Titans stifled by Vikings, lose 30-7

This is getting really old, but the Titans were blown out for the fourth time in five games this season, losing to the Vikings in Minnesota by a final score of 30-7. The Vikings became the fifth team to score 30 points or more against the Titans this season. They started off by being the fourth team to score a touchdown on their first or second possession and went into halftime with a 13-0 lead. The Vikings extended that to 23-0 in the third quarter, and then it was all over but the shouting. The Titans finally got on the board with a Jared Cook touchdown, but then allowed their eighth touchdown to a tight end for the final margin.

The offense was probably your larger culprit today, as the Titans did nothing. I've spent a lot of time writing relatively nice things about Matt Hasselbeck's play as a Titans, but there's little nice to say about today's game. He spent a lot of the early going trying to throw the ball to defenders, and Antoine Winfield finally obliged to set up the score that made it 10-0. Chris Johnson found little running room and didn't do anything special with the yards he found. Part of the reason Hasselbeck threw so many near-picks was the receivers didn't get open. The whole team put up less than 100 yards of offense through three quarters; I'm not a big total yardage guy, but that accurately reflected how completely dead the offense was.

Defensively, the Titans did pick off Christian Ponder twice, on very interceptable balls, including one when the Vikings were driving to extend their lead late in the first half. Zach Brown played WLB and ended up with a few tackles. Adrian Peterson had some big runs on lead draw, a play I noted in my game preview. Percy Harvin had over 100 yards and two touchdowns, one on the ground and one in the air. Tight end Kyle Rudolph only had 23 yards but did have that score. Mike Martin had the Titans' only sack of the game when he brought down Ponder on a scramble for no gain.

Oh, and Javon Ringer late in the fourth quarter suffered a nasty leg injury-not quite as bad as Marc Mariani's, I don't think, but it was close. I wouldn't be surprised if he's out for the year. I didn't notice any other injuries, but, yeah, this game was one to forget for the Titans.