LenDale White Didn't Look So Hot Without Chris Johnson (Or: the Ravens D Is Good)

Chris Johnson tallied 100 total yards against the Ravens today. That, folks, is a hell of an accomplishment given the stout nature of their defense. But it's also telling re: the Titans' offensive future, because Johnson got hurt.

And when he did, the entire offensive load fell to LenDale White, who tallied 45 yards. Now, this isn't to totally discredit White -- he's a talented rusher on his own, even if he appears a bit chunky and less than "mobile" at times. But Johnson is an entirely different animal, and when the Titans lost him for the afternoon, you could see how much they suffered.

It harkens back to several things. First of all, without Johnson in the game, LenDale and the Titans' running game suddenly becomes much more one-dimensional; there's no obvious home-run threat (at least it doesn't remind anyone of exactly what went on at USC while White was there, so that's good). Secondly, Kerry Collins suddenly becomes wildly more ineffective than he normally is. And finally, yes, the Ravens defense is very good.

There are parallels abound across the board (score totals, personnel, etc) to the 2000 team that won a Super Bowl, and it's no surprise that everyone and their brother is jumping on the Ravens bandwagon. Not to say bandwagoning them is bad -- you could do a lot worse than picking a team features Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and happens to be peaking at the right time.