Opportunity leads to success in run game

On paper, it looked as if the Titans would have little chance of running the football against Houston on Sunday.

Tennessee entered the game with the worst rushing attack in the league, while the unbeaten Texans were ranked fifth against the run.

But Chris Johnson and the Titans had by far their most productive running game of the season despite the one-sided loss. Johnson’s 141 yards marked the first time in nine contests he went over 100 yards.

Titans coach Mike Munchak said one big reason for the output was the number of carries. Johnson ran 25 times against the Texans, as opposed to the 33 combined carries he’d had in his first three contests.

“We got a feel for what they were doing,” Munchak said. “We we were getting the fits good and you saw a successful running game and I thought it was successful from the beginning.

“I think we had one bad run the whole day as far as a negative run. And I thought for the most part even before we got to the fourth quarter that we were running the ball pretty effectively when we wanted to run the football.”

Johnson had 58 yards at halftime and 86 yards through three quarters, adding 55 in the final quarter.

“I was happy for C.J. to have some success doing that, for the line to have some success,” Munchak said. “You have to look at the positive when something doesn’t go well. We have to go on next week to Minnesota and we need the running game to be a big part of the offense.”

Source: Titans Insider