Two Titans have everything to play for Monday night

Monday Night Football is finally coming back to the Music City. For three and a half hours Nashville Tennessee will have the most popular sport in the country...and most of it's viewers...all to themselves. A good thing for a small market team with little to no national exposure.



Being in the Monday Night Primetime slot is also good for the players. Not only do they get an extra day to rest and prepare, but it also gives them a platform to showcase their talent in front of their peers.




Saturday morning I caught the ESPN promotion for Monday's game between the Tennessee Titans and the Pittsburgh Steelers...and it told me everything I needed to know about their thoughts on the match up.


The commercial was a video montage of Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger connecting on a td pass to wide receiver Antonio Brown...set to the classic old school song..."Can't take my eyes off you". I waited for a clip of the Titans in the commercial....


And waited...and waited.


I finally caught a glimpse of the Flaming T logo at the very end...when the announcer guy said Steelers...Titans. Then I blinked and it was gone.


The struggle is real.


From a business standpoint I completely understand. It's difficult to market a 2-7 team with zero superstars on it's roster. A team that the majority of the national audience has yet to see play this year, and the few highlights they saw were not complimentary to say the least. So, ESPN is using the strategy:


"We got Big Ben and Antonio Brown...one of the most prolific qb/wr tandems in the league....playing on Monday night. Tune in to watch these two shred the Titans". As a fantasy owner of Brown, I...wait....


Let me digress on that.


Pittsburgh comes into tonight's matchup having everything to play for, with a division title and playoff birth still within their sights. For the 2-7 Titans, I'm sure that most veterans just don't want to embarrass themselves tonight. Especially the defensive players, who witnessed Big Ben toss 6 touchdowns passes in a game twice in the past month.


Offensively, the goal should be to keep Mike Tirico and John Gruden...tonight's announcers...talking about the game in the fourth quarter...instead of the "Batman" building or the best places to eat in town. That only happens when the home team refused to show up to the fight.


But two rookie Titans have everything to play for tonight. They can use the national stage to introduce themselves to America, and increase their Q rating at the same time.


Qb Zach Mettenberger and rb Bishop Sankey.


Mettenberger, sixth round rookie qb out of LSU, makes his third start of the season. Anyone who knows anything about the Titans knows that qb issues have plagued them the past several years. Mettenberger, with a lights out performance on a national stage, can get his name mentioned in the first segment of all of the post game shows, and morning shows on Tuesday. More importantly, a good showing in front of a national audience could put pressure on the Titans organization to look long and hard at him being the qb of the future, Once John Gruden calls you special, you're on the map. And we all know that Jake Locker will not be re-signed next year.


Bishop Sankey, rookie second round pick out of Washington, is also slated to start, and is trying to distinguish himself from the other rb's in the Titans crowded backfield. Shonn Greene was penciled in to be the starter and bell cow this season, but injuries and costly turnovers have him earning his way out of the dog house. Sankey has been decent at times, but hasn't had a break out signature game yet. If he's able to deliver one tonight, then he too will make the highlights rounds for at least the next 48 hours.


As a team, the Titans have nothing to gain with a victory tonight. Their playoff doom is a forgone conclusion. But for Mettenberger and Sankey, the stakes couldn't be higher. If they both come out and deliver performances worthy of being talked about on Mike and Mike the following morning, then maybe ESPN will feature them the next time Tennessee is in a Monday Night Football promotion.


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