Love ‘Ya, Blue: The 10 Best Players in Oilers/Titans History

With all of the hype and promise surrounding this year’s talented Tennessee Titans squad, it is sometimes easy to forget the long lost days of lore. Their thirty seven years in Houston makes it almost seem like it was a different franchise altogether.
From the wide open, new frontier days of the nascent AFL to the free wheeling 1970’s, when oil derricks and cowboy hats were the norm, the organization has a richer history than most would imagine.
Here, at the dawn of their 50th season, is a look back at the key players that helped shape the franchise.
All but three are in the Hall of Fame, but each and every one left their indelible mark not only on the team, but on NFL history.

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Tennessee Titans in Search of Killer Instinct

So much for peaking early.

After Thursday night’s 13-10 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Tennessee Titans found themselves in relatively unfamiliar territory.  

0-1.  

In times like this, the old Nietzsche axiom-cum-cliché rings true.

“That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.”

Basically, this is a good thing.  But more on that later.  First things first: the negatives.

For one thing, the Titans further perpetuated their reputation as not being able to finish and seal the deal.  Just like last year’s early playoff exit at the hand of the Baltimore Ravens, Tennessee owned the game, statistically speaking.  

Consider the uncanny comparisons:

A.  They pretty much moved the ball at will against a vaunted defense.

B.  They effectively shut down the running game of a smash-mouth offense.

Just one small thing, however.  The final score, which was eerily the same.  

“The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t beat the Tennessee Titans,” Titans receiver (and former Steeler) Nate Washington told the Associated Press after the game.  “The Tennessee Titans beat the Tennessee Titans.”

A cleverly articulated summation of a knock-down, drag-out game, yes.  

But one that the Titans and their fans are growing weary of hearing.  

It is becoming blindingly obvious that Tennessee desperately needs to learn to go for the jugular in tight games and not merely rely on their opponent to make mistakes.

Being the better team doesn’t translate into victory if, well, they don’t play like the better team when it counts the most.  That includes not letting an unknown, lightly regarded wideout from the University of Mississippi (Mike Wallace) make the game-winning catch.  

In spite of the negatives, there is in fact quite the positive spin on this.

“I believe we’ve got a good team in that locker room,” Jeff Fisher told the media after the game.  “And we’re going to bounce back.”

Here are a few reasons he just might be right.

Third Time’s a Charm

Zero Super Bowl titles notwithstanding, the franchise does have a knack for bouncing back, historically.  It’s a safe bet that back-to-back bitter losses to even more bitter rivals has strengthened their resolve, especially when viewed in light of the lofty expectations.  

Throw in an unproven New York Jets squad with some traditionally underachieving AFC South competition, and the Titans could easily find themselves at 3-1, dripping with confidence and swagger before they face two stout tests in Indianapolis and New England before their bye. 

Silver Linings

To go into a hostile Heinz Field environment and take the defending world champions to the wire all but refutes the “paper tiger” label.  Even with the loss, the Titans proved their mettle in the opener.  True, there is still work to be done in regards to execution and finishing, but it doesn’t get much harder than it did in Pittsburgh.  

While Nate Washington’s quote could easily be dismissed as the misguided ramblings of a sore loser, he does have a point.  This time around, there were no ready-made excuses; no “oh, but (Steelers defensive coordinator) Dick LeBeau used a vanilla defense.”  

Both teams left it all on the field, with the outcome arguably being decided by the luck of a coin toss, given both teams’ success through the air.

Granted, the loss of all pro safety Troy Polamalu was significant, but world champions find a way to adjust, and the Steelers’ defense did, in fact, remain formidable.  

Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad

Much has been made of Tennessee’s tough schedule, with most experts and fans alike predicting a lower finish than last year.  Yet upon further review, the last two thirds of the season are actually quite manageable.  

After their Oct. 25 bye week, there is essentially nobody on the docket that the Titans can’t theoretically handle.  While there is always the “any given Sunday” factor, on the whole, there shouldn’t be too many surprises.  

While some teams pose more of a challenge than others, (Arizona, Indy and Miami come to mind), the AFC playoff race should be fun for Tennessee fans to watch come December.  Especially since the team will be presumably tested and seasoned by that point.

Actually, they just might already be. 

With one game down and 15 to go, there are literally millions of scenarios that could play out, rendering the pontifications of many a sports writers’ diatribes null and moot.  

But at this point and juncture, Jeff Fisher just might be on to something with his trademark Oakley shades.

The future looks bright.

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Super Bowl Or Bust: Tennessee Aims to Get Over The Hump

One yard.

One hash mark. 

Three $5 foot longs away from the Vince Lombardi trophy.  

It has been nine seasons since Kevin Dyson and Mike Jones met up for “The Tackle,” the play that prevented the Tennessee Titans from finishing their magical 1999 campaign on a good note.  

Perhaps even more significant is what happened the next year.  

Again, the Titans went 13-3 and appeared to be on a mission; playing with a rare focus and determination.  

Then, January 7, 2001 happened.  Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens marched into Nashville, stripped Eddie George of the ball (and some would say, his career too) and marched to Super Bowl glory.

Good times and bad times have since ensued for the franchise, with playoff appearances peppered with a rebuilding year here or there.  

But it just might bode well for coach Jeff Fisher and his staff to revisit that painful winter day, at least once before they open the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And then maybe once more before week two.  

Actually, it couldn’t hurt to watch it before every game.

Why the need for the de facto “Remember the Alamo?”   

In this day and age, a franchise’s window of opportunity is infinitesimally small.  Rare is it that a team finds itself in Tennessee’s shoes, where they have just as good a shot at getting to the oh-so-close pinnacles of the season before and improving on them.  

That was the case for the Titans in 2000, and that is the case for them today.  

Last season, coach Fisher’s squad posted a better-than-expected 13-3 record, which included a surprising 10-0 start.  Yet as most people know, the dream was over in a matter of hours, with Tennessee bowing out after just one playoff game; coincidentally to the Baltimore Ravens.  

What hurt the most was that the Titans dominated the Ravens in nearly every facet of the game.  They merely couldn’t convert when it mattered.  

Granted, last year’s unceremonious departure wasn’t quite as heartbreaking as the Super Bowl XXXIV loss to the St. Louis Rams.  But considering that the Titans made easy work of the eventual champions, the Steelers, it makes one wonder about what could have been had things gone differently.

This season, Tennessee sees 20 of 22 starters returning.  While there is a bounty of talented youth on the team, there are also an uncomfortable amount of Ben Gay and knee braces in the skill position players’ lockers.  

But the consensus is that the Titans are ready to bounce back and advance further than last year, considering that there are no major holes to fill.  Nor are there any glaring weaknesses.  

All of the other contenders in the AFC, by far the stronger conference, may pose challenges for Tennessee, but are hardly unconquerable. 

In fact, there is almost an air of inevitability that a Super Bowl title is in the cards.  

Just like in 2000.  

What will make or break these Titans hinges on whether or not they can execute and live up to their potential.  While that phrase might initially come across as a trite sports cliché, it is in fact the key to any team’s success.  

For instance, there could theoretically be up to five title banners on display at LP Field if that simple advice were to have been employed in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2008.  

But realistically, that could be said about any team; everybody has their “what if” stories.  Winning it all doesn’t necessarily mean who’s the best on paper.  No, the success of a team is more so based on proper utilization of talent, not having major injuries and, in particular, getting hot at the right time.  

A snazzy record in October means nothing when you’re on the wrong end of the score in January.  It’s obviously much more desirable for a team to parlay a mediocre start into a championship ring.

In essence, the advice for the Titans this year is to not only learn from last year’s mistakes, but the past decade’s as well.  At this point, they’re pretty much the Utah Jazz of the NFL.  Always “right there,” but usually the platform for someone else’s shining moment.  

January 7, 2001.  

For Jeff Fisher and the Titans, it is time to exorcise the demons and turn the colossal failures into harmless footnotes

The blinding glare of a Lombardi Trophy has a way of doing that.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Titans’ Fisher, The Paragon Of Stability

In an era where some NFL franchises see more firings than division titles, it is quite a feat for a coach to last five seasons in the league.  

The fact that Tennessee Titans’ coach Jeff Fisher has done just that—nearly three times over, no less—is downright unfathomable.

Thanks in no small part to former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, the phrase “The Dean of NFL Head Coaches” has been thrown around more times than a penalty flag at a Raiders game.

Yet it bears significance in this day and age of “what have you done for me lately?” that a head coach (at almost any level) can stick around to see a team through the good, the bad, and the ugly.  

Other than Pittsburgh and its super stable Rooney ownership, can you imagine a team sticking to a coach who went 4-12 and was six years removed from his last Super Bowl appearance, as was the case in Tennessee in 2005?

No doubt, most general managers and owners would be whipping out their Blackberries; hard at work wooing the coordinator and college ranks even before the ink was dry on the last game’s recap.   

However, as the dawn of the 2009 season approaches, Nashville is abuzz with what promises to be yet another Titans season filled with the promise of a deep playoff run.

Which is all the more amazing given the chaotic beginning to Fisher’s coaching career. 

1994-1998: “Like a Rolling Stone”

Fisher took over ten games into the 1994 season, replacing the fired Jack Pardee, going 1-5. Yet the management and the owners saw enough promise to keep him on board for the next season, and he didn’t disappoint; his squad churned out a much more respectable 7-9 showing the next year.  

After two great drafts that yielded both Steve McNair and Eddie George, the then-Houston Oilers were poised for a leap out of mediocrity. However, one thing they didn’t factor on was their soon-to-be nomadic status.

In 1997, after failing to secure a new stadium deal with Houston, owner Bud Adams moved the team to Tennessee, with Nashville to be their eventual home.   

The catch, however, was that the squad had to play on borrowed turf for two seasons. In fact, the 1997 season finale against the Steelers in Memphis saw nearly twice as many black and yellow terrible towels than baby blue Oilers gear.  

But amidst all the turmoil, Fisher remarkably kept his team respectable, going 8-8 for three straight seasons.  

It was two years later however, their first at their permanent home, that the newly coined Titans finally hit their stride and realized their potential.

1999-2003: “Contenders”

Home sweet home, indeed.  

Tennessee opened the year 8-2, and didn’t lose once at the then-named Adelphia Coliseum.  

Fisher took them all the way to the Super Bowl that season, losing a heartbreaker to the St. Louis Rams, the other Cinderella story that season.  

With the exception of 2001’s disappointing 7-9 campaign, this was a glory era for the franchise. Even if Fisher were to have been dismissed after the 2004 anomaly, he would have arguably gone down as one of the best coaches in franchise history.

2004-2006: “Rebuilding”

This era was perhaps the most painful to watch for Titans fans.  It’d have been one thing if the beloved franchise cornerstones—Steve McNair, Samari Rolle, Derrick Mason, et al.—were merely having a bad year or two. But to see them depart in such an unceremonious fashion to the hated Baltimore Ravens made matters that much worse.

Many deemed it to be sink-or-swim time for coach Fisher.  

Yet there was abundant optimism with the drafting of the Texas Longhorns’ Vince Young. His unorthodox talent invited the inevitable comparisons to a young McNair. In 2006, the Titans recorded a respectable 8-8 record, and again, Fisher’s uncanny knack for getting the most out of what he had was being realized.

True, Patriots coach Bill Belichick traditionally got all the attention when it came to turning ragtag bunches into winners; mostly because of his Super Bowl rings.

But there was no denying that Fisher possessed the knack, even with the oft-troubled malcontent Adam “Pacman” Jones on the roster.

2007-Present: “Back in the Saddle”

Once again, Fisher has made the Titans into legitimate contenders. Things have practically come full circle to those halcyon days of nearly ten years ago, where every year had Super Bowl aspirations.  

Fisher is quick to give credit to Titans owner Bud Adams.

“He’s been in it a long time. He knows you can’t avoid injuries. We had a couple of years we underachieved, but there was a reason. He also understands there’s going to be some salary cap things eventually (you’re) going to have to work through, and he understands that,” he told the Associated Press in 2007.  

Regardless of this year’s outcome, one gets the feeling that Fisher won’t be going anywhere. Granted, there is always the school of thought that certain coaches can bring instant wins based on their glossy resumés, but that sort of success is rarely sustainable.  

Just ask Jerry Jones or Dan Snyder, who gave it a go with Bill Parcells and Joe Gibbs, respectively.  

Regardless of the endless story lines and rumors that accommodate every NFL franchise, Titans fans can take heart that with Fisher at the helm, Tennessee will always have a shot. 

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