ESPN has given their opinion on who they think the Tennessee Titans biggest rivals are here. It is a really well done piece, but I think there is a different team I would have gone with.
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First, here is what ESPN said about the Titans rivals:
“The Colts. Indianapolis has regularly been atop the AFC South and is the team the Titans feel is their prime target. That some fans in Tennessee maintained an affinity for Peyton Manning’s team when he got to the NFL added a layer to the rivalry. The Titans have lost nine consecutive games to the Colts and 14 of the past 15. In the 1999 season, Tennessee won a playoff game at the RCA Dome on its way to the Super Bowl. The teams didn’t play again for two seasons until realignment in 2002. The Colts are 22-6 against the Titans since.”
FanSided
I see where this is coming from, but how can a team that you haven’t beaten in any significant game since 1999 really be your rival? Even if the Titans field a bad team and are going against a bad team, they are battling over pride to see who is better.
In more than half of those games since 2002, the Titans wins have come from a team that isn’t fielding their starters because they are saving them for the playoffs. All that does is screw up the Titans draft position and put them even further behind.
No, I would say the real rivalry is one that Titans fans don’t want to hear. While teams like San Diego and Pittsburgh come to mind, the Titans real rivals are the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In fact, that ESPN article even mentions that if they had been around longer the Titans would be a good rival for the Jaguars:
“It’s hard to have rivalries when you’ve been one of the worst teams in the NFL for several years, but if the Jaguars do have a rival, it’s Tennessee.”
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They go into more detail, but I have my own points.
The Titans seemingly always split with the Jaguars, no matter what the circumstances are. Even if they are one of the worst teams in the league and the Titans are doing well it seems to be an absolute battle to try to sweep a series.
They both also seem to peak at the same times too. In their primes they were playing two punch-you-in-the-mouth type games a year, and sometimes even three. Not only that, but they were both always trying to be the team that took the crown from Peyton Manning, but they kept getting in each other’s way preventing either one of them from becoming a challenger in national eyes.
While the Titans fan base may wish that a team like the Patriots or Broncos were their rivals, it is Jacksonville who has provided the most consistently even games and in reality their records over the last three years isn’t that different.
With both teams on the rise, I can’t help feel that this will continue for another generation of players as the team again try to wrestle the crown from the Indianapolis Colts.