Countdown to Kickoff: 11 Days

From 1999 through Jeff Fisher's final season as coach (1999), the Titans racked up 11 safeties, most in the NFL during that time.

The countdown to kickoff continues.

The Tennessee Titans will open the 2020 regular season Sept. 14 at Denver. That is 11 days away. So, today we look at one way the number 11 figures into the team’s recent history.

It was apparent to anybody who watched the Tennessee Titans at the time that defense was a priority under for coach Jeff Fisher.

In fact, that was so much the case that the defense contributed to the offense in a significant way.

From the first year the franchise was rebranded as the Titans (1999) through Fisher’s final season in charge (2010), Tennessee produced 11 safeties. That was the most in the NFL during that period. Jacksonville and Oakland had 10 each. Three others had nine.

It was not a steady stream of safeties that carried the Titans to the top. They tended to come in bunches, particularly the Super Bowl season of 1999, when they had four, including one in each of the first two weeks. Only three other teams had more than one that season. Additionally, Tennessee had two each in 2006 and 2010.

A safety, of course, is worth just two points, but sometimes that is the difference between a win and a loss. Tennessee won nine of those 11 games in which it had a safety, one by a single point (36-35 over Cincinnati in 1999).

In the nine seasons since Fisher’s tenure ended, the Titans have managed just three safeties and never more than one in a season. Last season, they had one in the opener at Cleveland, which was their first in more than four seasons.