Young starts at QB for Titans with achy knee, hurts right hamstring at end of 44-yard run

Young starts with achy knee, hurts right hamstring

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee quarterback Vince Young strained his right hamstring Sunday during the second quarter against the St. Louis Rams and didn’t return as the Titans finished off a 47-7 rout.

Coach Jeff Fisher described Young’s injury as mild.

“We will just see how he is throughout the week,” Fisher said. “I kept him warm and on the bike, and he would have been able to hand off and so that gives you kind of some idea. I am not going to comment any further than that.”

Young came into the game questionable because of an achy right knee he aggravated during practice Thursday, a setback that caused him to leave the session early. He watched Friday but warmed up with apparently no problems Sunday.

He started off strong, completing 6 of 8 for 132 yards with one touchdown. He was hurt at the end of the longest run of his four-year career, a 44-yarder down the left sideline where he ran out of bounds as he grabbed at the back of his right leg. Young went down to the ground and put both hands onto his hamstring.

Young said he could have returned if it were a playoff-type game.

“I just kind of tweaked my hamstring a little bit so I just got off of it and told coach, ‘I’m just going to sit it out. I didn’t want to get too bad with it and injure it worse,” Young said.

He limped to the locker room a couple minutes later and returned to the sideline for the start of the second half. He watched from the sideline as Kerry Collins finished off the win.

Young said he felt as if he focused so much on the right knee he hurt a week ago in a 27-17 loss at Indianapolis that he didn’t work his hamstrings as much as usual. But he said after the game in the locker room that he didn’t really feel too much pain because he got off the leg as quickly as possible.

“I’m going to listen to the doctors and do what they say because they know best,” Young said.

Fisher also said linebacker David Thornton left the game after hurting a shoulder.