INDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis Colts got off to a slow start, losing their first two games of the season until the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars helped them get their first victory Sunday. The Tennessee Titans opened the season with a victory, but have dropped their last two games while being outscored 59-17.
The Colts and Titans meet at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Sunday to see which team can even its record to .500.
ESPN.com Colts reporter Mike Wells and Titans reporter Paul Kuharsky discuss this AFC South matchup.
Wells: At the start of the season, there were some questions about whether Jake Locker was the right guy to quarterback the Titans. Now he’s dealing with a wrist injury. At what point do the Titans determine if he’s truly their quarterback of the future?
Kuharsky: Soon. They want to give him a thorough look and a fair chance. He played a great game in Kansas City, a terrible first half against Dallas and a terrible game in Cincinnati. But coach Ken Whisenhunt doesn’t appear to be shaping his offense around Locker’s skill set. Locker simply isn't capable of doing what Kurt Warner or Philip Rivers did with Whisenhunt as the playcaller. This is Locker’s final year under contact.
At some point, if he still isn’t playing well, they have to decide he’s not the future and then get a look at sixth-rounder Zach Mettenberger to find out whether he’s the answer. Otherwise, they'll need to spend a high draft pick to compete with Mettenberger and Charlie Whitehurst in 2015.
How have the Colts failed, again, to fix the offensive line? How does it rate at this point?
Wells: It appeared it would be another long season for the Colts along the offensive line before they even played their first game of the season. Starting guard Donald Thomas was lost for the season in training camp, and center Khaled Holmes suffered a high ankle sprain on the opening series in the first preseason game. But the pieces have come together along the line for Indianapolis. Rookie Jack Mewhort has slid into Thomas’ spot at guard, and the Colts claimed center A.Q. Shipley off waivers from Baltimore a week before the season opener at Denver. The Colts are averaging 122 yards rushing per game, and quarterback Andrew Luck is on pace to be sacked a career-low 25 times this season.
Chris Johnson rushed for at least 1,000 yards in his six seasons with the Titans. He’s with the Jets now. How have the Titans gone about replacing him in the backfield?
Kuharsky: They’ve run the ball well, really. They are averaging 5 yards per carry; CJ averaged 3.9 last year. The committee of Shonn Greene, Bishop Sankey and Dexter McCluster has a nice skill-set combination. And they were deployed unpredictably in the season-opening win at Arrowhead Stadium. In the two losses, their usage has produced more questions. Considering the ground gains and the resources dedicated to the offensive line, they should be running more.
And I’m surprised how far the Titans have strayed from play-action, which could help the run-game success have more of a bearing on Locker and the passing game.
Is there any hope for the Colts' pass rush without Robert Mathis? How’s replacing safety Antoine Bethea going?
Wells: Let’s just say replacing Bethea has been easier -- and that’s been a challenge -- than getting a consistent pass rush without Mathis. Veteran Mike Adams, who played in Denver last season, is starting alongside LaRon Landry at safety.
About the pass rush? That’s a completely different story. Let’s get this out of the way: There is no replacing Robert Mathis. Everybody inside the organization knows that. They’re trying to do it as an entire unit. Defensive coordinator Greg Manusky is sending Landry on a lot of safety blitzes. Second-year linebacker Bjoern Werner is starting in place of Mathis, but he has yet to make an impact. He has only five tackles, no sacks and just one quarterback hit through the first three weeks. The Colts came alive defensively against the Jaguars last weekend. They had four sacks and hit Jacksonville’s quarterbacks seven times. Now they have to be consistent with their pressure.
Passing the ball against the Titans is a challenge, as they’re giving up only 170 yards per game through the air. What makes them so tough in that area?
Kuharsky: The Titans gave up 220 yards rushing to the Cowboys and set the Bengals up inside the red zone with a bad pick. (And Bengals WR Mohamed Sanu found it a great pass defense to throw against, since he found Andy Dalton with an 18-yard trick-play scoring pass.) In those two blowouts, it was not so much that the Titans played great pass defense, it was that the opponents didn’t need to throw it very much or very effectively to win. Dez Bryant and A.J. Green each gained more than 100 yards receiving.
At least against Kansas City and Dallas, the Titans created pass pressure. They had four sacks in each of those games. They didn’t really threaten Dalton. To have any chance of upsetting the Colts, they’ll need to get to Luck.
Luck is coming off a fantastic game. A lot of analysts predicted a big jump for him to MVP-caliber this season. How much better has he gotten since the last time the Titans saw him?
Wells: Last weekend, the Colts laid out their blueprint for success this season against the Jaguars. Luck completed passes to nine receivers, and a solid running game allowed them to run play-action. Luck was 6-of-6 on passes of at least 20 yards and completed 12 passes on play-action calls. Colts receiver T.Y. Hilton told me after the game that they’ll be a tough team to stop this season as long as they spread the ball around. The Colts need Luck to continue to be that effective this season because, as I noted earlier, their defense is suspect because of an inconsistent pass rush.
