Tennessee Titans: How the Titans can beat the Colts

The Tennessee Titans are gearing up for their first AFC South matchup of the season, and their defense can be an important factor on Sunday.

When it comes to the Colts, their weak spots lay in their offense. The first thing the Tennessee Titans need to do on Sunday is stopping the run. Jacoby Brissett can’t beat the Titans on his own so shutting down the run game early will be huge.

When the Colts do drop back to pass they will likely run a few quick pass plays to get the juices flowing between Brissett and the receivers. They did this throughout the first half in their Week 1 game against the Chargers.

Their tight end Jack Doyle has been a big factor in the Colts offense for a while now, and that hasn’t changed this year. He’s really good at getting off the line and finding the open hole in the defense. He will be a player to watch down the field on Sunday.

The run game was what was ultimately able to keep them in the game. The run game was successful throughout most of the game and prevented Brissett from throwing down the field as much as possible.

When Brissett does drop back to throw the ball the defense has to take advantage of the offensive line and put some pressure on the quarterback. The offensive line got bullied in Week 1, especially the right side of the line.

Whether it’s through blitz packages or just a four-man rush if the Titans get pressure on Brissett early, then they can shut the Colts offense down early as they did against the Browns.

The Titans offense could struggle some this week against the Colts defense. The Colts front seven is pretty good, so getting the run game going might be difficult early.

The Colts defensive ends are very good, and they are in the backfield a lot, so Marcus Mariota is going to have to get the ball out quick.

I did notice some in Week 1 defensive tackle Margus Hunt dropped back into coverage some. Believe it or not, he’s not very good at covering the middle of the field so the more we can get that mismatch the better.

If Mariota can pick out when he’s dropping back to cover a zone he needs to take advantage. A crossing route could be successful against Hunt, but anything in his zone should be a success.

The final thing is the Colts special teams. From what I saw, they are not very good, nor are they very smart. The coverage team on kickoff and punt lack in a few different areas so if given a chance the Titans could take advantage of that.

The field goal block team also earned an unnecessary roughness penalty on the four-yard line for a field goal attempt. The Chargers got the ball at the two and scored a touchdown.

The Colts will give the Titans plenty of opportunities to take advantage of them, but only the Titans will be able to take advantage of those opportunities and put points on the board. If the Titans can stop the Colts offense a win is almost guaranteed.

With what I saw from the Titans defense last week I can only assume that will be the case and the Titans will win their home opener handily.