Before the very eyes of his teammates Vince Young has been evolving. From the bench last season he watched Kerry Collins for all those months believing that his time could once again come.
The gritty play of Young’s at the quarterback position has provided the Titans with a morale boost that has been very much needed after their 0-6 start. Tennessee has won two games in a row.
Chris Johnson, only six plays after having his touchdown run of 81 yards overturned, got a pitch from Young, scoring the go ahead touchdown on a run of 2 yards and leading Tennessee to their second consecutive victory on Sunday by defeating the stumbling 49ers 34-27.
Young proved that his comeback is a legitimate one. He outplayed Alex Smith, fellow first round pick in the draft, down the final stretch. For the second time in two weeks, Young has led Tennessee (2-6) into the end zone and been clutch when it really mattered.
Kevin Mawae, Titans center said referring to the ordeal of Young, you go through a maturing process when you are not the main guy anymore. He had to sit back for over a year and see what someone like Kerry does. He has been in the NFL for 15 years. You see how he handles a 13-3 successful season and also how handled the 0-6 start and all of those ups and downs. There’s a lot you can’t help learning from.
On fourth down and just inches to go, Johnson converted to get his second touchdown for the game to make up for the lost six points that were taken away a few minutes before when it was determined that he went out of bounds during his long run. When the Titans went for it on fourth down when they could have tied the game with the field goal showed that Jeff Fisher, Titans head coach, had faith that Young and Company could get the job done.
Last Sunday Tennessee defeated Jacksonville to end their losing streak at eight games which dated all the way back to last December. The team suddenly had some momentum, which was very much needed. The Titans now have back to back victories for the first time since defeating Detroit and Cleveland during last season’s Weeks 13-14 on their way to finishing 13-3.
Young said, we are believing in each other. Everybody is excited and has confidence in each other. Right now it’s tremendous. It feels really good coming over to our sideline and hearing the defense cheering you on or vice versa. Right now everyone’s together. I wanted to get out there to show everyone what has been going on for me, to show what I have been doing all this time behind the scenes.
During the final 6:24 of the game, Smith had two interceptions. In all he had three interceptions, got sacked four times and had two fumbles. It wasn’t the type of day he had been hoping for in his first start at home in over two years. On October 25 versus the Texans, coach Mike Singletary brought in Smith and benched Shaun Hill. Smith has been the 49ers starting quarterback since then.
The Titans scored 24 points off of turnovers by the 49ers.
Following the score by Johnson, Chris Hope picked of a Smith pass on the ensuing series of the 49ers, setting up a field goal of 28 yards by Rob Bironas. Cortland Finnegan then had an interception return of 39 yards to score a touchdown, sealing the victory for the Titans.
The 49ers (3-5) have lost four games in a row after starting the season 3-1. San Francisco won’t have much time to recover with Chicago coming to visit for a game on Thursday night.
Mike Singletary, 49ers coach said, it’s very frustrating for us to be here at this point. However we still have eight games to play. We need to make sure that get out there and play an entire football game and not kill ourselves during the process.
Johnson and Young smiled on the sideline while standing together as they waited for the game to end.
After the touchdown of Johnson’s was reversed by the officials, Young connected with Justin Gage, who made a leaping catch in between his two defenders, on a pass of 33 yards to get the Titans into the red zone. On the big plays Tennessee just kept converting.
Johnson had 135 yards rushing on 25 carries, his career high. Fifty three of his yards came after his run for a touchdown was nullified. Young, who last week got his starting quarterback job back, went 12 for 19 for a total of 172 yards passing. He also had a touchdown run of 7 yards. Through eight games, Johnson has rushed for 959 yards.
Johnson said, right now we are confident. We are feeling like a new team. We have a new schedule to play.
Vernon Davis caught 10 passes for 102 yards for the 49ers in a game that was a matchup between two quarterbacks who have improved their play of late as they attempt to rebuild their careers. For Smith, the 2005 No. 2 pick overall in the draft, this game was a step backwards. During the final moments of the game the fans who bothered to stay until the end booed Smith.
Smith said, I think it’s too early to know whether this is a regression or not.
For the 49ers Jason Hill had touchdown catches of 3 and 12 yards. San Francisco needs to turn things around quickly in order to have a shot at making the playoffs or snap their streak of having six losing seasons in a row, the worst in franchise history.
Frank Gore had only 83 yards rushing in 15 carries. He did score on a touchdown run of 3 yards and caught seven passes for a total of 75 yards receiving.
During the first quarter, Young connected on a nice completion of 49 yards to Gage, who caught four passes in the game.
