I looked forward to the Cards - Titans 2nd preseason game as aq "question-answerer." Did our offense, defense and special teams look crisp and buttoned up? Would Matt Leinart step up and seize the moment? Would the young guys who looked so good a week ago continue to look good? Were any position-battles resolved.

Almost every answer drips with disappointment. Our defense didn't look crisp. Our defense played as if it didn't care. Leinart did nothing to earn the confidence of his teammates, going 3 & out on three successive series. . Although Anderson did move the team a couple of times, he missed open receivers in the end twice on the same scoring drive. In several cases, the youngsters outplayed their 1st string vets, but that was more the function of the 1st stringers performing so abysmally. By early in the second half, blocking turned into pushes and tackling became "lunging and missing."

Bright spots were few and far between, but a few that caught my attention were DRC (Titan QB's avoided him), Max Hall (the only QB who seemed to (a) see the field, (b) know what to do, (c) escape the rush and (d) find and hit the open man downfield), Justin Miller (a couple of nifty punt and KO returns), a couple of decent runs by Beanie and TD-saving catch-up effort by UDFA corner AJ Jefferson. And, oh yeah, although Stephen Williams didn't necessarily sparkle, he got the job done whenever he was called upon - a solid effort.

Game Recap

• 1st Quarter
  Tenn. received and the two teams traded two 3 & outs apiece. On the next series, Vince Young completed 4 of 4 passes and Chris Johnson ran twice for 4 yards (the final one an 8-yard TD run). Titans 7 - Cards 0.

• Leinart went 3 & out for the third consecutive time. He wasn't reading blitzes or coverages well; and when he did, he seemed clueless about providing the right answer. All night long, both Leinart and Anderson would come up short of a 1st down on 3rd down passes.

• On the final Tenn series that extended into the next quarter, Vince Young continued to slice and dice the Cardinal defense, moving to theTitan 45 as the quarter ended.

• 2nd Quarter
  Young managed to lead his team to the Cardinal 8-yard line, where the Big Red defense stiffened and a 3rd down sack by Lenon and A-Dub held them to a 29-yard Bironas FG . Drive took up 15 plays and used up 7:36 of clock-time.  Titans 10 - Cards 0.

• Anderson in for Leinart (less a reflection on Matt than Wiz wanting to see how Anderson performed with the first unit). A couple of completions (including a 37-yarder to Steven Williams) got the Cards to the Tennessee 6, but a couple of off-target passes to receivers open in the end zone "gave back" 4 points and we had to settle for a Feely 19-yard FG. Tennessee 10 - Cards 3..

• Kerry Collins in for Young. Titans went 3 & out. Despite a couple of completions from Anderson to Steven Williams, the Cards were forced to punt from the Tennessee 44. The two teams exchanged 3 & outs once more. Each team had one more shot at scoring before halftime, but both came up short.

• 3rd Quarter
  Cards received and the possession was full of mixed reviews: Beanie ran for +17, 0 and +2. Wright picked up +13 on a draw play. But Anderson was sacked once and fumbled on an aborted snap. Wright was flagged for holding. Cards punted. A couple of medium-length Collins completions and a 22-yard Hawkins run later, Gado (who?) ran it in from 4-yards out. (It was right about now that you could see the tackling get sloppy).  Titans 17 - Cards 3.

• Hall in for Anderson. Cards went 3 & out. Graham fumbled the snap, and it was Tenn, ball on the Arizona 15. Three plays later, Gado scooted in from 4-yards out.. Tennessee 24 - Cards 3. On the next series, the Cards seemed to get something going, with LSH picking up +16 and +10 yards, but a holding call on Lutui overturned the latter. A deep throw from Hall to Mougey (who was double-covered) was picked off as thequarter ended..

• 4th Quarter
  Cards had trouble tackling Blount, but a couple of incompletions by Simms and two penalties helped stall the Tennessee drive at the Cardinal 40. Marshay Green fair cought the punt. Hall then led the offense on its only TD drive of the night - mixing completions to Komar, Gant and Dray with nice runs by LSH. Scoring play was a pretty 22-yarder from Hall to Komar. Tennessee 24 - Cards 10.

• 7:43 left. Titans moved the ball from their own 41 to the Cardinal 18, but couldn't punch it in on 4 shots. I was kind of bummed that they went for it on 4th & 8 instead of settling for a FG, because I was hoping to see Skelton on the final series. But it wasn't to be, anyway: Hall remained in the game. It took 7 plays for the Cards to move from their own 16 to their own 31, where they punted on 4th & 15. An illegal formation penalty on Pestock undermined an 12-yard completion to Komar. Tennessee got the ball back on their own 34 with 2:08 left to play. Two runs and a knee later, the game was (mercifully) over.

Dark Spots

• Neither of the 2 leading Cardinal QB's looks ready to effectively quarterback the offense. Preseason time's running out.

• The defense couldn't stop the Young/C Johnson tandem..

• The pass rush was virtually invisible.

• HIghtower had no holes to run through.

• Leinart couldn't make anything happen. He wasn't reading defenses well and, when he did, seldom had an answer for what the Titans were throwing at him.

• You can see how good Anderson could be, but he was terribly erratic - missing open receivers, throwing too short to pick up first downs and not very nifty moving around in thepocket in the face of a tough pass rush.

• Our offense had problems dealing with the blitz-happy Tennessee 46 defense.

• It seemed to me that, on 3rd downs, our QB's (especially Anderson) were repeatedly completing passes "short" of the 1st down marker. (Routes? Pass Blocking? Or QB? I don't know).

• Our back-ups stopped blocking and tackling by early in the 3rd quarter. They didn't look like they wanted to be out there. (There are starting jobs to be taken - doesn't anyone want to step up and take them)?

• A couple of times, the TV camera caught #78 (Alan Branch) trotting along after a play with his head down. If an example has to be made by Wiz, it wouldn't shock me if Alan was made the example.

• Was it my imagination or did Pago Togafau play like a guy who feels he's already won a roster-spot and has nothing more to prove. (Is this what has caused him to be cut in past seasons)?

Bright Spots

• DRC was totally avoided by Titan passers (except for this one time when he blew up a play).

• Roberts didn't drop any throws or punts.

• Justin Miller displayed the knack - for returning punts and KO's for good yardage.

• LSH was our most consistent ground gainer.

• I liked the way AJ Jefferson stayed with his man on a deep fly pattern and refused to give up pursuing a TD-bound KO returner (He caught the dude and nailed him at the sideline) .

• Stephen Williams caught whatever was thrown his way.

• It's time to promote Toler to starting CB.

• Cards penalized just 5 times (for 35 yards)

80 Early Doucet  WR