Tennesssee Titans: Perfect in the '72 Likeness

The Titans are 10-0. Half perfect. To keep things in perspective, the '72 fins were 10-0 midway through the season as well. So what are the chances of the Tennessee Titans going perfect? Since the merger, only 1 team has been perfect out of 42 Superbowl seasons. Pretty rare. But the '72 Dolphins have something in common with the '08 Titans...

Bruising, quick, physical, agile, and elite. Those are all words that describe the best running back duo in the NFL today. Slash and Dash, Chris Johnson and Lendale white, the speedster and bruiser combo have combined for 1327 yards this year. CJ has 787 rushing yards with 5 touchdowns. Lendale White has 470 with 11 touchdowns. They aren't the leaders in rushing yards per game, the Giants are, but they get the yards they need when it matters. If they don't, they go to their QB, back up veteran Kerry Collins. The Veteran "game manager" isn't just a game manager, he's a play maker when needed as shown last week when the Chicago Bears shut down the Titans running game. Passing for 289 yards and 2 touchdowns he effectively carried the offense to a win. On the season he has thrown 8 touchdowns and 4 interceptions in 10 games, he has only been sacked 5 times.

This scenario has played out before in the past. The 1972 Dolphins. Mercury Morris, Larry Csonka, Earl Morrall. The one-two punch of Morris and Csonka lead a tenacious rushing attack that helped the Fins combine for more than 2,000 yards rushing, with both getting over 1,000 yards each - the first time that has ever happened in the NFL. At QB, Earl Morall lined up under center to manage the game with limited passing and limited mistakes, he didn't have flashy numbers, but he didn't lose a game either. Throwing for 1,360 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions, and sacked 14 times, Earl Morall did just enough to keep winning. Nothing amazing, nothing game breaking either - just like Collins.

This offense is almost a mirror image of the '72 fins. Run oriented, efficient passing.

The first time I heard the name Haynesworth was after his face stomping incident, since then it has only been about his dominance as a defensive tackle. His performance has been pro bowl worthy, so has the performance of the men around him. Not big names, no huge stars, just strong consistent players like Keith Bullock, Kyle Vanden Bosch, Cortland Finnegan, and Jevon Kearse (serviceable, not as amazing as his first time around). No superstar like Ray Lewis or Bob Sanders. Just good solid players who make plays, sack the QB, stuff the run, intercept, just enough to win that week.

What is the opposite of a run oriented, defensive minded team? Passing teams, finesse teams.

The New England Patriots had an explosive offense that almost ran the table. Scoring the most points in one season in NFL history, record breaking performances from Tom Brady and Randy Moss set what the ideal image of a perfect team would look like. At least what most people thought what it would take to be an undefeated team. There was just 2 things that limited the Patriots:

1: No solid running game.  Yes, it did perform late in the season, but evaporated in the Superbowl. Not consistent, not overwhelming.

2: Defense. Good, but the flaws were covered up by a pass offense that could make up for it. Consistent, but flawed in numerous ways as we all saw in the Superbowl.

Perfect isn't explosive. It is hard fought. It has a blue collar. It hurts and it is going to be close, a lot of the time.The offense will score when it can, but the defense takes up the slack when it has to. The Patriots blew out teams all year long minus a few, very few, occasions. The Titans and '72 Dolphins had very close games and very lopsided games, as I'll show below. Winning by a large margin may guarantee wins in the short term, it does not matter in the long term:

The '72 Fins forced 385 points to 171 allowed, that's a 214 point difference. The Titans are significantly less, at a 131 point differential but the allowed points total is at 113, and that's only in 10 games. It will go up, but at this pace it will be around 181 points allowed in 16 games. When we look at the '07 Patriots the point differential is some 315 points. 274 allowed (around 100 more than these Titans) in 16 games, to 589 forced. As we see, the lower the points allowed total the better the win chance, not the amount of points forced.

The cliche NFL mantra: defense wins Championships.

It is true.

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As a Dolphin I don't really want them to complete something that is so close to my Dolphin fandom. Other teams have won more superbowls than we have have, but we are the only team to win one while going undefeated. That sets us apart from the rest of the league. We have the Perfect Season. We set the example of what a Perfect team looks like. It's not the gunslinging, high flying air show ala the Patriots, but of what a traditional football team is: defence and pounding the rock.

I just wanted to highlight the similarities between the Titans and '72 Phins. They are very alike: same characters, same philosophy, same kind of coach.