“When Something Is Wrong with My Baby”

A couple of days ago, TitanSized’s own, Kellen Barton, made a point about not wanting to have to track down how many teams have made the playoffs after starting 0-3. It was more of a “let’s hope we don’t have to do this because we WILL WIN THIS GAME” type of statement, but now that 0-3 is a reality, here’s the stat (courtesy of the Charlotte Observer):

"It has been 11 years since any team started 0-3 and made the playoffs. And since 1990, when the NFL expanded its playoff field to 12 teams, only three teams have survived 0-3 to reach the postseason — the ’92 San Diego Chargers (who were 0-4), the ’95 Detroit Lions (back in Barry Sanders’ heyday), and the ’98 Buffalo Bills."

Funny enough, the last team to make a serious run at the playoffs after stumbling that bad out of the gate was the 2006 Titans (after they started 0-5).

The coaches and players are all saying the right things now (i.e. “We’re not in panic mode” and “No one is pointing fingers”) but if this runs to 0-4 or 0-5, there will be plenty of fingers pointed and panic buttons pushed (looks like an “easy” button, except for it’s the exact opposite and much more, errr… panicky.

After reading a few things on the Tennessean.com yesterday and today, I feel like the team (and some columnists) may already be doing a bit of that anyway. First, I see this from David Climer (who is usually sooo off base and out of touch that I choose to ignore him, but he actually makes some sense here) and today, Fish has to address the starting QB situation by reiterating that Kerry Collins will remain the starter (I mean, really?). Not to mention losing Fuller and Finny from the secondary only makes a unit that has struggled a lot this year that much weaker. It doesn’t sound like anybody really knows what is going on right now.

I think everyone in that locker room, the beat writers that follow the team and all of the fans (including those of us here at TS) are equally bewildered by the start to this season. We have as many losses after three weeks as we did all of last season. Let that set in for a minute… I didn’t think we’d go 13-3 again, but I’d have bet on a repeat of that before I would have that we wouldn’t have a win heading into week 4. And it don’t get any easier, with divisional games against the Jags and Colts and a showdown in New England with the Pats on deck.

There are no excuses for this one. This is the third game in a row that the Titans coulda/woulda/shoulda won a football game. And it falls on everyone in the organization. Fisher may talk about how this team is still on the right path and and how it’s not time to panic, and he may be right, but it’s time to do something. The Titans travel to Jacksonville next week for a big matchup with the Jags (who are fresh off a huge win against the Texans). Hopefully this time next week the we’ll be giving you the stat for the last team to start 1-3 and make the playoffs…