NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- "I always have fun playing the game."
This was James Conner, back home yesterday after the Steelers' final practice of the week in preparation for ... oh, you know ... that little game they're about to host down here.
"It's fun when you're winning," he would add. "We've been winning, so I've been having fun."
Fun can fairly be defined, as he put it, by being 5-0. Same record the Titans will bring when the football flies Sunday, 1:02 p.m. Eastern, inside Nissan Stadium. There's no shortage of fun to be found in what, remarkably, is just the sixth matchup of unbeaten teams this late in an NFL season in the Super Bowl era.
Also, fun can be defined as this:
That's from last Sunday. The Titans needed overtime and a friendly coin flip to take down the 1-5 Texans, 42-36, in large part because they couldn't stop Houston's offense all afternoon.
The play above is a 53-yard touchdown from Deshaun Watson to Will Fuller, and it's even uglier from the Tennessee perspective than it appears. Fuller, lining up atop the screen, is one of three wide receivers, but he's not supposed to be an option for Watson. His sole purpose is to sprint up the left sideline to clear space for Watson's other two targets -- one in the slot, the other to the right -- to get open underneath.
The Titans are in an inverted Cover 2 defense, in which the cornerbacks and safeties switch roles. So it's cornerback Malcolm Butler's job to flip back and stay with Fuller. As in, it's his only job. And he didn't do it, instead just floating aimlessly toward the middle.
Watson, to his inestimable credit, sees this even though Fuller is intended to be no more than a decoy, and fires a pristine bullet spanning 60 yards in the air.
At which point, fun can be defined as this:
Look, these sequences happen to everyone. Steven Nelson and the Steelers were scorched on virtually the same look by the Giants' Daniel Jones in the opener. But for the team based in Music City, it's the same old song every Sunday. With the emphasis on old: Butler is a 30-year-old corner. The other corner, Johnathan Joseph, is, um, 36. (Yes, I confirmed.) The strong safety, Kenny Vaccaro, is 29. The free safety, Kevin Byard, is the babe in the manger at 27.
Average age: 30.5.
Joseph was forced into starting when 2017 first-round pick Adoree' Jackson suffered a knee injury in September. A Pro Bowl performer in another era, Joseph is coming off a full 2019 season in which he was entrusted with only 60% of all snaps and, by the way, his son is a senior in high school.
As the legendary George Jones once crooned in these parts ...
One gets the idea.
But, just to be safe, a handful of harrowing stats:
• The Titans rank 26th in total defense in the 32-team NFL, allowing 409.8 yards per game, or 123.6 more than the No. 2-ranked Steelers. That includes 28th in passing defense at 272.8 yards, 26th in rushing defense at 137.0 yards. So they're basically bad at everything, except ...
• They've got nine takeaways, including six interceptions and three fumble recoveries. That's as many as the Steelers, and it's obviously a positive. But it also can be seen as having masked the more controllable variable of, you know, having teams march up and down the field on you relentlessly.
• They've got one player, defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons, with as many as two sacks, and six total as a team, tied with the Colts for fewest in the league and just one more than Bud Dupree has all by himself. Within this, they hurry the quarterback on only 6.8% of all passing plays, roughly a third of the Steelers' league-leading 17.7%, and they create pressure only 20.8% of the time, roughly half of the Steelers' league-leading 39.4%. So this'll be quite the departure for an offensive line that just muzzled Fletcher Cox and Myles Garrett.
• They concede 5.1 rushing yards per attempt, second-highest in the league, and have a total of 22 tackles for a loss. T.J. Watt has 10 of the latter by himself.
• Finally, to that fossil-fueled secondary: The Titans' opponents have a collective QB rating of 113.6, even better than Ben Roethlisberger's 109.1. And this from a blah pack of Drew Lock, Gardnew Minshew, Kirk Cousins, then a couple good ones in Josh Allen and Watson. They've given up 7.0 yards per passing attempt. To stress, that's per attempt. And mostly due to that, they've allowed a 57.4% conversion rate on third down and 83.3% success rate in the red zone, both worst in the league.
So wait, we've all spent the past week fussing over Derrick Henry and Ryan Tannehill?
Uh-uh, sorry, but the real story that'll be told here is what happens when the ball is heading the other way.
It's not as if all concerned aren't already aware.
"I just would like to get back to a level of consistency," Mike Vrabel told Nashville reporters this week when the subject of his defense was broached. "I think that's probably the thing that's hurt us most. Too many positive plays. There hasn't been the communication, the execution ... there are just, unfortunately, some uncharacteristic ... plays that kind of overshadow a lot of stuff that actually is good."
"We have to communicate a little better on defense, affect the quarterback more," Simmons, their top interior threat, essentially echoed. "I trust this defense. I know we're going to fix it. It's all coming together."
Yeah, we'll see. Roethlisberger's offense hasn't been perfect, but I'm having a hard time envisioning him playing the part of panacea for these guys. Especially not after the deep touch/timing he finally showed a week ago against the Browns. Plus, he'll have Diontae Johnson all the way back, he'll benefit from the ongoing breakout of Chase Claypool that began with Diontae going down, and he'll have additional exposure to James Washington.
Oh, and JuJu Smith-Schuster might reasonably be counted upon for more than a couple catches.
That's not even citing Conner, Eric Ebron and an increasingly confident offensive line, which is quite the group, and progressing with each passing week.
The Steelers talked up Henry and Tannehill, too. As they should. Those two will represent the tallest task their defense has faced yet, now that they unmasked the Browns for the billionth time. This won't be some stroll down Broadway. It's a tight matchup on too many other fronts.
But don't presume for a split-second that the visitors won't be aware of how and where this one needs to be won.
"Well, both of their corners are ... are ... are ... are older guys that've played really good football," Randy Fichtner, a nice guy, replied this week when asked about Tennessee's defense, and I've no doubt he spoke respectfully of both Butler and Joseph while searching for the right word. "They've been brought up the right way. We've seen them in a lot of places. They're very savvy, very intelligent. ... They've got an awful lot of experience in their secondary. They've got talented players in their front seven. This is going to be as good a challenge as we've had."
Nice guy. I mentioned that, right?