Earl Thomas Makes His Bold Prediction
ALL HAIL KING HENRY, FIRST OF HIS NAME, SLAYER OF RAVENS, DESTROYER OF OLD BAY, TITAN OF BRAAVOS, UNLEASHER OF HELL. His second act as our king is to say nevermore to the Ravens. We obey his wishes. We do not wish to be eaten.
I mean holy shit can this Titans team actually do it? The Patriots were one thing. That was a wounded team, flawed, broken, uncharacteristically weak. Even with that Foxboro pedigree they felt ripe for an upset. But the Ravens? The best team in the NFL all year? A creative rushing powerhouse that was not only led by the league MVP and most electric player in football but a stout defense and expert coaching staff? A team that only lost two games all year, one to the #2 seed in a nailbiter and one fluke loss to a division rival? That Ravens? The Titans beat the Pats but they squeaked it by, essentially winning by 1 point until the garbage time pick 6. Tannehill was shit. Henry couldn’t do it himself again could he? This was the Ravens.
By god the madmen did it. Not only did they do it, but they did it even harder. They took the very soul from Baltimore. Make no mistake, the Ravens absolutely had a bad day and uncharacteristically made mistakes they normally don’t make. But you can’t just take all credit away from the Titans by saying the Ravens messed up. The Titans did it. They came to town and they crushed the #1 seed. The game was over by halftime and we just didn’t know it yet. Ryan Tannehill barely did anything outside that one beautiful TD pass and none of it mattered because DERRICK HENRY IS A MOTHERFUCKING MONSTER.
Derrick Henry not only ran for more yardage against the vaunted Ravens than he did against the Patriots. Earl Thomas, he of the poor word choice, became the poster boy for putting his food in his mouth when our lord King Henry STIFF ARMED THOMAS SO BAD THAT HE EFFECTIVELY TURNED THOMAS INTO HIS LEAD BLOCKER. He shoved the guy around, pushed his back, and effectively used him as a shield for an extra several yards. El Tractorcito is a god among boys. Praise be unto him. He even threw a fucking touchdown. Into triple coverage.
Coincidentally, Marcus Mariota was wide open on that play, and if there is a better summary of Marcus’s value with the Titans moving forward I haven’t found it.
In retrospect the Ravens got cocky and pulled the classic “we are the best, rest everyone, we’re gonna light it up” and then they came out sloppy against a team that had nothing to lose. Lamar had a weaker night. No, the stats are good. He had 500 yards. The only turnover you can really pin on him was the awful pick where Kenny Vaccaro undercut the route. The Titans dominated the line of scrimmage and punched the Ravens in the face. Lamar is going to get a lot of criticism by morons over the offseason (he already is) but the guy is 22, is the MVP, and has led his team to two straight playoffs. As long as things don’t go sideways (like via injury), Lamar is not the problem. Don’t blame Lamar.
Honestly? I think the coaching staff deserves the most blame. They looked flustered and unprepared for primetime. The Ravens fell behind and they looked completely unable to handle that. The Ravens are a record-setting rushing powerhouse and the sudden 14 point deficit completely threw them off. They panicked. Lamar’s rushing yards mostly came on panic scrambles, not designed plays. They failed on 4th downs. The Titans bamboozled the Birds by making them play Titans football, and Titans football is best played by Titans. Like human mountain range Derrick Henry! Praise be.
The Tennessee Titans are agents of chaos and I am all for them. I’m sad they have to go against Mahomes next week. I love the Chiefs too and wish Mahomes the best. But you can’t stop the team of destiny. Derrick is coming. No wall can stand in his way.
Okay I did take the titans covering +9.5 but didn’t think they would win. I will say the titans don’t beat the Chiefs but I won’t bet on it. Hulk Henry is mad
I’m not gonna take credit for predicting this but I did suspect the Ravens would get exposed here; ever since Manning’s Colts I’ve never trusted 1 seeds that rest their starters week 17. Those teams are so dominant that they’ve never been in a hole, and thus never learned how to crawl out of one. At some point you get so good at winning games you forget how to not lose, and that’s exactly the sort of complacency an underdog who’s been playing elimination football long before the playoffs started feasts on.
I 100% agree that this is more on the coaching staff than Lamar. Hopefully we don’t see a Cam situation where he got smacked so bad he’s never the same again.
also, it seems like very other year some team “breaks football”, offensively, and they inevitably get chewed up in the playoffs by a tougher team.
Well thats it, with the Vikes being out im officaly jumping on the Titans bandwagon, i just hope the axles wont break cause i got a feeling that place is gona get crowded…
And i already commented it on Fridays comic but gawddang, watching Saturdays games you could think youd accidentaly fallen to tru a timeportal to 1920, RBs absolutely dominating in both games. The championship game is gona be something else, the 49ers defense is looking scary as hell but from what ive seen thats mostly from the pass rush? Any 9ers fans here that could comment on how good they are vs the run? Cause we all know what the Titans gameplan is gona be…
As for my Vikes, i gota eat some crow too, against my predictions it wasnt Cousins choking the game away. Instead both lines looked like ass, the defensive line being incapable of stoping the run even with selling out short and the offensive line unable to get Cousins any time to let routes develop and make throws. DROY apparently isnt enough for Bosa, he wants the DPOY award too and hes playing every game to prove it.
The 9ers are playing the Packers bruh.
I want the Niners to beat the Packers, but the Chiefs to win it all. I have a soft spot for Mahomes since I had him in fantasy.
And the Vikes have a LOT of work to do in the offseason.
As a Dolphins fan, watching Tannehill have this level of success is painful, especially with how the other talent we let go has been succeeding elsewhere. At least Adam Gase is fucking up the Jets now lol
Exactly. I mean, 2016 Jay Ajayi was almost as good as 2019 King Henry.
I wonder how many people will recognize that reference
Three things:
1) Before the Patriots game, I said something about the Titans making their move, beating the Patriots and making it to the Super Bowl because Tannehill had experience playing the Patriots AND playing in Miami. I totally was not being serious.
2) Multiple Titan comics in the last week? And non about (not-so) Super Mariota. They can no longer be ignored. King Henry is making sure we don’t forget the Titans this year.
3) If this is viewed as some Game of Thrones-esque for of entertainment, expect massive disappointment in the end.
***multiple Titan comics in less than a week
Is…..that an Attack on Titan reference?
Oh God, can you imagine if the Titans win next weekend? We’ll get a Tannehill-led team in a Super Bowl in Miami!
Oh my god I forgot it was in Miami
They are a team of destiny
And it’s the NFL CenTENnial
When Henry came out, everyone thought he was going to be amazing, and he had a rough first year. But now he’s making people forget Eddie George, and that’s an accomplishment. The dude is undefendable. The only question is whether the Titans can score 40-50 points, because Mahomes is insane.
Mahomes can’t score if he isn’t on the field. The Chiefs run D is awful, the Titans can happily take as much time as they like running Henry into the end zone every drive.
Yeah about that…. from 24:0 to 24:28 at halftime in less playtime than the Texans….
Yeah the Chiefs run defense is ass but that doesnt matter if your wunderkind QB only needs 2 minutes each drive to score a TD, imho the Chiefs are the worst possible matchup for the Titans but they dont get to pick their enemy :/ We could be legit looking at a 45:15 timesplitt with the 15 minutes team wining nonetheless
My only regret from this weekend is that we know we’re not getting Tiny Russell Wilson vs Giant Derrick Henry in the Super Bowl. That being said, this is one of the most impressive postseason runs I’ve ever seen, if only because it’s been so UNEXPECTED. The Titans show up to the playoffs every other year to help some other team get to the Divisional Round, not because they actually have a chance of winning it all. This is bizarre to say the least.
Applause for the Crab People podium insignia
*AoT theme plays*
The Titans took The Ravens… behind the shed and Old Yellered them.
I’m just amused that 3/4 of the teams from the AFC divisional weekend started in Texas (two in Houston, one in Dallas), two of them were the Texans, and only one of them still has their original name*. The NFC teams had 18 Super Bowl appearances and 10 wins… the AFC teams had 5 appearances and 3 wins, with two possible rematches (49ers Ravens is now out, but Chiefs vs. Packers is still a possibility for that sweet Super Bowl I rematch everyone’s been dying to see).
*the Ravens are really the Browns, just not technically because they didn’t want to bring Cleveland’s history to Baltimore, because who would?
Who would want to bring the Browns history?? You mean the ten straight championship games and seven wins with Otto Graham and Paul Brown?
It’s because we sued Art to keep the team name, history, and colors.
niners titans was my pick since week 17. I’m all aboard the titans train. Lamar and Mahomes are both fun, but I dream of tannehill superbowl in miami
So Dave how much should I be worried about Pat Shurmur replacing Scangarello as Denver OC
My guess is “a lot”
I wouldn’t be worried at all, you’ll probably have a very bright future scoring points. Dude is money running an offense; if it wouldn’t have been completely awkward, I would have voted to keep him employed on the Giants as the OC. It’s the other things he needed to do outside of his wheelhouse that doomed him in New York.
The Browns head coaching search: Brought to you by Lizzo.
Derrick Henry and Earl Thomas:
https://gfycat.com/ko/querulousampleflea