Stillers vs. Titans Pregame Analysis (Game #1, vs. Tenn.)
The Stillers open their 2005 campaign with a home tilt
against former division rival Tennessee, which is coming off a hideous 5-11
season, their worst in anyone's recent memory.�
The Stillers, of course, are coming off a franchise and AFC-best 15-1
record, and the hopes are high that this team can finally turn the corner and
land a spot in the Super Bowl.�
* When the Titans have the ball, old warhorse
Steve McNair will lead the charge.� Mc
Hair is back from his sternum surgery, and it remains to be seen how much
punishment he can take, or even dish out as he is prone to do.� Of course, few QBs in the league are as
physically and mentally tough as McNair, so one can assume he'll be ready for
full contact.
The Bitans bring a solid ground game into Heinz Field.� Travis Henry and Chris Brown give the Tits a
very capable 1-2 punch.� Henry is a good
enough receiver to create some mismatches in the passing game, although he was
hobbled and played sparingly in preseason.�
Neither Henry nor Brown are breakaway runners, nor is either a top-15
NFL RB, but both are effective, capable backs that give Coach Fisher the kind
of dull but grindingly effective running game that he prefers.��
Tenn has a big, rangy tandem at WR, with Drew Bennett and Ty
Calico getting the start.� Bennett
really flourished last season, grabbing 80 passes, averaging nearly 16 yards
per catch, and scoring 11 TDs.� Ladies
and gentlemen, this guy is for real and is a genuine threat with his
athleticism, huge size, savvy skills, and deceptive speed/quickness.� Calico, returning from injury, isn't too
shabby, either.� Both he and Benny are
big and rangy, and they definitely present matchup concerns against a smallish
secondary.� Highly touted rookies
Courtney Roby (IU) and Brandon Jones (Oklahoma U) should get a fair amount of
work when the Titans go to a 3-4 wide offense.�
Massive TE Erron Kinney is as much a blocker as receiver,
but he makes the catches when thrown the ball.�
He's got a banged up shoulder, but should play.� Backup TE Ben Troupe, the highly regarded 2nd-year
man from Florida, has an uncertain�
status for this game and likely won't see much, if any, playing
time.� Unlike a Bilbo Cowher-coached
team, Titans OC Norm Chow fully believe in using his TEs as something more than
a glorified tackle eligible, so it will be interesting to see how Chow and
McNair work the ball to the TE, especially against a team that has notoriously
been abused by TEs over the past decade.�
The Titan O-line is a decent, but not exceptional,
unit.� What hinders them this Sunday is
that their best linemen, Brad Hopkins, must serve a 1-game suspension.� In his absence at LT will be rookie
2nd-rounder Mike Roos.� What Roos lacks
in experience, he makes up for with a massive 6'-7" frame.� Zach Piller and Benji Olson are capable
interior brawlers.� Center Justin
Hartwig is an acceptable center, while RT Jacob Bell is a marginal starter.�
The Stiller defense may be missing OLB Joey Porter, who is back and practicing but likely will be rusty from the layoff of minor knee surgery.� The rest of the defense is intact, although their preseason play has been shoddy.� LB Jamie Harrison might get the start in place of Porter, but as Harrison has shown throughout the preseason, he's done little or nothing in the pass rush department while locked up against the opposing LT.� Perhaps Harrison will play on running downs and then spelled by Porter on obvious passing downs.�
The key matchup will be CB Wee Willie Williams
against the big WR corps of the Titans.�
There's no rational reason for Williams to start for any team
aspiring to go deep in the playoffs, and beyond that, there's no rational
reason for a twerpy CB with no size, no speed, and no athleticism to be
starting against a pair of skilled, big receivers.� This is a grisly matchup and one that new OC Norm Chow will be
sure to exploit.�
* When the Stillers have the ball, they'll
limp into the game with an offense that had no "O" and no
"go" in the preseason, scoring zero TDs and doing little more than
slipshod fiddle faddle.� The man at the
helm, Ben Roth, has been spotty and sporadic throughout the preseason.� Despite his struggles, it's well known that
Benji is more of a 2nd-half QB, and obviously he'll get his chance to play in
the 2H this Sunday.� He'll be without
his starting RB, Duce Staley, as well as without The Fatback, Big Jerome
Bettis.� But despair not, because Fast
Willie Parker will get the starting nod.�
Parker has good speed and quickness to go along with solid instincts,
and he gives what is otherwise a very slowfooted offense a badly needed burst
of speed.� Verron Haynes will probably
see a fair amount of work in order to spell Parker and keep him fresh.�
�
The Stiller O-line was supposed to be solidified with the
return of RG Ken Simmons and the insertion of young Max Starks at RT, but
overall, the line play in preseason was nothing better than mediocre.� They were pretty much overwhelmed last week
by the 1st-team of the Caro Panthers, which, that late in preseason, wasn't too
pleasing a picture.
Stiller OC Ken The Wise Hunt went with the ButtonHook Offense
during preseason, dictating that no primary pass pattern be any longer than 11
yards downfield.� It should be
interesting to see if Wise Hunt unshackles this offense come Sunday.�
The Titans employ a base 4-3, with Fat Albert Haynesworth and
Randy Starks clogging the middle.�
2nd-year DE Antwan Odom is supposedly ready to flourish, and DE Kyle
Vanden Bosch is a solid, steady presence.�
The LB corps is unheralded to the uninitiated, but this crew doesn't
have to take a back seat to any LB gang in the league.� Superb OLB Keith Bulluck leads the LB corps.� He is ably assisted by fellow OLB Peter
Sirmon, who missed most of last season with injury.� Brad Kassell, he of a fairly nasty disposition, mans the middle.� Rocky Boiman, who ate up the Stillers 2
years ago as though he were a reincarnation of Jack Ham, serves as a very
capable backup.�
The secondary is led by the vicious-hitting Tank Williams,
who hits, needless to say, like a tank.�
The Tank also serves as an extra LB when opposing teams go vanilla or
bunch in tightly.� Andre Woolfolk is a
decent CB, although, largely due to injuries, he's not yet flourished into the
CB many envisioned in the 2003 draft.� Highly
touted #1 draftee Jac Man Jones might see considerable PT at the corner; if
not, speedster Tony Beckham will get the work.�
��
The key matchup will be RG Kendall Simmons against
DTs Randy Starks or Al Haynesworth.��
Fat Albert is a tub of lard to move, and Starks is strong as an ox.� Simmons has had problems in the past dealing
with beef and brawn, and this will be his first real game since Jan. 2004.�
* Special Teams: �Craig Hentrich is one of the better, more reliable punters in the
league.� Former Stiller Rob Bironas
handles the kicking chores.� This is a
bit ironic, as a couple years ago, I was pushing, and pushing hard, for the
Stillers to retain Bironas as their kickoff specialist and possible PK
replacement.� Stiller PK Jeff Reed had a
spotty preseason; hopefully he's shaken off that rust and is ready to boot with
accuracy.� For bitter irony, former
Stillers' #1 draft pick Troy Edwards is on the Titans' roster, and perhaps, if he
does nothing else, he can run out of bounds while covering a punt.�
Key Individual Matchups:
* JacMan Jones vs. Hines Ward.� The Jac Man was drafted with high hopes, but
he's probably in for some NFL schooling at the hands of Hines Ward.� Look for the Titans to shade coverage toward
where ever Ward is, which will then make it incumbent on the Stillers to work
TE Heath Miller or Randle El in the more open middle-seams.�
* New Titans OC Norm Chow, vs. Stiller DC Dick LeBeau.�� Chow worked miracles at Ol' SC, churning
out 40-point outputs with ease.� He
doesn't have Reggie Bush, Mike Williams, and Matt Leinart at his disposal, but
he does have some weapons.� His NFL
debut should be interesting.�
* Titans HC Jeff Fisher vs. Billy Cowher.� As a player, Fischer suffered a debilitating
injury while returning a punt, courtesy of Bilbo Cowher.� This apparently is what feeds Fischer's
motivation and intensity, because as a coach he's used Cowher as his own
personal little bitch, winning 10 of the past 12 meetings against Lord Bilbo. �Rarely, if ever, has a Fischer-coached team
not been 'up' for playing the Stillers.�
�
* OLB Clark Haggans vs. RT Jacob Bell.� This is a very favorable matchup for
Haggans, and if LeBeau lets Hag loose, he could ring Jacob's bell.�
* Intangible - The home crowd.� They suffered through a pitiful preseason in
which the starters on both sides of the ball dawdled around and did
nothing.� And it's been a long summer
for Paihrt (Pirate) fans.� This crowd
could turn surly and ugly should the Bitans get up early and the Stiller offense
struggles.�
* Synopsis: It's opening day, which, as we
all know, means plenty of slop and slather from a Billy Cowher-coached football
team.� (Click here to peruse
Cowhard's hilarious opening-day follies.)�
The Titans have the most rookies and 2nd year players in the NFL, which
should translate into loads of confusion on behalf of the Titans and an easy
whipping for the Stillers in front of the home crowd.� But, as we've seen time and time and time again, Billy Cowher is
immensely capable of making any opening-day opponent look like the '67
Packers.� Look for plenty o' slop n'
slather from Cowher's troops, including a plethora of stumbling and blundering.� This really should be an easy Stiller win,
but Cowhard's opening day ineptitude, combined with the totally lackluster preseason
and a general feeling of overlooking the 5-11 Titans, makes this a game ripe
for an upset.� Bitans 19, Stillers
16.�