Titans are headed in the wrong direction as Colts take over first place in AFC South with win
But now it’s the Indianapolis Colts who reside in first place. The Colts used two key special-teams plays to help dominate the second half on their way to beating the Titans, 34-17, Thursday night in Nashville.
“Obviously when you give up scores on special teams,” Titans Coach Mike Vrabel said, “that’s not going to be easy to overcome.”
The Colts improved to 6-3, matching the Titans’ mark, and hold the division lead by virtue of this head-to-head victory. The teams play again on Nov. 29 in Indianapolis.
Indianapolis scored the game’s final 24 points after trailing, 17-10, in the first half. The Colts scored two third-quarter touchdowns 59 seconds apart. The first was set up by a shanked 17-yard punt by the Titans’ Trevor Daniel, leading to a 27-yard touchdown drive for Indianapolis. The second came on a blocked punt scooped up by the Colts’ T.J. Carrie for a touchdown.
“I think it pretty much spoke for itself there,” Vrabel said in a postgame video news conference. “Being able to get the ball where they did — I guess they got it at the 30-yard line maybe the one time and then they got it in the end zone the other.”
Quarterback Philip Rivers threw for 308 yards on 29-for-39 passing for the Colts. He passed Dan Marino for fifth place on the NFL’s list of career passing yardage leaders behind only Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Brett Favre.
Running back Nyheim Hines had a touchdown run and a touchdown catch for the Colts. Jacoby Brissett scored a rushing touchdown on a quarterback sneak, filling in briefly for Rivers.
“I think we’re just continuing to get better,” Rivers told Fox after the game. “We’ve had some bumps in the road. We’ve had some games we wish we had back. But I do see the progress week to week and there’s so many different guys that are contributing. … So if we can just keep improving and win along the way, we’ll have a chance to do something here at the end of this month and through December and hopefully into next year.”
The Colts led the league in total defense entering the game and shut out the Titans in the second half.
“We knew our defense was going to settle in,” Rivers said. “They’ve been settled in, for the most part, all year long. And then we get a huge special-teams touchdown. And then offensively, shoot, we were rolling pretty good all day. We’re very balanced. … This is a huge road division win.”
Colts defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad was ejected late in the game for taking a swing at a Tennessee offensive lineman. But it was the Titans who were left needing to regroup. They’ve lost three of four since a 5-0 start that had them resembling one of the NFL’s top teams.
“We simply have to start playing better, plain and simple,” Tannehill said. “We’re just inconsistent. We’ve done some good things. The defense has done some good things. We’re just not consistent enough as a team playing complementary football, playing off of each other. We’re just not making enough plays. So we’re going to have to clean that up, really get healthy over this little extended week we have here, clear our minds and our heads and come back ready to go on Monday because we can’t wait around any longer.”
Tannehill had a touchdown pass to running back D’Onta Foreman. But he absorbed a heavy hit late in the third quarter. Tannehill remained in the game but, with the outcome decided late, he didn’t finish it, giving way in the final minutes to Logan Woodside.
“When you’re down three scores at the end, obviously it’s a sick feeling,” Tannehill said in a video conference with reporters, “and not one I want to have again.”
Tight end Jonnu Smith had a rushing touchdown for Tennessee. The Titans’ issues on special teams also included a missed field goal by kicker Stephen Gostkowski.
“I think we’re going to have to evaluate everything that we do — how we’re coaching, what we do in practice, the performance,” Vrabel said. “We have to be better, I’ll say, in all areas. We’ll look at what we’re doing and try to do what’s best for the team, like we always do. We all have jobs to do and we have to try to do them better.”
That sense of urgency seems to be shared on the Tennessee side.
“We have to take it up a notch and be ready to play our best football every Sunday from here going forward,” Tannehill said. “The onus is on us to take a critical look at ourselves and do whatever it takes to clean it up and make the plays on Sunday.”
November 12, 2020 at 11:08 PM EST
Titans fail on fourth down
By Mark Maske
The Titans failed on a fourth-and-three try from the Indianapolis 12-yard line. Ryan Tannehill threw incomplete into the end zone for tight end Jonnu Smith, who wanted a penalty flag that wasn’t thrown. Coach Mike Vrabel passed up a field-goal attempt with his team trailing by 17 points. (Colts 34, Titans 17 with 6:52 left in the 4th quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 11:01 PM EST
Colts add to lead with touchdown on Jacoby Brissett’s quarterback sneak
By Mark Maske
Jacoby Brissett scored a two-yard touchdown for the Colts on a quarterback sneak. He took over for Philip Rivers for the third-and-one play and made it all the way to the end zone. Wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. had a 40-yard catch and run on a pass from Rivers on the drive. (Colts 34, Titans 17 with 9:21 left in the 4th quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 10:54 PM EST
Stephen Gostkowski misses field goal for Titans
By Mark Maske
Titans kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed his eighth field goal of the season when his kick from 44 yards sailed wide right. A promising Tennessee drive was undone by a holding penalty followed by two straight incompletions. Colts linebacker Darius Leonard was given a personal foul for a light shove on Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill out of bounds at the end of a scramble. Tannehill remained in the game earlier in the drive after absorbing a hard hit just before the end of the third quarter. (Colts 27, Titans 17 with 12:11 left in the 4th quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 10:42 PM EST
Colts get touchdown on blocked punt to bolster lead
By Mark Maske
It has been a bad quarter for the Titans’ punt team, to say the least. The Colts blocked a punt by Tennessee’s Trevor Daniel and scored a touchdown on the recovery. Linebacker E.J. Speed had the block for Indianapolis and cornerback T.J. Carrie scored the touchdown. The Colts have one third-quarter touchdown resulting from a shanked 17-yard punt by Daniel, and now have a second touchdown 59 seconds later directly off a block. (Colts 27, Titans 17 with 1:52 left in the 3rd quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 10:31 PM EST
Hines has rushing touchdown for Colts after short Titans’ punt
By Mark Maske
The Colts have the lead after finally reaching the end zone, aided by a shanked punt by the Titans. Indianapolis tailback Nyheim Hines scored on a two-yard touchdown run. The Colts had to move only 27 yards after a 17-yard punt by Tennessee’s Trevor Daniel. (Colts 20, Titans 17 with 2:51 left in the 3rd quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 10:27 PM EST
Colts thwarted on fourth down from the 1-yard line after overturned touchdown
By Mark Maske
The Colts held the ball for 15 plays, converted two fourth downs, had an apparent touchdown — and yet ended up with no points. They were stopped on their third fourth-down attempt of the drive, on fourth and goal from the Tennessee 1-yard line when running back Jordan Wilkins was tackled for no gain. Wide receiver Zach Pascal originally was ruled to have scored a touchdown on a second-down play, but the touchdown was overturned and Pascal was ruled down by contact at the 1-yard line on the instant replay review, and the Colts were stopped on second and third down. They had converted on fourth and two from the Tennessee 25-yard line and fourth and one from the 7-yard line. They ran 28 consecutive offensive plays in the game, including their 13-play drive right before halftime. But Coach Frank Reich has given away six points-worth of potential field goals on two failed fourth-down attempts in the game. (Titans 17, Colts 13 with 7:24 left in the 3rd quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 10:05 PM EST
Titans lead Colts, 17-13, after crisply played first half in Nashville
By Mark Maske
The two top teams in the AFC South played a crisp and highly competitive first half in Nashville. The Titans lead the Colts, 17-13.
Kicker Rodrigo Blankenship provided his second half goal of the half, this one from 43 yards, for the Colts as time expired in the half. Indianapolis quarterback Philip Rivers was sacked and the Colts had no timeouts remaining. But the Colts managed to line up and spike the football with one second remaining to preserve the field goal.
Rivers had 209 passing yards in the half on 19-for-27 throwing accuracy, and threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to running back Nyheim Hines. Rivers passed Dan Marino for fifth place on the NFL’s career passing yardage list.
Tailback Derrick Henry had 51 first-half rushing yards for the Titans, working against an Indianapolis defense ranked first in the league. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw a touchdown pass to running back D’Onta Foreman and tight end Jonnu Smith provided a one-yard rushing touchdown.
November 12, 2020 at 9:41 PM EST
Titans retake lead on Jonnu Smith’s rushing touchdown
By Mark Maske
Tight end Jonnu Smith scored on a one-yard touchdown run for Tennessee. Smith was in motion and took a handoff from Ryan Tannehill on what amounted to an end-around. The Colts gave the Titans a first-down at the 1-yard line with a defensive pass interference penalty in the end zone, then gave the Titans another one on a roughing-the-passer penalty. Tailback Derrick Henry had a 15-yard run earlier on the drive. (Titans 17, Colts 10 with 2:54 left in the 2nd quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 9:23 PM EST
Rivers-to-Hines touchdown gets Colts even
By Mark Maske
The Colts pulled even on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Philip Rivers to running back Nyheim Hines, who cut to the outside, made the grab and dove into the end zone. Rivers had a 30-yard completion to wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. on the drive. (Colts 10, Titans 10 with 7:49 left in the 2nd quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 9:13 PM EST
Titans add field goal as Gostkowski connects from 50 yards
By Mark Maske
Kicker Stephen Gostkowski drilled a 50-yard field goal for the Titans. He has had an inconsistent season but done well on the longer kicks. Tailback Derrick Henry had a 20-yard run during the drive on a pitchout to the right. A defensive holding penalty on the Indianapolis secondary negated a Colts’ sack of Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill. (Titans 10, Colts 3 with 11:12 left in the 2nd quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 9:04 PM EST
Colts get field goal after third-down slant pattern that wasn’t
By Mark Maske
The Colts held the ball for 11 plays on their second drive but had to settle for a 24-yard field goal by kicker Rodrigo Blankenship. Running back Jordan Wilkins was split out to a receiver spot but inexplicably halted his slant route on a third-and-three pass by Philip Rivers, resulting in an incompletion and the field goal. (Titans 7, Colts 3 with 36 seconds left in the 1st quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 8:52 PM EST
Rivers passes Marino but Colts stopped on fourth down
By Mark Maske
Quarterback Philip Rivers passed Dan Marino for fifth place on the NFL’s list of career passage yardage leaders during the Colts’ opening drive, but Indianapolis was stopped on its second fourth-down attempt of the possession when running back Jordan Wilkins was stopped for no gain on a fourth-and-one try from the Tennessee 29-yard line. Earlier, the Colts converted on fourth and one from their own 45-yard line, although they had to use a timeout first to get organized. Rivers now trails only Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Brett Favre in career passing yards. (Titans 7, Colts 0 with 6:54 left in the 1st quarter)
November 12, 2020 at 8:38 PM EST
Ryan Tannehill throws touchdown pass to put Titans in front
By Mark Maske
The Titans managed an opening-drive touchdown, having little trouble with the usual formidable Indianapolis defense. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw a five-yard touchdown pass to running back D’Onta Foreman. Wide receiver Corey Davis, playing the day after his brother Titus died of cancer at age 27, had a 20-yard catch on a third-and-two play to set up the touchdown. Colts cornerback Xavier Rhodes left the field earlier on the drive after absorbing an inadvertent helmet-to-helmet hit by a teammate while making a tackle. He was taken into the medical tent on the Colts’ sideline. (Titans 7, Colts 0 with 11:50 left in the 1st quarter)
