With Sunday's 30-17 victory over the Minnesota Vikings, the Titans are now 4-0 for the first time in the franchise's 49-year existence.

Perhaps just as important, the Titans are still two games ahead of their nearest competitor in the AFC South, as Jacksonville is 2-2, and already has one loss to Tennessee.

"It's good to be on this end of the bargain, to be up and knowing that teams have to hope that you lose," outside linebacker David Thornton said. "That catch-us-if-you-can mentality is a good situation to be in. You just want to continue doing the things that we've been doing and hope that we can stay in a situation where they have to continue to chase."

Thornton said Monday it is important not to let distractions enter the equation. The Titans already came through one major distraction with the Vince Young saga from the opener that ended with physical and emotional questions about the quarterback. But the Titans inserted veteran Kerry Collins at quarterback and not only haven't missed a beat, but have actually improved offensively.

"It is a different approach," Thornton said. "It's imperative as a team to continue to listen to Coach (Jeff) Fisher's voice. There will be a lot of potential distractions, more media coverage. I think "The City Paper" today said, 'When will the Titans lose?' There was a poll saying, who was going to beat the Titans. So there are a lot of things that can distract you, but you just want to focus on what our coaches are doing and take it one game at a time."

The one-game-at-a-time mentality turns to Baltimore this week, where the Ravens are under new management with John Harbaugh replacing Brian Billick as coach. Such a change has perhaps tempered this once-hot rivalry, as Billick and Jeff Fisher would often exchange jabs and barbs leading up to their meetings.

"There's not a lot of players left on either team that were involved when the games were really going in '99 and 2000," Fisher said. "There's just a few players left. They've got our players that were on our side now, so this is just our next opponent."