After coming off a terrible loss on Thursday Night Football in Week 12, the Indianapolis Colts will return home to face another AFC South rival in the Tennessee Titans.
Both teams are coming into this matchup at 6-5 on the season. Currently, the Colts have the tiebreaker with their Week 2 win in Nashville. This game in Indianapolis will go a long way in determining how each team’s season will finish out.
The Titans have one of the best defenses in the NFL, and back in that Week 2 game, the Colts had their lowest total of yards gained in one game.
Even with the 286 yards of offense they were able to get three passing touchdowns from Jacoby Brissett. Let’s take a look at three keys for the offense in this Week 13 battle:
1. Sustaining drives
The first key sounds a lot easier said than done, and that will for sure be the case for Indianapolis on Sunday. In the last matchup between these two teams, the Colts were 7-14 on third down and 1-1 on fourth down. The Titans, on the other hand, were 1-10 on third, and 0-1 on fourth down.
If there is one big strength of the Tennessee defense it’s their third-down defense. The Titans have won four of their last five, and it has been because of their third-down defense.
Over their past five games their defense is allowing 25-57 conversion rates on third down. On the season, Tennessee is top-10 in third-down defense at a 35% conversion rate.
2. Attack through the air
The Titans have a formidable secondary with great players. Safety Kevin Byard is an All-Pro and they also have Kenny Vacarro, Logan Ryan and Adoree’ Jackson in their secondary. Even with all those players, their pass defense has been their weak link in their defense.
Now, overall on the season, teams haven’t thrown on Tennessee that much, their defense is near the bottom in pass plays run against them, but that’s where the Colts need to attack.
Brissett didn’t light up the scoreboard in terms of passing yards in Week 2, but he did toss three red-zone touchdowns that were key to the game.
The Titans are 24th in the NFL in pass yards allowed per game at 255. Even with T.Y. Hilton out, there is a chance Parris Campbell returns to the fold.
3. No turnovers
Like the Steelers from a few weeks ago, this Titans defense is very good at creating and getting turnovers. A top-10 unit in the league at forcing turnovers, 1.5 per game, good for ninth, the Colts must take care of the ball on Sunday.
Brissett is good at not turning the ball over, but in the Week 2 game, he forced a pass that was intercepted and resulted in a Tennessee touchdown.
The Titans offense isn’t a juggernaut, they struggle to move the ball, so they rely on their defense to create short fields for them. If the Colts can not turn the ball over and hand the Titans easy scoring opportunities, they should come out with an important AFC South win.
