Winwin

these guys are complaining about their porous run defense, and i was thinking their better than the saints right now.

Fixing Run Defense Top Priority for Titans

Sunday, December 25, 2005
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Tennessee Titans don't have to wait until the offseason to identify a big problem that must be fixed. Edgerrin James, Domanick Davis, Shaun Alexander and now Ricky Williams have made this weakness very clear.

A defense that was the NFL's second-best against the run since the start of the 1995 season has given up at least 100 yards on the ground for four straight games. Williams became the second in seven days to get 172 yards rushing against Tennessee in Miami's 24-10 victory Saturday.

"We cannot stop the run," Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck said. "I'm used to guys not getting 100 yards on us all year long. Someone has had 100 yards on us for I don't know how many games in a row."

The Titans could blame youth for letting them drop to 4-11 after giving up a total of 192 yards rushing, the most by Miami since 2002.

"We had missed tackles," Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. "We were getting beat on the edge. We were getting beat up front. We will never put a team on the field that gives less than 100 percent."

Stopping the run has been the Titans' defensive strength. They had held opponents to an average of 95.9 yards per game since the start of the 1995 season - Fisher's first full season as head coach. Only Pittsburgh has been stingier at 92.9 yards per game.

At home or on the road, it hadn't mattered.

The Titans had allowed only five 100-yard rushers in 56 regular season games at The Coliseum in Nashville. On the road since the start of the 1995 season, they have allowed the fewest yards rushing with an average of 94.4 in 86 games.

This season has been different. They allowed Willie Parker of Pittsburgh to rush for 161 yards in the opener and had worked their way up to 17th in the NFL, giving up 112.9 yards per game.

In the past month, they haven't stopped anyone.

Indianapolis' James started with 107 yards on Dec. 4, Houston's Davis got 139 on Dec. 11 and Alexander padded his NFL-best total with 172 for Seattle on Dec. 18.

Trailing 17-10 at Miami, the Titans only needed to stop Williams to have a chance to pull out a victory. But Williams carried on four of five plays on a 63-yard drive that ended in the winning touchdown.

"We never expected them to do that to our defense, especially when we were in some must stop situations," Fisher said.

The Titans didn't fare much better elsewhere.

Once again, they got inside an opponents' 10 and couldn't get any points. This time, they had first down at the Miami 3 in the third quarter trailing 17-3 and had an incompletion, a 2-yard loss by Travis Henry, a false start on Jacob Bell and then ex-Titans defensive end Kevin Carter sacked Volek, knocking the ball loose.

Needing only a touchdown to tie the game, the Titans struggled with either penalties, fumbles or went three-and-out. A week after holding the NFL's sack leaders without a sack, they gave up four to Miami.

"Obviously, we didn't get it done," linebacker Peter Sirmon said. "It's the same old stories. You can talk about opportunities. If we had made a few plays, things could have changed."

IN THE END THE THIRST ALWAYS WINS-DRACULA

Winwin

my fears are the saints will be so high in the draft picking "1" are "2", too high to consider the top DT are LB. so yet again we go another year without fixing the defense. face facts no freeagents are gonna sign with the team unless they are washed up.

BlackandBlue

Well, it wouldn't be so bad if the Saints hadn't passed on linebacker in the 2nd round the past few years. We missed out on Thurman last year- evaluating him wasn't too hard, everyone had him NFL ready, some as defensive rookie of the year. Burnett, Tatupu, McCoy, and Blackstock (who we could have nabbed in the 3rd, I believe). 2004, we had until the 4TH round, and we pick Watson- missed out on Torbor and Williams.

I'm afraid until the current regime is ousted, the linebacker position will never be addressed properly.

hagan714

True enough i hate watching all the great defensive cast offs our FO brain trust has passed on.