Two of the teams I follow had rough weekends. Up until this year I was a rabid Tennessee Titans fan and was meticulous about keeping up with everything happening in their world. I lost interest this year, but still kept up with what was going on and watched several games. Now that the playoff seedings are set the Titans are just barely on the outside looking in.
Yesterday they had to win to get in...but also needed 3 other things to happen. Only one of the other things happened so they're out. They were in the same boat a few years ago and ended up losing their game to the Patriots while the other pieces fell into place. Looking back at the season the easiest games to point to are losses to the Colts, who were AWFUL this year, and to the Bengals, who overcame a 10 point 2nd half deficit to win - and are in the playoff spot the Titans could have had. The part that should be painful to the team is that just one more win would have sealed their spot. Had they beaten the Colts a few weeks ago none of this would have mattered.
Bright spots for the Titans:
1. Mike Munchak kept the team playing hard all season long, when they were arguably in the toughest spot starting the season with new coaches and a new quarterback.
2. Matthew Hasselbeck (yes, he prefers Matthew) was far better than any of us thought he could be both on the field and as a leader. He ended up having one of the best ever passing seasons for a Titans QB, was a great mentor to Jake Locker, and seems to be a pretty nice guy - good in the community. Plus, he's a Windows Phone user.
3. The passing game was solid WITHOUT Kenny Britt. It can only improve once he gets back.
Areas of concern:
1. Chris Johnson. Chris Johnson. Chris Johnson. What the heck happened? Dude got paid and fell off the map. He only had a few games where it looked like he had his game together. Otherwise he was generally running into tacklers instead of evading them, and certainly wasn't running away from anyone. I don't care what he says, he was slower this year. I'm not an Xs and Os expert, but there were chances to get away from tacklers and take off and it didn't happen.
2. Defensive secondary. Michael Griffin is one of the players who will be a free agent and they need to let him go. He's had one good year - the rest has been lackluster. Too many missed tackles and what seem like blown coverages.
My other team, and the one that I'm much more interested in now, Tottenham Hotspur also missed an opportunity this weekend. The Premier League season started back in August but Spurs' season started a week late because of rioting in their part of London. They missed their match with Everton (to be made up on Jan 11th) and their next two were BIG losses to both Manchester clubs - United and City. After those 2 losses Spurs have been rolling and going into the weekend were 7 points from the top of the table with a game in hand. Spurs played against Swansea City, who was promoted into the EPL this season. Spurs got a Van der Vaart goal in the 44th minute but gave up a tying goal late in the match and played to a draw, earning just 1 point. The lost opportunity was that Man U lost at Old Trafford to Blackburn, who is at the bottom of the table, and City lost to Sunderland, who is also near the bottom of the table. So when Spurs should have earned 3 points they got 1 - and both Manchester clubs lost games they should have won. Spurs now sit 6 points from the top of the table and still have that game in hand. We're nearing the halfway mark of the season and it seems the questions are can Spurs overtake either Manchester club for top spot, but also will Chelsea or Arsenal...or maybe even Liverpool be able to rise up and get into the last spot to qualify for Champions League play next year? It's looking like Spurs will be a sure qualifier if they keep it up, and with the way Adebayor, Parker, Modric, Bale, Van der Vaart, Walker, Friedel and others are playing they should be in good shape. COYS
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