INDIANAPOLIS — Here's music to ears of fans of the Horseshoe: the Indianapolis Colts were the only team in the AFC South Division to come out victorious this past week.
The Colts, of course, defeated the Tennessee Titans, 34-26, in Nashville, while the Jacksonville Jaguars were blown out by the Oakland Raiders, 33-16, and the Houston Texans struggled on the road against the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football, falling 27-9.
Going into Week 8 action, the Texans lead the division with a 4-3 record, followed by the Colts and Titans with 3-4 records, and then the Jaguars, at 2-4.
The Titans and Jaguars match up this week on Thursday Night Football, while the Texans have a short week to prepare for a home game against the Detroit Lions. The Colts, of course, play host to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
So before the next week of action gets underway, let's take a comprehensive look around the AFC South action during Week 7 of the 2016 regular season, via the AP:
• Indianapolis Colts 34, Tennessee Titans 26
Andrew Luck threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Jack Doyle with 1:55 left to put Indianapolis ahead to stay, and the Colts rallied to beat the Tennessee Titans 34-26 Sunday for their 10th straight win against their AFC South rival.
The Colts (3-4) came in having lost two of three, including blowing a 14-point lead in an overtime loss last week at Houston. But Luck has never lost to Tennessee, and he improved to 8-0 against the Titans with yet another comeback win. He finished with 353 yards passing and three TDs, the last after Tennessee went up 23-20.
T.Y. Hilton caught seven passes for 133 yards, including a 37-yard TD . The Colts shook off 12 penalties for 131 yards in pulling out their 15th win in 16 games against Tennessee.
The Titans (3-4) saw their two-game winning streak end.
Marcus Mariota had a chance to rally the Titans, but T.Y. McGill sacked him and stripped out the ball. Robert Mathis picked it up and ran 14 yards for the clinching TD with 1:47 left and a 34-23 lead. The Colts finished with three sacks.
• Oakland Raiders 33, Jacksonville Jaguars 16
Latavius Murray scored twice in his return from turf toe, and the Oakland Raiders handled listless Jacksonville 33-16 Sunday and gave coach Jack Del Rio a victory against his former team.
Murray, who missed the past two games, finished with 59 yards on 18 carries. Michael Crabtree caught eight passes for 96 yards and a touchdown from Derek Carr, Sebastian Janikowski kicked four field goals and the Raiders played the kind of defense they've been looking for all season.
The result was the team's most complete win of the season. Oakland improved to 4-0 on the road and moved to 5-2 for the first time since 2001.
The Jaguars (2-4), meanwhile, dropped a third straight at EverBank Field and added more speculation about the future of coach Gus Bradley.
Jacksonville fell to 14-40 during Bradley's four seasons, and the latest loss was filled with poor execution on both sides of the ball and a lack of discipline down the stretch.
Del Rio had to be thrilled with the outcome, getting the franchise's first win in three trips to Jacksonville. Del Rio spent nine years coaching the Jaguars and was fired with five games remaining in the 2011 season.
Del Rio was booed while jogging onto the field with his team before the game.
The louder jeers came later — for the home team. Blake Bortles threw for 246 yards, with two interceptions and a garbage-time touchdown. Allen Robinson caught two passes for 9 yards. The Jaguars finished with 344 yards of offense — the fewest gained against the league's worst-ranked defense this season.
• Denver Broncos 27, Houston Texans 9:
The Denver Broncos ruined Brock Osweiler's homecoming Monday night, incessantly hurrying, hitting and harassing their former teammate in a 27-9 win over his Houston Texans.
Coach Gary Kubiak returned to the sideline following his second health scare in three years, and he had to like what he saw as the Broncos (5-2) snapped a two-game skid in sending the overwhelmed Texans home at 4-3.
C.J. Anderson and Devontae Booker energized Denver's sputtering ground game, both running for a touchdown. Anderson gained 107 yards on 16 carries and Booker had 83 on 17 hand-offs.
But the big story was Trevor Siemian, Peyton Manning's surprise successor, outplaying Osweiler, who was groomed to be Denver's next QB but instead bolted to Houston in free agency.
Osweiler left for bigger numbers in Texas — both in his bank account and his stat sheet — but he spent this night quickly getting rid of the ball, constantly overthrowing DeAndre Hopkins in double coverage and otherwise running for his life from Von Miller & Co.
Although he avoided sacks, Osweiler was just 22 for 41 for 131 yards with no TDs and no interceptions. Siemian was 14 of 25 for 157 yards, a TD and no interceptions.
Osweiler's fumble at his own 25-yard line was scooped up by Chris Harris Jr. on the first play of the fourth quarter. That led to Brandon McManus' chip-shot field goal that made it 24-9 and snuffed out Houston's hopes of a comeback.
Anderson scored on a 7-yard run and Siemian hit Demaryius Thomas from 4 yards out as the Broncos took a 14-6 halftime lead.
Osweiler took a couple of big shots from safeties Darian Stewart and T.J. Ward in the first quarter but the Texans led 6-0 on a pair of 43-yard field goals by Nick Novak.
Novak's 29-yarder made it 14-9, but Stewart punched the ball from running back Alfred Blue's grasp and linebacker Todd Davis plucked it out of the air. That led to Booker's 1-yard TD run.
Kubiak missed Denver's last game when doctors ordered him to take a week off after he was transported via ambulance to the hospital following Denver's last home game, on Oct. 9, with a complex migraine condition, which can mimic a stroke. Kubiak had a mini-stroke in 2013 while coaching the Texans.
Like Osweiler, this was his first game against his former team.
