Titans 19, Packers 16: Another Step Forward for the Titans

This wasn't the Titans prettiest win of the 2008 season, but does that really matter? When it's all over, Tennessee is now 8-0, a mark that seemed almost unfathomable when the season began. And if the Titans go deep in the playoffs this year, which they should, Sunday's win will prove to be very important.

The reality is that the Titans are playing the second half of the regular season for two main goals:

1) Get the best seeding for the playoffs possible. At 8-0, the Titans are obviously on pace to finish with home field advantage throughout the playoffs, but even more importantly, they are in great shape to at least get one of the top two seeds which ensures a first-round bye. The Patriots (heading into Sunday night's game with the Colts) and the Steelers (heading into Monday night's game with the Redskins) are the only two other AFC teams with less than three losses, so barring a collapse--the Titans still have the Lions and Browns on the schedule--Tennessee is in great shape for a good seeding.

2) Tune up for the playoffs. Teams that start the season 8-0 don't miss the playoffs, but it's important to add experience that will pay off come playoff time. The Titans have proven they can win by blowing teams out (ask the Chiefs and Bengals) and they've proven that they can beat the rest of the division (ask the Texans, Jaguars and Colts). But they came into Sunday with two big tests left to survive. They needed to prove that they could win a game in the final minutes with clutch play and they need to prove they can beat the NFL's elite.

Now one of those two tests has been completed. The Titans offense struggled in the second half and the pass defense looked iffy for the first time, but with the game on the line, Tennessee twice drove down for a game-winning field goal. The fact that Rod Bironas missed the game-winner at the end of regulation just gave Kerry Collins and the offense one more chance to run the two-minute drill. On the first "game-winning" drive, Collins was 4-of-5 for 48 yards. On the second one, Lendale White and Chris Johnson had seven carries for 39 yards.

Tennessee still has beaten only one team with a winning record, but there really aren't many elite teams in the NFL this year, and the AFC is especially barren. Tennnessee will take on the Steelers on Dec. 21 in a game that could be a playoff preview, and will give the Titans one final playoff tuneup.

But until then, Tennessee will keep piling up the experience, hope to stay healthy and see how close to a perfect regular season they can get. This doesn't look like a 16-0 team, but hey, they didn't look like an 8-0 team when the season began, and look where they are now.