Titans fans who make the drive up Interstate 65 this weekend already know the Tennessee Titans’ problems by heart. The Indianapolis Colts are a different story, and a 34-22 loss in Pittsburgh has them arriving in a sour mood for Sunday’s division game at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Indianapolis is 2-3 and favored by a touchdown. Several things about this Colts team line up badly with what the Titans’ worst-in-the-NFL offense and a thin secondary are bringing north.
Jonathan Taylor owns this matchup
Jonathan Taylor has treated Tennessee like a personal highlight reel. In his last three games against the Titans, he has 510 all-purpose yards and nine touchdowns, according to the Titans website, and one of those was a 218-yard, three-touchdown afternoon in 2024.
He’s also coming off a season-low 45 yards in Pittsburgh, which is usually how a running back ends up with a heavy workload the following week. Linebacker Cedric Gray knows what’s coming. “I think the key is stopping him, and slowing him down, and keeping him from getting to the second level,” Gray said Thursday in Nashville.
Spencer Shrader shrinks the field
Holding the Colts to field goals might not feel like much of a win. Spencer Shrader hit from 57 and 56 yards in the first half at Pittsburgh and finished with five field goals on the day. He now has four makes of 55-plus yards with Indianapolis, the most in franchise history.
In practical terms, a Colts drive that stalls near midfield is still a scoring drive. That’s a brutal math problem for a Tennessee offense that has scored 58 points in five games.
Six straight losses in the series
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The Colts have won six straight meetings, averaging 31.8 points in that stretch, per the team site, and they lead the all-time series 41-22. The last one was a 38-14 Indianapolis win at Lucas Oil Stadium last October.
The division picture stings even more. Tennessee has lost 11 straight games to AFC South opponents, the longest active division skid in the league, which makes Jeffery Simmons’ talk about owning the AFC South a tough sell for now.
Quenton Nelson won the trenches in a loss
Even in defeat, the Colts’ left guard was the best player on the field in Pittsburgh. Quenton Nelson earned an 86.9 PFF grade, the highest of anyone in the game, and allowed one pressure on 47 pass-blocking snaps.
That matters because the Titans have recorded multiple sacks in four straight games, and much of that push comes up the middle. If Nelson wins his matchup again, Daniel Jones gets a clean pocket and Tennessee loses the one area where it has consistently competed. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. ET on FOX.
