28-year old WR Justin Gage was outstanding against the Steelers last Thursday catching 7 passes for 78 yards (11.1 avg) with a TD grab.  The Titans might pass the ball a little more this season than last so this could be the year that Gage truly breaks out.  Gage has now played in 78 games in his NFL career and he has caught 160 passes for 2,387 yards (14.9 avg) with 13 TD grabs.  This could be Gage’s year to shine for the Titans.

The Pittsburgh Steelers got a 33-yard field goal from Jeff Reed in overtime to beat the Tennessee Titans on Thursday night 13-10.  It was the first game of the 2009 NFL season and I am sure the Steelers are happy with a win, but they lost one of their best players in Troy Polamalu.  The star safety left during the first half when he went down with a knee injury.  Polamalu made a freakish interception in the first quarter when he leaped as high as he could and snatched a Kerry Collins pass out of the air with one hand.  Later in the half Polamalu’s knee was rolled over on and it turned out that Polamalu sprained his medial collateral ligament in his left knee, which could sideline him for up to six weeks.The game did turn out to be a low scoring battle but I wouldn’t exactly call it a defensive battle, as I thought the game would be.  It was a sloppy football game though, as there was a total of five turnovers with three of them from the Steelers and two from the Titans.  Roethlisberger threw two interceptions and only had one touchdown.  However, Roethlisberger went 33 of 43 for 363 yards with most of his passes going to Santonio Holmes and Hines Ward.  Holmes had nine catches for 131 yards and a touchdown and Ward had eight catches for 103 yards.

Big Ben led his team down the field for a touchdown at the end of the first half.  He led his team down the field near the end of regulation as well when he hooked up with Hines Ward within 10 yards of the goal line.  Ward was attacked by the Titans secondary and fumbled the ball, which the Titans recovered and ruined the Steelers chance of winning in regulation.  It was Ward’s first fumble loss since the 2006 season, but Roethlisberger once again stormed his Steelers down the field on only three passes in OT, and got them in easy field goal range.  Jeff Reed converted his 33-yarder on first down to win it.

Kerry Collins didn’t look nearly as sharp as he did last year, as he went 22 of 35 for 244 yards with one touchdown and one interception.  The Titans running attack was more effective than I thought, but it wasn’t spectacular as they racked up 86 rushing yards behind LenDale White’s 28 yards on eight carries and Chris Johnson’s 57 yards on 15 carries.  Although Roethlisberger lit up the Titans secondary, the Titans defense shut down the Steelers running attack.  The void of Albert Haynesworth has seemingly been filled, as the Steelers were only able to get 36 rushing yards.  Willie Parker had 19 yards on 13 carries and Mewelde Moore had eight yards on five carries.

While it’s true that the Titans came out of nowhere last season they still have a really good football team.  With only about 4.5 hours to make a bet either way on this you might want to consider a few things.  A lot of prognosticators are picking the Texans to have a huge season, but I think they have been standing in the sun too long as their is no way Matt Schaub will be standing all season.  The Colts still have Peyton Manning but none of his main coaches are around for this season so expect a small falloff this season.  That means the Titans should have another big season despite not having Albert Haynesworth around.  I would take the over with the Titans.

The Tennessee Titans will be opening their 2009 season at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Heinz Field this Thursday night at 8:30 pm ET.  This match-up of the Titans and Steelers will be the first game of the 2009 NFL season.  In their match-up last season during the 16th week, it was one of the Titans best and most important games as they dominated the Steelers from the second quarter on, and secured the number one seed in the AFC.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Titans scored 31 points and won the match-up 31-14.  After that huge win, the Titans struggled in their week 17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts and ran into the Baltimore Ravens’ defense in the AFC Divisional Round, losing 13-10 to a late field goal.  Unfortunately for the rest of the NFL, that loss to the Titans was the Steelers last loss of the season as they went on to win Super Bowl XLIII.

The Titans are looking to take down the Super Bowl champs, but with the loss of defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth the Titans will have their hands full with the Steelers running attack:  Willie Parker and Rashard Mendenhall.  The aging Kerry Collins hopes to continue his great quarterback play from last year and has a former Steeler, Nate Washington, as his number one receiver.  Lendale  White and Chris Johnson will be looking to attack the Steelers defense on the ground.  This looks like it will be an exciting close match-up, but being the first game of the year look for both offenses to struggle.  It will be a defensive battle and with the Steelers having a slight edge on defense I predict the Steelers will win 16-10.  Check out blogger Smash’s detailed preview of this opening match-up at the main locker – www.bloglockers.com

The Titans pushed the Packers around in the game last night.  Kerry Collins threw three incomplete passes before he took a seat.  Vince Young was very effective in this game as he completed 7 of 12 passes for 85 yards with 1 TD pass.  He also carried the ball 5 times for 38 yards (7.6 ypc) with a TD.  Patrick Ramsey finished up the game completing 5 of 8 passes for 82 yards with a TD pass.  Chris Henry led the Titans in rushing in this game with 54 yards rushing on 14 carries (3.9 ypc).  Dominique Edison had a monster game at WR catching 5 passes for 90 yards (18.0 avg) with 2 TDs.  The Titans finished up with 338 total yards in this game (174 rushing, 164 passing).

Linebacker Gerald McRath led the way for the Titans on D with 7 tackles.  The Packers finished up with only 240 total yards on offense (87 rushing, 153 passing) in this game.  The Titans finished up the pre-season with a 3-2 record.