Analyzing the schedule

[scine09]

Here's my annual analyzing the schedule thread.  Figured I'd wait until the season was about to begin to do it.  I also ranked the games from 1-17 in terms of what I view as easiest to most difficult.

 

Week 1, vs Arizona:

 

There's no real advantage for either team in week 1 since everyone has the same amount of rest.

 

Fun Fact:  The Titans have gone longer without playing a divisional opponent in week 1 than any other team (2011).  In fact, there are only four matchups that haven't taken place in week one within the division since realignment in 2002.  The Titans are in two of them as they haven't ever faced the Texans in week 1 and haven't played the Colts in week 1 since 1994.

 

Week 2, at Seattle

 

The Seahawks the week before play at the Colts.  Both teams have equal rest.  

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  The Seahawks in September under Pete Carrol are 18-1 at home.  And they haven't lost a home opener since 2008.  Their only loss was two years ago, at home against New Orleans.  But that wasn't the home opener.  Tough task for the Titans.

 

Week 3, vs Indianapolis.  The Colts the week before are at home against the Rams.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  The Titans at home against the Colts in September are 0-4 since moving to Nashville.  They last beat the Colts at home in 1990.  

 

Week 4, at NY Jets.  Could be a trap game for the Titans.  You know Corey Davis will be motivated.  The Jets the previous week play at Denver.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  For whatever reason, the Titans have struggled to beat the Jets in NY while at the same time doing very well against the Giants in the same stadium.  They have a 3-game losing streak at the Jets and haven't beaten them on the road since 1996.  While at the same time they have a 3-game winning streak at the Giants and haven't lost on the road against them since 1991.

 

Week 5, at Jacksonville.  This is the second of back-to-back road games while the Jaguars the week before have a Thursday night game at Cincinnati.  Could be an equalizer.

 

Fun Fact:  Despite the fact that the Titans have played at Jacksonville once a year for now 27 years, this is only their 3rd game in Jacksonville in October.  The other two was a blowout loss in 2009 and a blowout win on Monday Night in 2010.

 

Week 6, vs Buffalo.  This begins a brutal 4 or 5 game stretch depending on how good the Saints are.  The Bills also have a tough stretch as they play at the Chiefs the previous week so this is the second of back to back road games.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

Fun Fact:  This is the 4th straight year and 5th time since 2015 that the Titans and Bills will play with 12 weeks remaining in the season.  The other games were in week 5 but since there's an 18th week it's now week 6.  The Bills won 4 of those games but the Titans won last year.

 

Week 7, vs Kansas City.  The Titans will be playing on a short week and the Chiefs will be on the second game of a road trip.  They're at Washington the week before.

 

Fun Fact:  Andy Reid in the regular season is 1-7 against the Titans.  It's the only team he hasn't beaten at least two times in the regular season.

 

Week 8, at Indianapolis.  The Colts are coming off a Sunday night game in San Francisco so it'll be a quicker turn around than maybe normal.  But I don't think that'll make much of a difference.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

Fun Fact(s):  This is tied for the second earliest the Titans have played a divisional opponent for the second time since realignment in 2002.  They finished with Jacksonville in week 8 in 2009.  It's also the first time since 2014 that their game against at Indy wasn't in November or December (that game was in late September).  Also, while the Titans went 1-13 at Indy from 2003-2016, they've done better recently, winning 3 of 4 there.

 

Week 9, at LA Rams.  The ridiculously tough stretch continues.  The Rams the prior week at Houston.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

Fun Fact and (not so) fun fact:  This is the 10th time since 2007 that the Titans will play an NFC team in week 9, including the last time they played at the Rams, in 2013.  And 4th straight year.  They're 7-2 in the other 9 games.  This game is on NBC and the Titans have struggled on NBC over the years.  Since NBC started doing football again in 1996, the Titans are 1-5 in games on the network.  And they've lost their last 5.  The last four games have been absolute blowouts.  They got blown out in Green Bay last year, at home against Indianapolis in the 2018 season finale, in 2017 at Pittsburgh and in 2009 at home against Indy.  And their only win was in the game that the Colts rested their starters in the 2007 finale.

 

Week 10, vs New Orleans.  Like the Colts a couple weeks ago, the Titans will be coming off a Sunday night game on the West Coast.  The Saints in week 9 are at home against Atlanta.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

Fun Fact:  The Titans have had mostly tough opponents in week 10 since 2014, with the games since 2015 at home.  In 2014 they played at Baltimore (AFC Divisional Round loss), 2015 they played Carolina (SB loss), 2016 Green Bay (NFC Championship game loss), 2017 Cincinnati (this is the exception as the Bengals were under .500), 2018 New England (won Super Bowl), 2019 Kansas City (won Super Bowl), 2020 Indianapolis (lost Wild Card game).

 

Week 11, vs Houston.  The Texans have a bye the previous week so that could help them.

 

Fun Fact:  The 3-game winning streak the Titans have against the Texans is the longest they've had against them since they won their first 4 games against them in 2002 and 2003.

 

Week 12, at New England.  The Patriots play the Falcons on the previous Thursday night.  It's never good when Bill Belichick has extra time to prepare.

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  The Titans haven't won a regular season game in New England since 1993 (0-4) and including the playoffs are 1-6 there.  Obviously we all know that their win was the last time they played there.

 

Week 13, BYE

 

Fun Fact:  This is tied for the latest bye the franchise has ever had as they also had a week 13 bye in 2016.

 

Week 14, vs Jacksonville.  The Jaguars the previous week are at the LA Rams.  So it's back to back road games with the first on the West Coast with the Titans coming off a bye.  This one needs to be a win.

 

Fun Fact(s):  The Titans have a 7-game winning streak at home against the Jaguars and have won 9 of the last 10 against them in Nashville.  The only loss was a forgettable game in 2013 when Jake Locker got hurt for the season and Ryan Fitzpatrick couldn't bring them back.  It was also Jacksonville's first win of the year (they were 0-8 coming into the game).  Mike Vrabel is 3-0 in his career coming off a BYE.

 

Week 15, at Pittsburgh.  The Steelers have a Thursday game the week before at Minnesota.  This seems to be a theme as it's the third time this will happen to the Titans.

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  The Steelers have been amazing against the AFC South going back to 2014.  They're 15-1 against the division in the regular season (15-2 overall) and have a 9-game regular season winning streak.  Their only loss came in 2017 against the Jaguars (they also lost to them in the playoffs that year).  Before that streak they lost two straight, both to the Titans.

 

Week 16, vs San Francisco.  The 49ers host the Falcons the previous week.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  This is the 5th straight year the Titans will play an NFC team in week 16.  They're 1-3 in the previous four.

 

Week 17, vs Miami.  The Dolphins play at New Orleans the previous Monday night.  So they will have a short week and back-to-back road games while the Titans will have even more time play on Thursday.  And you know Ryan Tannehill will be motivated.  The Titans need to win this one.

 

Fun Fact:  The Titans seem to always play Miami early in the season.  This is the first time in their previous five meetings with the Dolphins that the game will take place after week 6.

 

Week 18, at Houston.  The Texans play at the 49ers the previous week.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

Fun Fact(s):  The last time the city of Houston hosted a week 18 game, the Titans were the hosts.  It was the Kevin Gilbridge/Buddy Ryan game.  In addition (I may have used this one last year, but it's even better now), the Titans are 3-8 in Houston since 2010.  However, all 3 wins took place the last game of the season and they're 6-0 playing their last game against the Texans including 4-0 in Houston.  

 

Ranking games form easiest to most difficult:

 

Assuming health and that week 18 is meaningful, it would not shock me if the Titans lost any of the games on the schedule from #4 on.  They really should win the first three although as we all know anything can happen.

 

1.   vs Houston, Week 11.  I know the Texans are coming off a BYE, but if you can't beat Houston at home you don't deserve to be a contender.  This will not be the easiest game if DeShaun Watson is somehow back.

2.   vs Jacksonville, Week 14.  The Titans are coming off a BYE, the Jaguars are on the second of back-to-back games with the other game being on the West Coast.  The Titans need to win this game.

3.   at Houston, Week 18.  I know it's a road game.  But the Texans are terrible.  This will change if Watson plays or if for some reason the Titans for whatever reason don't need this game and play backups or had a disappointing season and aren't motivated.

4.   vs Miami, Week 17.  When your opponent plays a Monday night game on the road and has a short week and has to go on the road again while you have 10-days between games you need to win the game.

5.   at NY Jets, Week 4.  It gets tougher here as there's a lot of games that I feel could be placed here.  But they should be able to beat the Jets.

6.   at Jacksonville, Week 5.  I put this game behind the Jets game since the Jaguars will have a longer break coming off a Thursday night game.  

7.   vs New Orleans, Week 10.  The Saints to me seem to be around the 10-7, 7-10 range.  But it's a home game and you'd expect a win at home against a decent but not great team.

8.   vs San Francisco, week 16.  By this point the 49ers may be starting a rookie and it's going to be tough going more than halfway across the country on a very short week.

9.   vs Arizona, Week 1.  I don't feel as good about this game as many do.  Week 1 can be tough to predict and I think the Cardinals are underrated.

10.   at Pittsburgh, week 15.  I'd probably put this higher if the Steelers weren't coming off a Thursday night game.  But this is later in the season, who knows where Ben Roethlisberger will be at that stage of the season.  He seemed to slow down last year.

11. vs Indianapolis, week 3.  This is not an easy schedule.  Many years this game would seem to be among the top 3 or 4 toughest game.  But again, like with the NO game, it's a home game against a good but maybe not great team that you'd expect a win in.

12. at New England, week 12.  Many would probably put this higher but I expect the Patriots to be good.  Plus Belichick will have extra time to prepare after the Thursday game the week before.  And you know they'll be motivated after the Titans basically ended their dynasty the last time they played.

13.  at Indianapolis, week 8.  Flip a coin between these last 5, they're all very difficult.  I put this here because I think the Seahawks, Bills, Chiefs and Rams are better than the Colts.

14.   vs Buffalo, week 6.  I put this over the other ones because it's at home and I think the Chiefs are better than the Bills.

15.   at LA Rams, week 9.  I think the Rams might be the best team in the NFC but I also think winning in Seattle is harder than winning in LA.

16.   at Seattle, week 2.  Toughest road game of the year in my mind.  It's always hard winning up there to begin with.  They never lose in September.  And you know the place will be rocking after not having fans there for a year.

17.   vs Kansas City, week 7.  Playing the Chiefs on a short week?  I don't care where the game is, this is the toughest game of the year.

[Mythos27]

Our schedule is absolutely brutal.

[scine09]

2 minutes ago, Mythos27 said:

Our schedule is absolutely brutal.

I have the Titans at 11-6.  And I think that might be optimistic given the challenges of it.

[Mythos27]

6 minutes ago, scine09 said:

I have the Titans at 11-6.  And I think that might be optimistic given the challenges of it.

Yeah, like on talent I feel we're legit but then you look at that schedule and there are so many tough matchups that it's hard to imagine winning so many of them. 1st place schedules are no joke.

[scine09]

1 minute ago, Mythos27 said:

Yeah, like on talent I feel we're legit but then you look at that schedule and there are so many tough matchups that it's hard to imagine winning so many of them. 1st place schedules are no joke.

First place scheduled nowadays get you 3 different opponents.  The problem is they play the NFC West.  And yeah having KC on it hurts but they get the Steelers and Saints as their other unique opponents so I don't think that hurts them all that much.

 

But usually you can look at a schedule and see 5-6 games that good teams should easily win.  At least on paper.  I don't see that this year with them.

[AJClown]

30 minutes ago, scine09 said:

Here's my annual analyzing the schedule thread.  Figured I'd wait until the season was about to begin to do it.  I also ranked the games from 1-17 in terms of what I view as easiest to most difficult.

 

Week 1, vs Arizona:

 

There's no real advantage for either team in week 1 since everyone has the same amount of rest.

 

Fun Fact:  The Titans have gone longer without playing a divisional opponent in week 1 than any other team (2011).  In fact, there are only four matchups that haven't taken place in week one within the division since realignment in 2002.  The Titans are in two of them as they haven't ever faced the Texans in week 1 and haven't played the Colts in week 1 since 1994.

 

Week 2, at Seattle

 

The Seahawks the week before play at the Colts.  Both teams have equal rest.  

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  The Seahawks in September under Pete Carrol are 18-1 at home.  And they haven't lost a home opener since 2008.  Their only loss was two years ago, at home against New Orleans.  But that wasn't the home opener.  Tough task for the Titans.

 

Week 3, vs Indianapolis.  The Colts the week before are at home against the Rams.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  The Titans at home against the Colts in September are 0-4 since moving to Nashville.  They last beat the Colts at home in 1990.  

 

Week 4, at NY Jets.  Could be a trap game for the Titans.  You know Corey Davis will be motivated.  The Jets the previous week play at Denver.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  For whatever reason, the Titans have struggled to beat the Jets in NY while at the same time doing very well against the Giants in the same stadium.  They have a 3-game losing streak at the Jets and haven't beaten them on the road since 1996.  While at the same time they have a 3-game winning streak at the Giants and haven't lost on the road against them since 1991.

 

Week 5, at Jacksonville.  This is the second of back-to-back road games while the Jaguars the week before have a Thursday night game at Cincinnati.  Could be an equalizer.

 

Fun Fact:  Despite the fact that the Titans have played at Jacksonville once a year for now 27 years, this is only their 3rd game in Jacksonville in October.  The other two was a blowout loss in 2009 and a blowout win on Monday Night in 2010.

 

Week 6, vs Buffalo.  This begins a brutal 4 or 5 game stretch depending on how good the Saints are.  The Bills also have a tough stretch as they play at the Chiefs the previous week so this is the second of back to back road games.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

Fun Fact:  This is the 4th straight year and 5th time since 2015 that the Titans and Bills will play with 12 weeks remaining in the season.  The other games were in week 5 but since there's an 18th week it's now week 6.  The Bills won 4 of those games but the Titans won last year.

 

Week 7, vs Kansas City.  The Titans will be playing on a short week and the Chiefs will be on the second game of a road trip.  They're at Washington the week before.

 

Fun Fact:  Andy Reid in the regular season is 1-7 against the Titans.  It's the only team he hasn't beaten at least two times in the regular season.

 

Week 8, at Indianapolis.  The Colts are coming off a Sunday night game in San Francisco so it'll be a quicker turn around than maybe normal.  But I don't think that'll make much of a difference.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

Fun Fact(s):  This is tied for the second earliest the Titans have played a divisional opponent for the second time since realignment in 2002.  They finished with Jacksonville in week 8 in 2009.  It's also the first time since 2014 that their game against at Indy wasn't in November or December (that game was in late September).  Also, while the Titans went 1-13 at Indy from 2003-2016, they've done better recently, winning 3 of 4 there.

 

Week 9, at LA Rams.  The ridiculously tough stretch continues.  The Rams the prior week at Houston.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

Fun Fact and (not so) fun fact:  This is the 10th time since 2007 that the Titans will play an NFC team in week 9, including the last time they played at the Rams, in 2013.  And 4th straight year.  They're 7-2 in the other 9 games.  This game is on NBC and the Titans have struggled on NBC over the years.  Since NBC started doing football again in 1996, the Titans are 1-5 in games on the network.  And they've lost their last 5.  The last four games have been absolute blowouts.  They got blown out in Green Bay last year, at home against Indianapolis in the 2018 season finale, in 2017 at Pittsburgh and in 2009 at home against Indy.  And their only win was in the game that the Colts rested their starters in the 2007 finale.

 

Week 10, vs New Orleans.  Like the Colts a couple weeks ago, the Titans will be coming off a Sunday night game on the West Coast.  The Saints in week 9 are at home against Atlanta.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

Fun Fact:  The Titans have had mostly tough opponents in week 10 since 2014, with the games since 2015 at home.  In 2014 they played at Baltimore (AFC Divisional Round loss), 2015 they played Carolina (SB loss), 2016 Green Bay (NFC Championship game loss), 2017 Cincinnati (this is the exception as the Bengals were under .500), 2018 New England (won Super Bowl), 2019 Kansas City (won Super Bowl), 2020 Indianapolis (lost Wild Card game).

 

Week 11, vs Houston.  The Texans have a bye the previous week so that could help them.

 

Fun Fact:  The 3-game winning streak the Titans have against the Texans is the longest they've had against them since they won their first 4 games against them in 2002 and 2003.

 

Week 12, at New England.  The Patriots play the Falcons on the previous Thursday night.  It's never good when Bill Belichick has extra time to prepare.

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  The Titans haven't won a regular season game in New England since 1993 (0-4) and including the playoffs are 1-6 there.  Obviously we all know that their win was the last time they played there.

 

Week 13, BYE

 

Fun Fact:  This is tied for the latest bye the franchise has ever had as they also had a week 13 bye in 2016.

 

Week 14, vs Jacksonville.  The Jaguars the previous week are at the LA Rams.  So it's back to back road games with the first on the West Coast with the Titans coming off a bye.  This one needs to be a win.

 

Fun Fact(s):  The Titans have a 7-game winning streak at home against the Jaguars and have won 9 of the last 10 against them in Nashville.  The only loss was a forgettable game in 2013 when Jake Locker got hurt for the season and Ryan Fitzpatrick couldn't bring them back.  It was also Jacksonville's first win of the year (they were 0-8 coming into the game).  Mike Vrabel is 3-0 in his career coming off a BYE.

 

Week 15, at Pittsburgh.  The Steelers have a Thursday game the week before at Minnesota.  This seems to be a theme as it's the third time this will happen to the Titans.

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  The Steelers have been amazing against the AFC South going back to 2014.  They're 15-1 against the division in the regular season (15-2 overall) and have a 9-game regular season winning streak.  Their only loss came in 2017 against the Jaguars (they also lost to them in the playoffs that year).  Before that streak they lost two straight, both to the Titans.

 

Week 16, vs San Francisco.  The 49ers host the Falcons the previous week.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  This is the 5th straight year the Titans will play an NFC team in week 16.  They're 1-3 in the previous four.

 

Week 17, vs Miami.  The Dolphins play at New Orleans the previous Monday night.  So they will have a short week and back-to-back road games while the Titans will have even more time play on Thursday.  And you know Ryan Tannehill will be motivated.  The Titans need to win this one.

 

Fun Fact:  The Titans seem to always play Miami early in the season.  This is the first time in their previous five meetings with the Dolphins that the game will take place after week 6.

 

Week 18, at Houston.  The Texans play at the 49ers the previous week.  Both teams have equal rest.

 

Fun Fact(s):  The last time the city of Houston hosted a week 18 game, the Titans were the hosts.  It was the Kevin Gilbridge/Buddy Ryan game.  In addition (I may have used this one last year, but it's even better now), the Titans are 3-8 in Houston since 2010.  However, all 3 wins took place the last game of the season and they're 6-0 playing their last game against the Texans including 4-0 in Houston.  

 

Ranking games form easiest to most difficult:

 

Assuming health and that week 18 is meaningful, it would not shock me if the Titans lost any of the games on the schedule from #4 on.  They really should win the first three although as we all know anything can happen.

 

1.   vs Houston, Week 11.  I know the Texans are coming off a BYE, but if you can't beat Houston at home you don't deserve to be a contender.  This will not be the easiest game if DeShaun Watson is somehow back.

2.   vs Jacksonville, Week 14.  The Titans are coming off a BYE, the Jaguars are on the second of back-to-back games with the other game being on the West Coast.  The Titans need to win this game.

3.   at Houston, Week 18.  I know it's a road game.  But the Texans are terrible.  This will change if Watson plays or if for some reason the Titans for whatever reason don't need this game and play backups or had a disappointing season and aren't motivated.

4.   vs Miami, Week 17.  When your opponent plays a Monday night game on the road and has a short week and has to go on the road again while you have 10-days between games you need to win the game.

5.   at NY Jets, Week 4.  It gets tougher here as there's a lot of games that I feel could be placed here.  But they should be able to beat the Jets.

6.   at Jacksonville, Week 5.  I put this game behind the Jets game since the Jaguars will have a longer break coming off a Thursday night game.  

7.   vs New Orleans, Week 10.  The Saints to me seem to be around the 10-7, 7-10 range.  But it's a home game and you'd expect a win at home against a decent but not great team.

8.   vs San Francisco, week 16.  By this point the 49ers may be starting a rookie and it's going to be tough going more than halfway across the country on a very short week.

9.   vs Arizona, Week 1.  I don't feel as good about this game as many do.  Week 1 can be tough to predict and I think the Cardinals are underrated.

10.   at Pittsburgh, week 15.  I'd probably put this higher if the Steelers weren't coming off a Thursday night game.  But this is later in the season, who knows where Ben Roethlisberger will be at that stage of the season.  He seemed to slow down last year.

11. vs Indianapolis, week 3.  This is not an easy schedule.  Many years this game would seem to be among the top 3 or 4 toughest game.  But again, like with the NO game, it's a home game against a good but maybe not great team that you'd expect a win in.

12. at New England, week 12.  Many would probably put this higher but I expect the Patriots to be good.  Plus Belichick will have extra time to prepare after the Thursday game the week before.  And you know they'll be motivated after the Titans basically ended their dynasty the last time they played.

13.  at Indianapolis, week 8.  Flip a coin between these last 5, they're all very difficult.  I put this here because I think the Seahawks, Bills, Chiefs and Rams are better than the Colts.

14.   vs Buffalo, week 6.  I put this over the other ones because it's at home and I think the Chiefs are better than the Bills.

15.   at LA Rams, week 9.  I think the Rams might be the best team in the NFC but I also think winning in Seattle is harder than winning in LA.

16.   at Seattle, week 2.  Toughest road game of the year in my mind.  It's always hard winning up there to begin with.  They never lose in September.  And you know the place will be rocking after not having fans there for a year.

17.   vs Kansas City, week 7.  Playing the Chiefs on a short week?  I don't care where the game is, this is the toughest game of the year.

Awesome break down.

 

Thanks for the work.

[BudsOilers]

16 minutes ago, scine09 said:

First place scheduled nowadays get you 3 different opponents.  The problem is they play the NFC West.  And yeah having KC on it hurts but they get the Steelers and Saints as their other unique opponents so I don't think that hurts them all that much.

 

But usually you can look at a schedule and see 5-6 games that good teams should easily win.  At least on paper.  I don't see that this year with them.

 

But your thing usually is that no game is easy, and that's largely true in the NFL.  When you play a team matters - injuries, weather, etc.

 

Still, they certainly should go no worse than 4-2 in division and I'd like to think they beat the Jets.  I think a split of the NFC West is doable too.

[scine09]

3 minutes ago, BudsOilers said:

 

But your thing usually is that no game is easy, and that's largely true in the NFL.  When you play a team matters - injuries, weather, etc.

 

Still, they certainly should go no worse than 4-2 in division and I'd like to think they beat the Jets.  I think a split of the NFC West is doable too.

Yeah the schedule just looks hard to me.  I know that going into each year you could probably pick out 6-7 games that you'd expect the team to win knowing full well that they likely will lose one or two of those games.  Last year, for example, Cincinnati would have been at the top of the list.  And I guess the Jets and road Jaguars game would be there.  I just look at those games and see potential pitfalls.

[kgsTitan]

1 hour ago, scine09 said:

haven't played the Colts in week 1 since 1994.

 

Don't remind me about that God-forsaken game. 

 

Cody Carlson went from the QB of the future, to no longer part of the future plans pretty damn fast.

[CreepingDeath]

I like how you included the aging Rothlisburger and the remote possibility of D. Watson.  Are there other lingering injuries that could come into play?  M. Thomas could be back for the Saints later in the season.  

The fact the Titans play 3 games against teams with extra Thursday night rest is crazy.  

[pat]

Unlike past years, I can see the Titans winning any of those hardest games.  What I don't know is how consistent we'll be in the easier games.

[scine09]

6 minutes ago, CreepingDeath said:

I like how you included the aging Rothlisburger and the remote possibility of D. Watson.  Are there other lingering injuries that could come into play?  M. Thomas could be back for the Saints later in the season.  

The fact the Titans play 3 games against teams with extra Thursday night rest is crazy.  

There's always variables.  For example, someone of importance could go down Sunday on a team that plays both the Titans and Colts.  And maybe they play the Colts a lot earlier than the Titans or vice versa.  So one of the teams gets an advantage that the other team doesn't.

 

Just the way it falls.

[BudsOilers]

If the Titans are as good as everyone on here thinks they are, they should win 10 or 11 games.  I think anything less than 5-1 in division would be disappointing.

[scine09]

2 minutes ago, BudsOilers said:

If the Titans are as good as everyone on here thinks they are, they should win 10 or 11 games.  I think anything less than 5-1 in division would be disappointing.

Well what if week 18 is meaningless, they play all the backups, and they split with the Colts?  Or Jacksonville pulls an upset?

 

I have them at 11-6, winning the South, and 4-2 in the division.  I think ultimately as long as they win the division how they got there doesn't matter.  You'd like the bye but if you don't get it and can't get the #2 seed there's not a lot of difference between 3 and 4.

[BudsOilers]

17 minutes ago, scine09 said:

Well what if week 18 is meaningless, they play all the backups, and they split with the Colts?  Or Jacksonville pulls an upset?

 

I have them at 11-6, winning the South, and 4-2 in the division.  I think ultimately as long as they win the division how they got there doesn't matter.  You'd like the bye but if you don't get it and can't get the #2 seed there's not a lot of difference between 3 and 4.

 

At the end of they day, I agree that winning the division is the goal regardless of how.