Titans showing grit after poor start

A long, strange journey for Vince Young and the Tennessee Titans reached a fitting end Sunday. Ninety-nine yards were required, the clock was winding down and several times it seemed the Titans were done.

The winning drive was a metaphor for their season.

To put it in perspective, after getting utterly humiliated 59-0 by the New England Patriots, the Titans were 0-6 and six feet under at the end of October. Young, the supposed franchise quarterback, was on the bench and written off as a bust, and coach Jeff Fisher got booed at his family reunion.

It’s hard to believe now, but Young just rallied Tennessee to its fifth straight victory, 20-17 over the Arizona Cardinals, and a spot in the playoffs is not out of the question.

”If the Titans had lost that game, you could almost put the fork in them,” said Jimmy Vaccaro, director of operations for Lucky’s sports books.

But Vaccaro put down the fork and posted this proposition bet: Will the Titans make the playoffs? Betting ”No” is minus-1200 and ”Yes” is plus-800.

Tennessee has home games remaining against St. Louis, Miami and San Diego before finishing the regular season at Seattle. But the Titans also must clear the high hurdle known as Peyton Manning. The Titans are 6-point underdogs at Indianapolis on Sunday.

I hate to bet against Manning and the Colts, something I was reminded of Sunday. But at this point, who’s anxious to bet against the Titans?

Young is 23-11 in his career as a starter, winning nine straight. His throwing motion is unorthodox, but he’s resilient and gets results. Young is a strong runner, and he’s so elusive, I’m starting to think he would have been an odds-on favorite to escape from Alcatraz.

Young drove the Titans 99 yards in 2:37, firing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Britt as time expired. There were three fourth-down conversions on the march.

A week ago, Young beat the Houston Texans mostly by using his legs. But he proved he’s not a one-trick pony by throwing for a career-high 387 yards against a good Arizona defense.

“The maturing of Young is pretty amazing,” Vegas Insider handicapper Barry Holthaus said. ”Young is getting it done now. And it’s the way he got it done, with a thread-the-needle pass.”

Holthaus was on the right side of an interesting point-spread decision by betting the Titans minus-21/2. The Cardinals opened as 1-point favorites, and Tennessee closed anywhere from minus-3 to 31/2.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is becoming a trend for the Texans, who led the Colts 17-0 midway through the second quarter.

If you bet on Houston at plus-3 or 31/2, you were feeling pretty good. But then you realized you bet on Matt Schaub and the Texans, who find creative ways to lose, and Manning was on the other side starting to lead a comeback.

So the end result really was no shock. Manning passed for three touchdowns, Schaub passed gas and the Colts won 35-27 to climb to 11-0.

With the Arizona-Tennessee game counted as a push, and including the Thanksgiving results, favorites are 8-6-1 against the spread in Week 12. Vaccaro said the sports books had a ”fair winning day” Sunday.

Even without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and safety Troy Polamalu, the Pittsburgh Steelers covered in a 20-17 overtime loss at Baltimore. The Ravens closed as 71/2-point favorites, and their stock continues to plummet.

Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings continue to roll. Favre passed for 392 yards and three touchdowns as the Vikings, 101/2-point home favorites, stomped the Chicago Bears, 36-10.

”It seems like the four teams you don’t want to step in front of are the Colts, Vikings, Patriots and Saints,” Holthaus said.

New England is at New Orleans today in what should be a great game, especially for proposition wagers. The Saints opened as 3-point favorites and the line has dropped to minus-1 at Lucky’s, the Las Vegas Hilton and MGM Mirage books.

”There’s a lot of money showing on the Patriots,” Vaccaro said.

How interesting would it be if the game is decided by another fourth-down call by Bill Belichick?

Contact sports betting reporter and columnist Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907.