NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans have no margin for error or reason for overconfidence trying to start their first winning streak of the season with the calendar flipping to December.
“I don’t think we should take anything for granted, just as a general rule,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said.
The NFL did the Titans no favor by backloading their schedule with five of the final seven games at home.
Despite plenty of road trips, the Titans (4-7) have yet to win away from Nashville this season — in fact, it’s been more than a year since they did that — and Sunday will be their first chance to play back-to-back games at Nissan Stadium in 2023. They host the Indianapolis Colts (6-5), a division rival and perhaps a chance to get back in the fight in the AFC South.
“It’s good not having to get on the flight,” said Titans defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons, who already has called for fans to show up loud Sunday. “I’m happy to be back at home, and hopefully we bring a lot of energy, a lot from our fans for this game.”
Not only do the Titans want consecutive wins, this is a rematch that means a lot to a defense that gave up a career day to Colts running back Zack Moss on Oct. 5 while losing 23-16 in Indianapolis. That snapped the Titans’ five-game winning streak against their divisional nemesis.
Now they gets the Colts in Nissan Stadium, where the Titans are undefeated this season, with their most recent game last week’s 17-10 victory over the one-win Carolina Panthers.
“I don’t know the rhyme or reason for it, but they’re playing good at home,” first-year Colts coach Shane Steichen said.
Indianapolis has won three straight, and a 27-20 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers put the Colts into playoff contention in the AFC’s seventh spot. This starts a two-game road swing for the Colts with quarterback Gardner Minshew, who is 3-1 on the road this season.
Minshew has not won four straight as a starter in his five NFL seasons. This time, the Titans have a full week to prepare for Minshew, who came off the bench when rookie Anthony Richardson was hurt in the Colts’ win in October. Now Colts running back Jonathan Taylor is sidelined by an injured thumb, but Vrabel said Minshew has a good grasp of the offense.
“He’s done a good job for them,” Vrabel said.
As for Moss, the Colts weren’t entirely sure how he would fit after a midseason trade with the Buffalo Bills last year. With Taylor injured at the end of last season, Moss ran for 334 yards and one touchdown in the final four games.
He’s been even better this season, as the Titans found out in October. Moss gashed them for 165 yards rushing, another 30 receiving and two touchdowns. One guy not surprised is new Colts offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter, who wrote up Moss coming out of Utah in draft evaluations.
“He was always a guy I kept an eye on — how his career was going, how he was playing and the opportunities he was getting,” Cooter said. “Zack has shown this year that he can do a lot of different things. He’s somebody we depend on.”
That’s certainly true for the Titans when it comes to their veteran starting running back. But in the first matchup, the Colts limited two-time league rushing champ Derrick Henry to just 43 yards on 13 carries.
This time, there’s a big hole in the Indianapolis defensive line. The Colts will be without 314-pound run-stuffing tackle Grover Stewart as he wraps up a six-game suspension for violating the league policy on performance enhancers.
On top of that, Henry is much better in his career the second time around in a season against division rivals. The 6-foot-3, 247-pound, eighth-year pro has averaged 84.1 yards in the first meeting of the season with an AFC South opponent and 119.5 in the second game. Credit watching video of missed holes along with added motivation.
“Definitely, 43 yards makes me want to cringe,” Henry said. “Yeah I have to be better. I have to play better, and that’s going to be my main focus.”
What might have been a matchup of rookie quarterbacks apparently wasn’t meant to be.
Prior to April’s NFL draft, most analysts expected Colts general manager Chris Ballard to choose either Richardson or Will Levis with the fourth overall pick. Ballard wasted little time taking Richardson, while Levis fell out of the first round before being selected at No. 33 by Tennessee.
The previous time these teams met, Richardson started his fourth and final game before a season-ending shoulder injury while Levis watched as Ryan Tannehill started for the Titans. On Sunday, Levis will make his sixth straight start, and Steichen has a pretty good sense of what to expect.
“Huge arm, can make all the throws, very tough,” Steichen said of Levis. “He’s a smart football player. It looks like he’s going to have a good career.”