The Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts will do battle for the second and final time in Week 7 in a meeting that will take place at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
Tennessee has dominated Indianapolis in recent years with four wins in their last four meetings. However, the Colts have been fairly successful on the Titans’ home field, winning three of the last four in Nashville.
While both teams are in the midst of winning streaks, neither has been consistent by any stretch. Both offenses have seen their struggles, and defense is the biggest reason the Titans and Colts sport winning records.
With a victory on Sunday, the Titans would sweep the Colts for a second straight year and grab a stranglehold on the AFC South. If Indy wins, it moves into first place for the time being and makes things much more interesting.
Now, a look at the Titans’ reasons for optimism and concern going into Week 7.
Optimism: Return of injured players
While the Titans won’t be getting the players on injured reserve back this week, they will likely see the returns of three key starters in safety Amani Hooker, outside linebacker Bud Dupree and right guard Nate Davis.
Dupree and Hooker appear to have the best chance to return after being full participants in practice on Wednesday and Thursday. Davis is on track but less certain after two limited sessions to start the week.
On top of the players on IR, Tennessee is also set to not have linebacker Zach Cunningham, who has yet to practice this week after missing the last two contests.
While the return of all three players is important, Hooker and Davis coming back top the list, as the secondary and offensive line have been two of the team’s biggest weaknesses in 2022.
Concern: Letting up big plays
The Titans have been playing bend-but-don’t-break defense for much of the season, mostly because of the secondary, which has been susceptible to letting up big plays through five games.
Tennessee’s 8.4 yards allowed per pass attempt is tied for tops in the NFL, a number the Colts contributed to greatly in Week 4 when Matt Ryan threw for 359 yards and completed a handful of big plays to his pass-catchers.
The Colts’ passing attack is coming into this game with a head of steam, also, after having its best showing of 2022 in Week 6. The Titans have proven they can shut down Indy’s rushing attack, now they have to prove they can limit their passing attack, especially when it comes to big plays.
Optimism: The pass-rush
One way the Titans can thwart the Colts’ improving passing attack is via the pass-rush, which will get a huge boost this week when Bud Dupree takes the field after not having played a full game since Week 1.
Indy sports one of the worst pass-blocking lines in the NFL after having given up 21 sacks, the fifth-most in the NFL.
Granted, the Colts are coming off a Week 6 performance in which the group upfront didn’t allow any, but it did still surrender an astounding 20 pressures last week, per Pro Football Focus.
Tennessee’s pass-rush has been better than expected with Harold Landry out for the season and Dupree playing sparingly, as guys like Jeffery Simmons, Denico Autry and Rashad Weaver have all stepped up.
Things should be even better this week upon Dupree’s return, which is bad news for Indy’s offensive line. Tennessee’s pass-rush desperately needs to get to Ryan this week in order to aid a struggling secondary and possibly force some turnovers from Indy’s mistake-prone quarterback.
Concern: Second-half offense
In reality, Tennessee’s offense in general is a major concern on a weekly basis, especially against a pretty good Colts defense. However, it’s most glaring issue has been second-half scoring.
Through five games, the Titans have scored 96 points, and just 14 of those points have come in the second half of games. During their three-game winning streak, the Titans have scored just seven in the second half.
The Titans can’t always depend on getting off to the kind of fast starts we’ve seen in recent weeks, and they certainly can’t depend on the defense to make early leads stand every week with zero help from the offense.
