Lets talk Tennessee...

[RockThatBlue]

How are yall feeling about this game?

[Jules]

Feeling okay about the Colts winning since it's a home game. I have to think eventually the Titans scoring parade will calm down a bit too.

 

 

[krunk]

19 minutes ago, RockThatBlue said:

How are yall feeling about this game?

I fully expect a Colt win. Nuff said

[NorthernBlue]

I don't know. Not as confident as others here. Now I'm not saying Indy will lose, not at all, actually. But Tennessee is a good football team. Ton of young talented players and that front seven is dangerous. Murray has shown no signs of slowing down either. The only thing holding them back was Mariota's lack luster play. Now he's heating up. They could very well win this game. If anything, it's a toss up.

 

With that being said, the Colts should be able to pull it out next week. If Mewhort and Anderson come back, that'll be huge. Titans secondary is poor, so Luck should tear them up again (and this time he'll have Moncrief back too). Indy's secondary has improved of late (although they still need a ton of work). It all comes down to stopping Murray I think. If they can at least slow him down enough, or better yet, grab an early lead and force Mariota to bring them back like last time, I like our chances.

 

 

[krunk]

Especially with Moncrief back. Green bay had so many bloopers out there. Whatever game plan they had on defense they certainly did not execute it. I thought they would have played the run better than they did. Before last weeks game I believe Green Bay was one of the better run stuffing team in the league. Not sure what has happened. And to cap it off they let the Titans scrub receivers catch all over them too. I dont see that happening next week when we play. We will handle our business.

[Colt Overseas]

I think with a fully fit backfield, we have confidence in defending against the Titans pass attack, which will allow us to concentrate on stopping their run game. I think our run defense has improved and it did well against the Titans last time out.

 

Getting Mewhort back will be great, if our o-line plays well, Luck can open up their secondary, as he has done so often against this team in the past. I think we win something like 24-17, but our defense has to lay down a marker early and be physical.

[2006Coltsbestever]

Colts will win, no doubt about it. 30-20

[coltsfeva]

Henry Anderson

Jack Mewhort

Mike Adams

Getting these three back will be big.

 

One thing is clear this year: There are some good teams out there. There are no "gimmes". Tennessee has some good players and Mariota is starting to play well. This game is big, but I see the Colts winning at home.

 

[JColts72]

Maybe the titans will score 3 points after getting 47 this week; law of averages in NFL.

[BullsColtsFan1]

We beat them at Tenn so we should have a good game plan but they better come ready to play.  That Tenn offense is going to be coming in confident after putting up 47 this past Sunday.  I'll be there cheering the Colts on.  I hope it's loud and preferably not a nail bitter.  I hope the Colts get the win!  The Colts can gain some ground with a win, they would move ahead of Tenn and Houston has a Monday night prime time game at Oak.

[BullsColtsFan1]

3 hours ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

Colts will win, no doubt about it. 30-20

I hope your right.  A comfortable win would be nice.  Who do you think we beat on our remaining schedule?  I think we beat Tenn, NYJ, Jax, Hou and Minn.  I think we have a shot in the game at Oakland and if the Steelers keep losing that could give us some hope for that game at home.  A 5-2 finish might be enough with the Texans tough remaining schedule. 

[lollygagger8]

We need all the division wins we can get! 

 

 

[Sevenfeet]

3 hours ago, JColts72 said:

Maybe the titans will score 3 points after getting 47 this week; law of averages in NFL.

 

Maybe but that's not the trend.  In 10 games, we've scored 25 points a game or more.  The last three games have been 35 points or more.

 

The Titans have been a .500 team in the last four games including the Colts loss in Nashville but everyone thinks that the team continues to improve and therefore you guys are probably getting an improved opponent next Sunday.  Green Bay was considered a statement game around here since it was the first time that this team (Mariota era) has beaten an elite QB.  Granted, Green Bay isn't the team of recent years but any team with Aaron Rodgers is extremely dangerous.

 

It used to be that we had to rely on our defense long enough that we might score enough points to eke out a win.  That's not the case anymore as the offense is doing a really good job of putting points on the board.  Demarco Murray is only behind Dallas' Elliott for rushing for the season.  Delanie Walker is again playing at a Pro Bowl level for a TE.  The receiving corps is showing signs of life.  And our starting O-line is stout, allowing Mariota to deal.  And speaking of Mariota, the man is deadly in the redzone.  He's currently 76% for scoring a TD in the redzone, which leads the NFL.  Even more impressive?  He's never been picked off in the redzone in his short career.

 

Our weaknesses?  The defensive secondary is still suspect.  They hadn't had a defensive takeaway in like...forever until Green Bay.  But when the offense is moving, their spirits generally rise and they play better than their ability.  Mariota still has bad tendency for turnovers but this past Sunday he was perfect.  Special teams had been a sore subject (and probably lost two games this year) but they did recover a muffed punt catch by Green Bay yesterday that led to points.

 

So now we face the elite QB that's in our own backyard.  We've not beaten Luck ever and we've never won a game at Lucas Oil Stadium.  But we're in a situation that no one thought we'd be in after 10 games...vying for a playoff spot.  Trust me....no one in Nashville is getting too ahead of ourselves of our chances.  The Colts have always had our number.  And we still have the Broncos and Chiefs in the schedule.  I think even if we end the season 7-9, most fans around here would consider that a successful year heading into the next year of the draft.

[jskinnz]

4 hours ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

Colts will win, no doubt about it. 30-20

 

I remember you saying something similar regarding the season opener against Detroit as well.

[NeedsADefence]

I can see them beat us. We have no pass rush

[chad72]

Now that Mariota is heating up, I expect us to sell out a bit to defend the pass and get burnt by the run in this game, just a hunch.

[krunk]

24 minutes ago, chad72 said:

Now that Mariota is heating up, I expect us to sell out a bit to defend the pass and get burnt by the run in this game, just a hunch.

Why would we do that?  Just about everything they did against the Pack was predicated off the run game.  Personally I don't feel the Packers were prepared for a lot of that college type stuff the Titans do in that offense.  Too many guys wide open on simple plays.  Plus Green Bay is down to their last bit of defensive backs. Guys like Demarious Randall and Sam Shields are hurt. Best guy they had left was Gunter and I believe even he got hurt at one point yesterday. Their secondary right now is worse than ours.  Injuries are a large part of what is wrong with the Packers.  

 

Still think we need to bottle up the run and force 3rd and long just like we did the last time except do a better job this time from letting up conversions.  We didn't do that well against them on third down in Nashville I feel.

[krunk]

Mariota was supposedly "heating up" before the game in Nashville.  When we actually played he "heated down".

[chad72]

18 minutes ago, krunk said:

Why would we do that?  Just about everything they did against the Pack was predicated off the run game.  Personally I don't feel the Packers were prepared for a lot of that college type stuff the Titans do in that offense.  Too many guys wide open on simple plays.  Plus Green Bay is down to their last bit of defensive backs. Guys like Demarious Randall and Sam Shields are hurt. Best guy they had left was Gunter and I believe even he got hurt at one point yesterday. Their secondary right now is worse than ours.  Injuries are a large part of what is wrong with the Packers.  

 

Still think we need to bottle up the run and force 3rd and long just like we did the last time except do a better job this time from letting up conversions.  We didn't do that well against them on third down in Nashville I feel.

 

The key is not letting them get to the red zone. Kill the drives early on because Mariota is 30 TDs and 0 INTs in his career in the red zone, best in the league in the red zone amongst current NFL QBs. Of course, his sample size is smaller but still large enough, IMO.

 

I am sure they want to get ahead and let us play catch up, just like we want to make their run game less of a factor. 

[krunk]

3 minutes ago, chad72 said:

 

The key is not letting them get to the red zone. Kill the drives early on because Mariota is 29 TDs and 0 INTs, best in the league in the red zone.

 

I am sure they want to get ahead and let us play catch up, just like we want to make their run game less of a factor. 

The key to me is plugging up that run game.  I don't see much different we need to do from the last game other than get them off the field on third and long a whole lot better than we did the last time.  I'm not even that afraid if we get behind because that secondary of theirs stinks.  Just as long as we don't allow that Green Bay type of behind from yesterday.  That's too far behind and it happened way too early.  Green Bay compounded things by shooting themselves in the foot over and over again.   

[PeterBowman]

Keep Josh McNary as far away from the field as possible on defense and the D should allow far few points this time around.

[TKnight24]

16 hours ago, RockThatBlue said:

How are yall feeling about this game?

Colts get their 11th straight Win against Tennessee 

[jskinnz]

1 hour ago, chad72 said:

Now that Mariota is heating up, I expect us to sell out a bit to defend the pass and get burnt by the run in this game, just a hunch.

 

Tennessee wants to run the football, first & foremost.  As much as I hope to God they elect to put Mariota in the pocket all game long, it ain't happening.  The Colts are more than capable of getting burned by Murray & company even with making stopping the run priority 1.

 

1 hour ago, chad72 said:

 

The key is not letting them get to the red zone. Kill the drives early on because Mariota is 30 TDs and 0 INTs in his career in the red zone, best in the league in the red zone amongst current NFL QBs. Of course, his sample size is smaller but still large enough, IMO.

 

I am sure they want to get ahead and let us play catch up, just like we want to make their run game less of a factor. 

 

Isn't the key for any defense to try and not let the other team get into scoring position?  And doesn't every team want to get ahead and force the other to be one-dimensional.  

 

Not exactly master-level football diagnosis there.

[chad72]

7 minutes ago, jskinnz said:

 

Isn't the key for any defense to try and not let the other team get into scoring position?  And doesn't every team want to get ahead and force the other to be one-dimensional.  

 

Not exactly master-level football diagnosis there.

 

My theory was not to think we can force them to FGs close to the red zone like we have held a lot of our opponents to (several of our games have operated that way - Bears, Texans, Packers, Chiefs games etc.), given the Titans' high red zone TD pct rate. That was what I was exactly alluding to.

[will426]

The packers didn't blitz Mariota like they did luck for one..two packers couldn't stop the run which set up the pass instantly off that 75 untouched run to the end zone just like the first game stop the run and make him pass which he isn't great at 

[2006Coltsbestever]

8 hours ago, BullsColtsFan1 said:

I hope your right.  A comfortable win would be nice.  Who do you think we beat on our remaining schedule?  I think we beat Tenn, NYJ, Jax, Hou and Minn.  I think we have a shot in the game at Oakland and if the Steelers keep losing that could give us some hope for that game at home.  A 5-2 finish might be enough with the Texans tough remaining schedule. 

Yeah that is who I think we will beat as well. Sitting at 4-5 we need a 5-2 finish and hope the Texans stumble a few times. I see us beating Titans, Texans, Jags, Minny, and Jets just like you. If we can somehow upset the Steelers that would be gigantic. I don't see us winning at Oakland.

[2006Coltsbestever]

7 hours ago, jskinnz said:

 

I remember you saying something similar regarding the season opener against Detroit as well.

Yeah we weren't healthy then, we are now. So I have more faith in this pick. Having said that we actually should've beat Detroit but had a huge Defensive meltdown at the end.

[dgambill]

8 hours ago, Sevenfeet said:

 

Maybe but that's not the trend.  In 10 games, we've scored 25 points a game or more.  The last three games have been 35 points or more.

 

The Titans have been a .500 team in the last four games including the Colts loss in Nashville but everyone thinks that the team continues to improve and therefore you guys are probably getting an improved opponent next Sunday.  Green Bay was considered a statement game around here since it was the first time that this team (Mariota era) has beaten an elite QB.  Granted, Green Bay isn't the team of recent years but any team with Aaron Rodgers is extremely dangerous.

 

It used to be that we had to rely on our defense long enough that we might score enough points to eke out a win.  That's not the case anymore as the offense is doing a really good job of putting points on the board.  Demarco Murray is only behind Dallas' Elliott for rushing for the season.  Delanie Walker is again playing at a Pro Bowl level for a TE.  The receiving corps is showing signs of life.  And our starting O-line is stout, allowing Mariota to deal.  And speaking of Mariota, the man is deadly in the redzone.  He's currently 76% for scoring a TD in the redzone, which leads the NFL.  Even more impressive?  He's never been picked off in the redzone in his short career.

 

Our weaknesses?  The defensive secondary is still suspect.  They hadn't had a defensive takeaway in like...forever until Green Bay.  But when the offense is moving, their spirits generally rise and they play better than their ability.  Mariota still has bad tendency for turnovers but this past Sunday he was perfect.  Special teams had been a sore subject (and probably lost two games this year) but they did recover a muffed punt catch by Green Bay yesterday that led to points.

 

So now we face the elite QB that's in our own backyard.  We've not beaten Luck ever and we've never won a game at Lucas Oil Stadium.  But we're in a situation that no one thought we'd be in after 10 games...vying for a playoff spot.  Trust me....no one in Nashville is getting too ahead of ourselves of our chances.  The Colts have always had our number.  And we still have the Broncos and Chiefs in the schedule.  I think even if we end the season 7-9, most fans around here would consider that a successful year heading into the next year of the draft.

Thanks for the post. Living in Paducah KY I get most of your games down here and it is clear that your starting to develop an identity on offense. Mariota can go either way. When he is accurate that offense runs very well. The OL definitely keeps things moving downhill. Honestly I see this team trying to mirror the Cowboys. Get that running game going...build that OL and protect Mariota. The defense has a few playmakers rushing the passer but the secondary can be had. It takes time to build a great team but they seem to be taking steps in the right direction. I think we have enough talent that we should win the game but its nice to see you guys leap frog Jacksonville. For all the hype they have gotten for their splashy FA and drafts lately its clear that Tennessee has a better model for building success. I'll be at the game and hope to see two hungry teams duking it out!

[richard pallo]

4 hours ago, krunk said:

Mariota was supposedly "heating up" before the game in Nashville.  When we actually played he "heated down".

We're in Mariotta's head. He looked totally out of it in the first game.  I hope we use our new defensive alignment against them with Butler at safety. . I can see a couple of picks coming our way.  With quite a few starters returning this could be a blowout for us.  

[Sevenfeet]

2 hours ago, dgambill said:

Thanks for the post. Living in Paducah KY I get most of your games down here and it is clear that your starting to develop an identity on offense. Mariota can go either way. When he is accurate that offense runs very well. The OL definitely keeps things moving downhill. Honestly I see this team trying to mirror the Cowboys. Get that running game going...build that OL and protect Mariota. The defense has a few playmakers rushing the passer but the secondary can be had. It takes time to build a great team but they seem to be taking steps in the right direction. I think we have enough talent that we should win the game but its nice to see you guys leap frog Jacksonville. For all the hype they have gotten for their splashy FA and drafts lately its clear that Tennessee has a better model for building success. I'll be at the game and hope to see two hungry teams duking it out!

 

As time go on, fewer and fewer people are griping about Mariota's accuracy.  The issue now is turnovers (INTs + fumbles).  It's statistically glaring now (especially fumbles) but it's not unlike many other QBs who became elite including Luck.  And he's only thrown 3 INTs in the last 6 games, two of which came in the San Diego game two Sundays ago.  Mariota is getting better at throwing balls away to live to fight another down, versus forcing things.   Coach Mularky spoke today about one drive down to the red zone where the 1st down pass clearly wasn't there and Mariota threw the ball away.  On third down, he connected for the TD.  But if it weren't for a good decision on first down, the third down pass wouldn't happen.

 

The Cowboys is an interesting comparison.  Dak Prescott clearly walked into a much better team, much like Osweiller had in Denver last year.  Both the Cowboys and Titans have Pro Bowl running backs and great young QBs.  The Dallas receiving corps are solid but aren't setting the world on fire and Dez Bryant isn't having a Dez Bryant year.  But add up passing and rushing and right now, the Cowboys are #5 in total offense.  Defense is #13 which together wins a lot of games.  The Titans are on fire for offense currently ranked #2(!!!) for total offense but lagging badly on defense (#27).  That's a recipe for a .500 football team.

[Malakai432]

9 hours ago, NeedsADefence said:

I can see them beat us. We have no pass rush

 

Somehow they managed to sack MM 3 times and pressure him mutiple times as well, lol.  They're going to need to do the same again this weekend. . . somehow.

 

I hope the D continues to play like it did the first 3 quarters of the Packers game but I have a feeling this ones going to be a barn burner. 

[Sevenfeet]

8 minutes ago, Malakai432 said:

 

Somehow they managed to sack MM 3 times and pressure him mutiple times as well, lol.  They're going to need to do the same again this weekend. . . somehow.

 

I hope the D continues to play like it did the first 3 quarters of the Packers game but I have a feeling this ones going to be a barn burner. 

 

Our O-line is stout but the Colts game in Nashville was one of their weaker performances.  And Mariota didn't read the pressures as well.  But what was inexcusible was allowing Luck to basically go untouched the whole game when we knew that the Colts O-line had a pretty porous reputation.  Once Luck had lots of time, our secondary was toast.

[Malakai432]

3 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

 

Our O-line is stout but the Colts game in Nashville was one of their weaker performances.  And Mariota didn't read the pressures as well.  But what was inexcusible was allowing Luck to basically go untouched the whole game when we knew that the Colts O-line had a pretty porous reputation.  Once Luck had lots of time, our secondary was toast.

 

Yeah I assume they're definitely going to try and go after Luck, many, many times lol.

[cbear]

11 hours ago, Sevenfeet said:

 

Maybe but that's not the trend.  In 10 games, we've scored 25 points a game or more.  The last three games have been 35 points or more.

 

The Titans have been a .500 team in the last four games including the Colts loss in Nashville but everyone thinks that the team continues to improve and therefore you guys are probably getting an improved opponent next Sunday.  Green Bay was considered a statement game around here since it was the first time that this team (Mariota era) has beaten an elite QB.  Granted, Green Bay isn't the team of recent years but any team with Aaron Rodgers is extremely dangerous.

 

It used to be that we had to rely on our defense long enough that we might score enough points to eke out a win.  That's not the case anymore as the offense is doing a really good job of putting points on the board.  Demarco Murray is only behind Dallas' Elliott for rushing for the season.  Delanie Walker is again playing at a Pro Bowl level for a TE.  The receiving corps is showing signs of life.  And our starting O-line is stout, allowing Mariota to deal.  And speaking of Mariota, the man is deadly in the redzone.  He's currently 76% for scoring a TD in the redzone, which leads the NFL.  Even more impressive?  He's never been picked off in the redzone in his short career.

 

Our weaknesses?  The defensive secondary is still suspect.  They hadn't had a defensive takeaway in like...forever until Green Bay.  But when the offense is moving, their spirits generally rise and they play better than their ability.  Mariota still has bad tendency for turnovers but this past Sunday he was perfect.  Special teams had been a sore subject (and probably lost two games this year) but they did recover a muffed punt catch by Green Bay yesterday that led to points.

 

So now we face the elite QB that's in our own backyard.  We've not beaten Luck ever and we've never won a game at Lucas Oil Stadium.  But we're in a situation that no one thought we'd be in after 10 games...vying for a playoff spot.  Trust me....no one in Nashville is getting too ahead of ourselves of our chances.  The Colts have always had our number.  And we still have the Broncos and Chiefs in the schedule.  I think even if we end the season 7-9, most fans around here would consider that a successful year heading into the next year of the draft.

 

MM as you know is a Hawaii boy, so I always pull for him, but I hope the Colts have his number this Sunday!  

[krunk]

They'll try to amp up the blitzing.  I've seen commentary from Mularkey speaking on how they'll probably come with an entirely different game plan and tighten up the coverage somehow.  To me that's code word for we want to bring pressure.  I think they feel more confident about it after seeing how many times they got pressure on Aaron Rodgers. I don't think they have the horses in the secondary to carry out the game plan, and I think we have much faster and better receivers than Green Bay.  Not only that but 3 solid tight ends to make use of.  

 

I didn't see enough from the Titans run defense last game to make me feel like we couldn't be successful on the ground if we had to pound it for a while.  Overall I think we have more weapons than the Packers and their D has too many warts.  All we got to do is tighten up on some of the third and longs we let up.  Also do a little bit better job bottling up the run game here or there and I believe we will be fine. Last but not least we need to play a clean football game as far as the penalties and turn overs. 

[Sevenfeet]

24 minutes ago, krunk said:

They'll try to amp up the blitzing.  I've seen commentary from Mularkey speaking on how they'll probably come with an entirely different game plan and tighten up the coverage somehow.  To me that's code word for we want to bring pressure.  I think they feel more confident about it after seeing how many times they got pressure on Aaron Rodgers. I don't think they have the horses in the secondary to carry out the game plan, and I think we have much faster and better receivers than Green Bay.  Not only that but 3 solid tight ends to make use of.  

 

I didn't see enough from the Titans run defense last game to make me feel like we couldn't be successful on the ground if we had to pound it for a while.  Overall I think we have more weapons than the Packers and their D has too many warts.  All we got to do is tighten up on some of the third and longs we let up.  Also do a little bit better job bottling up the run game here or there and I believe we will be fine. Last but not least we need to play a clean football game as far as the penalties and turn overs. 

 

The last game plan resulted in a loss.  So yes, I would expect changes.

 

I'm not sure if we'll amp up blitzes as much as trying to disguise blitzes better.  But that's still hard to do with a QB like Luck.  But we had decent success against Rodgers last week.

 

Gore ran for 61 yards last game.  I'm more worried about us defending the pass.

 

Turnovers is our big key.  We're not built to come back from those kind of mistakes.

[krunk]

5 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

 

The last game plan resulted in a loss.  So yes, I would expect changes.

 

I'm not sure if we'll amp up blitzes as much as trying to disguise blitzes better.  But that's still hard to do with a QB like Luck.  But we had decent success against Rodgers last week.

 

Gore ran for 61 yards last game.  I'm more worried about us defending the pass.

 

Turnovers is our big key.  We're not built to come back from those kind of mistakes.

Gore was over 4 ypc for the first half of the game and went down some from there.  I think it was mostly due to more opportunity being available through the air.  We didn't really have to continue to grind it out.  Still feel like if we had to we could have. Overall I feel we have more weapons on this team than the Packers to counter punch aggressive blitzing from the Titans and that secondary.

[Coltswarriors]

Sunday is a must win.

If the Colts lose, they could potentially fall 3 games behind the Texans, and 2 games behind the Titans with only 6 games left to go.

 

Colts must win.

[krunk]

I'm expecting us to come out and play like we did in that Bengal playoff game a couple years ago.   That type of intensity and execution.  Or maybe the same energy as we had against the Broncos in the playoffs.   We got to play all these games with that type of urgency.

[krunk]

Come out and jump on them quickly. Don't let off the gas!