Titans 20 Texans 17: Vince Young Impresses, Apparently no Longer Suicidal

So apparently Vince Young is back. It's been only a year since the 3rd overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft was aimlessly navigating the streets of Nashville with his handgun and pondering the meaning of life. Since then, he has taken a temporary leave from the team, lost his job to a quarterback my grandfather grew up watching, and endured endless criticism from sportswriters who, without hesitation, have arrived at the conclusion that he is the next Ryan Leaf, only not as intelligent.

And yet Monday night, on a stage that was supposed to belong to Matt Schaub and a Texans team that finally seemed destined to shed the label of perennial playoff pretender, Vince Young, now 4-0 this season as the Titans starting quarterback, responded to every challenge, answered every score, and laid to rest any doubt that he is now the leader of his football team. Down by a touchdown twice in the first half, Young immediately answered with scoring drives of 80 and 75 yards to quickly hush the crowd of more than 70,000 fans in his native Houston. And with the score tied 17-17 and less than 3 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter, Young led Tennessee from their own 6 to set up Rob Bironas' third field goal of the night, the game winner, with under a minute to play.

Young, the former Texas Longhorn, exhibited tremendous poise and seemed comfortable in the pocket all evening, despite a persistent pass rush from Houston's front 7. He amassed 73 yards on the ground, but didn't seem anxious to tuck it and run, often connecting on short passes to tight ends Bo Scaife and Alge Crumpler (combined 6 catches and 56 yards). Of Young's 11 rushes, 7 of them were for first downs, 3 of those 7 on third down, and 6 of them in the 2nd half when yards for both teams were at a premium.

While the Tennessee quarterback's statistics through the air weren't gaudy (12/22, 116 yds, 1 TD, 0 INT) Young was without question the Titans' most valuable player. Head coach Jeff Fisher will tell you that the only number his club cares about heading into Week 12 is 0, which is the number of losses they've endured after starting 0-6 and replacing journeyman quarterback Kerry Collins with a noticeably reenergized and refocused Vince Young.

Incidentally, it's the same number of games they can afford to lose if they hope to return to the AFC playoffs for the third consecutive season.

After tonight's performance in Houston, who's counting out Vince Young? We've made that mistake before.