NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans have rookie Cam Ward at quarterback, along with a lot of new faces. The roster changes haven’t helped stop their skid.
The Titans are 0-2 so far this season and losers of eight straight games dating to last year. They also have lost four consecutive division games to the rival Indianapolis Colts, who will visit Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on Sunday sitting on top of the AFC South at 2-0.
Divisional math means this matchup matters a lot.
“Definitely counts for two, for sure,” Titans receiver Calvin Ridley said. “We get this one, we put ourselves right back in the mix.”
This is the first road game this season for Indianapolis, which has a chance to continue the franchise’s best start since 2009. For a team that just missed the playoffs last season at 8-9, the Colts know painfully how much every game matters.
“My boy (Xavier) McKinney with the (Green Bay) Packers said it best: ‘There are a lot of teams that start out 2-0 and end up not being nothing,’” Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin said.
The Titans dropped their home opener last weekend, 33-19 to the Los Angeles Rams, but they have led in the second half of each of their first two games, losing 20-12 to the Denver Broncos on Sept. 7. The Colts, who cruised to a 33-8 opening win against the Miami Dolphins, needed a penalty for a do-over field goal to beat Denver 29-28 last week.
After Sunday, Tennessee hits the road for three straight games — starting with a visit to the Houston Texans, who are the reigning AFC South champions — and won’t play in Nashville again until Oct. 19. That’s when they’ll host the New England Patriots, who are in their first season under the leadership of Mike Vrabel — Tennessee’s coach from 2018-23.
“We have to get a win this week in the divisional game,” Ward said. “That matters a lot, just try to get the foot rolling.”
No one has been sacked more so far in the NFL’s 2025 season than Tennessee’s rookie quarterback. Ward has gone down 11 times already, though he is the first quarterback drafted at No. 1 overall not to be picked off through his first two games.
Titans starting right tackle JC Latham, dealing with a strained hip, was ruled out Friday and will miss his second straight game. Still, Ward said he can help his offensive line by getting through his progressions faster and moving on from his first option before the snap faster. He said his teammates are doing their job running routes.
“They won a lot of the backside routes I didn’t get to where they had to step up,” said Ward, adding that he’s focused on “just really getting better in the pocket, moving within the pocket, keeping a short strike, getting the ball out.”
On the other side, Tennessee’s defense won’t have T’Vondre Sweat back from an injured ankle to help fellow tackle Jeffery Simmons slow down Indianapolis running back Jonathan Taylor, who led the league in rushing through the first two weeks with 236 yards on 43 carries for a 5.5 average.
The sixth-year pro had 165 yards last weekend, when he also caught two passes for 50 yards and another score against the Broncos.
The Titans remember only too well what happened when they faced the Colts last December in Indianapolis. Taylor ran for 218 yards — the second-highest single-game total of his NFL career — averaged 7.5 yards per carry and scored three touchdowns in a 38-30 victory that helped send Tennessee toward a 3-14 finish and a third straight winter without a playoff berth.
The Colts haven’t reached the postseason since the 2020 season — and haven’t won a playoff game since the 2018 season — but they’re at least off their best start since winning their first 14 games in 2009, when they went on to secure their second AFC championship in four years.
Much of the credit for being 2-0 goes to new starting quarterback Daniel Jones.
The 28-year-old has completed more than 71% of his throws, entered the third week of the season second in the league with 588 passing yards and has run for three touchdowns. He has also led the Colts to points on 14 of 17 possessions, and they have yet to turn the ball over.
The result: Jones has already matched his total victories from last season, when the former top-10 draft pick was benched late in his sixth year with the New York Giants before finishing up with the Minnesota Vikings. And with a win Sunday, he would match the victory total of his final 16 starts with the Giants.
Jones knows the Colts can be better even after becoming the first team in the Super Bowl era to have no punts through its first two games.
“We’ve been stopped, and we haven’t converted on some fourth downs, which have kept us from scoring,” Jones said. “So, I mean, yeah, it’s great we haven’t punted, but we’ve got to convert those and got to score touchdowns in the red zone.”
Jones isn’t the only addition making a difference for Indianapolis.
The Colts signed safety Cam Bynum in free agency to become a playmaker, and he has wasted no time demonstrating what he can do. Bynum, who spent his first four NFL seasons with the Vikings, has one interception in each of the first two games, three passes defensed and seven tackles.
With an offense that has no giveaways and Bynum helping the defense produce takeaways, the Colts lead the league with a plus-4 turnover differential.
“Just having vision like, ‘Hey, boom, here I’m getting a pick,’ acting like a football out there and going through his operation, I think that stuff’s huge,” Colts third-year head coach Shane Steichen said. “I think a lot of it is a mindset thing of visualization, making those plays.”
Tennessee second-year head coach Brian Callahan is eager for his team to make some plays, too, saying Monday that the Titans have “got to find a way to go win a game.”