Titans edge Jaguars, 20-16

Well, wins are wins, I guess.

The Titans rallied from a 10-point second half deficit with a pair of touchdowns, one by Shonn Greene and the other on a pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Nate Washington, and held on to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 20-16 in today's game at Everbank Field.

The difference in the game? Like the victory over the Rams in St. Louis earlier this season, the most proximate one was probably a run game that was consistently productive and relied on heavily in the second half after some protection issues helped contribute to sputtering in the first half. Right tackle Byron Stingily, starting for the injured David Stewart, struggled, and the Titans managed a couple field goals. The two touchdown drives were both run heavy, with 13 runs and 7 pass plays between them. The latter included a fourth down conversion on a scramble by Ryan Fitzpatrick, one of a number of times in the game where the coaches, both Mike Munchak and Gus Bradley, went for it in situations where I would expect a coach like Munchak who tends to be conservative to punt (that was fourth-and-2 from the Jaguars 39).

The final fourth down play would be probably the biggest, when Bernard Pollard stopped Maurice Jones-Drew on fourth-and-1 at the 20. That came after Jason McCourty made a great play to come off a block on a wide receiver screen to force the fourth down in the first place. The reason that play took place in the first place was because Bernard Pollard blocked an extra point when the Jaguars tried to make it 17-6. Without that block, it's a 20-17 game and the Jaguars may well kick the field goal to tie the game with five and a half minutes to play instead of going for it. Instead, they went for it, failed, the Titans run a couple minutes off the clock, and a late desperation drive ended with George Wilson intercepting Chad Henne to set up the kneeldowns.

A win that could be attributed to a blocked extra point is basically the latest installment of Life on the Margins for this Tennessee Titans season. This may be a win and a comeback that produces mixed feelings, as we learned little from this comeback aside from, perhaps, that against the right awful defense and the right awful offense, the run game can be just enough with a little luck to win a road game in the NFL. Byron Stingily is probably not your future right tackle. Colin McCarthy got to play WLB today. The Jaguars stink even more than the Titans do, and if winning 2 out of the last 3 wasn't enough to save Jim Caldwell's job in Indy in 2011, even a win against the Texans at home next week probably shouldn't be enough to save Mike Munchak's either.