Stampede Blue
The Colts are back in Indianapolis for their last “home” game for the next month (technically have a “home” game in Berlin, Germany; but fans will have to wait until late November to see their team in Lucas Oil Stadium again). In their 2nd divisional matchup of the season, they get a rematch against the 1-6 Titans after the Colts won 41-20 in Nashville in Week 3.
Much has changed since the Colts and Titans last faced. 2nd year Titans head coach Brian Callahan is out, with Mike McCoy hired as the interim Head Coach now. The Colts are now the undisputed top team in the AFC record wise at 6-1. And this time, they get an opportunity to all but end the Titans’ microscopic playoff hopes. The Titans still have 1 historical precedent for a team with their record making the playoffs: the 1970 Bengals who ran the table with 7 straight wins to make the playoffs in the first year of the NFL-AFL merger.
The Colts can officially ring in Draft season for their division rival and maintain their top spot in the AFC this week, but do the Titans present a potential trap game for the Colts with the “interim Head Coach boost” and the Colts potentially looking forward to a pair of out of state games vs the Steelers and Falcons before they hit the Bye week?
The gap between these two offenses is wider than the Grand Canyon. The Colts are a either the best Offense in every metric or close to it. Even the 8th Red Zone Touchdown Rate comes with the asterisk of the Colts being 1st (93.3%) in the last 3 weeks in that metric by a good margin. Meanwhile the Titans are at last place if not near the bottom in every metric.
Rookie QB Cam Ward (more on him later), has had to endure like many 1st Overall QBs a terrible situation of porous pass protection, inefficient rushing, bad coaching, and drops from his targets. While he is far from blameless for the Titans offensive woes, the young passer is in a very difficult spot in Tennessee.
