Colts' Victory Overshadows Titans' Loss in Same Game

Someone should tell the Tennessee Titans that they changed their name from the Oilers a while back, because somewhere along the way they've sprung a leak.

Everyone has heard by now that the Indianapolis Colts have snapped out of their three-game funk, following Thursday's 30-28 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Thursday. But few are talking about how the Titans doubled up on the Colts' recent woes with their season-high losing streak hitting six yesterday.

When there are only 16 games to be played, you had better make damn sure that your losing streaks are kept to a minimum, and, under no circumstances are they to encompass over one third of your friggin' season. At that point, it's really just a pitiful cry out for help in the vain of a drug-addict son returning home asking for money to *ahem* get some "dinner". In the case of the Titans, their drug of choice seems to controversy, and lots of it.

For one example, it's clear that heading into the game Tennessee would have taken those 11 interceptions Peyton Manning had thrown in his last three games in a heartbeat over their current quarterback situation, because at least with the picks they would have gotten just a struggling QB in a package deal instead of the broken one they've got right now. We're talking beyond repair.

"On the plus side, I'm playing just like Peyton Manning."

Vince Young, now gone for the season, seems determined to act his name and like a hormonal, pubescent teenager, whose latest growth spurt has targeted his oversized head, both literally and figuratively. Cornerback Cortland Finnegan spends 90% of his time acting like a jackass, 9% making like Houston Texan wide-receiver Andre Johnson's punching bag, and the other 1% likely in a therapists' chair likely discussing some deep unresolved mother issues. And wide-receiver Randy Moss has been such a welcome addition to the team that the losing streak only became a streak by hitting two games once he arrived. Indeed, not only has Moss not been a gamebreaker, the Titans haven't even won a game with him playing.

Perhaps this latest loss best epitomizes the Titans' season so far. At one point they were down 21-0, but tried valiantly to get back in the game and did only to eventually fall short. Right now, no matter how many games they win to try and dig themselves from out of the grave they're in, all hope is pretty much lost. With three games left to play, it's still mathematically possible for the 5-8 Titans to make the playoffs, but you had to believe that yesterday's loss against a division rival was a must-win for there to be even a remotely realistic possibility of that happening. Jeff Fisher's decision to punt the ball late in the game with the score 27-21 at fourth and one was probably a mistake, one most melodramatic journalists might say cost Tennessee its season, but it was really only a mistake because it's become readily apparent that the team has nothing left to lose anymore. Even its dignity got lost a long time ago.

Fans booed the decision to send out the punting unit, but maybe they had just incorrectly assumed that they stood a chance, that the Colts were just the team to get them out of their rut, but truth be told deep inside they had to realize that it was the other way around and that all things being equal Indianapolis is just better. At this point, so are 30 others.

No Wonder Finnegan Was so Upset... Johnson Had Love-Tapped Him from Behind Earlier

It turns out Houston Texans wide-receiver Andre Johnson was miked-up during the game against the Tennessee Titans last weekend, meaning every little detail of the lead-up to his fight with Titans cornerback Cortland Finnegan was caught on tape. It would seem in Finnegan's mind that his getting a little push from behind justified his failed attempt to try to rip off Johnson's head by the facemask. Either that, or Finnegan just likes it rough, to the point that he needs to incite violence by others by being an idiot just to satisfy his really weird fetish. I mean he did literally jump on Johnson's back in a game last season, resulting in probably the most flagrant pass-interference penalty in the history of football and a not-so-subtle, overenthusiastic attempt at flirtation.

Finnegan and Johnson Get Fined for Slugfest, as in Suggestion from NFL to Keep up the Fine Work

First there was Oakland Raider Richard Seymour's punch to the head of Pittsburgh Steeler Ben Roethlisberger, and now this. Before you know it, the "No Fun League" will be turning into a veritable day at the amusement park.

Obviously brawls are fun to watch, but the NFL is walking the line of some pretty dangerous territory, refusing to come down hard on Tennessee Titans cornerback Cortland Finnegan and Houston Texan wide-receiver Andre Johnson for their fight on Sunday. Each got fined $25,000 for their actions on Monday night (as did Seymour for his attack on Roethlisberger last week) and will not get suspended, meaning the NFL is one step closer to officially charging players $25,000 for taking liberties on opposing players they don't like that much.

Considering Johnson signed a seven-year, $62.5-million deal in August, it may actually sound like a pretty good deal, losing some mere pocket change (relatively speaking) in order to get even with someone that has been a stick in his craw for a while now. Hell, Finnegan, widely known as one of the biggest pests in the league, should take this whole experience as an unofficial warning to keep his shenanigans to a minimum, lest he's actually hoping for a long line of opposing teammates looking for revenge to form every game.

Still, if this is commissioner Roger Goodell's attempt at cleaning up the league, maybe he should take a more active approach, actually suspend the initial transgression so as not to risk trends developing and then snowballing. If he lets players police themselves, the end-result may be attractive, but the lead-up will be a war with bodies dropping every which way. We are talking about people that concuss others and break limbs for a living within the game's actual rules. Take those out of the picture, and all you have left is a no-holds-barred free-for-all akin to the UFC. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but, mixed with football, you get the XFL. And that's very bad.

Tennessee: Meet Your Iceberg

"That is how you sabotage your own season, ladies and gentlemen."

You had to think one team had to do it, and it ended up being the Tennessee Titans, who took the plunge into the Atlantic's icy depths on Wednesday and claimed the recently waived Randy Moss from the Minnesota Vikings.

In the wake of the potential costly loss to injury of wide receiver Kenny Britt, the Titans could not restrain themselves from apparently putting their 5-3 season at risk.

Moss's talent is undeniable. He is a six-time Pro Bowler and he did win offensive-rookie-of-the-year honours back in 1998, which makes one wonder if this isn't just the Titans' way of reliving the past and rekindling an unrequited love affair that budded back in the 1998 NFL draft when the Titans - then the Oilers - opted to go with future bust Kevin Dyson instead. Moss went to the Vikings five picks later.

While Moss can be considered a relative bargain at $3.34 million for the last eight games of the season, so can a gorgeous prostitute practically giving it away for $20 per hour... until you find out about the STD she gave you as a going-away present. And that's what this waiver claim will most likely boil down to, the transmission of a disease, in this case cancer in the locker room.

If his being traded away for close to nothing from the New England Patriots wasn't a big enough hint, his being waived by the Vikings just one month later should have been. And the fact that the Titans, despite ranking 23rd in the league's waiver system, were able to get him should send up huge red flags. That they were the only team at all to put in a claim for him should send them straight to the hospital for a blood test as a pre-emptive strike in their fight against what they've most certainly and ignorantly contracted.

So the Titans as a result can suffer the dubious distinction of being the first team to go through three name changes in just 13 years, from the Houston Oilers to the Tennessee Oilers in 1997, then to the Tennessee Titans in 1999, and now to the Tennessee Titanic.