Titans not resting on early laurels

The Tennessee Titans are plenty happy to be 3-0 and owners of a two-game cushion in the AFC South.

But that doesn’t mean they will stop to admire their work just yet.

“Most guys, even if you’ve been in the league at least one year or more, you know it’s a long season. It’s only three games,” offensive tackle Michael Roos said. “It feels great to be 3-0, but there’s still a lot of football left to be played, a lot of good teams and great teams to play against. We’ve just got to be realistic and just come to work every Wednesday morning ready to work.”

The Titans have jumped out as one of six remaining unbeaten teams in the NFL through three weeks, and have done so even amid a sideshow situation that unfolded regarding quarterback Vince Young during the season opener and the weeks that followed.

So, the Titans handed the offense to veteran Kerry Collins and have kept on winning, as the offense has improved under his guidance the past two weeks.

This week’s opponent, the Minnesota Vikings, are now trying a similar tack in turning their offense over to veteran Gus Frerotte, who led them to their first win of the season after the team struggled with Tarvaris Jackson at quarterback.

If the Titans can defeat Minnesota on Sunday, it would put Tennessee 4-0 for the first time in franchise history, a history that dates back to 1960 and the original days of the old American Football League.

Titans coach Jeff Fisher is taking the cliché week-by-week approach to having not only the two-game cushion, but struggles from other expected contenders like New England and San Diego in the early going.

“It’s still so early,” Fisher said. “What we’re trying to do is just build wins, just trying to win the next one. Six or seven weeks from now we can start talking along those lines but it’s just early.”

At the very least, the Titans are in good position to wrest control of the AFC South away from the Indianapolis Colts, who have won five straight division titles.

“They’ve been the king of the division for the past four or five years, maybe even longer,” said linebacker David Thornton, himself a former Colt. “We have a tremendous amount of respect for the organization, but we’re more concerned about what we’re going in Tennessee.”

What has been going on in Tennessee is solid defensive play and an offense that is suddenly more efficient with Collins at the controls. The Titans offense may have been a couple of weeks late arriving to the party, but even the defensive players know they will need the other side of the ball to keep contributing the way it has in order to take the team deep into the playoffs.

“I definitely think they feel confident in their ability to go out and produce for this team,” Thornton said. “They showed an extreme amount of excitement. They were ready to go on the field. They were ready for us to get the ball back for them, and that’s what we need if we’re going to be a balanced football team.”

INJURIES: Fisher said cornerback Nick Harper’s quadriceps injury was not has bad as first believed. Harper suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game and was replaced by Eric King, who had an end zone pass breakup and a tackle for a loss at the 2-yard line to help thwart a Houston drive.

Receiver Justin Gage missed the game with a groin injury sustained against Cincinnati.

YOUNG UPDATE: Fisher said he has not decided if quarterback Vince Young will watch another game from the coaches box like he did on Sunday.

Young, out with a strained MCL in his left knee, watched the game upstairs, but Fisher said there is a possibility he could be on the sidelines this week against Minnesota, getting a different perspective.

“The coaches thought it was good. He was really into it,” Fisher said. “He got the calls, he knew what we were doing, he could see Kerry make the decisions. I’ll talk to him and see. It’d probably be a good idea now to get him down on the sideline and let him take that information that he got yesterday and that experience down on the sideline and see it from the sideline perspective.”

IN OR OUT: Fisher said receiver Justin McCareins’ catch at the 3-yard line that was not challenged by the Texans on replay looked just fine to him _ as any 37-yard gain to set up a touchdown would. The ball was caught near the sideline and might have been out of bounds.

“It looked great to me. I didn’t see the TV copy,” Fisher said. “I haven’t looked at that yet. On the coaching tape it’s kind of hard to tell.”

PAC WHO: Cortland Finnegan’s 99-yard interception return for a touchdown was his fourth of the season in three games. Former first-round pick Adam “Pacman” Jones had just four in two full seasons (plus one suspended) with the club.