, CB Shareece Wright

Gates and Mathews being out is big news. Both were listed as questionable, and both of them being out gives the Titans a chance. Garay was listed as probable with an ankle injury and I expected him to play after returning to practice this week. He's not great, but it's still a loss. Gaither was listed as out on the injury report, so Kam Wimbley will indeed be going up against a rookie UDFA at left tackle.

Feel free to use this post to comment during today's game. I'll mostly be chiming in on Twitter.