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Colts Fall Behind Again
Early, Lose to
Tennessee
INDIANAPOLIS - First-place was
on the line, and the Colts needed momentum. As such, there were
several things Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy didn't want the Colts
to do Sunday afternoon:
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Commit turnovers.
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Fail to create
turnovers.
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Fall behind
early.
The
Colts, while losing their last two games, did all three too often.
And with a chance to maintain a lead in the AFC South, they did
again, committing three first-half turnovers and trailing by
twenty points at halftime. As a result, the Colts (4-4) lost a
third consecutive game Sunday, this time to the Tennessee Titans,
23-15, in front of 56,752 at the RCA Dome.
"It's disappointing," Dungy said after the Colts' first loss in
the division this season. "I thought we played better in the first
quarter than we did the last couple of weeks. But turnovers kind
of got us in a hole and we didn't get them stopped defensively
early enough.
"We
dug a hole for ourselves. In the second half, we did some better
things, played aggressively, but it wasn't enough."
With the victory, the Titans (4-4) tied the Colts for the lead in
the AFC South. The Colts had held the lead by themselves the past
three weeks.
"It's a disappointing first half (of the season), but we've got to
come back and focus in on the second half and see if we can get
some of that momentum back," Dungy said.
The
Titans are the only team in the division without a division loss.
"This was a big game," said Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, who
completed 37 of 50 passes for 327 yards and two touchdowns with
one interception. "This would have been a nice game to win to give
us a bit of a cushion in the division.
"The second half of the season is always going to be a dogfight,
but we've found ourselves looking up a little bit."
Indianapolis
lost despite out-gaining the Titans 378-198 and having 25 first
downs to the Titans' 13. The Titans did not commit a turnover and
the Colts finished with three.
"They made some plays on defense and created some turnovers,"
Manning said. "We just didn't do enough on offense to overcome
them."
Colts linebacker Rob Morris: "We've just got to keep playing and
try to get one win. You can't say we're going to try to win eight
in a row. We've just got to try to win next week."
The
Colts, hurt by injuries throughout the season, played without
their top two active running backs - Edgerrin James and backup
Ricky Williams, each of whom missed with hamstring injuries. The
Colts already had lost three running backs - Dominic Rhodes,
Shyrone Stith and Brian Allen - to season-ending injuries.
The
Colts also were without offensive tackle Adam Meadows (hip, groin)
and defensive tackles Larry Tripplett (shoulder, elbow) and Josh
Williams (foot).
The
Colts, who had trailed by at least 20 points in the first half of
their previous three losses - to
Miami
(21-0), Pittsburgh (21-0) and Washington (20-0) - struggled
through a turnover-plagued first half to trail 20-0.
"They got up early and took us out of our game," Colts defensive
end Brad Scioli said. "That's the NFL life. Three weeks ago,
everyone's excited, in first place. Now, we're .500 fighting for a
playoff spot. We've got to stick together.
"We've got to find a way, somehow, to put a full game together,
not get behind early and finish teams or we're going to be in
trouble."
The
Titans extended the lead to 23-0 lead early in the third quarter,
the Colts' largest deficit of the season.
Against Miami and Washington, the Colts rallied dramatically and
against Tennessee - a winner of three consecutive games after a
1-4 start - they did the same only to fail to attain a first down
on their final drive.
"It's sort of gut-check time," Manning said. "We've got to dig
deep and find a way to come out of this hole. We've got to find a
way to come out and score some points in the first half and get
the game close in the second half so we don't have to fight back
so much."
One
drive after the Titans went ahead by 23, the Colts put together
their best drive of the game, moving to the Titans' 1. On
3rd-and-goal from the 1, running back James Mungro (60 yards, 16
carries) appeared to score but was ruled short of the end zone.
On
4th-and-goal from the 1, Mungro was tripped up on a run to the
outside at the 1-yard line.
"You can't put the whole game on one drive," Colts center Jeff
Saturday said. "We had opportunities. We just didn't take
advantage of those opportunities."
The
comeback began a possession later. After forcing a punt,
Indianapolis drove 54 yards on four plays, with Manning capping
the drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mike Roberg.
Manning's two-point conversion pass to wide receiver Marvin
Harrison cut the Titans' lead to 15.
On
the next series, the Colts drove 95 yards in 17 plays - their
second 95-yard drive in as many weeks - and Manning capped that
drive with a 19-yard touchdown pass to
Harrison, his fourth touchdown reception of the season.
Kicker Mike Vanderjagt's extra point cut the Titans' lead to 23-15
with
1:57 remaining.
The
Titans recovered the ensuing onside kick, and the Colts forced a
punt to regain possession at their 9 with 1:29 remaining.
Manning passed three yards to Mungro, incomplete to tight end
Marcus Pollard, three yards to Harrison then incomplete again to
Pollard, ending the comeback.
"We've got a better team than what we're showing," Colts
linebacker Mike Peterson said.
So,
what's wrong?
"If
I knew I'd tell everybody," Peterson said. "It's tough, because
you're not showing everybody what kind of team this is. We've got
some ballplayers in here. It's a matter of time before we all get
on the same page and show everybody."
The
Colts out-gained the Titans 141-105 in the first half, but were
hurt in the first quarter - and again in the second - by
turnovers.
Fullback Jim Finn fumbled twice - on each of his two first-quarter
pass receptions - the second of which led to a 28-yard field goal
by Joe Nedney that gave the Titans a 3-0 lead. On the Colts'
ensuing drive, Manning threw to his right and was intercepted by
linebacker Peter Sirmon.
On
3rd-and-7 from the Colts 48, Sirmon lined up on the line, dropped
into coverage and Manning - throwing a quick slant to wide
receiver Marvin Harrison - threw a low pass that Sirmon returned
31 yards to the Colts 25.
"Peyton thought I was going to blitz," Sirmon said. "He threw it
right to me."
The
Titans lost 10 yards immediately when Fred Miller was called for
illegal use of hands, then five plays later - on the final play of
the first quarter - McNair passed three yards on 3rd-and-2 for a
touchdown to running back Mike Green. Nedney's extra point made it
10-0.
Early in the second quarter, the problems continued. The Colts
established a running game with Mungro, but facing 2nd-and-6 from
the Titans 21, Titans safety Tank Williams blitzed and came
through the line cleanly.
He
hit Manning in the back, separating him from the ball and Titans
linebacker Keith Bulluck returned the fumble 61 yards for a
touchdown and a 17-0 Titans lead.
The
Titans blitzed two defenders from the right side of the defense,
and with Manning reading receivers on the opposite side of the
field, he said he didn't see the blitz.
"We
got one of them blocked and we've got to throw the ball hot,"
Dungy said. "Peyton didn't see it was coming and it was a mistake
that ended up costing us. You've got to throw that ball away, or
throw it to the receiver that breaks hot."
The
Titans got 17 of their 23 points off turnovers and the Colts'
defense allowed only one touchdown drive - a 25-yarder - and two
drives of more than 35 yards. But after their third consecutive
loss, positive statistics didn't seem so positive to the Colts.
Talk afterward turned quickly to the immediate future, how to make
it not resemble the immediate past.
"It's obviously disappointing and there's no way to get around
that," Dungy said. "How do you get out of it? We've got to
continue to grow as a team and that's what we talked about -
continuing to zero in on the fundamental things that we've got to
do better.
"Continuing to stay together - that's always the toughest thing at
this time. You get a lot of ideas about what it's going to take
and what's wrong. They've got to continue to trust in the coaches,
continue to trust each other and continue to build on this thing."
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