Five weeks into the NFL season, the Tennessee Titans, as most expected, are the leaders of the AFC South. They didn’t get there as we expected, but wins are wins. Still, as bad as things have been at times, just knowing that should ease your mind some.
A quick look around the NFL tells you that, in the league’s two conferences and eight divisions, the Titans were the only division leader that entered the fifth week of the NFL season with two wins and a .500 record.
They got lucky. They drew the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. That resulted in another win, and again Tennessee is above .500, but if they give up two plays of over 58 yards, nearly 200 yards rushing, and allow Ryan Tannehill to get beaten up as he’s been during the first five weeks of the season versus the Buffalo Bills (Jacksonville sacked him three times, and Tennessee’s O-line allowed Tanny to get beaten up on five more occasions), Tennessee will not win the next game.
So, how good are the Tennessee Titans really?
By now, you’ve watched enough football in your life to know that criticism can still be a part of the winning process. There have been times when quarterbacks who could have been the first-overall pick in the NFL Draft decide to stay in college for another season, and they got picked apart in the following season.
From a media standpoint, the game is oversaturated with so many voices, and what do they do? Negativity moves the needle, so they spend their time discussing what’s going wrong.
That’s been said to say this. Expect the Titans to be criticized heavily this week despite the win. They’re certain to be the underdogs in Week 6. Still, even with that being said, we’ll know more about who the Titans are following their game versus the Bills on Monday Night Football in Week 6.
For now, here’s a quick power ranking of the NFL’s division leaders after five weeks.
- Arizona Cardinals
- Buffalo Bills
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Green Bay Packers
- Dallas Cowboys
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Baltimore Ravens
- Tennessee Titans
Cue the controversy. The debate table is open. We’ve got a lot to discuss this week.