INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts have already exceeded expectations.
Seven games into the season, they have the NFL’s best record, the league’s highest-scoring offense and a two-game lead atop the AFC South Division standings. Jonathan Taylor leads the NFL in rushing, quarterback Daniel Jones is playing the best football of his seven-year pro career, and Tyler Warren is setting new standards for rookie tight ends.
And yet the Colts (6-1) realize they haven’t really achieved anything yet with the regular season not even halfway over.
“They’re playing together, but it’s about execution and staying on the details,” Indianapolis third-year head coach Shane Steichen said. “So I feel confident in our guys’ abilities. But like I said to those guys, we’ve got to go prove it every day, not just on Sundays, but every day we’re in this building.”
The fact Indianapolis still hopes to show everyone the fast start and gaudy numbers are not a mirage certainly could spell trouble again for reeling the Tennessee Titans (1-6), who lost 41-20 to the Colts on Sept. 21 at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium and visit them Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Titans are coming off back-to-back losses, the most recent one coming last weekend in interim coach Mike McCoy’s debut, and trying to avoid being swept in the regular-season series for the third straight year.
Not much has gone right for the rebuilding Titans during the first half of the season.
They’ve already made a head coaching change, dumping Brian Callahan after he went 4-19 in less than two seasons on the job. Rookie quarterback Cam Ward, the No. 1 overall pick of this year’s draft, has thrown at least one interception in five consecutive games, a streak that began during Tennessee’s loss to the Colts last month. The offense has produced the league’s fewest points, while the scoring defense is ranked as nearly the worst
Next up is a rematch against a foe that looks as if it has kicked things into high gear.
“You can tell his confidence is high. Whenever your confidence is high, you trust the scheme,” Titans safety Amani Hooker said of Jones, the No. 6 pick of the 2019 draft who spent most of his first six years in the pros with the New York Giants, getting granted his release last November and wrapping up the season with the Colts.
“He knows where to go with the ball,” Hooker added. “He’s playing good ball.”
And the Colts have taken full advantage. They scored on their first 10 possessions of the season, have scored 14 touchdowns in their past 15 trips into the red zone, and still have the fewest punts in the league (12).
Can they keep playing this efficiently? Perhaps — but the Colts make clear they’re taking nothing for granted.
“I think with the group we have, guys understand the success we’ve had and putting up points,” Jones said. “But they’re also eager to improve and get better. I think that’s just a testament to the character of the guys we have in the locker room.”
Jones added that “obviously, the result is important” but that it’s also important “to keep in mind where we’re going and where we want to be as a group.”
Taylor rushed for 102 yards last month in Nashville, with a good chunk coming on his highlight-reel 46-yard, tackle-breaking touchdown in the third quarter. He finished with three scores, the first of his franchise-record three such games this season. Taylor leads the league in touchdown runs with 10 and total touchdowns with 11.
Tennessee’s run defense, meanwhile, has struggled, allowing an average of 139.6 yards on the ground per game.
This time could prove even more challenging with the Titans missing at least two defensive starters due to injuries. Three-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons (hamstring) is week to week, and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed (quad) was placed on injured reserve Thursday. Outside linebacker Arden Key (quad) has missed the past two games and was listed as questionable on Friday’s injury report.
And when Taylor isn’t gashing defenses on the ground, Jones has played like the guy the Giants envisioned when they drafted the former Duke standout.
He needs three wins to match his single-season career high of nine from the 2022 season, when he led New York to the playoffs, but it’s not just the victories. His 71% completion rate is a career high, he has thrown just three interceptions, and he’s on pace for a career-best yardage total and perhaps a career high in touchdown passes.
If the Colts are an example of what a little seasoning can do in the NFL, the Titans are a picture of how painful it can be to get there.
Tennessee has played plenty of rookies this season as Ward adjusts to life as a pro, and now his receiver corps is getting increasingly younger, too. Calvin Ridley (hamstring) will be out for the third straight game, Bryce Oliver (knee) will miss his sixth game, and Tyler Lockett was released Wednesday.
The Titans still have veteran Van Jefferson, who made his first start last week. He has 12 catches for 140 yards this season.
Rookie receiver Elic Ayomanor has started six of the first seven games and has 19 catches, 225 yards and two touchdowns. Another rookie, Chimere Dike, produced his best game as a receiver last week, catching all four passes thrown his way for 70 yards and a touchdown, all in the first quarter of what became a 31-13 loss to the New England Patriots.