Titans vs Dolphins

Miami's loss to the Tennessee Titans was not the disaster you’d have to think it was if you listen to the talking heads at ESPN. It also wasn’t the total domination by the Titans that it is painted to be.

Fiedler was horrible, going 5 /13 for 42 yds with 2 INTs. Expected savior AJ Feeley was better, but still ineffective, tossing an INT of his own.






This might have you thinking that the Titans’ D was overwhelming and smothering.

Then you look at the fact that the Titans’ ran for 182 yds and you might think that their offense was equally devastating.

You might also come away thinking that the Titans dominated Time of Possession (ToP) as well.






You’d be less than perfectly accurate in every case.

– The mighty Titans’ offense came away with 15 1st downs. Pretty nice.

But the lowly ‘Phins were only one behind, chalking up 14.

– The Titans managed a meager 25% (4 /12) of their 3rd down conversions.

The Dolphins converted 35% (6 /17).

– The Titans held a mere :29 edge in ToP (30:29 vs 29:31 for the Dolphins)

– The Dolphins had a ho-hum total yardage of 263.

The Titans couldn’t even match that, racking up only 243.

– The Dolphins threw for an anemic 4.2 yds per pass attempt.

In contrast, the Titans managed an eye popping average of 3.8 yds.

– The Titans D line beat up on the Dolphins O line, sacking poor Miami QBs three times for twelve yds.

But Miami managed two sacks for twelve yds against what was supposed to be a very good Titans O line.

– Miami passed for the ridiculously low total of 198 net yds.

– The Titans’ McNair passed for a glorious 61 net yds.

– The Titans ran 52 plays.

The Dolphins? 67.

This was not total and humiliating domination. The areas that affected the outcome most strongly were; turn overs, rushing efficiency and big plays.

– The Titans had an alarming four fumbles, but only lost one.

Miami fumbled twice, having the good fortune to recover them both.

– But the Titans had zero INTS, where Miami had 3, putting Miami at -2 for the day.

– Most damaging, while Miami had a very depressing average of 3.2 yds per rush, the Titans ripped of an average gain of 5.2 yds per carry.

So the questions that have to be asked are these: Are the Dolphins as bad as everyone thinks? And are the Titans as good?