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Gambling911.com continues its look at 2011 NFL odds with the Tennessee Titans and their odds to win the AFC South along with the line on number of regular season wins.
This is a team that endured a great deal of turmoil last season that culminated in the eventual departure of quarterback Vince Young and head coach Jeff Fisher.
They will have a rookie quarterback in Jake Locker but will start just-signed veteran Matt Hasselbeck.
Offensive line coach Mike Munchakhas been promoted to head coach and he is considered even more tied to this organization than Fisher, who served 16 years. He was a Hall of Fame player during the Titans years in Texas as the Oilers.
Andy Benoit of the New York Times:
Teams that change head coaches and give up on a quarterback once drafted third over all generally don’t enjoy smooth waters right off the dock. But the Titans have made it look relatively easy thus far.
With that said, the Titans do not look on the surface like a team that will become bottom feeders in the NFL. Tennessee is also playing in a division that they could actually win as the Colts no longer seem as dominating as in past years and Houston remains a bit of a question mark.
With this in mind, the Titans 8/1 odds of winning the AFC South do offer good value.
It is a little difficult to say how many games the Titans can win during the regular season.
With two road games in Jacksonville and Cleveland, respectively, we can see a win at one of those locales for Tennessee. They’ll host Denver and Baltimore and we can see a victory against the Broncos. Then it’s off to Pittsburgh before their bye week. The Titans should go into that bye with a 2-3 record.
The following four weeks provide some hope for Tennessee with three consecutive home games against Houston, Cincinnati and Indianapolis and a road game in Carolina. The Titans could go 3-1 during this stretch, bringing their record to 5-4 before heading to Atlanta.
Tennessee will likely be at .500 when they host Tampa Bay, a game that is winnable depending on how much the Titans have managed to gel at this point in the season. Gambling911.com would mark this one in the loss column this early on however before the Titans end up 6-6 after a game against Buffalo in Week 13.
With four weeks remaining, Tennessee faces the Saints at home, the Colts on the road, Jacksonville at home and a game in Houston.
This stretch could go either way: 2-2, 1-3, 3-1 all depending on how the AFC South picture unfolds. Will any of these final games matter much to Houston or Indianapolis? Will they matter much to Tennessee?
In the end, the Titans look like a .500 team. That said, the OVER 7 has some good value at +130.
Mary Montgomery, Gambling911.com
