Hasselbeck has brotherly love to thank for his Titans' fortune

Of all the weird, inflated passing numbers in the first three weeks of this bombs-away NFL season, don't lose sight of one of the strangest.

Matt Hasselbeck's average yards passing per game is 310.7, and this with him playing his first season in Tennessee, without an offseason program, outside the cocoon of the West Coast offense that he mastered under Mike Holmgren in Green Bay and Seattle.

Hasselbeck's average yards passing in the most productive season of his 13-year NFL career was 247.9, with Seattle in 2007.

His Titans (2-1) travel to 2-1 Cleveland Sunday, and anyone who had these two teams with better records than Philadelphia, Chicago and Atlanta approaching the season's quarter pole, well, you've got a better football brain than I.

One of the major factors in Hasselbeck's success is his brother, Tim, the longtime NFL backup passer now analyzing the game for ESPN. Because Tim played for Titans' offensive coordinator Chris Palmer when both were with the Giants, and because he has a smart offensive mind, he could tell his big brother why certain plays would be a good fit for him.

"Huge help,'' Matt Hasselbeck said this week. "Huge. I'd hit him up on my ride home from practice and complain about a play, and I'd tell him what it was, and he knew it exactly what it was. I'd say, 'I don't like this play.' He'd say, 'That play's perfect for you! You gotta own that play!' ''

A quick note of explanation about what Matt Hasselbeck was facing. In the West Coast offense, a quarterback has options all over the field. On a passing down with four wide receivers and a back, for instance, the quarterback might look at his receiver options 1-2-3, in order, and throw to the first one he'd find open; failing that, the final two, a receiver and a back, for instance, would be the "hot,'' or emergency receivers out on short routes.

In Palmer's offense most often, a quarterback will concentrate on one half of the field. He might have a three-by-one route -- three receivers on one side, one on the other -- and if he'd find the one-receiver side covered by only one defensive back with no help over the top, he might go there. But mostly he'd concentrate on the half of the field with three receivers and the back coming out of the backfield also to that side. The theory is it's easier for a quarterback to find a guy in three seconds if he doesn't have to switch his gaze from side to side quickly.

"It's a grind,'' Matt said. "I'm used to finding five eligible receivers anywhere on the field. Now I split the field in half. But Tim knew, and he's been a big help.''

Tim didn't have the career of his brother, but he has a very big advantage in the classroom. He played or was in camp with Buffalo, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Carolina, Philadelphia again, Washington (with Steve Spurrier, then Joe Gibbs), the Giants and Arizona.

"I think the best advice I gave him,'' said Tim, "was to let [wife] Sarah handle the move, and you just handle the football. I told him, 'You need to be all about football. No matter how you feel about the city, if you don't play well, you'll be miserable.' I remember how much Mark Brunell loved Washington and was happy there, but he didn't play well, and the fans were all over him. That's not fun.''

I never expected Matt Hasselbeck to be the key to the Titan offense at this point, but he is. Tennessee entered the season with a lifetime offensive line coach as its new head coach, with a rich running history going back to his Penn State days, Mike Munchak. They entered the season with the most explosive back in football, Chris Johnson. And they entered the season with a frustrated quarterback ... well, sort of.

Let's start with the end of lockout, in the last week of July, when Hasselbeck, not of his own choosing, left Seattle because the Seahawk regime, intent on developing another quarterback for the long haul, offered him only a one-year contract. "He was in the tank about it,'' said Tim. "He didn't want to leave Seattle. He was miserable.'' Tennessee offered three years, and that's where Matt Hasselbeck chose to play.

The Titans' passing game was conservative in a 16-14 Week 1 loss at Jacksonville. Who would have expected a 348-yard passing day the next week -- against one of the best defenses in football, Baltimore's? Hasselbeck found Kenny Britt nine times that afternoon and the Titans rolled 26-13. Another good passing day in a squeaker over Denver -- 295 yards, 75 percent completions -- left Tennessee 2-0 at home, with its fans thinking, "With no Peyton Manning, why not us in AFC South?''

But Britt was lost for the year last week with a torn ACL, and that will put a crimp into Hasselbeck's plans. Tennessee liked making the tall and sure-handed Britt the single-side target in those three-by-one formations. Now maybe it'll be new signee Donnie Avery.

"Kenny is the most talented receiver Matt has ever played with, so this is tough,'' said Tim. "In the red zone, he was like Larry Fitzgerald or Calvin Johnson. But one of the things that attracted Tennessee to Matt is he's not a complainer. He'll adjust. And he'll approach the game like, whoever's out there, we're going to win.''

That's why he's so missed in Seattle, and why Tennessee might have struck gold with this signing.

From The Podcast

I'm open to Podcast ideas. This week I tried something different: three guests instead of one. I have Detroit coach Jim Schwartz, Buffalo quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and the fine football writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob McGinn, and I'll give you a snippet from what each of them said.

(The Peter King Podcast on iTunes and SI.com)

Also, please Tweet me @SI_PeterKing to let me know if you'd like me to go more in-depth with one guest, or have more than one; and whether you'd like me to end each Podcast with the intelligence of McGinn. I like Bob a lot, and I think he adds to the hardcore football knowledge.

Schwartz on his upbringing as the son of a cop in Baltimore: "The biggest thing with my dad was work ethic. My dad worked eight-hour shifts with the police department, and as soon as he got home, he put a construction hat on, basically. Because we had a real old house and he was remodeling the whole house by himself. And he would work another eight-hour shift putting dry wall up and running wires and doing everything else. And the way we spent time with our dad wasn't just on the sports field, it was holding a hammer for him, holding a screwdriver and helping him around the house. So work ethic [was] very important and it was a lesson learned early in life ...

"I really wanted to go to Princeton. (Schwartz attended Georgetown.) My mom and dad didn't go to college. But my mom sort of started drilling into my head real early in life that you're going to go to an Ivy League school. I don't even know if my mom could have named all the Ivy League schools. But she knew that they were the best schools.''

Fitzpatrick, on the stigma of being a Harvard guy: "I think initially the biggest thing that I think I had to overcome was just proving to people that my passion was football. And that I wasn't going to walk out on a team or walk out of a situation to go do something else. And I've made that clear from Day One. I'm really passionate about the game of football. But that was something I had to overcome when I first came into the league.''

McGinn on the offensive explosion: "Every rule change has been for the offense. It's a much easier job to play quarterback now. You don't have a fear when you're standing in the pocket. It's almost like a 7-on-7 [practice session]. I think there is a degree of permanence with it. I think the owners and the NFL office really like this -- the ratings are through the roof -- so I think we're going to see more of this.''

Player You Need to Know This Week

Dallas K Dan Bailey (No. 6). With the Lions coming to town, the Cowboys will be facing a ferocious pass rush and know the shaky protection for Tony Romo won't be fixed overnight. With Miles Austin out and Dez Bryant less than 100 percent, Romo, still affected by a broken rib, will be looking to get rid of the ball quickly. I'll be surprised if Romo leads many touchdown drives, meaning Dallas might again have to rely on rookie Bailey, whose six field goals (41, 27, 32, 41, 23 and 40) beat Washington on Monday night.

Ten Things I'll Be Watching For This Weekend

1. The protection of Michael Vick. Howard Mudd, the offensive line coach, is suddenly nearly as important as Vick to the Eagle fortunes. He's got to make an effective front wall out of Jason Peters, Evan Mathis, Jason Kelce, Kyle DeVan and Todd Herremans. Some task. The 49ers are in town Sunday, and two numbers to keep in mind: San Francisco's defense is allowing runners just 2.9 yards per carry, and opposing quarterbacks just 57.1 percent on completions.

2. How the Walter Payton book is treated. Writer Jeff Pearlman said on his blog Thursday: "What's the point of history, if history can only be approved talking points?'' The Payton bio Sweetness by Pearlman is a sordid one, but also a balanced one from what two who've read it have told me. I'll give you my take in a couple of weeks. But I hope the book is discussed rationally, rather than in a fanboy way, as we learn about one of the greatest football players who ever lived.

3. The Something's Got to Give Bowl. Minnesota-Kansas City at Arrowhead. Not a lot of angles, other than Jared Allen returning to show Carl Peterson he made a huge mistake in trading him ... oooops -- Peterson's long gone? Well, there is one angle. Minnesota was a play away from the Super Bowl two years ago, and the Chiefs a playoff team last year. And they're both 0-3 now.

4. Ron Rivera versus the Bears. The former Bears linebacker and defensive coordinator during the 2006 Super Bowl season coaches Carolina now, and he'll bring Cam Newton and his respectable Panthers into Soldier Field Sunday. Don't believe Rivera if he says it's just another game.

5. Speaking of "just another game,'' Richard Seymour's got one of those. Seymour was very unhappy when Bill Belichick uprooted him from the only team he knew and sent him to Oakland two years ago. The Pats and Raiders meet in the Black Hole Sunday. Seymour says it's one of 16. Surrrre.

6. Roy Williams, perennial disappointment. How much longer are NFL teams going to think of Williams as a premier receiver? Another drop last week as the Bears tried to get him into the flow of their offense. At some point, facts must be faced: Johnny Knox is a better receiver in this offense, by far, than Williams.

7. The mysterious effect of Harvey Dahl. Four of the five offensive lineman on a good Atlanta line came back this year, the only one missing being right guard Dahl, who left (the team's decision, not his) for St. Louis as a free agent. He was the Snidely Whiplash of the group, an enforcer type who gave the line an attitude. And the line has played at a D level without him.

Quarterback Matt Ryan has been hit at an alarming rate, and he'll never last the season without better play up front. That's why offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey has been sitting in line meetings this week. The Falcons are focused on making the protection much better for the game at Seattle. If it isn't, look for lineup changes by the disappointing Falcons.

8. Reggie Bush goes home. I'm sure his family cares that Reggie's back in San Diego for the weekend. But in Miami, they're starting to ask, "This is what an every-down back looks like?'' Three games, 27 carries, 69 yards?

9. Can Wes Welker continue this pace? He has 10 catches more than any other receiver in football (his 31 leads Andre Johnson, Nate Washington and Mike Wallace). Too early for a legitimate "he's on pace for 165 catches'' note, but, well, if he stays healthy for 16 games, he and Tom Brady are going to challenge quite a few records.

10. Kicking mania. Through three weeks, 16 kickers haven't missed an extra point or field goal. That seems ridiculously proficient. In fact, no attempted extra point has been missed yet. Kickers are 226 for 226 on the freebies. Maybe Bill Belichick is right: Get rid of the extra point. It's a snoozer.