Titans overcome poor rushing effort to remain undefeated

Despite a pitiful performance from their rushing game, Kerry Collins’ efficient and mistake free passing allowed the Tennessee Titans to get past the Chicago Bears by a score of 21-14 at Soldier Field on Sunday.  The victory was the Titans franchise record 12th straight win, and kept Tennessee’s status as the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL intact.

How bad was their rushing performance?  The 20 net rushing yards was the 2nd worst in team history.  The low water mark was a 19 yard rushing performance when the Titans were still the Houston Oilers and took place against San Diego on December 12, 1965.  The inept rushing game—which included a -5 yard mark for the first half—was especially startling given the fact that Tennessee entered the game as the NFL’s #3 rushing offense.

With the rushing game sputtering, Kerry Collins continued to demonstrate his veteran leadership by calmly opening up the passing game.  Collins finished with 289 yards passing and 2 TD passes on a 30/41 performance with no interceptions.  It was his first game over 200 yards passing this season.  Despite all but winning the game single handedly, Collins didn’t make a big deal of it in his postgame comments:

"Everybody right now is filling their role. For me, you play long enough you're going to be on good teams. You're going to be on bad teams. At this point in my career to be playing on a good football team that has a chance to go out and win every Sunday is exciting for me."

Fisher had little to say about the Titans rushing woes, only that he was happy with the win:

“It's nice to win a ballgame and not play well”

Tennessee will play at Jacksonville next Sunday followed by a home game on 11/23 against the New York Jets.  They’ll also be in action on Thanksgiving Day as they travel to Detroit to face the Lions.  Chicago dropped to 5-4 with the loss and faces their next three games on the road beginning next Sunday in Lambeau Field against their hated rivals the Green Bay Packers.  That’ll be followed by trips to St. Louis and Minnesota before returning home on 12/7 to face Jacksonville.