SUMMARY: It certainly wasn't the start the Tennessee wanted as the offense sputtered for three quarters and the Titans fell in their regular season opener 23-16. The Jets built a 16-0 lead as QB Kerry Collins looked out of synch early and often with several balls sailing out of bounds and at least three batted down. His receivers didn't help with a couple drops. He finally clicked in the fourth quarter when he went 4-of-6 for 56 yards in setting up RB Travis Henry's first TD run and finished the day 17-of-38 for 223 yards. RB Chris Brown was the Titans leading rusher with 64 yards on 16 carries. WR Drew Bennett had 106 yards on eight receptions.

What do you think about this article? Post your comments below.

What was the primary reason behind the great performance of Pennington? Was it a poor defensive line rush or was it bad coverage in the secondary?

Pennington put the ball right on the money on many throws today....I had no clue he would look that good. Thing is, when he put there they made the catch. Troupe juggles an easy catch resulting in an INT...Drew drops ANOTHER [B Jones please].

Pennington played well...gotta give it to him.

yes to both. For those who said Pennington had no arm strength were somewhat right. But he was able to put the ball where it needed to be put.

Our secondary was a step behind most of the day.
Still waiting of Pacmans first NFL Int.
Hill and Hope a step behind.

I thought the line did adequate, stuffed the run, got some sacks.

With two rookie offensive linemen, I expected more pressure on Pennington from the defensive line. Sure there was pressure at times when the defensive blitzed (like the Finnegan sack and forced fumble), but for the most part defensive line penetration was lacking. Maybe the Jets offensive looked primarily for shorter/faster passes rather than looking for longer passes that take more time to develop?

They did much better in the 2nd half.

Can we predict any of Fisher's postgame comments?


...Once Kerry gets more reps in practice he will become more comfortable with the system and show his true capabilities.

...Robaire has got a hamstring.

...Vince was able to get in and get some NFL exposure. He threw the ball (the INT) a little short. He will learn from that mistake which will benefit in him in the future.

There was a bad call early, when we got an interception, when the jets were in our red zone, but it was called back for pass interference which never happned. If that interception stands, then the jets dont get their first TD and we get pretty good field position. That was a moral blow to us. If that doesnt happen we had a good shot at winning the game.

Yes, that was a bogus call on Sirmon.

A bad offensive showing? The pass defense looked just as terrible.

I see Fisher whining about KC getting booed.

I see Fisher whining about KC getting booed.
I think Fisher himself got just as many boo's.

A bad offensive showing? The pass defense looked just as terrible.

At least the run defense looked a little better, then it did in the preseason. But lets face it except for a burst in the last quarter we had a bad all around showing.

Pennington had so much success because he would do a 3 step drop, and the ball would be gone almost as soon as he hit his 3rd step, taking away from any rush we would get from just the defensive line; combine that with the secondary always playing with too big of a cushion (bad playcalling), and you get what happened today.

If we had a QB like Pennington for Chow, maybe the offense would actually work?

Pennington is awesome. Had he not suffered his injuries, he and Manning would have been battling it out for MVP. That dude puts the ball where he needs it in the pinch. I've seen some awesome plays by him....

Pennington says the right things at the right times too. He is the ultimate team player. I admire him for comin back from his injury and then being able to work in order to get his starting position back.

He only has two weaknesses, really: his arm will never be stronger than above-average, and he can get a tad too full of himself every now and then.

He always knows where to go with the ball before the ball is snapped, and every ball he throws is very catchable, very pretty.

kinda like carson palmer

i think that we should have put vince young in at the end of the game so he could have ran for the touchdown if the pass wasnt there, collins cannot run at all...oh well i think we should have ran more, and collins played crappy at times and then OK...

well vince runs when hes about to get sacked, collins puts his hand on the back of the ol in front of him and ducks his head down, anyone else notice that

What was up with Fisher putting Young in, and he throws an INT and then takes him our for the rest of the game. Beside the 2 pt conversion because it got called back on a flag. Fisher just killed Vince's confidence, and I thought if you put him in, keep him in.

i dont think it killed his confidence. we all knew he was only going to get one or two series in the game.

there is always next week.

we all knew he was only going to get one or two series in the game.

I didn't know that.
I don't know why we didn't see more.
:irked:

Fisher: "Vince did exactly what we thought he would do. We had prepared plays, a package. I would have liked to have seen that ball a little further outside so David may have had a chance to make that play. But he’s a spark, and like we said, we are going to continue to give him an opportunity to play in situations, just like this today. We had expected a different outcome of this game and our intention was to give him a shot in the second half as well, but it didn’t work out."

I'm just glad Givens actually got a couple of catches, moves him up to more then Pickens and Thigpen combined...

What was up with Fisher putting Young in, and he throws an INT and then takes him our for the rest of the game. Beside the 2 pt conversion because it got called back on a flag. Fisher just killed Vince's confidence, and I thought if you put him in, keep him in.

VY looked highly frustrated after the game walking from the tunnel to his car, i was hoping i could get him to sign something but oh well, i don't blame him, IMO he should be starting.....

btw, you can't miss vince on the highway, he has this big baby blue escalade lol....

im not suprised vince looked disappointed and frustrated. this is the first time vince has lost on over two years. the last time he lost was 9/9/04 in a 12-0 game against oklahoma.

Young had better get use to it. This team is going no where based on todays game

Young had better get use to it. This team is going no where based on todays game
or he could do something to change it.

If he actually plays more than a series.

If he hadn't thrown the INT and led the team to a TD, would he have still only got the one series?

I got the chance to talk to Thornton and his family after the game also. Very nice and polite people for sure. The guy is a player on the field, the man can knock the daylight out of you too, he definitely brings the wood.

Fisher: "Vince did exactly what we thought he would do. We had prepared plays, a package. I would have liked to have seen that ball a little further outside so David may have had a chance to make that play. But he’s a spark, and like we said, we are going to continue to give him an opportunity to play in situations, just like this today. We had expected a different outcome of this game and our intention was to give him a shot in the second half as well, but it didn’t work out."

"we had expected a different outcome of this game"????? Wut is he saying, that he wasnt expecting us to come back, he was expecting us to dig ourselves into an even worse defecet and then bring in Young? I dont get that. Once it is a tie game or even when it was 16-8 i say u bring in Young. Collins had already thrown 2 interceptions by then. thats worse than young was doing.

Mayb fisher was saying he expected us to come out and completely get rid of the defecet and take a large lead and then play young, but still i think u play Young second half. let him try to bring the team back. I mean if he brings the team back. Can u imagine wut a confidence booster that is?

I see Fisher whining about KC getting booed.
Yep. "We came out the second half, Ben makes the catch who knows what happens. But, Ben can’t make the catch and instead Kerry gets booed for throwing an interception."

"we had expected a different outcome of this game"????? Wut is he saying, that he wasnt expecting us to come back, he was expecting us to dig ourselves into an even worse defecet and then bring in Young?
Fisher clearly didn't expect to be down 16-0. The second Collins pick was off Troupe's chest. It couldn't have been thrown better. Fisher apparently felt Collins gave the Titans the best chance of making a comeback.

and he almost pulled it off.

well noone expects to find themselves in that kind of hole, especially to the jets, but i would think that even though they r down they would still put young in who looked good except for one pass that was a questionable play to call.

I said somewhere else Young would have been ideal at the end because of his dual threat which Collins clearly does not have.

I said somewhere else Young would have been ideal at the end because of his dual threat which Collins clearly does not have.
i thought the same exact thing

you r absolutely right, if there was not a pass then young could run. which collins cant do. Once we are in the red zone young has to be in the game.

I remember someone saying in another thread that is what Bill Walsh did with Joe Montana or someone like that.
Use him in the red zone.

It was a disappointing opener, you have the Jets at home and you certainly hope to win that game. That said, there were some bright spots today. Drew looked good with 8 catches. We were able to run the ball some, with Brown and Henry combining for nearly 90 yards.
Defensivley, too many passing yards. We've got to close that down some.
All in all, we were lucky to even have a chance, Nugent missed an XP and two close field goals, I look for the Jets to have a new kicker in a couple of weeks.

JDee

Not gonna cut a 2nd rounder. Atleast he will have to struggle for a long time before they do.

or he could do something to change it.

Eventually, he will.

and he almost pulled it off.

Collins didn't do jack to bring us back. He threw away balls, he threw late and he was off the mark. Brown and Henry made some nice runs with a couple of catches to keep the drive going.

It's hard to get used to a QB that doesn't run. Even last McNair would run it for 1-4 yards if nothing was available.

so the last two minutes was done running the ball?

so the last two minutes was done running the ball?

No, but did we score in the last two minutes? No. Our scoring drives were largely thanks to the defence and our running.

he still drove us there.

he still drove us there.

A one-armed gimpy dwarf could have driven us there... Collins sucked, there's nothing more to it. And he shouldn't have played, whether you want to use the lack of pratice excuse or just think he's crappy. Volek and VY would have been the better choices on the day, and probably next week too.

yeah a one armed gimpy drawf would have driven us down field 70 yards or whatever and given us a chance at a win :rolleyes:

Collins went 4/6 for 56 yards, of which especially Wade added a lot of YAC with some spectacular moves.

Brown had 2 runs for 16 yards, so you wonder why they didn't use him more.

Our brilliant coaching staff had Wade on the bench when we were in the red zone. Obviously they wanted taller WRs in the game but I would never take him out.

The running game was solid in the second half but because we were behind we had a sense of urgency and had to throw more than we would have liked. Collins is a statue in the packet and even with his 6'5 ht had a bunch of balls batted away. I say let Young play because by years end he will really have the groove IMO and be ready for next year. This experiment with Collins is futile.

I say let Young play because by years end he will really have the groove IMO and be ready for next year. This experiment with Collins is futile.

I agree with both. (and play LenDale White)

Vince provided a spark off the bench and as a lot have said before the players seemed to try harder. However how much of the playbook does he know? Can he run an offense for 4 quarters with what he knows.

heres some game plans,1) get scafie out of the lineup, a third stringer in the game when its on the line on 4th down, i dont think so,2) whip that o-line into shape, theres always some one screwing up on every play,3) start billy volek next game, he knows the offense better, kerry collins sucks, and for some reason, ppl think young isnt ready and 4) will some one explain to me why the defense is so bad, with vanden bosch, pac man and bulluck, i saw coles destroy us, and a backup TE beat Chris Hope for the game winning TD, obviously, the d-coordinator doesnt know what the hell hes doing, because we have talent on defense, but it looks like we stole the 49ers defensive play book

VY has been in the offense longer than Collins.

and he almost pulled it off.

No the D set him up. That final drive was like dental surgery. Absoutly no way Titans were gonna score. Period. Collins started what 10 drives and the team scored 16 points. That makes Collins very dolt-like in that he sucks!

4) will some one explain to me why the defense is so bad, with vanden bosch, pac man and bulluck, i saw coles destroy us, and a backup TE beat Chris Hope for the game winning TD, obviously, the d-coordinator doesnt know what the hell hes doing, because we have talent on defense, but it looks like we stole the 49ers defensive play book

you answered your own question. Jimbelina Schwartzie is the anchor bringing the Titans to the bottom of the AFC

No the D set him up. That final drive was like dental surgery. Absoutly no way Titans were gonna score. Period.


Word. A goal-line fumble is NOT "leading a drive".