Titans Vs. Bengals: A Must Win
The Titans can’t afford to lose this game. They have to get this win to stay in the running for the division. The Bengals present a healthy challenge for the Titans. They have a young up and coming team sporting budding stars such as QB Andy Dalton and WR A.J. Green. They’ve also got RB Cedric Benson back from his one week suspension. The Titans got a win last week which was really needed to bring back some confidence to a team that was destroyed the previous week by the Texans. This week they’ll look to build on that and reassert themselves as a team to be reckoned with. Here’s what they gotta do…
Defense has gotta build on what they did this last week. Even if the Colts had wanted to bomb the ball, they wouldn’t have been able to. Our backfield was smothering receivers last week and has to do an even better job this week. The Bengals have great receivers in A.J. Green, Jerome Simpson and Jermaine Gresham. If the Titans want to come out on top they gotta do an even better job than they did last week. Griffin can’t be biting on fakes like he has a tendency to do.
The defensive line has got to increase the pressure. Yes we did get pressure and a couple sacks last week but there has to be more. We’ve got some young play makers on that line they they need to step up. Andy Dalton can’t be left alone to in the pocket to set up his passes. Make a young quarterback nervous and he’s bound to make mistakes. We need to see more from Derrick Morgan. He’s only had two sacks on the season and twelve total tackles. I expect him and Jason Jones to be the starting defensive ends on this team that terrify the league for years. That being said they actually have to start disrupting. Klug and Casey were both making their cases this last week to be starting defensive tackles for this team. They were blowing up the Colts offensive line. If they can get that same pressure against the Bengals, good things will happen.
Linebackers have got to do a better job in coverage. Both Rudd and Witherspoon have had some epic fails in coverage this year and Ayers has yet to pick off a pass. This has got to change. Whether it’s putting McCarthy in for Rudd or whatever, they have to do a better job. I’ve seen way too many missed tackles by them that have given offenses first downs. STEP IT UP!
OUR RUNNING GAME HAS TO GET BETTER! We didn’t pay Chris Johnson over 30 million dollars because he’s run for a lot of yards in the past. We did it because we think he’s the best running back in the league and will keep producing. Being this far in the season and having only 100 yard game in unacceptable. If this team hopes to make a post season run they have got to get it going. It’s too much pressure to put on our receivers. If we can get the run game going it’ll open up the backfield even more for the receivers. I don’t know who’s to blame anymore. Whether it’s Chris Johnson or Chris Palmer’s or the o-lines fault, I don’t care. Get it fixed and do it now.
Jared Cook has to get more balls thrown his way. It’s incredible. We have one of the most physically talented tight ends in the NFL and he gets one to two passes a game! He has got to be thrown to. As Jimmy over at MusicCityMiracles suggested the other day, why not move him to wide receiver? He’s got the height, weight, and speed and has some of the best hands on the team AND big play making ability. He has to be used. There’s no excuse for it and this team would be that much more dangerous if they got him going.
We’ve gotta keep finding ways to win. This last week we couldn’t get anything going until we blocked that punt and recovered it for a touchdown. After that the team took off. The two-minute drill seems to move the ball effectively. Keep doing it! Whatever it takes, in the end all that matters is that our team is healthy and we get the win.
FINAL SCORE
Titans 17 – Bengals 13
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