Posted by Will Brinson

Ahhh, happier times.

What's the old saying -- when it suns it shines? Er, maybe it involves pouring water. Either way, it's raining in Nashville right now, and there aren't many people happy with the way the Titans are playing, which naturally creates some unrest in the locker room.

Go ahead and add Chris Johnson to the list of people who aren't thrilled with the way Tennessee's been playing.

"We are just not running it," Johnson said Tuesday via Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean. "It is easy for a defensive coordinator to stop the run when you are running the ball seven times. We need to stay on the field and execute plays."

Johnson's got a point -- in the last two games, he has 20 carries for 58 yards, which isn't exactly what anyone (Titans coaches, Titans fans, fantasy owners) were expecting when they eyed games against the Texans and Jaguars late in the season. But at least he's not pinning it on everyone else. Wait, he is. But that's a good thing maybe.

"Everybody is doing what they have to do. It is that everybody is not doing what they have to do on every single play," Johnson said. "It is always a different position messing up on each play. So we just have to execute as a whole. It is tough to deal with. But the frustration that comes is not the team stopping the run game, it is ourselves stopping us."

Okay, so that sounds nice (like, in a "we're losing as a team" kind of way) and all, but the truth is that he's pointing straight to the playcalling when it comes to blame for the Titans' woes.

This is awkward for two reasons: first, his offensive coordinator has cancer. This may be why Johnson's comments are toned down a little bit. And secondly, Rusty Smith started one of those games -- you can't run with him under center, because you're trying to cut through 11 guys when you do.

That being said, the Titans get the Colts at home on Thursday and even with Peyton Manning and Co. weakened right now, this is a game that they could easily lose (and by a large margin) if the Titans don't realize that you can run on Indy and feed CJ 20-plus times in order to generate some offense and keep Peyton off the field.

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Posted by Will Brinson

Week 13's almost wrapped up and, man-oh-man has the NFL playoff picture not gotten one iota clearer -- only one division (the AFC West of all places) is separated by more than one game at the top, and because the NFL decided to lock in on divisional games towards the end of the season, the rest of the way is only spicier, which means tons of fantastic questions to answer in this week's podcast.

Has Peyton Manning become human? Could anyone outside of Biff Tannen predicted the Raiders beatdown of the Chargers? Why did the Chiefs and Broncos struggle to score points? How freaking good was that Baltimore-Pittsburgh game and how could anyone hate it? Is Matt Ryan emerging as an MVP candidate? Are the Bengals the most embarrassing team in the NFL? What's up with the trend of heavy rushing games going around right now? Is Maurice Jones-Drew the best running back in the AFC now? And why does the stupid NFC West get its playoff spot?

Andy and I answer all those questions (plus, much, much more) below -- just hit the play button below and don't forget to Subscribe via iTunes.

If you can't view the podcast, click here to download .

Posted by Andy Benoit

Yahoo Sports’ Michael Silver says that there’s a legitimate chance that the slumping Tennessee Titans could be in the market for a new head coach after the season. Jeff Fisher is entangled in an ugly rift with quarterback Vince Young and working for an owner who might side with the quarterback before he sides with the coach.

Adams has already said that Young and Fisher must learn to coexist. Young is due a $4.25 million roster bonus in March. But what makes the situation interesting is that Fisher, whom many believe is not willing to bring Young back, has a clause in his contract that, according to Silver, “(grants) him the right to control which players are carried on the 53-man roster.” Thus, a power struggle could be on the horizon.

Complicating a potential coaching change in Tennessee is the league’s labor unrest and the fact that there would be a handful of teams willing to hire Fisher in a heartbeat.

Fisher, of course, is not speaking about anything other than the Titans’ 2010 season at this point. His 5-7 Titans have a must-win game Thursday night against the Colts. Indy might be the only team that can’t gash Tennessee’s tired defense on the ground right now.

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Posted by Will Brinson

Vikings running backs coach Eric Bieniemy is headed west (young man), having accepted an offer to become the new offensive coordinator at the University of Colorado, the team confirmed on Saturday.

Bieniemy, who also holds the rank of assistant head coach/offense, played at Colorado from 1987 to 1990 and after a nine-year NFL career, returned to coaching and was an assistant with his alma mater in 2001 and 2002. He'll be the coordinator on a staff run by Jon Embree (currently with the Redskins) at Colorado.

Bieniemy's done a great job with the Vikings running game and has been rumored as a hot name to join the college ranks -- he was Lane Kiffin's original choice for USC offensive coordinator, but Bieniemy turned him down (leading to Kiffin hiring Kennedy Pola and making Jeff Fisher a tiny bit cheesed off) and picked up the extra title for his résumé.

Anyway, you could argue that it's hard not to be a success when you're coaching Adrian Peterson, but the immediate argument as to the work Bieniemy's done has to be this year, as Peterson's returned to form as the obvious top running back in the NFL and cured his fumbling problem, even if he's not finding the end zone as much in 2010.

Minnesota running back Albert Young is the person who first "announced" the news, via Twitter, and as Judd Zulgad reports at the Minnesota Star-Tribune, the Vikings have since confirmed the hiring away of their coach, although Bieniemy will finish out the season with Minnesota.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

On Wednesday, Titans offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger, diagnosed last week with cancer, started chemotherapy treatment. On Friday, he was back at practice.

If he can’t call plays Sunday vs. Jacksonville, that duty will fall to quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains. As far as the rest of the game for Heimerdinger?

“We have a plan,” Fisher said, via the Tennessean. "We’ll discuss it (publicly) after the ballgame.”

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

Much has been made this week about the Andre Johnson-Cortland Finnegan fight from last Sunday – the actual bout itself (Johnson won on points), the fairly-benign punishment of $25,000 apiece in fines and no suspensions, and the fact Johnson was mic’d up during the game. But we haven’t head much about what the Titans think about Finnegan – known around the league as an instigator and a dirty player.

Apparently, Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher is OK with Finnegan’s antics.

"I have no issues with how Cortland played in the game on Sunday," Fisher said, via the Florida Times Union. "Cortland Finnegan did not throw a punch, so I have no issues with that. Cortland Finnegan was hit in the face; helmet knocked off, and pushed from behind the play before. So I have no issues with how Cortland responded.

"I have issues with the incident, I think it's bad for football, I think it's bad for the league, and I think it sets a bad example, but I don't have any issues with what Cortland did in the game and how he played."

This week, Finnegan and the Titans will face the Jaguars. Which means Jacksonville will be on the lookout for what many consider to be a “dirty” Tennessee squad. And unlike Steelers WR Hines Ward, who garners respect because he’s physical while not making a mockery of himself during the game, Finnegan has developed a not-so-nice reputation.

"He's chippy, man," Jaguars WR Mike Thomas said. "He is what he is; he's Cortland Finnegan. He just tries whatever he can do to get an edge on you. Get you frustrated. Talk some noise. After the whistle he might try to get a little physical."

But Finnegan has a weakness. As Johnson showed, he’s susceptible to the uppercut. If you can land that on him, it might make for an early night.

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Posted by Andy Benoit

Titans quarterback Vince Young sent an apology text to Jeff Fisher Wednesday morning. The juvenile gesture was received with no more than a metaphorical shrug from Fisher. Asked if anything good came from the texted apology, Fisher said “I don’t think so, no. Someone could have grabbed his phone and texted.”

We’ll keep an eye out for any VY tweets. In times of turmoil, he’s been known to send out messages that are half inspirational, half chip-on-the-shoulder nonsense (like this one from Monday: “Will prove them again I'm still focus with pride much love to my true fans.”)
Fisher said, “I’m not a real big text guy. I’m not really into this new-age stuff. I don’t twitter or tweet, but I think face-to-face is a man thing.”

Young, who is on IR with a thumb injury, was not present for a team meeting earlier in the week, and Fisher made it clear that he was not welcomed anyway. However, Young has not been banned from Titans facilities (which presumably means he could have found a way to apologize to Fisher face to face).

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Posted by Will Brinson

The Vince Young situation is starting to take on a Favrian feel to it -- not only did he walk out on his teammates (or his coach, depending on who you ask), and not only is he done for the season and yet still in the middle of a spat between an owner and a coach, but now he's reportedly been asked to stay away from the Titans' team facility.

That's according to Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean, who cites multiple sources saying Young showed up to the Titans' facility on Monday "and was asked to leave by a team official."

Wyatt writes that "Young expressed frustration and was visibly upset, according to sources, but he eventually left without incident."

It doesn't take a genius to peg the person responsible for wanting to keep Young away from the team's facilities -- Fisher is clearly unhappy with Young at the moment, and probably not thrilled that Bud Adams got Young's back to clearly.

That's speculation, of course, and so is this: if Fisher is going to keep butting heads with Young, Adams is going to do somer thing drastic and we could end up with a "he goes or I go" situation, which seemed completely unfathomable just about three weeks ago when the Titans were considered strong contenders in the AFC.

Update (4:30): The Titans issued a statement about the Young situation, saying the "reports indicating that Vince Young is not welcome at Baptist Sports Park are incorrect. Yesterday, he was informed by a coach at the facility not to attend Monday's team meeting and was free to leave. The intention was to be able to talk to the team about Young’s situation and how the team would move forward. Players that are on injured reserve are not required to attend team meetings. As of today, he has been placed on injured reserve and all the same rules apply to him as to any other player in that category."

That's a statement they have to make in order to keep this situation from escalating too far, and perhaps it's accurate. However, he was in fact asked not to attend a team meeting and it's clear there's some strife between Young and Fisher. That's enough to warrant some concern that this could get out of hand.

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