Countdown to Kickoff: 36 Days
The countdown to kickoff continues.
The Tennessee Titans will open the 2020 regular season Sept. 14 at Denver. That is 36 days away. So, today we look at one way the number 36 figures into the team’s recent history.
Eddie George set the franchise career rushing record the hard way.
In his eight seasons with the Tennessee Titans (1996-03), he had just two runs of more than 40 yards and those were when he was a rookie. He was not a breakaway threat who gained ground in big chunks. Instead he relentlessly added to his total run after run after run until it added up to 10,009 yards over 128 games.
Thirty-six times, he rushed for 100 yards or more. That included at least once in each of his eight seasons for the Titans/Oilers. The lone year he played for Dallas (2004), he peaked at 99 yards.
Some notable aspects of George’s 100-yard games:
• He had at least one against 19 of the NFL’s other 31 teams, and multiple 100-yard games against nine.
• He was particularly tough on Ohio. He topped 100 six times against Cincinnati and four against Cleveland. The only other team he hit that mark against four times was Jacksonville.
• He only topped 100 yards against Oakland twice in five tries but those were the two biggest games of his career – 216 yards on 35 carries in the 1997 opener at Memphis and 199 yards on 28 carries in December 1999.
• Pittsburgh was problematic. He faced the Steelers 15 times (more than any opponent other than Jacksonville) but hit the 100-yard mark just once.
• His best season, in terms of 100-yard performances, was 1997, when he had eight.
• His top 13 single-game rushing performances all came during the first half of his career (1996-00).
Earl Campbell and Chris Johnson, who are second and third, respectively, on the franchise’s career rushing list were better at getting to 100 yards that George. Campbell did it 39 times in 91 games while Johnson hit the mark 35 times in 95 contests. But neither got to 10,000 yards for the franchise.
