HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. -- There's no secret that I love the state in which I was born, Tennessee.
I was born in Memphis, where the culture is like no other. Barbecue and basketball is a lifestyle there. I once thought I was going to be the next Shaquille O’Neal in the eighth grade. I mean I was 6 feet 3 and was certain I was growing another 6 inches by the time I hit 18.
Shortly after I got to high school, I realized that wasn’t a feasible dream and chose to stick with football. Great career choice for a young kid at the time. I was good enough to win again All-State honors and Mr. Football for lineman in the state of Tennessee, a huge accomplishment for anyone from Lauderdale County, a place with a population of approximately 28,000. As rural as it comes, and just like the greenery and slow life of some parts outside of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
The dream of playing in the NFL was to be ran through the University of Tennessee first, and here I sit as a retired Pittsburgh Steeler and somewhat regular civilian doing a morning radio show for the flagship station for University of Tennessee sports and Titans football. Being up front with you guys, it’s a dream job of mine considering I get to do a few things I love, like discussing football and talking about the game that has given me so much.
This is the week everyone has been waiting for with the Titans-Steelers matchup, especially with the postponement that came in Week 4.
There was finger pointing at the team in Nashville about the way they went about their safety to make sure everyone could finish out the season. Being in the local media here, I can tell you they were ticked. The NFL offices in New York allowed members of their media to proclaim potential 'historic' punishments of major fines and a year-long suspension for head coach Mike Vrabel.
With more and more investigating, the league offices came back with nothing. This team had to play a game on a Tuesday night after having 16 days off and showed the world that they were pissed and clearly out for blood. They gave the Bills a beating for the world to see on a day when there’s usually no football except for the Mid-American Conference, and they clearly aren’t playing this year due to COVID restrictions. I think it’s fair to say that this team still has had some question marks about how they win games or if are they a legit contender. I’m here to say yes, they are, and the ultimate test for both teams will happen on Oct. 25th.
I’m beyond excited as a former player and as a fan.
The Steelers and Titans both have questions that need to be answered. Can the Pittsburgh offense continue to flourish as it has been for weeks? Can this Titans defense finally start showing signs that it’s going to help the No. 2 overall offense? My eye will be concentrated on one particular segment: What will the No. 2 ranked defense do against the No. 2 ranked offense?
To start off, TJ Watt and Bud Dupree lead the way along with Cam Heyward. They are human wrecking balls. As someone who took for granted what that defense looks like on game day, I’m just glad I was on the same side. I saw them literally knock Baker Mayfield and the rest of Ben Roethlisberger kids out of the game. It was a teaching tape for how you keep little brother at a distance, and I loved it.
We have been asking the question for a few weeks: Where’s Minkah Fitzpatrick? He answered the call and with a vengeance on the way to the end zone for a pick six. I don’t question this defense because you really have no need to with them being No. 2 against the run, and No. 7 against the pass. You can try and nitpick as much as you want but that’s as solid as I’ve seen them. I would have loved to have this defense from 2014-2017. That was our window for multiple Super Bowls if you’re asking me now.
On the other side of the ball is the headache the Titans have, and his name is Derrick Henry.
Henry getting the ball is one of the most obvious things in all of football at any level ,and teams have yet to stop the charge in a holistic manner. There have been games where he’s been held to 57 yards, but he still punishes you with two touchdowns. We saw him lift a fully grown man off his feet and send him to Mars. You miss hitting him low or you bounce off of his legs, and he can go for 94 yards the way he did against the Texans. I'm not saying he’s unbeatable, but he’s shown to be the main reason why the Titans are undefeated.
The resurrection of Ryan Tannehill has been a hot topic amongst everyone. Was it actually Adam Gase who held him back in his earlier years? It surely seems that way. This is a “second chance” type of league we play in, and we have seen what good coaching and a having the right teammates around a guy can do for them. I think everyone was shocked when the Titans decided to pay him in the offseason, and if anything, this team has seen its return.
This matchup is the type of game you have toward the end of the year. If it was slated during the latter part of the year I’m sure it would be flexed to the Sunday night slot.
This game doesn’t come without some issues, and both teams seemed to have gotten snake bitten on the same weekend.
The Titans lost their pro bowl starting left tackle, Taylor Lewan, to an ACL injury against the Texans. He’s without a doubt their tone-setter and one of the leaders of that team. On the other side, the Steelers have lost their green dot guy -- and I’m sure a future Pro Bowl and All Pro linebacker -- in Devin Bush. It pained me to see him go down. He's such a good player and an even better person.
The Titans have to figure out how to fill that void, possibly with Ty Sambrailo while the Steelers look to fill their void with Robert Spillane. Both of these guys have huge question marks on if they can handle the task. The bigger of the two issues should probably go to Sambrailo. He has to see Dupree and the other Watt brother considering JJ got a sack fumble off of him with his second play of him entering the game. This defense is a walking migraine and teams have been on the bad end of Keith Butler and Mike Tomlin’s evil plan.
Being on the dark side of sports now, covering the games, I have found myself listening to local media here and the hate that these two teams share isn’t spoken of enough.
In the media notes I received to cover this game, I found out the Titans/Oilers franchise hadn’t played any other team more in its history than the Steelers. They used to be in the same division when a former Steelers coach by the name of Mike Munchak used to play. I vividly remember him telling us in meetings when we had to face this team during my time as a player, “If we beat the Steelers, our season was made. Nothing else mattered if we beat you guys.” The hate goes as far back as the Keith Bullock towel-stomping during a regular season game, to us setting a rush record in 2014 with an emerging Le’Veon Bell. Remember, we had a running back quit right after the game.
History, people!
We find ourselves with another controversy before this game. This one is because of COVID, and the guys having to rearrange their bye weeks. And we saw the social media war of words that came from that.
To say I’m excited is again an understatement. This is the matchup of the week, nothing else on the NFL game schedule comes close.
So as I have to wake up Monday morning at 4:40 am, I’m hoping to be more perky than usual. I’ll wait to say my game pick but you guys have to feel where I’m going considering I spent 11 years in the sports-passionate city of Pittsburgh. But my job now is to cover a damn good team that is nobody’s punching bag and seems to deliver the punches more than receive them.
Undefeated versus undefeated is what we need to get us by, and I'm sure there will be no tie coming off this weekend. To think, I didn’t even mention the year that Ben is having or the fact that the Steelers have to deal with Jeff Simmons who reminds me of Cam Heyward.
It’s a matchup I’d love to be a part of and in some aspects, I am!
All that’s left to say is ... here we go.