The week after their third straight loss the 49ers get to play the one win Tennessee Titans, and you don’t need to do any math to realize this is a must win game. Plain and simple if you are a team that is going to win your division you have to win the games you’re supposed to win, and the 49ers are defiantly supposed to beat the one win Titans. For a team that is allowing over 30 points a game and has a collective quarterback rating of 63.4 while allowing the other teams quarterbacks to have a rating of 108.4 against them the only facet of their game to worry about is the running game, which is doing quite well averaging 162.3 yards a game. So the question for the 49ers is can Chris Johnson beat them? For a team that is trying to change it’s culture they better make sure he doesn’t, because good teams don’t let one player beat them.

To be fair to the Titans they have more than one player on their team but unfortunately for the Titans Johnson is the only one that is playing all that well, especially on the offense. That being said the 49ers have the second ranked rushing defense in terms of yards so it will be a match up of strength versus strength for this Titans rushing attack and the 49ers rushing defense. But considering how little emphasis the Niners will have to put in stopping the run and how many yards they held Adrian Peterson to unless Vince Young puts together a passing performance similar to the one that Bret Favre put up when the Vikings played the Niners then I don’t see the Titan’s offense being particularly effective. Granted the fact that the Niners will be without Nate Clements gives potential for opposing passing attacks to open more but considering the talent that the Titans have at the wide receiver position and Vince Young’s accuracy I don’t see the passing game converting many third downs in obvious passing situations, situations the 49er defense has done a good job of creating all year.

As for the 49er offense they are going to be facing one of the worst defenses that they have lined up against all year. The Titans are 32^nd in passing yards allowed and 18^th in rushing yards allowed. It will be interesting to see if offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye will look to expose the defenses weakness against the pass by continuing to build on the spread formations that the 49ers have shown with Alex Smith behind center. I could see why the Niners coaching staff would like to keep this a quick game and run the ball a lot to eat up the clock but with a game breaker like Johnson running the ball for the Titans I would be worried about keeping the game too close late. The 49ers need to learn to put opponents away, something they should try and do early in this game to try and force the Titans to get away from what they do best, running the ball.

Against this defense it is hard to do a man-against-man comparison because the Titans defense is playing so far from their potential right now. For instance, common sense wouldn’t tell you that rookie wide receiver Michael Crabtree could have his way with Cortland Finnegan but just looking at how the two have played so far this season it looks like Crabtree will have a chance to get the upper hand and build upon his already impressive showing this year. The big question mark for me in regards to this offense is how well will they be able to block for Frank Gore and Alex Smith. This is usually an area of concern for the Niners but with how the Titans defensive line has been playing they might be able to control the line of scrimmage, but again it is hard to tell because this Titans’ unit is capable of playing at a much higher level then they have been as of late, but that is why it is a question and not a concern. If the Niners’ offensive line can control the line of scrimmage against this Titans defense then I don’t see why the Niners couldn’t put up 20+ points.

On the other side of that the Titans are averaging only 16 points a game and this is one of the better defensive units they are going to face. This obviously makes the 49ers favorites in my book and considering how awful the Titans have been I see no reason why it should be otherwise. The only wild card there seems to be in this desk is Vince Young, who proved to be a spark to the team in their first win last week and has previously sparked the team to the playoffs. However, Niner defensive coordinator Greg Manusky has done a good job drawing up game plans for his defense all year and now that he is expecting Young and got to see what the Titans want to do with him in the tape of last weeks game I don’t see Young leading this offense to more than a couple touchdowns. Considering the 49ers, like every other team the Titans have faced, will most likely put up more than a couple touchdowns I am calling a Niner victory, 24-13.