NASHVILLE – As the celebrations died down in the moments following Michael Pittman Jr.'s go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, Colts head coach Shane Steichen delivered a mission to his defense.
It was time to play complementary football, Steichen emphasized. If the Colts were going to beat the Tennessee Titans, it was going to take at least one stop.
The Colts' defense got three stops, smothering Tennessee's veteran receivers and securing a 20-17 win over the Titans on Sunday at Nissan Stadium.
"The game of football keeps you humble," cornerback Kenny Moore II said. "We've been through a lot this year already. Just being able to make that count late in the game, earning it in (when they passed) in general — it puts a badge of honor on your shoulders. Because for them to win the game, they gotta try to pass it through the secondary. So when they can't do that, it's everything you want. That's what you dream of."
Moore and fellow cornerbacks Jaylon Jones and Sam Womack III were targeted seven times on the Titans' final three drives as the Colts nursed a three-point lead late in the fourth quarter. Those three cornerbacks allowed just two receptions for 11 yards; Womack forced a pair of incompletions while Jones' tight coverage generated another.
And the Titans receivers who were targeted on those throws – DeAndre Hopkins, Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd – entered Week 6 having combined for 361 games, 23,083 yards and 147 touchdowns in their careers. Those veterans had made plenty of game-shifting, clutch receptions in the NFL.
The Colts didn't let them make any of those plays on Sunday.
"They were all over," Steichen said of his team's cornerbacks. "They were playing aggressive with tight man coverage on a lot of those situations and made big time plays. Credit to those guys. They put in the work during the week. Ridley's a hell of a player, we knew that going in, and they got some talented weapons over there. And credit to those guys, I mean, shoot, they had a hell of a game. Defense played a hell of a game. It was great."
Ridley, notably, finished Sunday with no catches on eight targets. He became only the 13th player since 1993 to have no catches on at least eight targets in a single game. Levis, meanwhile, completed 16 of 27 passes for 95 yards, making the fourth time in Colts history they've held an opposing quarterback to under 100 yards on 25 or more attempts:
| QB | Team | Year | Pass attempts | Pass yards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Will Levis | TEN | 2024 | 27 | 95 |
| Charlie Whitehurst | TEN | 2014 | 28 | 72 |
| Norm Snead | WAS | 1961 | 32 | 91 |
| Charlie Conerly | NYG | 1954 | 25 | 65 |
The Titans had trouble moving the ball through the air entering Week 6, but this wasn't just the Colts' secondary feasting on a struggling opponent. The Colts' secondary – Moore, Jones, Womack, Julian Blackmon (who picked off Levis in the fourth quarter) and Nick Cross – dominated, especially as the game went on and the Titans needed to throw the ball to win.
"Jaylon, he's becoming one of those guys in this league, one of those dudes you can trust over there," linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "... Sam, man, he's been taking advantage of the opportunities he's got. He's definitely been a big boost for our defense since he came in. Kenny coming back settles all that down, and Julian catching picks, it just feels right. I'm glad the secondary had a good bounce back this week but we gotta be more consistent. It's further to go for this defense."
Added Moore: "We got the right guys out there. We got the right guys."
The Colts' defense, too, on Sunday had to rebound from one of its lowest moments of 2024.
With the Titans facing a third-and-19 at the Colts' 23-yard line midway through the third quarter, Levis handed off to running back Tony Pollard – the kind of play-it-safe call teams will go with on third-and-long designed to gain a few yards and lead to a field goal attempt. Instead, Pollard broke several tackles and scythed his way into the end zone for a 23-yard touchdown.
"I'm gonna be honest, I'm tired of being on people highlight tape," Franklin said. "I'm tired of that (stuff). Pollard getting that run on a third and long in the high red, like, that's bad ball on our part. That's not coaching, that's not nothing — we gotta be better than that.
"I'm proud of how the boys responded but the challenge is on myself, (Grover Stewart), Kenny leading these dues and making sure that we gonna be that type of defense every single snap for an entire game."
Tennessee's defense – which entered Week 6 top five in the NFL in several categories – was unlikely to let Sunday's game turn into the kind of high-scoring fourth quarter duel the Colts got caught in last week against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Colts were going to have to step up on defense after Pollard's touchdown.
From that point on, the Titans ran 15 plays. The Colts held them to 39 yards – 10 of which came on Tennessee's lateral-based desperate final play of the game. Steichen's challenge was met: The Colts' defense played the kind of complementary football the team needed to beat the Titans on Sunday.
Now the challenge will be to take this momentum and build on it throughout the rest of the season.
"We just gotta continue to know that we can make those plays, we can close out games and we can get those stops," defensive end Kwity Paye said.
There will come another game when the Colts need their defense to have a repeat performance of what they did in Week 6. And for the Colts to get to where they want to go in 2024, their defense will have to again be up for the challenge.
"We gotta keep stacking them — three and out, takeaway, three and out, takeaway," Moore said. "And once you do that, once you get that momentum going, that's how you create an identity."
