2011 NFL Playoffs: What makes Tennessee Titans different from reigning champions Green Bay Packers
When the Tennessee Titans were just two games away from the playoffs, their coach, Mike Munchak, told them the tale of the reigning champions, the Green Bay Packers.
The moral of the story was to focus on the task at hand, which is to win their next game against the problems-hit Jacksonville Jaguars.
Then to win the very next one and last game of the season, versus their division, American Football Conference (AFC) South, rivals and leaders, the Houston Texans.
Munchak emphasized on his point to his side that the Packers were in a similar situation a year earlier.
They went on to win their division and a playoff berth. Most importantly they went on to pull off the Super Bowl event, making them the reigning champions.
The coach told the Titans that all the achievement came through their focus on the task before them.
They left all other worries behind and that it was the Packers’ step-by-step approach that helped them claim success out of the blue.
The Packers with season almost halfway through had a faint chance to reach the playoff round, in the 2010 NFL regular season. However, they emerged on the scene all of a sudden and claimed the crown.
The inspiration trick did work out for the Titans as they won against the Jaguars, on December 24, 2011, with a score of 23 to 17 points.
The team also pulled off a victory in their very next game which was against the AFC South champions, the Houston Texans. The tightly fought game had finished at the score 23-22 points.
The first task at the hands of Titans was winning their last two games, which they completed successfully.
Next for them was the wait to hope that the New York Jets lose against the New York Giants, to hope that the AFC North leaders, the Baltimore Ravens, lose to the Cincinnati Bengals, and wait to see positions on the points table turned into their favour.
Their first wish of seeing the New York Jets losing against the Giants came true. The Titans celebrated in their locker room with eyes fixed on television monitors.
They, however, had to hope then that the Bengals topple the Ravens, and that was a far cry for them. It all went wrong for the Titans, in the end.
However, the coach was not at fault in presenting the Packers' situation as an example before his team.
The one thing, which he should have told his team, and did not do so, was that at the end it will be a matter of their luck to go through to playoffs.
The Titans could certainly play better and win, and they did.
Luck, however, was not with them. At the end, they were not as lucky as the Packers were a year earlier.
The luck this year seemed to have worked out to be in favour of the Bengals. In spite of losing to the Baltimore Ravens, the points table developed such that it favoured the Bengals.
They became eligible for the last wild card into playoff. They, otherwise, had finished at the regular season at 9-7, very similar to the Titans.
Looking back at their regular season, the Titans’ level of game remained similar to the Bengals while both teams finished the season with nine wins and seven losses.
The Titans in fact, were seen to be even better in some areas as they remained consistent with their performance throughout the season.
In addition to pulling off victories against some top notch opposition, their losses were not as bad as of some other teams in the league.
They were also not very far from their divisional rivals and leaders, the Houston Texans, who finished the season 10-6 points and became very close to lose the division to them.
However, the most regrettable point of the season for the Titans, which cost them the division and made their playoff possibilities even harder, was their loss against the previously winless Indianapolis Colts.
It was the Colts’ first win, after having lost 13 games straight.
The team management and coach otherwise are satisfied with the Titans’ performance.
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