An interception return for a touchdown by Colts cornerback Kenny Moore three plays into Sunday’s game set the stage for an Indianapolis blowout, but the die may have been cast before the game kicked off.
Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr, who caught a touchdown during the 41-20 win, said that the Colts picked up on some body language before the game that foreshadowed what would happen once the game kicked off.
“Saw it on the pre-game intros,” Pittman said, via Jeremy K. Gover. “They kinda looked a little sluggish, they were kinda walking around, nobody was really bouncing. Right then and there we all sat there and were like ‘They don’t want to play today.’”
Titans head coach Brian Callahan did himself no favors with his in-game decision-making on Sunday and Pittman’s comments before the Titans’ ninth-straight loss don’t paint a pretty picture about how things are going behind the scenes either. They head to Houston to face a winless Texans team next weekend and questions about how long Callahan will continue to coach the team won’t be going away if they make it 10 losses in a row.
Titans fans serenaded their team with boos and calls to fire head coach Brian Callahan as they left the field at the end of the first half on Sunday, but Callahan said after the 41-20 loss to the Colts that he’s not worrying about his job security.
Callahan incurred the ire of the fans when the team took a delay of game penalty before trying a field goal on fourth-and-1 late in the second quarter. The penalty came after both the Colts and Titans used timeouts and it forced Joey Slye to take a 62-yarder that he missed. That left the Colts with good field position and enough time to extend their lead to 20-6 at the break.
At his press conference, Callahan, who is 3-17 since taking the job, was asked how many more chances he thinks he’ll get in Tennessee.
“I don’t really worry about that to be honest,” Callahan said. “My focus is on trying to make sure our football team is in as good a place as possible, and the rest of that stuff is what it is. I don’t think about those things. You really can’t. I mean this is hard enough as it is to put those other things and think about that doesn’t do anybody any good. I just go to work and work as hard as I can. I put as much effort as I can into this and that is what it is.”
Callahan said that he sent the offense out on the field after the two timeouts because he had not made up his mind about what to do and the delay came because “the operational part of it to kick it on time didn’t happen” after he sent the kicking team out. Callahan acknowledged that it “looks really bad at the end of the day” and that was also the case for his failure to know the rules for a catch in Week 1, so it’s little surprise that questions about how much longer the Titans will stay the course have started to pop up.
Jonathan Taylor didn’t score a touchdown in the first two weeks of the season, but he made up for it in Week 3.
Taylor scored three touchdowns and the Colts rolled over the Titans for a 41-20 win that moves them to 3-0 on the season. The only blemish on the Colts’ day was that they actually had to punt in the second quarter, but Rigoberto Sanchez remained unneeded for anything but holds for the rest of the day.
Taylor finished the day with 102 yards on 17 carries and quarterback Daniel Jones chipped in with 18 completions that picked up 228 yards. One of Jones’ completions was a touchdown to wide receiver Michael Pittman and he also used his legs to good effect when needed.
Jones and the offense had a lead the first time they touched the ball thanks to Kenny Moore’s interception return for a touchdown three plays into the game. Moore later left the game with a calf injury and wide receiver Alec Pierce left the game with a concussion, so they’ll have some injury situations to monitor for Week 4’s trip to Los Angeles to face the Rams.
Cam Ward didn’t throw another pick, but he was sacked four times to bring his league-leading total to 15 through three weeks of the season. He had some success moving the ball in the second half, but the Colts took a 21-point lead in the third quarter and had things firmly in their pocket from that point.
They’ll travel to Houston in search of their first win of the season in Week 4 and they’ll need to find a way to give Ward more protection to make that happen.
The Colts have a comfortable halftime lead as they try to improve to 3-0 on the season.
Spencer Shrader’s 36-yard field goal on the final play of the first half pushed the Colts to a 20-6 lead over the Titans. Shrader’s make capped a run of three straight missed field goals.
Titans kicker Joey Slye had two of them and they were both long tries. He missed a 64-yarder and then had a 62-yard try blocked by Colts defensive lineman Grover Stewart. The second kick came after the Titans were penalized for delay of game coming out of back-to-back timeouts on a third-and-1. The series of errors gave the Colts a chance to push their lead to 14 points.
Slye is the first kicker to try multiple 60-yard kicks in a game since Wil Lutz in 2022.
Daniel Jones is 10-of-16 for 141 yards and he’s run three times for 25 yards in another efficient performance to kick off his Colts run. Running back Jonathan Taylor scored his first rushing touchdown of the year and the Colts defense kicked off the scoring when Kenny Moore returned an interception for a 32-yard score.
Titans quarterback Cam Ward was also sacked twice, which pushes his league-high total to 13 on the season. He was 9-of-18 for 104 yards when he wasn’t sacked and he’ll need to catch fire if the Titans are going to avoid an 0-3 start.
Rigoberto Sanchez finally got his chance to shine in the second quarter of Sunday’s game in Tennessee.
The Colts punter was limited to holding for field goals and extra points in the first nine quarters of the season, but the Titans defense forced a stop in the second quarter and Sanchez was called on to punt for the first time this year.
Sanchez hit a 46-yarder that left the Titans with the ball on their own 9-yard line.
The Colts returned a Cam Ward interception for a touchdown to take an early lead and running back Jonathan Taylor scored late in the first quarter. The Colts lead 17-6 with over eight minutes to play in the half.
