Chris Johnson Will Continue to Disappoint Tennessee Titans

It's strange to think that the Tennessee Titans would win games in spite of Chris Johnson, not because of him.

Yet, that's where the team finds itself eight weeks into the 2011 NFL season, in hot pursuit of first place in the AFC South.

CJ managed just 34 yards on 14 carries in the Titans' 27-10 victory over the winless Indianapolis Colts. Meanwhile, Javon Ringer, his backfield mate, garnered as many carries and came up with 60 yards in the process as part of a new running-back-by-committee system in Nashville.

Clearly, then, Johnson's lack of production was not a matter of Indy putting forth a stifling run defense. Rather, Johnson's inability to get much of anything going fell right in line with a season that, thus far, can be described only as disappointing. He's looked like anything but the superstar running back who broke the 1,000-yard barrier in each of his first three seasons in the NFL, and he might as well let go of any pretensions that he'll ever sniff the 2,006 yards he piled up in 2009.

In seven games, CJ has managed a mere 302 rushing yards on 107 carries, good enough for a 2.8-yards-per-carry average—a full two yards per carry below his career average.

So what's eating Chris Johnson, who's broken the 100-yard mark but once in 2011? By all accounts, there's nothing physically wrong with Johnson. It's also tough to imagine that there's still any rust left over from Johnson's extended contract holdout, seeing as how he's had two months to get his football legs back underneath him.

The absence of fullback Ahmard Hall can pretty much be ruled out, too, since Johnson's performance has remained stagnant since his blocker's return from a five-game suspension.

Could it be a lack of confidence that's snowballed from his early struggles? Perhaps, but even that seems strange coming from a guy who set his sights on 2,500 rushing yards before the start of the 2010 season.

Whatever the case may be, Johnson isn't likely to find his way out of the woods just yet. His downward spiral figures to continue next week against the Cincinnati Bengals, who sport the NFL's fifth-stingiest run defense in terms of yards per game and third-stingiest with regard to yards per carry.

That being said, there's still plenty of time left in the current season—and plenty of opponents with soft run defenses left to play—for Chris Johnson to get himself back on track. If the Titans are to sneak into the playoffs in the AFC, they'll need Johnson to do just that.

Otherwise, it'll be up to the aging arm of Matt Hasselbeck to carry the load, which wouldn't likely make Mike Munchak, or the fans in Tennessee, particularly happy.