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* In Tennessee, Jeff Fisher's teams had the reputation for playing, um, edgy football. "They played through the whistle — and then some," said our town's Dan Dierfdorf, the CBS analyst who worked many Titans' games. 

We would never call it cheap-shot football, of course. That wouldn't be polite. Now, we may have accused the Titans of foul play in the past, but now that Fisher is the Rams' head coach, I'm sure we'll come up with other ways to describe Coach's approach. I'm thinking "ferocious" would fit. That sounds better than "borderline criminal violence." (Kidding, kidding.)

With a helmet nod to our pal Mike Sando, the NFC West blogger for ESPN.com, we can document the Titans' willingness to go hard after opponents. And if some of the tough hits were delivered after the whistle? Hey, mistakes happen. (Ahem.) A player going full speed can't always hear the officials' whistle. (Ahem.) They're only human, right? (Ahem.)

The fastidious Sando, who keeps track of penalties, kindly shared this information:  

• From 2001-2010, the Titans led the NFL in most personal foul penalties with 163. The second-highest teams on the list for most PFs were the NY Giants and Arizona Cardinals, with 137.

Here's the breakdown ...

* The Titans led the NFL in unnecessary roughness penalties, 67.

* The Titans led the NFL in roughing the passer penalties, 46.

* The Titans were fifth in other variations of personal fouls (32) and sixth in unsportsmanlike conduct penalties (18.)

Think of the original version of the movie "The Longest Yard."

I could be wrong about this, but I do believe that the "Four Pillars" days are over. The pillars will be forcibly removed from Rams Park, and with necessary roughness.

One myth about Fisher in Tennessee is that his teams avoided penalties. That's not true. I won't bore you with the details, but in his 16 full seasons as head coach, Fisher's teams were almost always ranked somewhere in the 20s (among 32 teams) in penalties each season.

"His teams aren't dirty," Dierdorf said. "But they are in your face. They are extremely physical. A tough, bloody-your-lip football team."

Conrad Dobler would approve.

 Moving On ...

* A two-year contract for Brian Elliott, eh? Good news. Interesting news. The Blues have a surplus of appealing goaltenders. Jaroslav Halak and Elliott have combined to give the Blues the most shutouts (8) in the NHL this season, and they rank fourth (.925) in save percentage. (The team's save percentage is even better, .936, since Ken Hitchcock took over on Nov. 8.) At the Blues' affiliate in Peoria, Ben Bishop is having an All-Star season with six shutouts and a .932 save percentage in 27 games. The young Jake Allen hasn't been as good (.901 save pct.) but is still a promising prospect. We have no idea what the Blues could get if they were willing to include a goaltender in potential trade talks, but you'd have to think there'd be interest.

* It's expected that Halak will start tonight's home game vs. Edmonton. If so, it means he will have started eight of the 12 games since Christmas. Is Hitchcock slowly moving in the direction of having a No. 1 goaltender? Probably not. But the trend invites notice.

* The Blues' goaltenders rank high in every category except one: support. The Blues average 2.52 goals per game, which ranks 18th. There's been slight improvement (2.55 g/g) since Hitchcock moved in.

Moving On ...

* Reds GM Walt Jocketty made a smart gamble in the relatively inexpensive signing of Ryan Ludwick to a one-year deal. Ludwick's power and confidence deteriorated after the Cardinals traded him to San Diego on July 31 of the 2010 season. In 1,812 plate appearances as a Cardinal, Ludwick batted .280 with a .340 OBP and a .507 slugging percentage. (That's an OPS of .857.) In 797 plate appearances since leaving St. Louis, Ludwick has batted .229 / .308 / .353. (OPS of .661, which is a a drop of nearly 200 points from his STL days.)  As a Cardinal Ludwick homered every 19.1 at bats; after the trade he's homered every 36.7 at-bats.

But until his trade to Pittsburgh before the trade deadline last summer, Ludwick played home games at PETCO Park in San Diego. The place just kills power, and Ludwick clearly suffered the consequences.

Now he'll be setting up in the home run haven in Cincinnati. Just for contrast, consider: last season there were 209 homers slammed at The Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati but only 100 homers at PETCO.

Why is this potentially meaningful? Because Ludwick hits a lot of fly balls; nearly 60 percent of his batted balls go airborne. Over the past five seasons only four MLB hitters have a higher fly-ball rate than Ludwick. That would be Clint Barmes, Jonny Gomes, Aflonso Soriano and Chris Young.

So by putting Ludwick into that Cincinnati heat, where the ball flies like crazy, there's a chance he'll increase his power and confidence. Certainly worth a shot by Jocketty.

The Reds have had a good offseason, acquiring starting pitcher Matt Latos, lefty specialist Sean Marshall and signing closer Ryan Madson. The Reds gave up a lot of prospects to try and compete in 2012, and I like their approach.

The Reds will be a challenge for the Cardinals in 2012.

Thanks for reading ...

— Bernie