Apologies on the fact that these thoughts aren’t quite as quick as usual… it’s been a long and interesting weekend, capped by a frustrating game to be sure.

Brief, but still here… and building on what Andrew said.

• First and foremost… My gameball goes to Le’Ron McClain, who continues to be the beast of all beasts on this team. He is running over people, which we expect from a 260lb fullback when given the ball. But he is also showing the ability to run around and away from many tacklers. He’s not just bouncing off defenders, he is two-stepping them off the field.
• Adding on a bit of running back talk… I would love to see Ray Rice get some more touches. You want a real threat when it comes to running screens and dump-offs? Rice is a Chris Johnson mini-me!
• Derrick Mason appeared to be doing is best impersonation of Hines Ward this game. It worked a few times too, but I’m not sure how much I liked it. You can only be so cocky and be so talkative when your offensive unit is managing a meager 10 points and 200 yards. He certainly got under the skin of the Titans, which  was fun to watch, but it actually came back to bite the Ravens as well. The Titans weren’t just hot, they were entirely fired up.
• Defense… defense, defense, defense. To begin with, I have to say that I’m shocked at how little pressure we actually got on Collins. Credit to the Titans OL and to Collins himself for finding his way around the minefield that is Ravens front-seven. But a bit of disappointment in the fact that our guys couldn’t get their hands on him.
• Additionally… the unit did everything right up until that final drive. Actually, they did everything right up until the middle of that final drive. But I’ll talk more about the penalty and “following-through” in some remarks tomorrow. As a whole, this unit did what it needed to for 55 minutes. Collins was not able to make his passes, the receivers were downright overmatched, the defense was on and off the field quickly, and even Chris Johnson was held in check and hit hard when he had to be.
• Matt Stover. I’m still not calling for his head. He will find his way. Honestly, I think one problem is that we’re not getting him enough chances. 7 chances in 4 games isn’t much. And it’s not easy to say that it’s because our offense is putting the ball in the endzone - because they mainly are not. Lay-off Stover. The offense needs to stop making stupid mistakes and Harbaugh needs to try and move that ball at least once.
• Let’s lay off Flacco as well. Reports from the stadum are that the crowd is starting to turn on him. True or not, it shouldn’t even be a question. This team is never going to have a decent franchise QB if we never allow our players to grow up on the field. Flacco has faced two of the best defenses in the league in consecutive games - YES, the Titans have one of the league’s best defenses - and he has held his own. This loss is not his. It might take a year, it may even take two, but one day we’ll see Flacco able to out-gun a defense all by himself. That day is not today, though.

• On a final note… I still don’t like Jeff Fisher. Something about him continues to bug me. And no, Titans fans, it’s not that he’s been “so overwhelmingly successful!”