History Says We Lose Week One...

I hate to be a downer. I've gone on board as predicting a 9-7 record, even though I don't know where a couple of those wins will come from. I'm hoping that I'm wrong in making this point... But the Titans are probably going to lose this week, unless we change many things...

Looking back, we've almost always started slowly the last few years. Out of the last five seasons, we've only started out with an even record or winning record once, in 2003. O-4, 1-3, 1-3, 3-1, and 1-3 have been our sept. records.

The Jags have only had a losing record in Sept. once in those five years. 2-1, 2-1, 3-0, 0-3, and 3-1.

Looking more closely, the Jags were our biggest challenge the last two years. We've been blown out 2 of the 4 games, and the 4th, we won because we had a miraculous 21 points scored by our defense. In that game, we were outgained 4 to 1!!! That's insane!

I understand and support the whole "finding a way to win" arguments about last season, and that's great. But really, we need to find a way to change a lot about how we play this team.

Home field advantage has been a strong point in the last three years of this rivalry. They have it, despite our potshots at their lackluster fan base.

Many things need to change. We have to find a way to get some offensive production going. The Jags have torn Vince up. We need to either get running, or have Vince complete some passes. We need to stop their strong running game. Mostly, we need to show that we've gotten it together faster this season than in the last five.

I hope we can do those things. I hope to see us surprise people this year, and start strong. But, historically, that's not our style.

I don't mean this thread to be a downer, but to be a realistic expectation of what might happen down there. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think we're going to win.

 

Some factors in our favor...

Their starting center is out for the next few weeks...

They just named their starter at QB 7 days before the first game...

Vince Young. I hope he remembers what it feels like to get beaten up in Jacksonville, because this is one guy that can turn us around, and get us started on the right foot.

The offseason. We've had record participation in optional workouts, and seem to be more focused.

I hope these things make a difference, and we can start being a team that comes in strong.

 

Maybe 2003 and 2002 don't mean as much, but if you take those out of consideration, our chances get worse, not better. Our one good start was 2003, the Jags one bad start was that same year. Many people have changed, but the coaches haven't, and not as many have changed in the most recent year.

If we can come out and make a strong statement, it really will be a great sign for our year, and I'll be pumped. But it's going to be a tough game, and we have a ways to go. Let's hope we get there by the end of the week.

 

I agree that their gameplan won't always work, and that we owned them then far more than they've recently owned us.

But this was the one team that Vince had two chances against, and he did NOTHING against them. One garbage time TD out of two games. The second one he didn't make as many bad mistakes, but he didn't produce anything to help out the team.

I definitely think that one of the things that HAS to happen for us to win this game is that we have to get production from young. But he hasn't yet shown it against the Jags. Hopefully we'll see offseason growth.