The preseason came to an end tonight as the Titans held on to a 23-21 victory over the Packers.
As Andrew predicted earlier, most of the game consisted of the Titans’ better players playing against Green Bay’s scrubs, so that must be taken into consideration when evaluating team/individual performances.
Here are my thoughts on tonight’s contest.
-Vince Young threw a whopping 27 passes in the first half, completing 13 of them for 134 yards. I was glad to see Vince take some shots downfield, and he hooked up with Justin Gage on a 50 yarder at the beginning of the game. A bruised hand ended Young’s night prior to halftime.
It was also nice to see Vince use his legs on a few long scampers. He’s at his best when he’s running the football, and judging by the preseason, we should expect to see Vince running around frequently in 2008.
-It was also great to see Crumper wreaking havoc downfield. Used mostly as a safety valve in the first few games, Crump was able to break free for a 18 yarder and on another attempt, he grabbed a pass that was unfortunately ruled out of bounds.
I like what Alge brings to the offense and if healthy, he’s going to have a good year.
-I’m beginning to think that the Titans are allergic to the red zone. Despite moving the ball at will throughout most of the contest, they constantly had to settle for threes instead of sixes.
They did score a TD on their final red zone opportunity, as rookie sensation Chris Johnson scored on a short run. Hopefully that’s a sign of better things to come inside of the opponents’ twenty once the regular season starts.
-Even though they did dominate mostly a backup Green Bay offensive line, the Titans’ defensive line had no problem getting penetration tonight. It was great to see “The Freak” wreaking havoc out there, and Antonio “Mookie” Johnson resembled a cannonball as he shot towards a helpless Brian Brohm for a sack.
-I find it highly interesting that we didn’t see Quinton Ganther carry the football once tonight. Just a hunch, but my gut tells me that he is going to be a member of the 53-man roster this year.
-As for the invisible man a.k.a Chris Henry, he carried the ball 10 times for 24 yards. If Ganther makes the team, he gives the Titans a player who can contribute in three ways: at RB, FB or special teams. Henry’s is pretty useless if he doesn’t get any carries, and judging by Jeff Fisher’s recent comments, he doesn’t appear to be in the mix for many running opportunities.
Common sense tells me Henry makes the squad, but my gut, for some odd reason, feels that it’s anything but a guarantee.
-Regarding the receivers, I was mostly impressed by Justin McCareins’ efforts tonight. As for the guys on the bubble, they didn’t receive too many opportunities to make their cases tonight, mostly due to the Titans being ahead for most of the second half.
That’s it for the preseason, folks. So what did you guys think of tonight’s Titans performance?
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