Titans’ offensive line surrenders seven sacks against Panthers
Despite Saturday’s 15-7 loss to the Panthers, the Tennessee Titans have to be pleased with the fact they prevented Carolina from scoring a touchdown on offense. The lone-touchdown for the Panthers came on a 91-yard kick return by Mike Goodson in the third quarter. (more…)
Titans RB LeGarrette Blount punches teammate during Wednesday’s practice
Tennessee Titans running back LeGarrette Blount hurt his draft status and missed his entire senior season as Oregon after he was suspended for punching a Boise State player during the first game of 2009. Now, he’s making headlines again for throwing another punch—this time during a practice at one of his teammates. (more…)
Titans RB Chris Johnson shows off his speed on latest episode of “Shaq VS”
Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson has been quite the popular topic this offseason with his contract situation. He’s coming off a phenomenal 2009 season in which he became the sixth running back in NFL history to break the 2,000 yard mark. On Tuesday, he took a break from football to show off his speed on the track. (more…)
Titans LaGarrette Blount talks about “The Punch”
This year, a talented running back, LaGarrette Blount fell all the way through the draft and the Titans claimed him as an undrafted free agent, he recently spoke about “The Punch”. The punch caused him to get the label as a trouble maker and a player with character issues. Blount hit Boise State player, Byron Hout after Boise defeated Oregon 19-8 last season. Every football fan saw the incident, it was on nearly a non-stop loop on ESPN’s Sportscenter. Hout claims that all he said to Blount was “How about that ass-whuppin”.
Blount appeared on KFXX in Portland, Oregon and was asked about the incident and his time with the Tennessee Titans. You can hear the entire interview right here. Blount said that he just wants to come out and play football, while putting his past behind him.
When asked by the hosts about what Hout said, here was Blount’s response, (transcribed by sportsradiointerviews.com)
“That was half the truth, but that’s not the whole thing. I’m not going to repeat what else he said. That was just a hostile environment there with the fans and the players. (Host: Did he say something personally offensive to you or about you?) Definitely. I’ve had people talking trash to me my whole career of football. Something like that is never going to trigger me to do what I did. Nothing like that is going to trigger me to act the way that I did – by saying ‘How about that ass-whuppin?’ He definitely said something way more harsh and disrespectful to me than what he said.”
Will the Titans burn out Chris Johnson?
Do the Tennessee Titans run the risk of burning out Chris Johnson? SportsIllustrated posted a story this morning with the headline, With CJ2K running, do the Titans even need backups? Certain the unnamed author can’t be serious but it raises a very good point. Last season, Johnson accounted for slightly more than 50% of the Titans offense. The temptation is there to feed a speed burner like Johnson the ball all the time. One head fake and he’s in the endzone. But just how long is Johnson going to be able to put up with this kind of pounding on his frame.?
David Climer of the Tennessean.com wrote a similar story about the risk of over using Johnson. Climer points out that Johnson has had 609 carries in the past two seasons with the Titans. However, if you factor in Johnson’s receptions, he has 703 touches in two years.Climer makes a comparison of all the backs which rushed for 2,000 yards and what they did the subsequent season.
What I want to compare is what Larry Johnson did in Kansas City in 2005-2006. Johnson was the bulk of the offense for the Chiefs during those two seasons and is a bigger back than Johnson (6’1″ 235 pounds) and in those two season touched the ball 824 times. In 2006, Johnson carried the ball 416 times alone.
After the 2006 season, Larry Johnson was toast. He was constantly injured and never played another full season again. The Titans organization is well aware of this fact I’m sure and that might be some of the reason they weren’t willing to offer up a bigger contract to Johnson.
Just as a top quality pitcher might have a pitch count, the Titans should run Johnson smarter and not simply keep feeding him the ball if they want to have him around for a few more years. Otherwise, another 400 touches for Johnson this year would be similar to driving your car 100 mph down the highway 2 quarts low on oil, eventually something is going to give.
