The Tennessee Titans head to Indiana this Sunday to face the Indianapolis Colts in the first of three divisional matchups to close out the season. The Colts won the first meeting between these two teams, but there are a lot of differences between the Colts and Titans in Week 16 than there were in Week 6.
Mason Rudolph will quarterback for the Titans while Anthony Richardson leads the Colts’ offense. Last time it was Will Levis and Joe Flacco. The Titans also had DeAndre Hopkins on their roster in Week 6 and he’s since been traded away.
Both of these teams are pretty evenly matched despite the Colts winning twice as many games. They split possession time pretty evenly during the last matchup and the Colts won by three points. The Week 16 matchup is going to look different, but the outcome is likely to be the same.
There are three causes for concern for the Titans this Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The quarterback situation
Mason Rudolph is set to start against the Colts this week as Will Levis threw three interceptions and was benched last week. On Thursday, offensive coordinator Nick Holz said that this is a “game of completions,” and that was why they chose Rudolph. The problem is that Rudolph isn’t exactly immune from turning the ball over.
Plus, changing quarterbacks changes how the game is played. The cadence changes, the coverage changes, the play calls change. Everything is different, and when you’re facing a division rival, change isn’t always a good thing.
There’s a slew of new injuries
After Wednesday’s practice, there were 13 players on the injury report, and only three of them practiced in any fashion. A few new additions to the list were T’Vondre Sweat (shoulder), Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (ankle), and Daryl Worley (calf), all of whom are players the Titans have relied on heavily of late.
Obviously, some of these injuries aren’t debilitating and those players will see the field, but they’ll still be playing through an injury, which will absolutely affect their performance.
Coaching disconnect
Brian Callahan doesn’t seem to have a clue what is happening right under his nose. This team doesn’t have a clear leader on the offensive side of the ball and while it’s nice he wants to defend his team, as he should, saying that this team isn’t soft when they’ve won just three games and have clear habits showing lack of effort, well, it’s not the best look. Sure, hearing someone call your team soft will put any coach into defensive mode almost immediately. But his response was off base.
There is a lot of work that needs done inside the locker room and inside of administrative offices to get this team where it needs to be. It’s clear that Callahan doesn’t know half of what needs to happen, and Ran Carthon might not know much more. The Titans’ coaching staff has to get in tune with its players or this team will never grow and improve.
