Josh McDaniels Backs Kyle Orton on Titans ‘Dirty’ Talk
No, no, no. Not that type of dirty talk, you pervs. We’re talking about Josh McDaniels agreeing with his quarterback that the Tennessee Titans played dirty during the Broncos 26-20 victory over them on Sunday. If you hadn’t already heard, Kyle Orton accused the Titans players of throwing cheap shots at his offensive lineman and called the game one of the “cheapest” he’d ever seen.
McDaniels indicated that the type of game he saw from Tennessee was the one he expected his team would be in for. He also implied that their style of play is a product of the way their coach, Jeff Fisher, runs the team.
I was proud of our team because we knew that was the kind of game it was going to be,” McDaniels said. “You can put any tape you want to of Tennessee and there’s going to be 10 penalties. You either coach it or you allow it to happen. That’s how I look at that.
“Our guys did a great job of keeping their poise and composure and not getting drawn into a big unsportsman-like game because I know that’s what they were trying to entice us into doing.”
Again, coach and quarterback are both speaking out about this after a win, so it must have some merit. However, I’m not sure it’s a good idea for McDaniels to call out Fisher like that. Fisher’s been coaching the Titans/Oilers since 1995 and his team has been the fifth most penalized in the league over that time. He’s also been to the playoffs six times, including a Super Bowl appearance. McDaniels has yet to accomplish anything, so he should be careful who he criticizes unless he wants criticism raining down on him twice as hard.
Aside from all the “he did this” and “he did that” talk, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the refs keeping an eye on the Titans more closely heading forward. Fisher has been around for a long time and is a very respected NFL figure, but this is creating a lot of media buzz and other teams and coaches will certainly be keeping an eye on it and getting in the officials’ ears about it if need be.
