The Tennessee Titans’ 2009 report card: Defense

Tony Brown was the Titans best defender. Photo by Andrew Strickert for Total Titans

It’s good to see many of you have followed us here on our new temporary home. Thanks for being with us.

 

We looked at the report card for the offense the other day and will now turn to the defense.

 

As before, I’ve arranged the grades by position group, with a sentence or two about each player after their grades. Only the players who had significant playing time are graded here. Also, please note that these grades reflect only their performance on defense; any special teams play is not considered here.

 

As you might expect from a defense which had a poor year, many of their grades are not pretty.

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Titans place Bulluck and Thornton on IR

OLBs Keith Bulluck and David Thornton
photo by Andrew Strickert for Total Titans

Veteran linebackers Keith Bulluck and David Thornton will be placed on Injured Reserve, Titans coach Jeff Fisher announced today.

Bulluck’s MRI revealed a torn ACL and the Titans decided to go ahead with surgery for Thornton’s injured pectoral muscle.

It didn’t look good when Bulluck left the field Sunday afternoon. It looked worse when the defense, which had played rather well until then, started having problems. The problems weren’t entirely due to the loss of Bulluck. The d-line had some injury issues and Michael Griffin was still on the field, both of which were contributing factors, but the defense had a 24-6 lead when Bulluck left and couldn’t hold that 18-point lead.

Titans-Colts Week Thirteen preview

Strongside LB David Thornton always plays well against his former team, the Colts.
Photo by Andrew Strickert for Total Titans

When looking ahead at the Titans schedule earlier this year, the Week Thirteen matchup at Indianapolis stood out as the toughest test. Since then, the Colts have done nothing to change that viewpoint, reeling off eleven straight wins to be one of only two undefeated teams (Saints) and to claim the division crown.

The Titans are the last team to beat the Colts in regular season play, though eight out of ten Colts don’t remember it.

The current edition of the Colts is not the same team as the juggernaut which rolled over opponents earlier this season, when it won games by margins of 21,17, 22 and 36 points. The Colts’ last five games have all been fourth quarter come from behind victories with final margins of 4, 3, 1, 2 and 8 points. In that five game stretch, the Colts offense was held to 20 points or less on three occasions.

Titans-Texans live blog tonight

You’re invited to join us tonight as we plan on having a live blog of the Titans-Texans game. As usual, Tom Gower will be heading it up. He always does an outstanding job.

Following is the injury report, which is followed by some of my thoughts after the jump.

Thoughts on the Titans-49ers injury report

Titans RT David Stewart - Photo by Andrew Strickert for Total Titans

The complete injury report for the Titans-49ers game is now available. The biggest concern is obviously RT David Stewart.

Javon Ringer, Back, Out

Jevon Kearse, Knee, Questionable

Mike Otto, Knee, Questionable

David Stewart, Hamstring, Questionable

David Thornton, Hip, Questionable

Vincent Fuller, Groin, Questionable

Nicholas Harper, Forearm, Questionable

If Stewart is unable to play, or has to be replaced, we might get to see rookie Troy Kropog fill in. (Mike Otto, the other backup tackle, has been missing practice with a knee problem and is also listed as Questionable on the injury report.)