I gotta give props to local sportswriter/curmudgeon/Matlock doppelganger Joe Biddle. He often gives the Titans some tough love, but when they are unfairly backed into a corner, he takes up for them....
From today's Tennessean...
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Titans fans saw a hard-hitting, aggressive defensive team when they urged on their men in blue.
Denver quarterback Kyle Orton and his coach, Josh McDaniels, saw a Titans defense filled with cheap-shot artists who played dirty pool when the opportunity presented itself.
When three Pittsburgh Steelers picked Titans quarterback Vince Young up off the ground and unceremoniously planted him in the turf head first, it didn't even merit a flag from an official standing there watching it.
Young could have broken his neck, but that was judged to be aggressive, hard-hitting football, even though the NFL fined Steelers linebacker James Harrison for his part in the play.
When Titans defensive tackle Sen'Derrick Marks stumbled through the middle of the Broncos line and initially hit Orton at thigh level before he slid down Orton's body with his arms wrapped around him, it was a 15-yard penalty. Roughing the passer.
Dirty football? No. Was there intent to injure Orton? No.
Hey, it's football. These are not 6-5, 300-pound young men playing patty-cake. It gets rough at times.
Titans Coach Jeff Fisher teaches his defensive players to swarm to the ball, to hit hard, wrap up and take the opponent to the ground. It's the way an undersized Fisher played at Southern Cal and with the Chicago Bears.
He doesn't apologize for it, and he shouldn't. Playing timidly will get you beat every time.
Now, do certain Titans players have a reputation for playing too rough? Current Detroit Lions defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch was one of those perceived to be a dirty player. So was recently retired center Kevin Mawae.
If Vanden Bosch was guilty of anything, it was playing until he heard the whistle. At times, Vanden Bosch's motor carried him past the whistle. Mawae played in the middle of the trenches, where you resort to hand-to-hand combat at times. During 16 NFL seasons, Mawae learned all the tricks of the trade.
Today's most visible villain is Titans cornerback Cortland Finnegan. Undersized and a seventh-round draft pick, the Samford assassin has to prove himself every game. He is driven, determined and won't back down from a cornered rattlesnake.
Finnegan is feisty. He talks more trash than a sanitation worker during a double shift. He plays on that fine line, but he is not out to intentionally hurt another player.
I think the perception that the Titans are a dirty team is just that. Sure, when their defensive coordinator flips off an official during a game, it adds to that perception.
They are tied with the Lions, both teams incurring an NFL leading 37 penalties over the first four games. Officials have stepped off a league-high 344 yards against the Titans.
The Titans are averaging about 3.1 penalties more each game than last season.
Fisher discounts any suggestion his defense breaks the rules.
"I'd like to see them play harder, play more aggressive,'' Fisher said Monday.
Maybe Orton and McDaniels expected them to wear pink dresses, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
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