The Indianapolis Colts are 3-1 over the last month, but that one loss came at home to the Tennessee Titans in Week 4 dropping them to 1-2-1.
The Colts have righted the ship the last two weeks with an ugly win in Denver against the Broncos and a revenge game of sorts last week against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Now 3-2-1, the Colts and Titans face off on Sunday for sole possession of first place in the AFC South. SI Sports Book is giving the Titans the homefield edge with Tennessee listed as just a 2.5-point favorite.
Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com likes that number and predicts the Titans to hold serve at home with a 23-20 win over the Colts.
The Colts didn’t score a touchdown for 110 minutes of game time, then scored four in five possessions against a good Jaguars defense. Was that a turning point for Indianapolis’ season or a brief flash of brilliance? Even though a season series split is typical for these rivals, I still like the Titans to sweep for three reasons: Their defensive line is better, their quarterback is better, and the big runs the Colts gave up last week are quite worrisome with Derrick Henry coming off a bye. — Gregg Rosenthal, NFL.com
Henry has 408 yards through five games on the season, good for 10th in the league despite playing one-less games than all but two of the players ahead of him.
He has played the most games (13) and rushed for the most yards (1,159) against the Colts vs. any other opponent.
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They’ll need him, because the Titans offense is ranked 31st in yards in the NFL and 22nd in points-per game.
However, despite the Colts 34-point outburst last week against the Jaguars, Indianapolis is still just 26th at 17.2 points-per game.
Quarterback Matt Ryan is coming off a game in which he threw 58 times, and a lot of focus has been on rookie playmaker Alec Pierce.
But the Colts are hoping to get running back Jonathan Taylor more involved this week, and we know the Titans rely heavily on Henry.
If the Colts can contain Henry, they should have enough to “upset” the Titans in Tennessee and take over first place in the AFC South.
Easier said than done.
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