Cowboys @ Titans: Five Questions With Music City Miracles

This week, the Dallas Cowboys visit the Tennessee Titans. In anticipation of the game we reached out to Jimmy Morris at Music City Miracles with five questions.

Blogging The Boys: The Titans win over the Chiefs surprised a lot of people, how did the Titans fans feel about it? Was there a lot of confidence in the team to start the season?

Music City Miracles: Titans fans are cautiously optimistic. This is a new era of Titans football and it got off to a really good start, but we have seen good starts before. The Titans won week 1 last year in Pittsburgh. Everyone was pumped, and the Titans turned out to be mediocre. It is going to take some time to get the fanbase all in again, but winning will make it happen.

I think people were taking a wait and see heading into the season. As I said, we were excited about the new coaching staff, but there were/are still a lot of questions to be answered. The defense answered some of those last week, but they have a bigger test this week.

BTB: How much will the Zach Brown injury affect the defense, and is his replacement ready to step in?

MCM: It will hurt, but it is not devastating. Brown had taken to the new system well and has some playmaking ability, but he is not the linchpin of the defense by any means. Zaviar Gooden, Brown's replacement, is very similar to Brown. He was a third round pick in 2013. He is a slight downgrade, but that position is the one that comes off the field when they are in nickel or dime, so it won't be that noticeable.

BTB: The Titans ran the ball, and did it with a group of players. Discuss the new approach to the running game this year.

MCM: The Titans have a few talented backs that all have different strengths and weaknesses. Shonn Greene is good between the tackles. Dexter McCluster is a speed back that is good catching the ball out of the backfield. Bishop Sankey is young but can do a little bit of anything. Leon Washington got to run the ball some, not sure why.

They used them all in just about every role- they didn't pigeon hole anyone. That was probably done to keep defenses honest down the road.

BTB: What was the key to getting the interceptions against Alex Smith last week?

MCM: The Chiefs were decimated by injuries. Donnie Avery was their #1 receiver in that game, and he is pretty easy to take away. That made the windows tight for Alex Smith and he made a couple of bad throws. The one at the end was pretty much just Smith forcing a throw when the game was already out of hand. I am interested to see how the secondary matches up with Dallas.

BTB: Where are you on Jake Locker as the future of the Titans? Talk about how he played last week in the new offense.

MCM: Locker has to prove that he can be an NFL quarterback and stay healthy. There isn't anyone that doesn't like Jake Locker. Everyone raves about his work ethic. It is time for him to put it all together. That starts with him staying healthy all year, which has been his biggest problem.

He looked really good in the new offense. It was the first game of his career where he didn't attempt a pass from outside of the pocket. The critics said he can't throw from the pocket. He did so very well last week. Now he just has to build on that each week.

Editor's Note: SB Nation's partner FanDuel is hosting a $250,000 Fantasy Football Contest for Week 2's NFL games. It's only $10 to join and first place wins $25,000. Starts Sunday, September 14th at 1pm ET. Here's the link.