An Awesome Post From TitansCentral

The colts were not a division rival when they drafted him. They became a division rival in his 5th season. Many posters on this site called him a loser and a choker. Some even argued that mcnair was superior. That was back when the level of discourse was higher than it is now.

They won their super bowl with defense and a running game. Their defense shut down 3 of their 4 playoff opponents giving up an average of only 8 points a game against KC, Balt and the bears.

 

A little perspective...

Bill Polian IS one of the best GM's in the NFL if not THE best. However, even he has all his eggs in 3 baskets...Manning, Freeney, and Mathis. The team has a philosophy and it's built around these players. Manning throws to get the lead and forces the other team to throw into a zone defense with a furious 4 man pass rush led by Freeney and Mathis. They get sacks or turnovers and the Colts win.

While people are clamoring that the Titans D is a Jr. College unit without Haynesworth, the D was BUILT AROUND AH. Look at how good the Colts D was when they took out Freeney...they couldn't stop anyone either. The Colts philosophy is a bit flawed in that if you can't run and can't stop the run, it's hard to win a Super Bowl and they have been deflected many times. The one time they won was when they ran it MORE and played great run defense by altering there scheme. Dungy's record before that run was quite bad (below .500) in the playoffs and his career record in the playoffs...including 3 mvp seasons by Manning is still below .500. The Colts have been in the Superbowl with Manning the same number of times the Titans have under Fisher. They got to play the Bears and we had the Rams. They won, we lost. The best team doesn't always win...that's why we play the game.

Manning is a fantastic QB but even he gets himself into trouble...mostly by playing for records at times instead of doing what's best for the team (like staying in the game against the Titans this year in the first game just so he could get 300 yds passing). And all this talk of his OC giving him multiple plays? The last we heard about this it was more like 'suggestions'...Manning calls his plays...period. And that's from his OC's mouth.

Forget pass versus run, our offense is not the problem right now. Our defense has gone from the top to the bottom because we don't have the players to run that scheme. Dungy built that scheme and he always had difference makers up front to make it work. If your front four can't get the job done, it doesn't work well...even with 3 former pro bowlers in the back 4. If they want to continue to run the scheme, we need a difference maker up front...preferably 2.....or change the system.

JF has flaws as all coaches do. Even our current great coaches make some similar mistakes in drafting, loyalty to coordinators, bad clock management, playing experience over talent, or going against the odds and failing as expected. However, Fisher does have a proven track record of building this team into an elite team as they were in '99 for a run and rebuilt it up to last year. Yes JF and MR didn't anticpate the huge problem the loss of AH would have, the injuries and the inconsistency of the OL in the first 6 games and we paid for it. But Belicheck's terrible D shows he didn't either, right? With some tweaking of the defense and some talent infusion, we should be knocking at the door again next year. However, we need to get the right personel for the D and need to get it this off-season (free agency, trades, draft).

We will never be a SB contender unless our D improves drastically.

Funny thing...didn't the Ravens (with a rookie starting QB) go deep in the playoffs last year with exactly JF's 'fisherball'...pound the rock and play excellent d? Guess that never works huh? LOL

Gut

 

The original post of this thread was well thought out for fans who want Fisher's scalp. But the problem with the thesis is saying that we can be the Colts without Fisher. Let's face facts. Peyton Manning is one of the best QBs in the 90 year history of the NFL. Peyton could go out in a game with a bunch of Div II receivers from college and still throw 300 yards. The difference between Manning and other elite QBs is his command of the game on all levels. Think I'm wrong? Remember the last game of the previous season where the Titans played Indy. After Manning played the first set, Sorgi came in for Peyton. Who did Sorgi report to? Not the Offensive Coordinator, not the QB coach, but Peyton. He had the head phones on and he was calling the plays. When timeouts were called, Sorgi came over to discuss the next play with Peyton.

Having Peyton Manning is like having an elite QB, and having an offensive coordinator on the field at the same time. You can't buy that kind of a player. You can't surpass Johnny Unitas' records unless you're that kind of QB.

As for Fisher, I take the opposite approach of many of the critics. My thesis is that considering the personnel we usually have on our team, Fisher often keeps us from Browns-Raiders-Lions football. Seriously. The NFL is a tough place and it's an easy place to suck badly. We weren't a great football team this year and couldn't beat the elite teams. But we could have easily ended the season at 2-14 after the first six games. Just ask Detroit fans.

 

I would trade Harper, Hood, Lendale and our first for the SUH pick. He's going to be a stud.

 

Warren Moon never wore a Titans Jersey and was never coached by Jeff Fisher. He's irrelevant in this discussion. You can talk till you're blue in the face buddy, but I doubt you're going to convince anyone on this board that we're a pass first offense. We may be balanced, which is good, but running the ball is clearly the 'identity' this team has on offense.