Titans Notes: Carr steps up big for Titans

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Chris Carr was the last line of defense for the Tennessee Titans at cornerback Sunday.

And he was more than up to the test after replacing Eric King early in the second quarter after King re-fractured his forearm in the Titans’ 24-14 victory.

The Jaguars’ passing game was already making throws toward King, who was starting in place of Nick Harper, who was out with an ankle injury. So when Carr entered the game as the next replacement, Jaguars quarterback David Garrard continued to look that way.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have, because Carr, who normally plays only on special teams, was more than up to the challenge, breaking up a pair of second-half passes and toeing the sideline to come up with a key interception that set up Tennessee’s final touchdown.

Carr had no other choice but to stay the course, especially after Reynaldo Hill left the game toward the end of the first half with a hip pointer, leaving no more cornerbacks other than Carr and Cortland Finnegan to play.

“Me and Reynaldo Hill talk all the time about, ‘If I ever get in a game, I’m going to make some plays, because I know I can play,’” Carr said after helping the Titans run their record to 10-0. “So I never view myself as just a backup. I always watch film like I’m a starter and prepare like a starter, because you never know what’s going to happen.”

Carr also distinguished himself on special teams by handling his usual punt and kickoff return chores and with a nice open-field tackle of Jacksonville’s Brian Witherspoon at the 28-yard line after a 15-yard penalty assessed on the kickoff against Brandon Jones for dropping to his knees celebrating a touchdown.

Carr’s efforts earned him high praise from his teammates.

“Chris Carr definitely stepped up,” linebacker Keith Bulluck said. “A lot of guys around here just thought he was a return man. I myself was one of those guys. But given the opportunity to play and perform, that’s what he did. He’s been in the league for four or five years, so he knows how to play, and today he showed everything he can do on a football field.”

Perfect 10: Bulluck said that having people mention the Titans’ unbeaten start is a lot of fun, but still not a focal point for the team.

“It gets more fun, because we’re reminded every week about it. So it gets more fun,” Bulluck said. “First and foremost, we go out the win the game every week. We’re just in a position where we haven’t lost one yet. That kind of talk does come up. Anything is possible. We’ve got six more games to play. After 11 weeks, why would we not still take it week by week?”

As for the focus, Bulluck said the focus won’t change. It now moves from the Jaguars to the New York Jets, who visit LP Field on Sunday.

“If we were to think about undefeated, that means we would have to think about every team like all six games we have left, that’s what we would have to think about next week. I know we still have games left with Houston, Indy, Pittsburgh and all these teams we have left to play. We have the Jets on Sunday,” Bulluck said. “If we’re thinking about undefeated, we’d have to think about all six of those teams, and that will allow you to get beat. We take one team at a time. I honestly don’t give a [expletive] about undefeated until we’re 15-0. Then we can think about undefeated.”

Injuries: King will be lost for at least six weeks after re-fracturing his right forearm. He originally sustained the injury last year and was lost for the season and will need surgery to fix the problem.

“He’ll be out for a while,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. “Eric King fractured his forearm last year and was playing with a plate, and he re-fractured at the union joint. He’ll require surgery. It won’t put him out for the rest of the year. It’ll be about a six-week injury.”

King was disappointed, but happy that Carr filled in nicely for him.

“It’s definitely frustrating, but you’ve just got to keep your head up and continue to work hard to get back,” King said. “We’ve got a real deep secondary. Chris Carr came in today, and he stepped up today and showed that he’s a big-time player as well.”

Fisher indicated that Hill, who had a hip pointer, should be OK. If the Titans need help in the secondary, this year’s seventh-round pick Cary Williams is on the practice squad and has been showing improvement on the practice field.

Bulluck said his ribs are much more sore this week than after last week’s game at Chicago. He said he hopes to practice this week.

“I’m definitely more sore than I was last week. Hopefully, this thing will get better. But it doesn’t feel like it has really,” Bulluck said. “I kind of want to practice. I might get out there Thursday and see what I can do. This sitting around stuff is getting me healthy, but if going out there and still hurting anyway, I might as well get out there and see what I can do.”

No speech: Mike Heimerdinger, known for his short temper when things don’t go well, stayed calm and level-headed at halftime when his offense was 0-for-6 on third down and had produced just three points.

“It wasn’t very rousing. I said, ‘Usually I give you adjustments and tell you what we’re going to do,’” Heimerdinger said. “I said, ‘We haven’t been on the field long enough to find out what we’re going to do or what they’re doing to us.’ … The speech didn’t need to be made. And the fun part was, they said, ‘Hey, that’s why we play two halves.’ They knew it, and we found some things out.”

Kerry Collins, who responded with three second-half touchdowns, said Heimerdinger’s tone was surprisingly settled in the halftime meeting.

“He probably wanted to explode on the inside, but everybody was kind of talking about what we needed to do. We’ve got to do this; we’ve got to do that. And finally, I just said we just need to shut up and go play and play better,” Collins said. “I’ve seen him blow up a couple of times, but never during a game.”

Goliath wins?: Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio referred to the unbeaten Titans at Goliath during the week, and the Titans players were asked about the reference in the post-game after having taken the comeback win.

“I guess they couldn’t find enough rocks for us,” defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth said.

Added safety Michael Griffin, “We all heard the press conference talking about Goliath is coming to town, and they’re David. I guess they had to find some pebbles. First half, they were David. They were throwing those pebbles at us, and were hitting us left and right. Second half, I guess we ended up being David and they ended up being Goliath.”