FanHouse JasonJones

Andre Johnson isn't much of a talker by most accounts, though Cortland Finnegan got his attention last Sunday. During the Texans' 34-31 win over the Titans, Johnson and Finnegan were yapping at each other the entire day, which eventually turned into a brawl after Johnson threw Finnegan into the players on the Texans sideline.

The other sideline is a dangerous place for any player to be during a brawl, and, according to this report from Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle, one unnamed Texan took a chunk of Finnegan's red hair off the field as a souvenir of the fight. Titans defensive tackle Jason Jones was ejected from the game for throwing a punch and one of the smallest Texans, wide receiver David Anderson, was assessed an offsetting 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

In "Rough Draft," lawyer-turned-writer-turned-football-player Clay Travis recounts his experience training for the 2008 NFL draft alongside some future pros. The following is Part 4 of 10 installments (read Part 3 here) that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

As the days dwindle for Michael Oher (right) to decide whether to leave school early or return to Ole Miss, we end another workout and gather in front of the television. The Program, the 1993 college football movie starring Omar Epps, Halle Berry, and Craig Sheffer, as quarterback Joe Cane, is on the television.

For the first time I feel old since most of these guys were in first or second grade in 1993, when the movie came out. In fact, the majority of the guys haven't ever seen the movie before. As we watch, in one scene the starting quarterback, Joe Cane, complains because his father has never come to see him play a football game. Sitting in a large red chair to the left of the television, Big Mike Oher reacts. "Never come to see him play a football game?" asks Oher, scoffing. "I've only seen my own dad about four times."

In "Rough Draft," lawyer-turned-writer-turned-football-player Clay Travis recounts his experience training for the 2008 NFL draft alongside some future pros. The following is Part 2 of 10 installments (read Part 1 here) that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

The night before the first day of combine training, I can't sleep. It's Sunday January 6, and all of the college players are being picked up at the airport and brought to their apartments. By now I know a couple of their names, Frank Okam (far right) defensive tackle from Texas, Caleb Campbell safety from Army, and a few other vague designations, a tight end from Cal, a linebacker from Illinois. Late at night, unable to sleep, I climb out of bed and go downstairs to the computer where I spend over an hour scanning through player rosters and player bios.

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When the Titans host the Ravens on Saturday, it appears they won't be stuck bringing the B-team defense to the game.

Albert Haynesworth (knee injury) and Kyle Vanden Bosch (groin) will return to practice today and should be ready to play on Sunday. Haynesworth missed the Titans season finale, while Vanden Bosch hasn't played since Dec. 7 in an injury-plagued season.

It's not that Jason Jones and Jacob Ford haven't been very solid replacements, but with a spot in the AFC Championship game on the line, and the Ravens' relying heavily on their running game, Haynesworth is probably the most important player on the Titans team this week. If he can shut down LaRon McClain and Willis McGahee, the Titans' secondary should be able to handle Joe Flacco--they picked him off twice in their regular season win.

The bigger injury concern seems to be center Kevin Mawae. Mawae is questionable with an elbow injury. Backup Leroy Harris is physically talented, but asking him to figure out the infinite combination of Ravens blitzes would be a very difficult job in only his second career start.

For the past month, the conventional wisdom had been building: no matter what the records were, Pittsburgh was the class of the AFC, while the Titans were the team that peaked too early, playing their best football in September and October.

We can throw that theory out.

Playing without its best player, Albert Haynesworth, Tennessee still beat the Steelers by three scores. The Titans offense became the first team to put up over 300 yards against the Steelers' defense all year. Haynesworth's fill in, rookie Jason Jones, recorded 3 1/2 sacks and the Titans forced four Steelers turnovers. Ben Roethlisberger threw two interceptions, and also fumbled four times, losing two of them.

So it's easy to tell that it's been a bad week for the Titans when this qualifies as good news: Albert Haynesworth will miss the next two games with a sprained knee, while defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch is also sidelined for the next two weeks after having surgery on his groin.

Sure it is good news if you compare it to the potential catastrophe that would have been the alternative: Haynesworth and KVB out through the playoffs, but it's never a good thing when two of the team's best players will be trying to get back into the flow of things during a playoff game.

"Any time he is not in there it is definitely a problem,'' safety Chris Hope said. "Our guys have come in and played well ... but consistently without Albert Haynesworth it is definitely something we have to be concerned about.''

Jason Jones will replace Haynesworth in the lineup while the Titans have gotten plenty of experience at playing without Vanden Bosch, who has missed four games and parts of a couple of others already. In fact Jacob Ford (six sacks) and Dave Ball (four sacks) have produced nearly as much of a pass rush as Vanden Bosch.

But the key is to get Haynesworth back. WIthout the big man in the middle, the rest of the Titans' defense is not nearly as frightening, but with Haynesworth destroying double teams, everyone else's job gets a whole lot easier.

When Pat and Kevin Williams were slapped with a four-game suspension for testing positive for a diuretic, the Vikings defensive tackles quickly rushed to the courthouse to ensure that they got a court injunction to keep playing.

Now the Titans have a defensive tackle hit with a four-game suspension for diuretics as well, but we probably won't see a race to the courthouse.

The suspension for Kevin Vickerson is bad news for him, but unless someone on the Titans defensive line goes down with an injury, Vickerson was likely going to be sitting on the inactive list on Sunday anyway, so it's not going to be a big loss for Tennessee.