Rout has Titans thinking positive
After a season-long struggle, the Tennessee Titans finally broke through just before the bye week with their most convincing victory of the season, a 37-3 rout of the Miami Dolphins.
It was the Titans' biggest margin of victory since December 2009 when they demolished the St. Louis Rams, 47-7, and it marked the Dolphins' worse home loss since 1968.
So where have these Titans been all season, instead of the ones who were blown out in five of their six losses?
"It's 3-6 and coming off the two weeks we did, one game we thought we should have won and one game we turned the ball over and gave it away. I thought the way they handled the whole week was good," Titans coach Mike Munchak said. "I thought practice was solid all week. I thought they realized if anything was going to change what happened, it was going to be us, it was going to be them. They came out Sunday, I thought, ready to play, which I think they do every week.
"They played hard, and things went our way early. We took advantage of all of our situations. You saw the confidence growing throughout the game. They had fun. You have fun when you're winning and making plays on offense and defense. It was fun to watch that."
The Titans forced four turnovers against the Dolphins, and now head into their bye week with at 4-6 with an outside chance to think about the playoffs in a mediocre AFC wild-card picture.
"I think they see that on their own. They'll watch games next week. They're aware of what's going on and the good thing is there are a lot of teams with four and five and six losses," Munchak said. "We're still ... a lot has to happen our way, but all we can control is to keep winning, and we haven't won more than two in a row this year, so we've got a lot of work ahead of us. We get that, but it's never over. I think that's what gives you encouragement, and we're working hard and heading in the right direction, and we've just got to see how this thing goes."
The players hope to keep things going once they return from a week off.
"I feel like we can have some momentum. We just need to keep it going. We just need to remember what it feels like to have a victory like that and keep it moving," tight end Jared Cook said.
Do the Titans, who have not won more than two in a row all season, have any shot of putting any sort of win streak together to get back into the playoffs?
"That's what we're shooting for. That's what Munch said to us today, we've just got to come out the last six weeks of the season with a bang and that's what we're looking to do," Cook said. "I'm confident in my teammates. I know the talent we have on this team and I know we can do it It was good in a sense just to kind of help the team. That was definitely a confidence booster."
