Titans playoff talk

He was not the HC last year ... that's the differnce. (Yeah, I know he was the interim, but this is the 1st year with his staff, his philosophy, his stamp on the team)

 

You make plenty of valid points, but the fact is that no matter what happens over the next 4 games Mularkey is coming back and I think it is the best thing for the franchise. Mariota needs stability in the same offense. The improvement on that side of the ball is enough to not rock the boat. You talk about not competing with the Big Boys...well not many had expectations that we would compete with them this yr and yet we have been competitive with every team we've played. That is a huge improvement.

I will be disappointed if we go 1-3 no doubt...but at the beginning of the season I would have been happy for this team to win 7 games.

If we don't see major improvement against our division next yr then I'm fine talking about replacing Mularkey.

 

Funny how at the beginning of the year everyone thought we had a roster devoid of talent, and now we have suddenly have talent ...

 

You can't blame Mularkey for past transgressions. Our struggle against the AFCS in years past has nothing to do with Mularkey. Unless you think a TE coach was the reason for our losses.

We were the worst team in the league for 2 years straight. Now we are in the PO conversation heading into week 14 ... that is a marked improvent from the program he has taken over.

Good 1st step in year 1. Now in year 2 Mularkey needs to show more marked improvement. To me, that is beating division opponents.

I don't expect a 100% turnaround in year 1. What I expect is improvement in each and every year

 

Lots of "ifs" in this statement. Which make it relatively pointless to argue, but I'll accept your premise.

Munch closed out the season winning only 4 of 12 games (2 that were meaningless). Assuming we only beat the Jags, Mularkey would have finished 6 of 12 games, so not as bad as Munch.

BUT the real difference is this THAT WAS MUNCH'S 3RD YEAR. He had picked his staff, he had time to mold his roster, time to give his team an identity and he didn't do it. 3 years in and he was still not able to beat the colts or close out the season. That wasn't the SOLE reason he was fired, that was just the final straw.

Munch was trending down. 9 wins to 6 wins to 7 wins (that felt like 5 wins).

All we have to go off of now for Mularkey is he took over a 5-27 team, and current has them at 6-6. That, IMO has swayed me to believe he should be back next year (and I was NOT a Mularkey supporter when he was hired).

I will need to see more improvement next year though

 

Exactly, he IS the HC this year...with a more talented roster than last year. If we do just as poorly in the division as in the past, that is a MAJOR problem!!! Easiest path to a Super Bowl is by winning your division. Poor division records make it very difficult to do that!

Teams that focus on just making improvements while being out of the playoffs don't have the right goals. Our goal is to win the Super Bowl and be a perennial contender for the Super Bowl. I think it's the same conversation teams have about 'franchise' QB's. Can you win a SB with this guy? If the answer is no, why are you gonna keep him and pay him a gajillion dollars (read use up a lot of cap) just to HOPE to be competitive. Those are teams that aren't perennial playoff teams.

So I'm less interested in...did with improve by 3 games or whatever. I'm looking at can this team make the playoffs, what do we need to be perennial SB contenders because I'd like to win at least one in my lifetime.

So as with QB, can we win a SB with Mularkey as HC and this coaching staff? Can we win it with Mariota as a QB? Can we win with JRob as our GM? Right now the answer to all of them is we don't know. Mariota needs more time for us to see what he's going to be but I think most of us are pleased with his performance and improvement. Same with JRob. Judging Mularkey on wins we are headed in the right direction, but...we need to see fewer coaching mistakes (not only Mularkey, but the entire staff) just as Mariota needs to improve his turnovers.

That's my point. We don't want to become the Bears who can be good enough to potentially sneak into the playoffs but at best are the 3rd best team in a division but are paying Cutler a ton of money to be bad and have been for YEARS!!! I'm not comparing Mariota to Cutler, but we need all the pieces working together in a positive direction.

 

I don't understand why you quantify things the way you are. I don't count 12 games or 3/4 of the season as 'down the stretch.' I look at the last 4-6 games as being down the stretch. Munch in his final season was 3-3 his last 6 games or 2-2 if you go by the last 4. Hardly a crushingly bad record.

And you do need to take things into context. We had a backup QB playing with a Chris Johnson who didn't want to be here and ran like it. In those last 6 games, CJ broke 100 yards in only the last game. In our 3 losses, he avg'd between 3.1-3.8 yards per carry. So we couldn't run and couldn't pass. And yet we still played .500 ball. Of course again...against some bad teams! My point is, in retrospect, Munch did well to get us that far. Whiz showed you what the record should have looked like (and he got an improved roster over what Munch had.


And I don't understand how Mularkey took over a team that you're giving me more than 2 years of record for unless you want to give him some of the blame for last year. But assuming you don't, he took over a 3-13 team that SHOULD have had at least 6-7 wins (afterall, the less than great Munchak got 7 wins with a vastly worse roster, coaching staff, and GM). We are at 6 wins right now. How we play over the next 4 games will be crucial!

And BTW, I suggested we should have fire Whiz after his first season and everyone said he'd be back, give him another chance....and what did we get. The same thing but even worse...a lost season for no good reason.

I'm not saying Mularkey is terrible and needs to be fired, but if this team doesn't play well the last 4, that should certainly be discussed. I think TJ is right though. Amy will think everything is moving in the right direction since Mariota has looked much better (though Denver and KC will give him big tests) and we are at least in talks of a playoff race.

 

Mularkey has already earned another year by having the team improve to 6 wins from 2/3 the last two years. He also deserves the benefit of a season with some sort of quality out of the defense. If we're still sitting at 1-5, 2-4 in the division after next year and a better defense, then your argument has merit. This year, he safe, 100% and I agree with that move.

 

One point. Munchak didn't deserve to have 1 season with a quality starting QB? Munchak didn't get a better defense, why does Mularkey get that for 6 wins but Munch didn't get that for 7?

Just playing devils advocate.

 

Because that was munch's 3rd season. He took over only 2 years after fishface had the titans as the #1 team, started with 9 wins and dropped to 6/7. The QB situation was a shame and crappy for him but that was a bad/unlucky pick on Locker.
Similar to Mularkey, I don't think Munch should have been hired to begin with but it's clearly opinion based on who had the better roster all around.
If anything I would factor in expectations as well. Munch had them playoff bound his first year but a loss to the 0-13 colts cost them. I think the fan base thought they were playoff competitive each year he was there where mularkey this year had NO expectations of playoffs, just hope of improvement, which he met.