Titans Win Again But Lose Locker, Colts Rout the Jaguars

Just when it seemed like things were clicking for the Tennessee Titans (3-1), including Sunday’s 38-13 win over the New York Jets (2-2), their quarterback Jake Locker went down with a serious right hip injury.

Jake Locker

With 11:14 remaining in the third quarter and a Titans 24-6 lead, Locker threw an incomplete pass and was hit by Jets defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson, followed by his teammate Quinton Coples grabbing Locker’s hip before he went to the ground. He had to be carted off the field and then left in an ambulance.

Additional details about Locker’s injury have not been released yet but the team did say it doesn’t look he has a dislocated hip.

Before Locker left the game, it was a career day for him with his three touchdowns. He went 18 of 24 with 149 yards. Backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who signed with the team in March, went in for Locker and went 3 for 8, 108 yards and one touchdown.

Fitzpatrick said of Sunday’s game via ESPN.com, “”I was brought here for a reason, and the reason I was brought here was to help Jake out and be ready for a situation like this if it came up.”

The Titans have won two straight games and have emerged as a surprising 3-1 team for the league. Locker was just starting to hit his stride and looking like the franchise quarterback the Titans have been waiting for after he missed five games in 2012 with a dislocated shoulder.

In his absence the team will just have to move forward as noted by many of Locker’s teammates on Sunday. They hope it will not be long before he returns and in the meantime, they’ll embrace Fitzpatrick as their field general.

Next week the Titans will play the Kansas City Chiefs (4-0). They sit at 66/1 to win the 2014 Super Bowl.

Colts Rout the Jaguars

The Indianapolis Colts (3-1) also saw their second straight win and this one came against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars (0-4), 37-3.

Andrew Luck

Colts quarterback Andrew Luck got off to a slow start as he threw two interceptions (one was negated by officials) in his first two drives. But this came against a terrible team and the Jaguars were unable to score off of them.

For the game, their only points came in the middle of the first quarter on a 53-yard field goal by kicker Josh Scobee.

Luck said of the first quarter via the Associated Press, “It wasn’t an ideal start. It was more of a terrible start to the game offensively for us. … We sort of woke up in the second half. Those two scoring drives were big for us. That is what we needed.”

But once the quarterback got his head in the game, the team had a 20-3 halftime lead and came back after the break with two straight touchdowns. For the day, Luck went 22-of-36, 260 yards and two touchdowns.

His supporting cast for the game included wide receiver Reggie Wayne with his five receptions for 100 yards and one score; running back Trent Richardson had 20 carries for 60 yards and one touchdown while tight end Coby Fleener had five receptions for 77 yards and one touchdown.

As for the Jaguars, quarterback Blaine Gabbert returned after missing two games due to a hand injury. He went 17-of-32 passes, 179 yards and three interceptions. His running back Maurice Jones-Drew had 13 carries for 23 yards.

The team really can’t get any worse and with their 0-4 record, this is the not the first time but the third time in team history. Maybe a silver lining is the Jaguars have never started out a season at 0-5.

Things need to change for this team and on Sunday, a plane flew over the Jaguars stadium with the banner, “Tebow, why not?”

For the Colts, they sit at 33/1 to win the 2014 Super Bowl and well, the Jaguars are 5000/1.