AFC South: Titans To Lose Ground With Bye Week
By Les Bailey
With three games in the 2015 books, all four teams in the AFC South are tied for first and last place at 1-2. The big reason the Indianapolis Colts are always listed first and the Tennessee Titans last, is they are all left to the alphabetical order to determine status in the list.
The Titans are on a bye this week, and unless the Indianapolis Colts end in a tie with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday afternoon, the winner will have a 2-2 record and have at least a share of the AFC South lead.
The Houston Texans will face a much-improved 3-0 Atlanta Falcons team and if they were to go into the Georgia Dome today and snag a win, they too could end the week at 2-2 and tied with the winner of the Jacksonville Indy game.
Life won’t get much easier for the Titans when they return next week to face the Buffalo Bills in week five. The only good news, is the 13-game stretch will continue with three more home games before they go on the road to play the Houston Texans in week eight.
Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt would have had an easier bye if his young team could have pulled out a win against the Colts in week three, but they will more than likely come back to work in the middle or at the bottom of the division.
Rex Ryan and his Bills team have found new success with former Hokie Tyrod Taylor under center, and Ryan’s defenses are always tough, especially for a young quarterback like Marcus Mariota.
Even though the Bills are 2-1 in the AFC East, they are only tied for second place behind that team in New England lead by Tom Brady who have a chip on their shoulder and want to be in historic Super Bowl 50.
The Bills will face the New York Giants this week at home before making the trip to Nashville next week.
In week six the Titans will play a Miami Dolphins team that will come off a bye in week five after taking on the New York Jets in London today.
The only saving grace here is the Dolphins have been a disappointment in 2015, and have not lived up to expectations after spending a lot of money in free agency. If they lose ugly again, there could be new coaches and new schemes in South Beach .
Not only has Ndamukong Suh been largely ineffective and played uninspired, quarterback Ryan Tannehill has done nothing to earn the new contract he was given just before the season started.
The Fish are 1-2 in the East and I don’t see them beating the Jets at Whimbley Stadium today and I don’t expect head coach Joe Philbin will survive the week.
The Titans will wrap up October and their five-week home stand with the Atlanta Falcons coming to town in week seven.
We already got a dose of Matt Ryan to Julio Jones in the first quarter of the first preseason game and it wasn’t pretty.
The only way that the Titans will keep pace with that action is if Dick LeBeau can game-plan a way to take their number one receiver away and make Ryan throw to Roddy White or one of the tight ends.
No one else has been able do that as of yet in the first three weeks of the Dan Quinn era, but maybe Bill O’Brien and his staff can find a way today to shut it down, and provide a road map.
The return of cornerback Jason McCourty will help the anemic Titans secondary, and they will need the help with Julio Jones.
Any way you slice it, the Titans better enjoy their time off today, because it is only going to get tougher for this young team when they return.
The bad news here is, the Titans are 1-2 going into week four and the good news is they will still be 1-2 when the bye week is over.
Next: Marcus Mariota: NFL Offensive Rookie in September