Titans feeling pressure to be perfect

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans are using words like perfect, precise, exact and patient to describe how they must play on offense.

The reason?

The Baltimore Ravens’ defense, especially a secondary, filled with Pro Bowlers and the NFL’s last two Defensive Players of the Year in safety Ed Reed and linebacker Ray Lewis.

“It’s very impressive what they’ve got, probably 11 Pro Bowlers over there …,” Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair said. “As I saw in the game against Indianapolis there’s a lot of chemistry there. There’s no egos. I think everyone’s playing together as one unit.”

McNair has played the Ravens enough to know that he’s never been successful hitting big plays deep down field, so he is preaching patience to a receiving corps that has only Drew Bennett with at least one full season as a starter in the NFL.

Tyrone Calico is in his third year for the Titans, but he is coming off a surgically repaired anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee that still had him a little tentative in his debut last week as a starter. Andrae Thurman, promoted from the practice squad before the opening loss at Pittsburgh, caught all of two passes for Green Bay last season.

And the other three receivers are all rookies led by Brandon Jones, Courtney Roby and Roydell Williams. Their best quality may be competitiveness because Calico doesn’t believe any of the three will be in awe Sunday against the Ravens.

“I think they’re more anxious to get in there and see what they can do against them rather than be tentative because they think a veteran corner will jump them,” Calico said.

It would be easy to be awed simply by the past achievements of these Ravens.

Reed is a two-time Pro Bowler and led the NFL with a franchise-record nine interceptions last season at safety. Cornerback Chris McAlister is a two-time Pro Bowler, while McNair considers Samari Rolle, a Pro Bowler in 2000 cut by the Titans for salary cap reasons, one of the league’s premier cornerbacks.

Then there’s the veteran Deion Sanders, an eight-time Pro Bowler and himself a former Defensive Player of the Year in 1994, coming off the bench in passing situations.

“We can’t afford to make a mistake or telegraph a route or drop our eyes or those kinds of things because they will be all over them,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher said Thursday.

Fisher said the Ravens are so good at studying opponents that he’s sure Rolle doesn’t have to tell his new teammates much about Bennett and Calico, the two receivers he practiced against.

“There are times on tape where you are looking and you say they have got to be guessing, but they guess right when they guess. You have to be sharp,” Fisher said.

The Titans were intercepted twice in their opening 34-7 loss at Pittsburgh, and they also lost two of four fumbles. Bennett said they know someone like Reed will be ready to pounce if they make mistakes like that again.

“That guy has a nose for the ball like no one else I’ve seen. Their entire backfield demands you run perfect routes and McNair knows exactly where you’re going to be at the exact right time,” Bennett said.

McNair has worked hard to build rapport with his receivers after losing his favorite target when the Titans cut Derrick Mason for cap reasons. He said he is very impressed with all three rookies.

Now they just have to be prepared to hold onto the ball against a speedy and talented defense because McNair remembers only too well how Lewis took the ball away from Eddie George in a divisional playoff game in January 2001 and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown en route to a Super Bowl title.

Lewis remembers too. He just doesn’t want anyone talking about it this week.

“You are going to get me booed loud,” he said.