What I think they are thinking

September, 14, 2009
Sep 14
10:42
AM ET
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By Paul Kuharsky

Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky


What I think they are thinking in the headquarters of the four AFC South teams Monday morning:

Houston Texans

The Jets called us a finesse team after they whooped us, and what sort of believable denial can we issue in response based on what happened? We need to prove we’re tough, and Sunday’s game in Tennessee won’t be an easy place to do it. Message No. 1 Monday for players has to be about how we need to work and fight our way out of this, not spend any further time feeling sorry for ourselves. We don’t need to send messages with words written on our shoes, we need to send them with our play. Drop another game and a slow start is an issue yet again. In Tennessee, our big-name guys need big game performances.

Indianapolis Colts

All our issues are hardly solved, but it’s nice to win a game without playing as crisply as we know we will need to. We moved the ball well on offense, but can’t turn it over and obviously need to score more points. Running better and stopping the run better will be priorities next Monday night in Miami. Even if Anthony Gonzalez is out for a month, we’re not bringing Marvin Harrison back (based on what Bill Polian already told Peter King). So we feel fine about Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon supplementing Reggie Wayne. If one of them gets dinged and has to come off the field for any length of time with an injury, however, we’ll be in trouble.

Jacksonville Jaguars

We don’t feel very good because we let one get away. But for all who doubted our confidence rooted in our hard work and unity, we think we showed that it can pay off and that we can be surprisingly competitive. The rookies we’re relying on, like tackles Eugene Monroe and Eben Britton and cornerback Derek Cox, are going to make huge strides week to week. And while Cox will face a premium receiver next week, against Arizona the tackles will hardly face the sort of rush threats Indianapolis presented.

Tennessee Titans

We let one get away in Pittsburgh, but our ability to stand toe-to-toe with a good team in that atmosphere meant it wasn’t all bad. Now we’re going to be rested. The Texans will be dangerous because they’ll feel desperate to respond to their poor Week 1 showing. But they just got shredded by a rookie quarterback and a fledgling defense. We’ve got a veteran who can pick them apart, a defense with more pieces and a blueprint from the Jets. Start fast and no matter how much the Texans believe that loss was an anomaly, we can get them doubting themselves again in a hurry.

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