If you listened to last week’s episode of The Unofficial Titans Podcast, you already know I was cautiously optimistic about how the Tennessee Titans could perform against the Indianapolis Colts, if only they’d just clean up a few messy things that showed up in the first meeting between these two teams a couple of weeks ago. But, I don’t know what reasonable individual saw the blood bath that happened yesterday coming. The Titans went out and executed the Colts 45-26, in a game that really wasn’t anywhere near as close as that final score would indicate.
We’ve talked a lot about this tough stretch of the schedule for the Titans, and how it could define the season. Well, don’t look now, but the boys are 3-1 in their last four games with the 8-3 Cleveland Browns on deck next week. If they can manage to get to 9-3, they’ll be in tremendous shape to make a real run in the AFC.
So, what’s been going right the last couple of weeks?
Aside from cleaning up a couple of the issues that were plaguing the defense, it’s been the superstars showing back up. Chief among them, Derrick Henry, who has a whopping 414 rushing yards in his last three games. That’s an average of 138 yards per game. He’s heating up right on cue for that December run.
Then, there’s AJ Brown – 98 more yards and a touchdown on his season totals. Brown has 282 yards during this 3-1 run for the Titans, but the important distinction here is that he’s posted that on just 13 catches. That’s an average of 21.7 yards per catch – dude has clearly gotten that big play swag back. Ryan Tannehill was dynamic and efficient again, looking firmly in control of the Titans offense. And, we can’t let the work of Corey Davis, who appeared to live rent-free in the head of Rock Ya-Sin yesterday, go unnoticed either.
The offense was crisp, and the guys they needed to lean on showed up big time. That’s the formula that makes it all go. The defense looked a little shaky on those first two drives that saw the Colts respond and keep the game gridlocked at 14-14. But, even they got right – getting off the field on third down, forcing the Colts to punt, making Philip Rivers uncomfortable. There were no major special teams mistakes as we saw in the first meeting between these two teams. It was pretty damn close to a perfect game.
Now, the Titans are sitting on top of the AFC South. They’re 3-1 in the division with games at Jacksonville and at Houston remaining. More importantly, the Colts are now 1-2 in the division with two games against Houston and a game against Jacksonville left. That means they would have to win all three of those games, and the Titans would have to lose their remaining two AFC South games in order for the Colts to finish with a better record than the Titans in the AFC South. That was a huge win for this Titans team.
We’ve seen them come out and out-physical their opponent for two weeks in a row now. This week, it translated to a completely dominant ass-thrashing. But, this is the ceiling at which this Titans team can play – pound people and get your best horses leading the carriage.
It’s hard to say that they’ll ‘get some relief‘ after the Browns, given it’s the NFL and ‘any given Sunday’ and what have you, but if the Titans team we’ve seen the last couple of weeks is closer to the norm than the exception, then we can recalibrate those championship expectations yet again this season.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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