Tennessee Titans: A Look Back At the First Eight Games

There are plenty of positives to point out when looking back at the first half of the season for the Tennessee Titans. Unfortunately there are a few negatives as well.

The biggest positive may be that the Titans are beating good teams. With the exception of the win over the Cowboys, all of the Titans' wins have come against teams with a .500 or better record.

The Titans sit at 5-3 and could easily be at 7-1 if not for letting a couple games slip away. They're also tied with the Colts atop the AFC South.

It may be hard to believe but the Titans have only played one divisional game up to this point, which means there's still a lot of figure out in the AFC South. Five of their last eight games are against divisional opponents.

Now the Titans have a scary offense to go along with a respected defense heading into the second half of the season, but now it's time to reflect and see how we got here.

Week 1- Win Over The Raiders

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NASHVILLE - SEPTEMBER 12: Vincent Fuller #22 and Dave Ball #98 of the Tennessee Titans tackle Louis Murphy #18 of the Oakland Raiders during the NFL season opener at LP Field on September 12, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans defeated the Raiders 3

The first game of the season is always a little unpredictable, but the Titans took care of business in this game.

This  25-point win to start the season is starting to rise in stock now that the Raiders are within shouting distance of first place in the AFC South.

The Titans pretty much dominated this game on both sides of the ball back in Week One with the defense forcing two turnovers and Vince Young throwing two touchdowns.

This game was huge for Young's confidence going into the season and now he's second in the NFL in passer rating. Very few probably saw that coming.

It was a complete performance on both sides of the ball and it got the season off to a great start.

Week 2- Loss To The Steelers

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NASHVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 19: James Harrison #92 of the Pittsburgh Steelers forces a fumble by quarterback Vince Young #10 of the Tennessee Titans at LP Field on September 19, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. The Steelers won 19-11. (Photo by Grant Halvers

There was no bad blood lost between these two teams after the Steelers got out of Nashville with a 19-11 win.

You can't lose too much sleep over this loss, because clearly the Steelers are one of the better teams in the NFL right now.

The final score doesn't really indicated how bad this game could have gotten if not for the ferocious defensive line that had four sacks and six quarterback hits.

They also held Rashard Mendenhall to 69 yards rushing. In case you haven't realized it yet, Mendenhall is a premiere back that has only been held under 69 yards once all season.

It's makes you wonder if the Titans could have won this game if not for seven turnovers, but there are such things as moral victories.

We found out that sometimes the Titans are their biggest enemies, and even then they usually have a chance to pull out a win. That was the case here thanks to the defense.

Who would've thought that after Vince Young getting pulled from this game that he would go on to put up the numbers he has?

Week 3- Win Over The New York Giants

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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - SEPTEMBER 26: Chris Johnson #28 of the Tennessee Titans is pushed out of bounds at the endzone by Terrell Thomas #24 of the New York Giants at New Meadowlands Stadium on September 26, 2010 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by

Much like the win over the Raiders, this win also looks great at this point in the season. The New York Giants are arguably the best team in the NFC right now.

Once again the defensive line stepped up and had an excellent game as they continuously made Eli Manning uncomfortable hitting him seven times.

Unfortunately this is when we started realizing that the secondary still has a lot of work to do. Manning went for 386 yards despite the two interceptions.

This was also when Kenny Britt finally decided to grace us with his presence as he got his first touchdown of the season to put the Titans up 19-10.

Shortly after this game a few Giants players called the Titans "dirty", whatever that means. I see it as a compliment if you ask me. The Steelers have always been known as "dirty" too and look how far it's gotten them.

We also found out that Vince Young has taken a step forward in his maturation process as he had another solid performance after being benched the week before. Kudos to Vince on that performance.

Week 4- Loss To The Broncos

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NASHVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 03: Demaryius Thomas #88 of the Denver Broncos breaks away from Vincent Fuller #22 of the Tennessee Titans at LP Field on October 3, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. Denver won 26-20. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

This loss really had to eat at Jeff Fisher and everyone else involved.

It was a loss that the Titans should've won, but their lack of discipline cost them at the end. That lack of discipline surfaced on a sloppy pass interference penalty that pretty much put the Broncos on the doorstep of the endzone for the victory.

Considering the Broncos have turned out to be most likely the last place team in the AFC West, this loss really looks bad.

It was another bad game for the Titans secondary as they gave up 341 yards through the air from Kyle Orton.

Vince Young had yet another solid outing, but Chris Johnson was held to 53 yards on the ground.

Even great teams like the Patriots usually have one bad game a year, so I suppose the Titans got their ugly loss out of the way on this particular week.

Week 5- Win Over The Cowboys

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ARLINGTON, TX - OCTOBER 10: Wide receiver Kenny Britt #18 of the Tennessee Titans celebrates after the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Cowboys Stadium on October 10, 2010 in Arlington, Texas. The Titans won 34-27. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

At the time this win looked like a season changer, but now it looks like just another ordinary win.

You could easily say this was the beginning of the end for the Wade Phillips era. The Cowboys showed how much discipline they lacked by turning the ball over three times and committing 12 penalties.

This started a three-game winning streak for the Titans and really helped us forget about that horrible loss to the Broncos.

I don't care how bad the Cowboys may be, that win still shows how much the Titans are capable of. The fact is they went in and hit a team in the mouth that was already desperate, and did it on their home field.

Kenny Britt remained hot after catching another touchdown and Chris Johnson finished with 131 yards rushing.

Week 6- Win Over The Jaguars

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JACKSONVILLE, FL - OCTOBER 18: Quarterback Vince Young #10 of the Tennessee Titans is helped from the field during the first quarter against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the game at EverBank Field on October 18, 2010 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo

The Titans made the most out of their lone Monday Night Football appearance this season. They absolutely embarrassed the Jaguars in front of a national audience 30-3.

More importantly, the Titans showed how reliable Kerry Collins can still be as a backup to Vince Young. Some of that may have been how bad the Jaguars were that night, but some credit is still due to Collins for playing damage control.

Young still managed to tally up another touchdown pass on the first drive of the game to none other than Kenny Britt.

This was the only divisional game the Titans would play in the first half of the season and they took care of business. Anytime you can get a divisional win on the road then you're on the right track.

The secondary also showed that they can hold a quarterback under 300 yards. Granted it was against Trent Edwards, but it was still nice to see that it could be done!

Week 7- Win Over The Eagles

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NASHVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 24: Kenny Britt #18 of the Tennessee Titans catches a touchdown pass while defended by Ellis Hobbs #31 of the Philadelphia Eagles during the NFL game at LP Field on October 24, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans won 37-19.

This might be one of the most impressive wins of the season so far. It probably didn't hurt that Michael Vick sat out, but it was still a nice win considering Kerry Collins started.

Most Titans fans will remember this game as being Kenny Britt's coming out party. Britt had the best performance from a Titans receiver since 2004 as he caught three touchdowns and over 200 yards receiving.

The secondary also came through for a second-straight week as the grabbed two interceptions from Kevin Kolb and the rushing defense held LeSean McCoy to just 49 yards.

The Titans have never really been viewed as a come-from-behind team, but they trailed 19-10 in the fourth quarter and went on to win convincingly.

Chalk up another win for the Titans against the NFC.

Week 8- Loss To The Chargers

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SAN DIEGO - OCTOBER 31: Quarterback Vince Young #10 of the Tennessee Titans drops back to pass as Antwan Barnes #98 of the San Diego Chargers pressures during the game at Qualcomm Stadium on October 31, 2010 in San Diego, California. The Chargers defeate

With all the talent the Chargers have, we knew they were going to break out sooner or later. Unfortunately that happened against the Titans.

It's still a tough loss considering the Titans at one point led 19-7. The Titans lost Vince Young for the second time in as many weeks when he hobbled off the field halfway through the fourth quarter.

The glaring stat that plagued the Titans in this game was the inability to stop the Chargers on third down. The Chargers went 12 for 18 on third down.

I'm not going to get on the secondary so much in this game for giving up 305 yards to Phillip Rivers because Rivers has been doing that to every team this season.

The Titans still played good enough to give themselves a chance to tie on the final drive, but a dropped pass by Chris Johnson ended that hope.

We learned from this game that Young is finally starting to demand respect when he throws the ball and that means good things for Johnson in the future. Oh yeah, and we signed some guy named Randy Moss.

Young had another interception-free game and things may have worked out differently if he would've been leading that final drive.

The bye week couldn't have come at a better time and hopefully guys like Vince Young and Justin Gage get healthy for the last half of the season.