After rolling over the Indianapolis Colts last week, the St. Louis Rams can expect a little tougher matchup this week against the Tennessee Titans, a team that takes the preseason a little more seriously than their division rivals. After losing head coach Jeff Fisher, a fixture in since the team's days in Houston, and dumping Vince Young, the Titans are a team in transition.
For a little more insight into the Rams' opponent tonight, JImmy from SBNation's Titans site, Music City Miracles,provided us with a little preview.
This is a team in transition, but so far they have looked a lot better than most people expected. They had big holes on defense last year, specifically at LB and DT, and they have had rookies that have looked good so far at both positions. Keep an eye on 2nd round pick Akeem Ayers out of UCLA. He has been very impressive in camp and fills a huge hole the team had last year.
They have had three rookies at defensive tackle- Karl Klug, Jurrell Casey, and Zach Clayton- that all made at least one big play apiece last week against the Minnesota Vikings.
On offense you won't see Chris Johnson or Kenny Britt, but neither played last week and they moved the ball pretty well. Matt Hasselbeck looked good in limited work last week and has been sharp in camp. He will be the starter this year as long as he is healthy, but the future is Jake Locker who has been impressive early on as well. He is way ahead of where most people expected him to be coming off the lockout.
As you can tell, there is a lot of optimism surrounding this team right now. Hopefully tonight doesn't do anything to discourage that because the Rams are going to be a much bigger challenge than the Vikings were.
Thanks to Jimmy from Music City Miracles for the intel.