His 2004 Year in Review absolutely made my morning! [hat tip: Sullivan] Don’t bail out halfway through either, because Barry always finishes as strong as he starts. Fans of exit polls or Janet Jackson beware.
Incidentally, it turns out he does this every year! Check out 2003 too, while you’re at it.
(or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog)
So, I’ve been “actively” (read: I told my 3 friends) blogging for around six months now, and I must say that it’s been enlightening in a number of ways. Looking back, fully 25% of my posts have been Titans-related, which doesn’t paint a bright picture for this place with the offseason approaching. On the other hand, my hits have been steadily improving in spite of my absenteeism, which either means I became a regular on a few lists or the spambots don’t discriminate.
With the new year fast approaching I feel some need for self-reflection. This has definitely been and continues to be a learning experience, and consequently I’ve noticed a few trouble spots worth mentioning:
10. Committing to a Timeline. One shouldn’t start a series (read: Titans recaps) without the resolve to stay on top of it, or at least the ambivalence to give it up without guilt. I possess neither, so I may refrain from such commitments in the future.
9. The Expression “Part I”. That was a really dumb move on my part… three times now I think. I still owe a Part II on the election that’s 7 weeks old. From now on, if it can’t be said in one post any sequels will be surprises.
8. Essays of Thoughtful Commentary. Anybody wonder how Instapundit can blog 50 times a day? Three reasons immediately come to mind: college professors have fluid work schedules, mainstream sites have guest bloggers and research aides, and most significantly, each post is only two sentences long. While this site wouldn’t be mine if I wasn’t willing to comment freely, shorter posts are probably closer to the happy medium.
7. Bloglines, My False Friend. I love Bloglines and will shamelessly plug Jacob as thanks for introducing me to it. However, the ease of checking for updated sites comes with a newfound urge to scroll through every back post instead of just taking a screen glance. This has got to stop — anything I missed yesterday that was really worth saying will just show up on someone else’s blog today.
6. Falling off the Wagon. Actually feeling like you have a readership and then recklessly abandoning them because you just feel behind on things is probably not the best way to win friends and influence people. I am not good with plants; I forget to water them and they die. I care more about blogs than I do plants though, so maybe I should try a bit harder, eh?
5. Finding the “Fun” in “Blog”. Yeah, so none of the letters in fun are even in blog, or weblog, or website, or Chad for that matter. But just bear with me. I am done telling my friends “I have to go to the coffee shop and do work now” when really I mean blogging. I have a day job; I don’t need two.
4. Navigating the Day Job. Speaking of day jobs, I really should stop sleeping in and playing internet spades at work and get some stuff done so I can drink coffee and post happily. This working 12 hours a day only because I slacked off and then bringing it home with me as some kind of constant guilt trip really will have to stop.
3. Managing Expectations. How much do I really want to be writing on this site, anyway? It’s less than some people, but definitely more than I have been. Will I start posting more as I fall into a routine? As much as I seem like a routine kind of guy, though, when was the last time I was in a routine? Hmm, this one could be tough.
2. Accommodating the Regulars. While it’s not as much of a problem for me, I know friends for whom it’s quite an issue. What’s the balance between what’s personally interesting and what’s generally interesting? My opinion on the matter is that individuals writing on their own websites have a right to be their own best friends. Consequently, I don’t take requests — but I will entertain casual suggestions :)
1. Defying the Labels. If blogging were entirely a hobby I wouldn’t care if I never posted, which really isn’t true nor would I want it to be. (Pardon the double negative overload.) If blogging were purely a chore I would rue time spent here, in which case why would I even be writing at all? No, it’s somewhere in between for me — I’m not sure where yet, but somewhere.
Well, I guess that’s probably as close to a New Year’s Resolution as anybody’s going to get from me. I have an email address if it should seem like I’m straying too far from my own expectations.
So I haven’t posted in… what, three weeks? I can recite the usual pathetic reasons, but really only 3 of the days are excusable: my brief trip to Virginia Tech for my great friend Andy’s graduation.
The trip was definitely short — got in at 4 a.m. the morning of Friday the 17th and was back up for the 11 a.m. commencement activities. Excellent ceremony, not many speakers and only one keynote and very tasteful and an extraordinarily brief 2 hours — thank goodness for December graduations! Then it was time well spent with Andy’s family, Playstation in the afternoon (I am awesome at Madden and terrible at everything else) and out to celebrate in the evening. And as quick as that, the next morning it was back to Nashville to take care of business back home.
Public props to Andy for finally finishing — this required engineering co-op thing has stretched his degree out to what must seem like decades, and as those of us who’ve hung around college too long know, the company can get pretty thin if you’re not careful. For all his complaining though, Andy did manage to get pretty much exactly the kind of job he was looking for up in Washington — I’ll look forward to hanging more with him during frequent visits and possibly even joining him there before year’s end. Congrats man, it’s all working out.
Score: Titans 16, Broncos 37
There are no stats that should matter but don’t this week — this game was just very very very very bad. It was a cold clear Christmas night and the perfect atmosphere for an ESPN-televised game with playoff implications. The only problem is only one team actually had any playoff aspirations, and that team showed up to play whereas the Titans did not. My team would have showed up to play, of course, but unfortunately most of them are occupying the Titans wing of Baptist Hospital right now.
Incidentally, this week the Pro Bowl roster was announced and no Titans were selected. In fairness they did have 5 alternates, but they couldn’t overcome the fact that a terrible team can’t get a national voting audience. Too bad though, especially since Derrick Mason leads the NFL in catches and Drew Bennett leads the league in receiving yardage. Also Chris Brown got his 1000 yards without ever playing in the second half of a game and Keith Bullock deserves credit for being the only defensive player on the team that didn’t get injured.
One game left and this season will mercifully come to an end. And for the record, this whole weekly game recap thing was a great idea when it started — now it’s more like carrying a knife around to reopen old wounds periodically. Good thing I can pull off the appearance of cynicism; otherwise I might just sound bitter :)
Next Game: Detroit (6-9) at Tennessee (4-11) Sun 1/2
Score: Titans 35, Raiders 40
Stats that Should Matter but Don’t:
First Downs: Titans 31, Raiders 20
Passing Yards: Volek 492, Collins 371
Total Yards: Titans 527, Raiders 415
Time of Possession: Titans 35:03, Raiders 24:57
Game Story:
And I said the last game was a shootout… good grief. Special recognition again to Drew Bennett with 13 receptions for 160 yards and 2 touchdowns, tying Jerry Rice with a NFL-record 8 touchdowns in 3 games. Who throws for 492 yards and loses? Oh, that’s right, a team made entirely of second-stringers.
Another loss at Oakland to the hated Raiders. The Raiders — the second most evil team in football. As the story goes, the Ravens hold the coveted “most evil team” spot because they employ Murderer Ray Lewis, but the Raiders made a definitive run at the record when salary cap woes caused the Ravens to dump many of their most evil players in 2001 and the Raiders picked up as many as possible. I think Jeff Fisher is the most consistently effective coach in football, but his 1-9 record or whatever on the West Coast isn’t pretty and losing consistently to a consensus top 3 pick in the Evil power rankings isn’t helping me to foster an optimistic all-part-of-God’s-plan sense of reality in my life.
On the bright side, my Fantasy Football team is riding a 2-game winning streak. Also, in losing the Titans have moved ahead of the Raiders in the race for the #4 pick in the draft, which they’ll desperately need since they’re already so far over the salary cap next year they’ll have to release half their starters. Good thing the rookies are getting tons of game experience too, cause they’ll need it if the Titans are going to amount to anything next season.
Next Game: Denver (9-5) at Tennessee (4-10) Sat 12/25
Score: Titans 38, Chiefs 49
Stats that Should Matter but Don’t:
Passing Yards: Volek 426, Green 244
Total Yards: Titans 542, Chiefs 383
Time of Possession: Titans 37:59, Chiefs 22:01
Game Story:
Ever wonder what happens when two teams with no defenses meet? A game worthy of Monday Night Football — well, at least if you like mediocre teams who score lots of points. Offensive Coordinator Mike Heimerdinger has a new game strategy called “we have no defense, better score some points”. No, seriously. However, I do take some small solace in the fact that the Chiefs defense was nearly as bad, and they don’t even have an excuse.
Unfortunately, for the first time this season I think our offense had as much of an injury crisis as our defense. Picture this: 6 starters are on injured reserve, and 90 minutes before gametime 7 more are placed on the inactive list due to injury — including the starting quarterback and 2 starting offensive linemen. In the third quarter two more starting offensive linemen are injured, then another has to come out of the game due to a lingering injury from a previous week. With all 5 backup linemen playing, one more injury and the tight end would have to play on the line — except the starting tight end was injured in the first quarter! Needless to say, it got pretty interesting when the Chiefs figured this out and started blitzing every play and Volek just started throwing the ball as quickly as possible to stave off what must have seemed like certain death.
Overall, how bad was it really? Well, of the 53 players on the active roster (excluding the 13 injured players already sidelined) every single player took the field Monday night except the 3rd-string quarterback. Yeah, that’s bad.
On the bright side, we pulled off the coolest fake punt I’ve ever seen — a wide receiver direct snap! Also, running back Chris Brown went over 1000 rushing yards for the season (before leaving the game due to injury) in spite of only playing about 3 full games and 5 half games. Special recognigion goes to Drew Bennett with 12 receptions for an NFL season-record 233 yards and 3 TDs. Unfortunately none of this matters when you lose your entire offensive line and all your defensive players are recruits from the local community college.
Next Game: Tennessee (4-9) at Oakland (4-9) Sun 12/19
Score: Titans 24, Colts 51
Actually, my favorite game summary thus far is this one from Tennessean columnist David Climer. When the coach decides to onside kick three times in the first quarter and his justification is “So what if they get it on the 40-yard line? They’re three plays away from being on the 40-yard line anyway,” you know a mismatch is in play. Colts quarterback and resident demigod Peyton Manning is four touchdowns away from Dan Marino’s season record and there are still four games left in the season. Meanwhile, the Titans have 11 injured defensive players including 7 starters. Result of the mother of all mismatches? The Colts racked up 51 points and 567 yards of total offense in less than 27 minutes of possession time. Good grief.
Incidentally, I like David Climer’s other game story too. Money quote:
What a bunch of whiners. Many of Indianapolis’ fans took offense at the Titans’ succession of onside kicks. They seemed to think the Titans weren’t playing fair. Note to Colts fans: It is a high form of praise for your offense when an opposing team picks its poison by trying onside kicks rather than die a quick or slow death by letting Peyton Manning drive the ball 80 yards downfield every time.
Yeah, Indy’s fans don’t like us very much. Tennessee fans couldn’t have more respect for Peyton Manning — I know native Tennesseans who are Colts fans instead of Titans fans just because they won’t abandon the quarterback they supported during those years of academic rigor as a UT student-athlete. But Indy fans have never forgiven us for scalping 20,000 tickets to the Titans-Colts playoff game during our 1999 miracle season and screaming so loud their team couldn’t hear the play calls in their own dome. (Note: I wasn’t there, but my dad and brother went and said it was awesome.)
For the record, it’s been a bad weekend in my athletic world. In addition to the Titans, my high school football team got shelled in the state championship and my college basketball team can’t win a road game to save their life. To make matters worse, I’ve taken up tennis recently, and consequently I am learning by playing people better than myself and getting really torn up in the process. I just hope my learning curve kicks in before the depression of pepetually losing to women, small children, the blind, the wheelchair-bound, and pretty much anyone who can hit the ball to my backhand really starts to get to me. I also lost a marathon game of spades and a best-of-3 ping pong match, which upsets me even more because I actually thought I was good at those. So in short, it’s been a rough few days for yours truly in the realm of all things competitive, and if you believe in karma and you are a Titans fan you may want to sacrifice me to the gods before the next game.
Next Game: Kansas City (4-8) at Tennessee (4-8) on MNF 12/13
Same weekend, different verse. The Vanderbilt football team’s 2005 season came to a close on November 20 with… you guessed it, a heartbreak loss. By virtue of being an alumnus who’s not just in it for the networking, it’s excusable that I call myself a Vandy fan for better or for worse. This wouldn’t be so bad if tennis, golf, or track were spectator sports in the SEC. It wouldn’t even be so bad if men’s and women’s basketball got the attention they deserved. But this is football country, which means excusability isn’t enough to avoid jokes of such a harshness akin to the conference champions snuffing out their cigarette butts on my bare arms.
Some years have been worse than others, but after following closely I can honestly say the Commodores are not a bad football team. They are definitely losers, but they aren’t bad. Kentucky is a bad football team. Duke is a bad football team. Vandy, always representing its school to perfection, is a football team with a self-esteem disorder. They simply can not close out games to save their life. Bad football teams don’t lead SEC schools at the half ever. Football teams with self-esteem disorders lead for a while and then have panic attacks in the fourth quarter. Allow me to briefly recap this season as an example:
South Carolina 31, VU 6. PATs missed: 1. Excuse: Vanderbilt’s marketing department so successfully hypes this game that the Vegas line was 3.5, resulting in a surprise annihilation the Scene compares to the likes of Manassas.
Ole Miss 26, VU 23 (OT). Blown lead: 10 points with 9 minutes left. Excuse: poor officiating.
Navy 29, VU 26. Blown lead: 5 in the 3rd. Excuse: can’t defend against the triple option.
VU 31, Miss State 13. Story: Mississippi State is just that bad.
Rutgers 37, VU 34. Blown lead: 18 points with 11 minutes left. Excuse: blown call with 11 seconds left.
Georgia 33, VU 3. Excuse: well, Georgia’s kind of good.
VU 19, Eastern Kentucky 7. PATs missed: 1. Story: came out flat against a II-A school.
LSU 24, VU 7. Excuse: Death Valley is a rough place for teams without a season worth salvaging.
Florida 34, VU 17. Blown lead: 3 points in the 3rd. Excuse: by this point in the season, the only explanation needed is Florida is Florida and Vandy is Vandy.
Kentucky 14, VU 13. Blown lead: 14 with 12 minutes left. PATs missed: 1. Excuse: maybe somebody should learn to kick extra points for their $140,000 four-year athletic scholarship.
UT 38, VU 33. PATs missed: 2. Excuse: the team’s attempt to prove it can mount a comeback for a win falls short with its fourth turnover ending its game-winning drive. And so it goes.
Yeah, that would be 4 blown leads in the fourth quarter and 5 losses by a total of 15 points. Also, 5 PATs missed and we’re not even counting the FGs of similar distance. The result? A 2-9 season filled with what-ifs and really lame excuses that don’t actually explain the problem. In other words, vintage Vanderbilt.
I became a fan upon arrival, which means this is my sixth full season of sadomasochism. I’ve watched us “shoulda-won” games against the likes of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Auburn, and of course Tennessee, and then turn around and do the same thing against perennial doormats Wake Forest, Rutgers, Georgia Tech, and Middle Tennessee State. We’re not talking about the failed last-minute drive here either; I mean consistently blowing leads of 10+ points late in the fourth quarter because the defense forgets how to play and the coaches forget how to burn clock. Call it lack of preparation, lack of talent, or lack of karma, it’s uncanny in any event.
But here’s the good news: when your team is just good enough to keep it interesting but never actually generates any hope of winning, it’s certainly less stressful than a November game against a top-10 ranked team putting the season on the brink. Or at least that’s what they tell me. And if you don’t really buy that, then at least you can believe these silver linings: basketball season has thankfully arrived, and it’s eight more months until we have to discuss this topic again.
