The Tennessee Titans are 8-4 division leaders and playoff contenders

Despite criticism about their play, the Tennessee Titans are in a good position and ready to make a postseason run over the final month.

The Tennessee Titans came into the 2017 season with sky-high expectations. The Tennessee Titans are currently four games above .500, are leading their division and are the No. 3 seed in the conference. The Tennessee Titans are getting no respect despite those facts.

Even our close, personal friend Evan Silva is completely down on the Titans.

These are smart football people that usually know what they’re talking about. It’s true, the Titans haven’t been as great as expected; their -16 point differential is a testament to that. But to say that the Titans “stink” and are the “worst team ever with an 8-4 record” is pushing it a bit. That point differential is a bit skewed, as the Titans ran into a buzzsaw at Heinz Field on a short week on Thursday night a few weeks back and were eviscerated by a scorching hot Deshaun Watson-led Texans offense back in Week 4.

Everyone’s beloved Jacksonville Jaguars, who are also 8-4 and are being showered with praise because of a great defense and a massive positive point differential, fell victim to these terrible Titans. Tennessee went into Duval and wrecked the Jaguars 37-16, but because the Titans play down to their competition and the Jaguars play up to it, the Titans are bad and the Jaguars are good.

Lest we forget that these same Titans also pummeled the Seattle Seahawks, who look like a Super Bowl contender, in Week 3. The Titans dominated much of that game before MVP candidate Russell Wilson roared back in garbage time to make it look more respectable. You never see that win mentioned by anyone when talking about the Titans.

Here’s another thing to consider.

Where are all the Titans bashers now? The Titans are 3-1 against teams with winning records? This is blasphemy! The hate of the Titans has gotten a bit out of hand.

Is this team very good? No, but the defense has played very well as of late and the winter months are when the Titans can efficiently run the ball down tired teams’ throats. Aside from the Pittsburgh Steelers game, the Titans defense has held opponents to point totals of 16, 22, 9, 20, 20, 16 and 13 over the last eight games. That’ll get the job done, especially if the offense can rack up about 200 yards on the ground like they did last week.

And in a weakened AFC with a Week 17 home game against the heralded Jaguars looming, the Titans are in a great position to win their division and set themselves up to host a first round playoff game. As we’ve seen before, the playoffs are any team’s game. Why not the Titans?