Titans' Young improves despite bruising hand vs. Green Bay

Published: Aug 29, 2008 at 02:50 PM

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Vince Young had his right, passing hand taped as he left the Tennessee Titans' offices Friday. His head coach isn't talking much about the injury, not now that the season opener is so close.

Young bruised his hand in the first half of Thursday night's 23-21 preseason finale win over Green Bay, and he didn't return for the first series of the third quarter as originally planned. But Young had thrown 27 passes for 134 yards.

Asked if the Titans planned to X-ray or run other tests on Young's right hand, coach Jeff Fisher said only that the quarterback was doing well.

"We'll have a full injury report for you on Friday. He'll be designated as whether he practiced or did not practice. At this point, I would expect he would practice," Fisher said.

Fisher said he felt good about Young's performance in the game, particularly the quarterback's three runs for 57 yards. Young also tossed a 50-yard pass to Justin McCareins for his longest completion of the preseason.

The Titans' first-team offense finished the preseason without scoring a touchdown, even though they got inside the Green Bay 20 four times in the first half Thursday. Three times, the Titans drove inside the Packers 10 only to bog down and settle for four field goals, missing one.

It was a case of deja vu from the 2007 season when the Titans were last in the NFL in red zone offense and All-Pro kicker Rob Bironas kicked a league-high 35 field goals. Young said after the game that the offense did all right.

"We didn't get in the end zone, but we did put up points on the scoreboard every time we got in that red zone. A lot of guys on the sideline, we wanted to get in the end zone bad, but they play good defense," Young said of a Packers defense that started the game with five starters sitting out before the rest were pulled early.

"We don't want to throw an interception or things like that. We reserve the right to kick. You don't want to force something in there."

The Titans will play Green Bay on Nov. 2, so they couldn't show off too much of the play book. Fisher said he hopes that game-planning for a specific opponent and tapping into that play book will help the offense score touchdowns.

"You go into the regular season trying to score points, as many and as often as you can. You're playing defenses that have game-planned you, and we happen to have a very good defensive opponent this week," Fisher said.

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