Tennessee Titans vs. Carolina Panthers: Battle of the Punters

Well we know one thing after Saturday night's preseason matchup between the Titans and the Panthers; both team's have durable punters.

On the surface this game was tough to watch, but there's two ways to approach the 15-7 loss to the Panthers.

One of those is that the offense still needs a lot of work with very little time to do so. Even the positive plays on offense were often sloppy.

The Titans had six punts in the first half coupled with the Panthers punting the ball five times and fumbling inside the redzone, which was recovered by Stephen Tulloch.

To paint the picture even worse, the Titans only had 50 yards of total offense in the first half with most of the starters in the game.

If you're a glass half-full kind of person then there are contributing factors to this offensive nightmare.

First and foremost the Titans were coming off an extremely busy week with the Monday night game against the Cardinals and a scrimmage on Wednesday.

Also, the Titans didn't dress Nate Washington, Justin Gage, or Bo Scaife. That's a huge chunk of the offense that Young was missing in the passing game.

Young also avoided the big mistake which is always a promising sign.

When you look at the game from a defensive perspective then things get a lot more positive.

The Titans defense matched the Panthers defense each and every possession until some of the backups began to enter the game.

It's also important to note that the Panthers kept starting quarterback Matt Moore in the game up until the fourth quarter.

Jason McCourty had his best performance of the preseason so far as he recorded two impressive tackles and a couple pass deflections.

The Panthers offense stayed away from Alterraun Verner's side of the field as much as possible. That says a lot for a rookie who only has two preseason games under his belt.

Verner still managed six tackles and a pass deflection.

The defensive line looked great from start to finish with the Titans first overall pick Derrick Morgan finally getting his debut this preseason. He recorded only one tackle but was in the backfield numerous times hurrying the quarterback into bad throws.

The Titans defense did an excellent job at extending the Panthers' touchdown drought this preseason.

The player who made the biggest statement in this defensive slug-fest ironically came from the offensive side of the ball with Marc Mariani.

Mariani made two veteran-like catches in the 2nd half with Kerry Collins under center.

One of those was a leaping catch along the sideline where Mariani managed to get both feet in bounds. The other one came on a slant route that led to Mariani breaking a couple tackles and carrying a couple defender on his back before being pulled down for a 37-yard gain.

That huge catch led to a nice touchdown pass to Jared Cook from Collins.

With that performance by Mariani it's now almost guaranteed that he'll make the team and possibly be a crucial component in the Titans passing game.

It also became even more apparent that Chris Simms may not be on this team when the regular season rolls around. He didn't participate in a single snap in this game and hasn't performed well in the previous two preseason games.

Rusty Smith is the guy pushing him out and even though Smith has made his own share of mistakes under center, he's still shown that he can move the offense down the field with third-string players blocking for him.

At first glance the Titans looked horrible, but for a short week there was no reason to have expected too much more than what the Titans showed us.