It's time for another installment of my pre-Colts game Q&A with Nate Dunlevy. This is our fifth season doing this, and in that time, Nate has moved from his own site 18 to 88 to bigger and better things as Lead Writer for Bleacher Report at their AFC South blog. He's also written two books, including Blue Blood, a history of the Colts in Indianapolis, and Invincible, Indiana, a novel of Indiana high school basketball, while also still being part of the cast of writers at Colts Authority. You also can (and should) follow him on Twitter.

Total Titans: Before the game in Nashville in late October, you said Andrew Luck had been basically average. Is that still about where you'd put his level of performance?

The Tennessee Titans could easily be 1-11 right now, instead of 4-8, if the outcome of a few plays had not been in the Titans' favor.  Three of the Titans' four wins were by a total of just seven points - a one-point win and two three-point wins - so all three of those wins could have been losses if just one play in each of those games had been different.

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Will Jared Cook be wearing two-tone blue in 2013?

In April and June, I wrote about the Titans who were in the final year of their contracts.  Now that the Titans have played three quarters of the season, it's a good time to revisit the subject.  These are the starters, plus a few notables, whose contracts expire at the end of the season.

Offense:

TE Jared Cook - There's no doubt Cook is an extremely talented tight end, and one who could become a top tier TE in a system that more frequently utilized those talents. Tom has written on several occasions about the two different offenses the Titans employed under Chris Palmer - the Craig Stevens offense and the Jared Cook offense - so the decision whether or not to re-sign Cook (or to franchise him) will be a philosophical one by the Titans.  How committed are they to the "Jared Cook offense"?

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The Titans will be traveling to Indianapolis to take on the Colts this Sunday, which means it's time for another installment of my normal Titans-Colts Q&A with Nate Dunlevy of Colts Authority and Bleacher Report. The new look Colts have kept winning while the Titans have not, so if there's anything you want me to ask about the new hotness in the AFC South, post your question in the comments and I'll pass it along.

The NFL this year has begun keeping track of player participation data on a weekly basis and releasing it to the media. Here's how they have the Titans lining up in Week 13's home loss to the Texans.

Offense (75 total)
QB: Jake Locker 75
RB/FB: Chris Johnson 72, Quinn Johnson 4, Darius Reynaud 3
TE: Jared Cook 64, Craig Stevens 21, Taylor Thompson 9
WR: Nate Washington 68, Kenny Britt 66, Kendall Wright 54, Damian Williams 14
OL: Deuce Lutui 75, Fernando Velasco 75, Michael Roos 74, Mike Otto 72, Kevin Matthews 52, Steve Hutchinson 24, David Stewart 3

Defense (73 total)
DE: Derrick Morgan 55, Kamerion Wimbley 37, Jarius Wynn 25, Scott Solomon 16
DT: Jurrell Casey 60, Sen'Derrick Marks 58, Mike Martin 19, Karl Klug 8
LB: Zach Brown 71, Akeem Ayers 55, Tim Shaw 42, Will Witherspoon 31
CB: Jason McCourty 73, Alterraun Verner 73, Coty Sensabaugh 18
S: Michael Griffin 72, Jordan Babineaux 65, Robert Johnson 17, Al Afalava 8

Xavier Adibi, Patrick Bailey, Beau Brinkley, Tommie Campbell, Collin Mooney, and Tracy Wilson each  appeared only on special teams. Matt Hasselbeck was active but did not appear in the game.

Analysis:

Well, I was thinking it might be 30-17. Instead, today's game at LP Field between the Titans and the Houston Texans ended with the Texans winning 24-10. They went up early, on a 58-yard touchdown pass where Michael Griffin went for the interception and missed on a play where he absolutely could not miss. Jake Locker got the Titans down to field goal range with the help of Jared Cook, then last seven pass attempts in the first quarter, at which point it was 14-3. The Titans got to field goal range in the middle of the second quarter, than Chris Johnson fumbled. The Titans forced a punt after an inadvertent whistle negated any return of the fumble, but Locker's pass was tipped, and the Texans turned starting at the 3 into a 21-3 lead. At that point, it was pretty much all over but the shouting. Locker would play better in the second half, finding Kenny Britt for a big score to cut the lead to 24-10, but that was it for the scoring.

Notes:
1. Offensive line injuries didn't help the Titans one bit. David Stewart broke his leg. Steve Hutchinson left the game for a while, though he returned briefly when Michael Roos was hurt (though Roos would quickly return). Fernando Velasco appeared to be shaken up on the last offensive play of the game. Backup guard Kevin Matthews, who had play extensively, was flagged for holding a couple times.
2. Free Jared Cook? If CBS's PBP is right, including plays negated by penalty, he had 15 targets. What counted: 4 catches, 51 yards. That's not good enough.
3. The Titans seemed to play Jared Cook and Craig Stevens at the same time a lot. Meanwhile, I didn't notice Collin Mooney in the game on offense, though I could easily have missed him for a couple plays.
4. The Titans almost seemed to be holding rolling safety auditions throughout the game to see who played next to Michael Griffin. Jordan Babineaux, Al Afalava, and Robert Johnson, who would be carted off late, all played and played early.
5. Matt Schaub, 0 sacks on 36 dropbacks.

Bottom line: a pretty good team beat a not very good one today.