It's cutdown day in the NFL, as teams have until this afternoon to cut the roster down from 75 to 53 players.  For our thoughts on who those might be, see Andrew's post yesterday, including my comments.  While the Titans won't officially announce their cuts until this afternoon, Jim Wyatt is reporting they've released RB Alvin Pearman, DT Joe Joseph, and TE Steve Pfahler.

I'll be updating this post with additional cuts as they're reported, and we'll have a breakdown of the 53-man roster at Total Titans after we know what it is.

PAST UPDATES: S Myron Rolle bound for practice squad if he clears waivers. OT Michael Toudouze cut.  DE Eric Bakhtiari cut. (12:02 PM CT).  QB Chris Simms, CB Tye Hill cut.  So much for my Hill roster spot prediction.  I really hope that doesn't come back to bite the team in the butt. (12:09 PM CT).  DE Chris Harrington cut. (12:21 PM). WR Paul Williams, OG Nevin McCaskill cut. (12:30 PM).  G Nick Howell cut. (12:44 PM).  DT David Howard cut. (1:11 PM). OL Kevin Matthews cut, but Jim Wyatt thinks he's a practice squad candidate. (1:18 PM).  RB Samkon Gado cut.  I guess that means I'll be doing a post of Blount's runs this preseason. (1:33 PM).  DE Raheem Brock cut, as was LB Patrick Trahan. (1:46 PM).  WR Dominique Edison and RB(FB) Jed Collins cut. (1:52 PM).  OL Ryan Durand cut.  By my math, the Titans are now down to 53 players. (2:03 PM). Hmm, controversy!  My latest update was Jim Wyatt reporting Ryan Durand was the Titans' final cut, but Terry McCormick's list of cuts includes not Durand, but TE Sean Ryan. (2:17 PM).  Another indication Ryan has been cut.  I'm upgrading the possibility the Titans deliberately went down to 52 in preparation of adding somebody off waivers.  At least for now, I'm leaving Durand on the current roster and have removed Ryan. (2:24 PM).  Wyatt also reporting Ryan is cut, and the Tennessean article has Ryan cut and Durand not. (3:17 PM).

UPDATE (4:37 PM): So, it looks like Sean Ryan is the last cut and Ryan Durand makes it, at least tentatively.  I'd also put Stanford Keglar, Jamie Winborn, and Nick Schommer on the "don't get too moved in yet" list.  I won't update this post again unless there's another roster move on Saturday.

OFFENSE
QB: Kerry Collins, Rusty Smith, Vince Young
RB: LeGarrette Blount, Ahmard Hall, Chris Johnson, Javon Ringer
WR: Kenny Britt, Justin Gage, Lavelle Hawkins, Marc Mariani, Nate Washington, Damian Williams
TE: Jared Cook, Bo Scaife, Craig Stevens
OL: Eugene Amano, Ryan Durand, Leroy Harris, Troy Kropog, Mike Otto, Michael Roos, Jake Scott, David Stewart, Fernando Velasco

DEFENSE
DE: Jason Babin, David Ball, Jacob Ford, William Hayes, Derrick Morgan
DT: Tony Brown, Jovan Haye, Jason Jones, Sen'Derrick Marks
LB: Colin Allred, Rennie Curran, Stanford Keglar, Stephen Tulloch, Jamie Winborn, Will Witherspoon
CB: Cortland Finnegan, Jason McCourty, Ryan Mouton, Alterraun Verner
S: Vinny Fuller, Michael Griffin, Chris Hope, Robert Johnson, Donnie Nickey, Nick Schommer

SPECIAL TEAMS: LS Ken Amato, K Rob Bironas, P Brett Kern

EXEMPT: LB Gerald McRath (suspended), LB David Thornton (PUP)

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The Tennessee Titans concluded their 2010 preseason schedule with a 27-24 victory over the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints.

Despite All-Pro Chris Johnson's absence, four Titan running backs combined to rush for an impressive 222 yards. Continuing their spirited battle for a roster spot, both Samkon Gado and LeGarrette Blount had solid games toting the pigskin, accumulating 63 and 59 yards respectively.

The outcome of the contest was sealed with Gerald McRath's interception of a Chase Daniel pass with little time remaining.

Up next, some thoughts and observations regarding tonight's Titans' preseason-ender.

The Tennessee Titans have not really been what you could call a blitzing team.  In 2009, they brought only 4 rushers 79.9% of the time, tops in the league. Surprisingly, that league-leading total was actually less than they rushed 4 in 2008, and the number of times they brought either 3 or 4 rushers fell from 83.3% to only 80.8%, or pretty much the same as the combined 80.7% they rushed 3 or 4 in 2007.  With the Colts actually blitzing some in 2009, the Titans finally inherited the mantle as the league's most blitz-averse team.

The continuity in blitzing in 2009 may have been a bit of a mild surprise, as Chuck Cecil replaced Jim Schwartz as defensive coordinator.  Cecil during his career as known as an aggressive player, and Fisher's Titans formerly (and nearly once again) employed the famously blitz-friendly Gregg Williams, whose Saints defense rushed 5 or more 47.3% of the time last year.  Against the Cardinals, the Titans frequently brought more than 4 rushers, often with good results.  That tendency to rush more than the basic 4 continues against Carolina, though with less impressive results.  We'll have to see what the regular season brings, but in the interim, I thought I'd write a little more about blitzing.

Drexel has already posted his thoughts on player performances in the Titans' 15-7 loss to the Panthers Saturday, but I thought I'd chime in with some additional comments.  I put up the raw data dump of my brief notes on each play at my personal site, but this is the more intelligible, reader-friendly version of those.

Fourth-round draft pick Alterraun Verner, whom I projected as a potential third-round target of the Titans, was one of the great stories of the Titans' 2010 training camp. It seemed like the ball-hawking Verner had several picks every week throughout camp and he added another in prime time on national TV.

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