Mike Munchak wouldn't go so far as to say the Tennessee Titans running game was “fixed” per se.
But he does admit he likes the direction it is going after Sunday's 23-17 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Chris Johnson produced a season-high 190 yards against the Bucs porous defense, putting up the third best single game total of his four-year NFL career in the victory.
“Two of the last three weeks we have run the ball pretty well. The one in between wasn’t what we would like in Atlanta (12 carries 13 yards for CJ),” Munchak said. “I think we are thinking that we are heading in the right direction. We would rather be running the ball well now than in the beginning of the season, so we will look at it that way. We think we are doing a lot better things now than we had been earlier in the season. We need these next five weeks to be our best games that we have had.”
Indeed, the Titans stand 6-5 and need to get some some sort of roll through the last five games of the regular season in order to have a chance to either catch suddenly quarterback-challenged Houston Texans in the AFC South or to gain a wild card berth. Tennessee is currently one game behind Cincinnati, which holds the final playoff bid currently.
Munchak believes one of the ways for the Titans to get on a roll is to continue with the running success they have enjoyed in their past two victories over Carolina and Tampa Bay.
“We said that about yesterday’s game that it had to be our best game as far as offensively running the football ,and it was, and I just think we need to keep building on that confidence,” Munchak said. “When you have success at something, and we have two out of the last three weeks anyway, then the confidence builds for everybody, for Chris, for the line, for the play caller, the whole bit. Going up to Buffalo, you feel good about what you are starting to become and now you see what happens the next five weeks.”
Johnson was just glad to get back on track with Sunday's performance.
“It felt good to finally get out there and get to some open space and make some plays,” said Johnson.
- Terry McCormick
- co-publiser of TitanInsider - Lions247