The Titans got Marcus Mariota back, and despite a slow start, they a rhythm in the second half. Their 36-22 win broke an 11-game losing streak over the Colts. The Titans are now tied atop the AFC South with the Texans and Jaguars. The Colts are in last place, at 2-4.
Final score: Titans 36, Colts 22
Titans 36, Colts 22: The Colts were driving to tie it. On fourth-and-1, they faked it to Frank Gore and Jacoby Brissett kept the ball, coming up just short of the first down thanks to a great play from Wesley Woodyard, who was hailed with a “we’re not worthy” celebration.
Derrick Henry put the exclamation point on the Titans’ win with a 72-yard touchdown run.
Titans 29, Colts 22: Marcus Mariota linked up with Taywan Taylor for a 53-yard touchdown pass.
Colts 22, Titans 22: Adam Vinatieri tied it up with a 52-yard field goal.
Titans 22, Colts 19: DeMarco Murray put the Titans ahead with a 3-yard touchdown.
Third quarter
Colts 19, Titans 15 Ryan Succop added a 23-yard field goal put the game within one possession.
Colts 19, Titans 12 Ryan Succop, Mr. Automatic, drilled a 48-yard field goal.
Colts 19, Titans 9 Early in the third, Mariota attempted to complete a pass, only for Colts linebacker John Simon to make the sneaky interception for six points. To make things even more surprising, Adam Vinatieri missed the extra-point attempt.
Second quarter
Colts 13, Titans 9 Brissett continued carving up the Titans’ defense, getting the Colts back into scoring position. A friendly roughing the passer call put Indy on the Titans’ 7-yard line, but Brissett missed on two throws and the Colts had to kick another field goal. Adam Vinatieri knocked it in to extend Indy’s lead to four.
Colts 10, Titans 9 Yet again, the Titans get a decent drive going but stall out just outside the red zone, with Succop getting field goal No. 3. Tennessee’s defense will need to step up in this game.
Colts 10, Titans 6 Brissett is settling into a groove and got the Colts into the end zone for the first time with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Jack Doyle. The Titans are suddenly in trouble with a hobbled Mariota needing to play from behind.
The Colts made another long drive on the Titans, but a miscue in the huddle forced Chuck Pagano to burn his second timeout early in the second quarter.
First quarter: Titans 6, Colts 3
Titans 6, Colts 3 Mariota made a couple of nice throws, but still doesn’t look healthy. The Titans’ drive stalled in the red zone and Succop hit his second field goal of the night.
Titans 3, Colts 3 The Colts had little trouble moving the ball against the Titans defense, with a couple of strong runs by Frank Gore and Marlon Mack. However, Donte Moncrief dropped a pass in the end zone, forcing Indy to settle for a field goal.
Titans 3, Colts 0 Mariota didn’t look quite right on the opening drive, sailing nearly all of his passes and walking with a slight limp. The Titans’ offense did enough on the ground to set up Ryan Succop for a 48-yard field goal.
Before the game
The Tennessee Titans haven’t quite lived up to expectations this season, slumping to a 2-3 start while dealing with multiple key injuries. Things are looking up for them this week, with Marcus Mariota returning to the lineup for Monday night’s game against the Indianapolis Colts (8:30 p.m., ESPN/WatchESPN).
The Titans are 2-3 after losing their last two games, falling behind in an AFC South division they were expected to control. Mariota went down with a hamstring injury in Week 5, and the team turned to Matt Cassel last week. He was predictably rough, throwing for just 141 yards on 21-of-32 passing in a 16-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins.
Mariota practiced this week and is expected to play, hopefully giving the Titans an offensive spark. DeMarco Murray has just 89 rushing yards in the past two games, and first-round rookie Corey Davis is still out with a hamstring injury. The Titans really need to break this slump if they hope to get back in the division race, and they’re in a good spot to do so.
The Colts are essentially treading water as they wait for Andrew Luck to come back from shoulder surgery, but the good news is that Jacoby Brissett has been better than expected. He helped the Colts improve to 2-3 with a 26-23 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers.
Of course, the Colts still have plenty of flaws and head coach Chuck Pagano’s job security remains an open question. The only teams the Colts have beaten this year (49ers, Cleveland Browns) are a combined 0-10. They got walloped by the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks and couldn’t beat an Arizona Cardinals team missing David Johnson.
With the AFC South down this year (the Jacksonville Jaguars, at 3-2, are alone in first place), there remains a slight chance that Luck can ride in on a white horse and save Indy’s season. However, the Colts are running out of time and haven’t proved that they can beat any teams of note. Things won’t get any easier this week with the Titans slowly getting healthy again.
Pregame reading
- More baffling decisions by Pagano led to the Colts nearly giving the game away last week:
Pagano is a sixth-year head coach who makes rookie mistakes almost every game. He takes unnecessary risks (as seen by the lateral on the punt on Sunday) and doesn’t know how to make second half adjustments. The Colts have been outscored 99-25 in the 2nd half of games this season. The Colts led going into halftime in four of the five games this season. These are horrendous numbers and indicates the poor second-half adjustments the coaching staff make.
- Brissett has shown promise, but he needs to be better in red zone situations:
We are thankful for a young, capable and confident passer who has taken the reins in a season in which we legitimately have no clue when Luck will return to action. However, there is a real issue in his efficiency inside the red zone. Brissett is posting 38.5 percent completion rate — second-worst only to Marcus Mariota strangely enough — has one touchdown and one interception, and has been sacked four times (second-most in NFL) to make matters worse.
The Colts as a whole have eight touchdowns — on 43 plays (18.6%) — inside the red zone and are 25th in yards per play (2.42). The touchdown percentage isn’t awful in comparison to the rest of the league, but Brissett has to be better from a passer’s standpoint as he’s leaving a good amount of points on the field.
- The Titans need some offensive firepower and should think about getting rookie Taywan Taylor more involved.
Taylor lined up at running back, fullback and receiver during the preseason. He got rushing attempts and quick passes that simply allowed him to get a chance to make a play in space. Why aren’t we seeing that now?
Throw him a bubble screen, give him a pitch, hand him the ball — just give him a chance and try something different. We’ve seen what he can do, it’s just frustrating to see him go underused.
- Titans receiver Rishard Matthews made headlines this week when he claimed he was “done with football” if forced to stand for the anthem:
On Friday, Matthews apologized for the tweet.
“Sometimes people, as you all know, tweet some ignorant things out at some moments, and that was an ignorant thing I tweeted out at that given moment. I take full responsibility. That’s why it went down [was deleted], but somebody caught me with a screen shot,” Matthews said via Kuharsky.