Analyzing the Tennessee Titans following a much-needed bye week

The Tennessee Titans entered their bye week after a much-needed victory on Monday Night Football in Week 4 against the Miami Dolphins.

The extra time gave Brian Callahan a chance to celebrate his first win as the Titans head coach. Going back to training camp, Callahan has preached the message that hard work wins. The Titans dedicated nearly a whole episode of their show, "Titans All-Access" to Callahan's first win and how the team reached this point.

The entire episode is fantastic, but you can hear coach Callahan talk about how hard work leads to progress around the 14:00 mark below.

That is a great mantra, but if the Titans were 0-4 heading into that bye, it would have been discouraging and players might have started losing faith in the team's direction.

Instead, a win pushed them to 1-3 giving them a week to take a step back, refresh, and figure out where they stand in the NFL.

Luckily, Week 5 was kind to the Titans. Remember, heading into Week 4, the Titans were one of three winless teams, but now every team in the league has picked up at least one victory. If you want to look at it from a "glass half empty" perspective, you could say that the Titans are now one of seven teams with one win, meaning there's a lot to sort through in the NFL standings.

Looking at it in that context backs up what Titans fans have seen after watching four games this season. The Titans are playing like a middle-of-the-pack team, with devastating plays sprinkled throughout.

There just isn't a lot of good football being played right now, especially in the AFC. In fact, there are only seven AFC teams with a positive point differential, and that does not include the AFC South-leading Houston Texans, who actually have a worse point differential than the Titans.

It is a big if, but IF the Titans have regrouped and can string together a few wins coming out of the bye, Callahan's squad could hang around the posteason picture until a potentially definitive December.

Tthe Titans have to fix their own problems and play better. That comes first and foremost, and it starts with Callahan finding a way to get through to Will Levis and help him avoid the killer mistakes. If they can clean that up, record more takeaways on defense, and stop letting teams block their punts, this team has a chance to make a run.