Titans building early confidence

The Tennessee Titans have a rookie head coach. They started the season with the longest game in the NFL since the league’s merger with the AFL in 1970.

Coaches have mixed and matched players to survive a variety of injuries, including to starting quarterback Marcus Mariota.

And yet three weeks into the season, the Titans sit atop the AFC South as the NFL’s first team off to a 2-0 start in a division.

Call it gritty, gutsy or just resourceful, the Titans are finding ways to pull out some big, early victories.

“You build some confidence when you play tight, close games, tough games, division games that are going to be close,” coach Mike Vrabel said Monday.

“There’s a lot of familiarity amongst opponents. Winning can cure a lot of things, and give you a lot of confidence going into the next week. But, there’s a lot of stuff that we can get better at, which is always the case.”

At the top of the list is healing up Mariota.

The fourth-year quarterback didn’t start because of his injured right elbow that still has him dealing with weakness in his throwing arm and numbness in his ring finger and pinkie.

Mariota led Tennessee to a 9-6 victory over the defending AFC South champion Jaguars using his legs for 51 yards and that arm for 100 more with no completion longer than 22 yards.

“Make no mistake about it, Marcus came in and won the football game,” Vrabel said.

“We wouldn’t have won the game without Marcus. That was really cool to see, it was cool to see him come in and compete for his team, to win the game. Not only throwing the football where he had to, but making some plays with his legs. It was a great win. We can thank Marcus for that one.”