Ask Jimmy from Music City Miracles

Our secondary is good, and I don’t see them being over-matched by the Vikings receivers.

24 points probably will win this game on either side.

YEA vickings sucks!!! def wont make the playoffs… but the VIKINGS!!!! sure as hell will my friend! NFC is gonna see some magic from the purple!

are where this game will be won. The Titans have a very, very good offensive line, but they will be challenged facing the Vikings’ defensive front. I don’t see the Titans running for 200 yards, but I think they will have more success than a lot of people think.

The matchup when the Vikings have the ball is equally intriguing. Whoever wins the battle in the trenches will win this game.

Keith Bulluck has been the leader of this defense for a long time and is one of the most underrated players in the NFL. David Thornton is the other outside linebacker. He led the team in tackles a season ago. He is very athletic and plays the pass and run well.

The most interesting note here is that Stephen Tulloch will be getting his first start of the season at middle linebacker in place of Ryan Fowler. Tulloch is more athletic than Fowler but has a tendency to be out of position at times. The coaching staff apparently has faith in him to play his role now. We will see.

If your OC calls games like an idiot, then go get a better OC.

Firing Norm Chow—regardless of the success or failure of VY—was a great move. Last year Chow called the kind of games that you guys have now (i.e. run, run, short pass, punt). Granted, sometimes there were decent runs, but really, you stack the line on 1st and 2nd and then shift to nickel on 3rd, and if you’d succeeded in forcing the Titans to drive the length of the field, you were more than likely to get a punt of FG. Red zone production was TERRIBLE. This was true with either QB, as evidenced by Rob Bironas’s world-record 8 FG day, a day that featured Kerry Collins as the starter at QB.

Predictability of play-calling was a serious hinderance last year. Bringing in a new OC has rectified the problem.

Daily Norseman Commented on Ask Jimmy from Music City Miracles on Daily Norseman – 09/25/08 9:38 PM PDT

Daily Norseman Commented im pissed on Ask Jimmy from Music City Miracles on Daily Norseman – 09/25/08 9:35 PM PDT

Daily Norseman Commented on Ask Jimmy from Music City Miracles on Daily Norseman – 09/24/08 9:12 PM PDT (1 reply)

Daily Norseman Commented i think your d-line is much more to worry about than ur secondary on Ask Jimmy from Music City Miracles on Daily Norseman – 09/24/08 9:02 PM PDT (1 reply)

TEs Bo Scaife and Alge Crumpler are both solid targets. Scaife tends to get free off the edges and run down the field. Crumpler tends to go short and bull forward. In theory, that should make Crumpler a better red zone target. In practice, LenDale White has been getting into the end zone on 1st or 2nd down, which has cut Crumpler’s production—though not in a way that anyone is angry about, even Crumpler, who notes that he’s on the field and blocking well when that is what’s required.

J. Gage is the Titans #1 receiver, but he is a tall, possession-type receiver of the type that most teams use in the slot. Think of him as a faster, much slimmer Antonio Gates. Both are former basketball players who use baketball moves to make what are essentially possession-type catches.

But having a possession guy at #1 is less than ideal. Gage doesn’t stretch the field, nor goes he get a lot of seperation. He makes up for it in height and moves, but it leaves the problem of stretching the field. Defenses have succeeded against the Titans by clogging the intermediate passing areas because that tends to negate the TEs and Gage, who together are almost the entirety of the talent in the Titans’ passing game.

The next two WRs are J. McCareins and B. Jones, neither of whom is tremendously consistent. Though J. Mac played well against Cinnci, he is generally good for at least 2 long drops per game. On those long bombs that he doesn’t drop, he is typically too slow to the spot. He’ll short-arm another 2 balls per game, meaning he is typically good for at least four blown big-gainers per game. And he’s slow. And he doesn’t get seperation. All-in-all, there is a reason J. Mac got cut by the Jets. He is the Titans #2, but most teams would have him at #4 or #5.

B. Jones has more upside, but he is about 50% on catching passes that hit him in the chest. He’s more like 75% on circus-catches, but if you hit him in the numbers, it can actually be a problem. Fans like me were ready to see him run out of town after the first Colts game last year, when he dropped a 3rd-and-long pass that hit him in the hands and in FG-range. A catch would likely have won the game. His drop certainly lost it. Personally, I was looking for Jones to get cut at the end of Training Camp, but he surprised me and showed up as the #3 WR.

The other notable WR is rookie 4th rounder Lavelle Hawkins, probably the best WR on the team. But Fisher is loyal to a fault with his veterans, and so Hawkins is stuck on Special Teams—as stud FS M. Griffin was last year for half the season. Griffin is now 2nd in the NFL in interceptions, but last year he spent 7 games watching. Urgh. This year it’s the Hawk’s turn for that type of treatment. But we’ll take some injuries at some point, and I’m sure that by game 10, the Hawk will be flying high.