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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- They've taken to calling their running game "Smash and Dash," but the catchy nickname and the running backs behind it have hardly transformed the Tennessee Titans into a flashy, glitzy team.

The hype that built up around the 2007 New England Patriots when they crossed into the second half of the season undefeated hasn't attached itself to Tennessee yet. If the 9-0 Titans keep it going, more attention will come. But the Titans are always happiest when they are convinced they're being underappreciated.

"The Patriots had a lot of flashy players on offense, they were lighting up the scoreboard, Tom Brady was setting a record for touchdown passes in a season, and we're not doing that," defensive back Vincent Fuller said. "People think that we're basically a bunch of overachievers that haven't really played the best team in the league. But we're a physical football team that comes to work and doesn't beat itself."

While Tennessee's remaining schedule doesn't include a killer stretch, the Titans still have plenty of losable games left, including road rematches against all three AFC South rivals starting Sunday at Jacksonville, and visits from the Jets, Browns and Steelers.

Whether they make a push for 16-0 or not, this is a team built to make a run deep into the playoffs, and expecting to be the AFC representative in Tampa for Super Bowl XLIII.

This might be their best shot, because there could be some significant changes coming.

Albert Haynesworth, the defensive tackle who's playing under the one-year franchise tag this season, is on track to meet an incentive that will set him up for free agency. If he's elsewhere in 2009, the Titans' defense will take a major hit. Quarterback Kerry Collins doesn't have a contract beyond this season either, and with Vince Young in waiting, Tennessee will have to sort out the plan at quarterback. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz could land a head-coaching job, and offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger could land some interviews, too. And who's to say when the stars will align again in such a way that Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts endure a rough start and New England's Tom Brady misses a season, bringing the two AFC powerhouses of this decade back to the pack?

Here are five reasons to believe the Titans are who they think they are:

Their identity is plain and simple: They want to wear down an opponent by running the ball while stopping the run and pressuring the quarterback into quick decisions under fire. But the script doesn't have to go that way for things to work. When the Bears held them to 20 rushing yards in Chicago, the Titans showed they can adapt and are capable of finding other ways to win.

Everyone knows and understands his role, even if he may not like it. Because Chris Johnson has been so effective, LenDale White has taken a huge hit in carries and is on pace for only about two-thirds of the 303 he had in 2007. But the older back isn't grumbling. He has been a good team guy, happy to be part of a winning combination -- the part that gets rewarded with the goal-line carries and has a league-high 11 touchdowns.

The team's even-keeled demeanor trickles down from coach Jeff Fisher, and is as much a part of his makeup as his mustache and sunglasses. No matter the team's fate on a Sunday, he is always measured and on message, and his veteran staff follows that lead.

Left tackle Michael Roos is a deep thinker, right tackle David Stewart is a quiet outdoorsman, cornerback Cortland Finnegan is a determined underdog, Haynesworth is a dry comic. But the teammates with different personalities all share one very important trait -- steadiness.

None of them changed gears when the Titans changed quarterbacks. How many teams could have made the switch from Vince Young, the quarterback sold as the new face of the franchise, to the cagey old veteran Collins as seamlessly as the Titans did?

There hasn't been an NFL MVP from the defensive side of the ball since Lawrence Taylor in 1986. While there is plenty of time for things to sort themselves out and for a quarterback or running back to strengthen his case for the honor, odds are that Haynesworth -- surely the favorite for defensive player of the year -- will qualify as the best player on the best team.

He's probably not playing as well individually as he did a year ago before a hamstring issue slowed him down. But his combination of size and agility has a huge bearing on how offenses try to attack the Titans.

"Very few guys can block him one-on-one," center Kevin Mawae said. "When you spend all that time double-teaming one player like that, then it frees up a linebacker at the second level to make plays. Albert can be the most dominant defensive tackle in the league when he wants to be, and he's been showing that and proving that this entire year."

The Titans have long lacked a home-run threat, and critics have always thought they needed to find one at receiver.

Well, Johnson brings unprecedented speed to the offense; it's just that he's a running back, not a wideout. At some point they will line him up wide more often, trying to create matchup problems. But through nine games they've been satisfied to use him mostly as a conventional running back. With one high draft pick, they went from a pedestrian and unthreatening offense to a unit that can get a big play from its shifty lightning bolt at any time.

"He gives defenses that threat where they know if they don't get the right fits in the right gaps he can get a crease and take it a long way," Collins said. "From a run-game standpoint, people are obviously paying a lot more attention to our big-play ability."

Johnson runs behind a line that has consistently created running room for him when they've not been ridiculously outnumbered, as they were in Chicago. That group, largely anonymous besides Mawae, who is president of the NFL Players Association, also does great work keeping Collins upright. Tennessee has allowed a league-low five sacks.

Pro Bowl defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch has been out for most of the past four games with a groin injury. But instead of seeing a dip in production from the spot, journeyman Dave Ball (17 tackles, 2.5 sacks) and 2007 sixth-rounder Jacob Ford (13 tackles and two sacks) have made big contributions in that span.

"Not a step lost with those guys coming into the game," Haynesworth said.

The wide receivers on a run-based team hardly qualify as consistent playmakers. There are stretches when Justin Gage and Justin McCareins seem as if they can't separate from a cornerback at all. But while the two starters have been inconsistent, they make enough plays. And the Titans have gotten nice contributions from Brandon Jones -- who leads the group with 27 catches despite working primarily as the third guy -- and even a couple of clutch catches from rookie Lavelle Hawkins.

This has been a mostly healthy team, but there are probably only two players it couldn't survive without: Haynesworth and Johnson.

If things don't go well on one play or series, it won't doom him for the next.

"He doesn't waver; you don't see his attitude change whatsoever," Haynesworth said. "He can shrug stuff off and keep going."

If he manages to lead the Titans to the Super Bowl, Collins will return to the site of his previous appearance in the big game. He'll head to work in Tampa with hopes of avenging that memorably rough day against the Ravens at the end of the 2000 season.

Paul Kuharsky covers the NFL for ESPN.com.