The Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts will meet for the final time this season when the two teams take the field at Nissan Stadium on Sunday. The Colts won the first matchup, 23-16.
Entering the season, the Titans were expected to at least be in the running for the AFC South crown, along with the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, things haven’t panned out, with the Titans (4-7) sitting in the cellar of the division.
The Colts, on the other hand, have exceeded expectations up until this point, with Indianapolis (6-5) currently sitting in second place in the division.
While the Titans’ playoff hopes are extremely thin (less than one percent), they do have an opportunity to play spoiler within their own division, although doing so will hurt their draft positioning.
Ahead of this divisional matchup on Sunday, here are six things to know.
Colts are favored
According to BetMGM, the Colts are one-point road favorites over the Titans for Week 13, which comes as no surprise considering the respective seasons these two teams are having.
The Titans have covered the spread in five of their 11 games, while the Colts have covered seven times, according to Team Rankings.
Titans looking for revenge
This is the second meeting between these two teams after the Colts nabbed a 23-16 victory back in Week 5, which snapped a five-game winning streak for Tennessee over Indianapolis. Overall, the Colts hold a 36-22 advantage all time (including playoffs).
Different starters
In the previous meeting, the Titans started veteran Ryan Tannehill under center and the Colts had rookie Anthony Richardson taking snaps.
Richardson ended up suffering a season-ending shoulder injury during that game, forcing his early exit. Gardner Minshew took over and has remained the starter ever since.
Tannehill eventually suffered his own injury the next week, which led to the Titans inserting rookie Will Levis under center after the bye.
The Titans are 2-3 with Levis as the starter, while the Colts sport a 4-3 mark with Minshew at the helm.
No Jonathan Taylor
Taylor, who was being eased back following his return from injury when these two teams last met in Week 5, will miss the Week 13 contest after having thumb surgery that will knock him out a few weeks.
Normally, this would be great news for the Titans, but lest we forget how Zack Moss torched Tennessee on the ground for 165 yards and two scores last time around.
At the time, we thought the pathetic showing from the Titans’ run defense was an anomaly, considering Tennessee sported an elite unit early on this season and over the two prior.
However, the Titans have seen similar performances since then in what has been a very disappointing season for the defense as a whole. Thankfully, the run defense has been better of late, something the Titans hope will continue on Sunday.
Titans unbeaten at Nissan Stadium
The Titans sport a 4-1 home record this season, but that one loss came in London when Tennessee was the de facto home team. If you take that out, Tennessee is a perfect 4-0 inside their own stadium.
Three other teams in the NFL have a perfect record at home, with the Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys all sporting 5-0 records.
Tennessee’s disappointing season really comes down to their performance on the road, with Tennessee sporting an 0-6 mark. If the Titans had just won half of their road games, we’d be talking about playoffs right now.
Colts have been better on the road
In complete contrast to the Titans, the Colts have actually been a better road team this season, with Indy having a 4-1 record as compared to a 2-3 mark at home.
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