[FREE] The Titans & a Unique Opportunity
The Tennessee Titans 2024 Schedule gives them a very unique opportunity.
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The Titans’ schedule release was never going to be one full of surprises.
That’s the life for a team coming off a season in which they finished with a losing record, reside in a small market, and lack the star power at quarterback that allows some small market teams to thrive in the media landscape.
Think Buffalo and Cincinnati for reference.
However, despite the obvious limitations the team has and why they made the schedule bland and boring — time wise that is — the Titans’ schedule did have a few eye opening details that stood out.
Firstly, the opening stretch from week one to week four, which includes tough games weeks two through four, as well as an unpredictable week one game in Chicago that’s sure to be full of energy and excitement.
Because who expects Bears fans to quiet their own personal hype machine after the off-season they had?
Second, was the tough looking October stretch, which includes road games against the Bills and Lions, as well as an important divisional game against the Colts.
But what stood out the most — and was the third initial observation — was the Titans’ stretch to end the season. These games are usually where a team makes or breaks a potential run toward a wild card spot — or even a playoff spot entirely, ask the Jaguars and Colts — and are usually the most intense games a team will play on their schedule, if they have legit playoff dreams though.
Potential AFC South Drama?
We don’t know if the Titans will be in a position to dream about the playoffs in 2024. Especially after such roster turnover, a new coaching staff, and an unknown caliber of quarterback play. But if they want to get where they want to be, then this final stretch of games could decide their fate.
If you take a look at the schedule and look at weeks sixteen through eighteen, you’ll notice a pattern that jumps off the screen.
Those three weeks have three straight divisional opponents to end the season, two road games and a home game on the last Sunday of the season included.
It’s a pattern I’ve never seen before, but that doesn’t really matter right now.
What matters is the peculiar, yet appetizing opportunity this stretch of games presents. Not only that, but the seven week stretch between weeks twelve and eighteen, has the Titans playing five divisional games in seven weeks, giving them an extra dose of division fever and ample chance for them to get to know their not so distant football cousins.
If that makes any sense.
Seriously though, this is such an interesting assortment of games for the Titans late in the season.
Plenty of doubt exists regarding the Titans and their ability to contend for an AFC South title.
For good reason as well, considering how much better the Texans got, the additions the Jaguars made to their roster, as well as the Colts bringing back Anthony Richardson and drafting Adonai Mitchel to add to their underrated receiver group.
The Titans have made additions of their own, but there’s still plenty of questions that need answering, and some of those questions are tied to key positions on the team.
(You could say the same’ for the Colts and maybe even the Jaguars, but that’s for another day).
So it’s easy to see why any “talk” of rising back to AFC South prominence feels immature. But this big stretch of divisional games provides the Titans an opportunity to reverse any premature trends that might’ve been made before the season began.
Of course, we’ll have to wait until the season begins for any of this talk to feel relevant. And since that won’t happen for another…oh I don’t know, four months or so, all we can do is speculate and project.
But if there’s any chance for a surprise run back to the top for the Titans, this stretch of games gives them the possibility to do so.
It’ll be tough, since three of those five divisional games will be on the road.
But if there’s anything we’ve come to expect about this newer era of Titans football, it’s that we’re bound to meet some unpredictability and we can expect the unexpected.
So it isn’t wise to write them off just yet.
Again, we’re 3 months and some change away from the start of the season, so any talk like this is purely speculation. But the talking point is there and it’s one you can’t just ignore.
In fact, maybe it’s one you should keep an eye on as we move closer to the season.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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