With the Tennessee Titans winning seven of eight games after punctuating an 0-6 start with a 59-0 loss to the Patriots, coach Jeff Fisher has opened up regarding the tactics he used to get the players re-focused on playing good football following their bye week.
Fisher tells Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports that, in a team meeting held four days after the crushing loss at Foxborough, Fisher told the players that McNair entered the bye week nine years earlier doubting whether he still wanted to play football.
He’d been knocked out of a game against the Chiefs with a severely bruised sternum, and he was “devasated” to hear the fans roar with approval when backup Neil O’Donnell entered the game.
The Titans had a bye the following week, and McNair used that opportunity to try to work out his feelings as to whether it was time to call it a career. He ultimately opted to keep playing, and the Titans finished the 2000 season with a 13-3 mark.
Fisher urged his current players to do the same thing. “You can make the most of the bye weekend by getting away,” Fisher said to the team. “Take a few days to yourselves, come back on Monday and let’s
just start over.”
When they returned, Fisher displayed a “revised” schedule for the season, with only ten games on it.
“Jacksonville is our season opener,” he said to them. “Let’s go out and get it done.”
So far, they have. With only one loss in eight tries, the Titans remain alive for a postseason berth.
And as we pointed out in the Week 15 Morning Aftermath, we’d love to see them get the No. 6 seed — and to kickoff the postseason with a trip back to Foxborough to play the third-seeded Patriots.
The more immediate challenge, of course, is to beat the Chargers tonight, in a game that will be telecast on NFL Network.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Anyone who follows football knows that Jeff Fisher is one hell of a coach.
Yeah right! They sure treated McNair nicely when they chased him away in the first place.
Almost as bad as Fisher treated Young until owner forced him to play him.
We should also credit McNair’s memory for the remarkable personal turn-around we’ve seen in Vince Young. Although time might have matured Vince (in time), Steve’s premature ending certainly filled the role of Ghost #3 for Vince.
Oh, and Merry Christmas to all , and “Peace on Earth to people of good will. All others stand by”.
Happy Festivus and Merry Christmas, Florio.
Very inspiring. I’m proud of what Vince Young has done for them this year
I’d say Vince Young undergoing a cranium-rectum removal procedure has sparked the turn around. Fisher was reluctant to let him play, the team wasn’t showing up to play at all.
Vince enters the lineup and the entire team is playing with a new fire. I criticized him quite a bit earlier this season, but is he playing much better than before.
Sorry the clock has struck midnight on the titans they will not win tonight…. and the need the earth to become flat and pigs to fly to get tiebreakers in their favor
Amazing turnaround for the Titans. They have a tough game tonight but I’ll be cheering for them.
You see, I can’t stand the whiny Chargers more than the dirty Titans.
When you have to wait for a former player to die and use that to motivate your team… you may not be all that great a head coach.
I’ll give credit where credit is due….. I trashed Vince Young earlier this year, and rightfully so, but he has been playing like a true player since coming back to start.
He might still be a lazy, conceited jackass for all we know, but he’s helping them get it done on the field.
Richm2256 says:
December 25, 2009 7:06 PM
I’ll give credit where credit is due….. I trashed Vince Young earlier this year, and rightfully so, but he has been playing like a true player since coming back to start.
He might still be a lazy, conceited jackass for all we know, but he’s helping them get it done on the field.
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Lazy, conceited jackass? You mean like Randy Moss?
GFY, PoorMORON2256!!!!!