Outsports » Tennessee Titans

NFL opener: Steelers pull another one out

Jim Buzinski — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:31:38 +0000

The first game of the NFL season looked a lot like the end of the last season — the Pittsburgh Steelers did enough to survive while the Tennessee Titans played well enough to win but blew several scoring chances. The Steelers’ 13-10 win in overtime wasn’t a thing of beauty, but I found it mostly engrossing. One Titans fan I know probably just found it gross since Tennessee’s 2008 season ended in similar fashion with a 13-10 loss in the playoffs to the Baltimore Ravens.

The Steelers began their defense of their Super Bowl title looking shaky — QB Ben Roethlisberger was sacked four times and they had no running game (36 yards total) but got bailed out again by a defense that kept the score close and by Titans kicker Rob Bironas missing one field goal and having another blocked. In addition, all-everything safety Troy Polamalu hurt his knee and is likely out three to six weeks.

The Steelers were also greatly aided by Chuck Cecil, the new Titans defensive coordinator who decided to rush only four in the second half, thereby allowing Roethlisberger tons of time (he threw for 363 yards). The same Titans’ front four that sacked Roethlisberger three times in the first half got him only once in the second after the Steelers adjusted their blocking scheme. I lost count of how many times Roethlisberger pumped, scrambled and pumped again since he had so much time.

The game ended in the most anticlimatic way possible for an NFL game — by a chip-shot field goal on the first drive of overtime, thanks to the NFL’s dopey overtime rule that doesn’t guarantee each team a possession.

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NFL preseason kicks off, Vince Young done

Cyd Zeigler jr. — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:10:42 +0000

The NFL preseason kicked off last night with a Titans victory over the Bills, 21-18. The score was of little interest, as with most preseason games; But some storylines did come from it. First, Vince Young looks done. He was 5-for-10 with a pick and a TD: The TD came when a backup corner bit on a fake and Young threw to a wide-open receiver, and he threw the interception to an even more wide-open defensive back. Not good. Trent Edwards fed Terrell Owens the ball twice while they were on the field. And Chris Johnson and LenDale White had a lousy 2.4 yards per carry.

The big excitement of the game came at the end of the Titans’ first possession: A fake Statue of Liberty play out of a punt that saw the punter keep the ball and run 40 yards for a touchdown. Not sure why the Titans would show that at the end of their first preseason drive, but I have to believe we’ll see some trickery during the season that will pay that off.

The last little tidbit from the game: Why do teams and the League insist on wearing throwback jerseys? They look terrible. The Titans aren’t even the Oilers anymore, yet there they are with an oil derrick on the side of their helmets. Harrumph.

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LenDale White quits tequila, drops 30 lbs.

Cyd Zeigler jr. — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:53:17 +0000

Tennessee Titans running back LenDale White is reportedly the slimmest he’s been since high school, losing 30 pounds in the offseason. How’d he do it? He says it’s all thanks to quitting tequila.

“I really got to be honest,” White said. “It wasn’t a lot of major diet changes. (It was) watching what I drink. I was a big Patrón consumer. … That’s what it was. I was drinking a lot, drank a lot of alcohol. I cut that out of my diet all the way. I don’t drink at all. I cut the drinking, I stopped drinking for six months. It started falling off.”

Podcast: Diet tips to get fit

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