What We Learned: Colts vs Titans

Sunday’s 34-31 overtime loss to Tennessee is a game that will likely come back to haunt the Colts later on this season.

Now sitting at 3-5 and two games back from the Titans, who are 6-2, the chances of Indy winning their division are slim-to-none at this point.

Here are three things we learned after the Colts’ loss to Tennessee.

• Colts will have to deal with Wentz’s recklessness

Sunday was perhaps the worst performance the Colts have seen from quarterback Carson Wentz, who’s played some really solid football over the last month. With the game tied at 24 and just a little over a minute left, the opportunity was there for Wentz to march the Colts down the field and set up a potential game-winning touchdown or field goal, which could’ve completely changed the team’s season.

Instead, Wentz, as he did far too often with the Philadelphia Eagles last season, tried to make ‘the play’, and it wounded up being a disastrous pick-6 for the Titans. But this is what the Colts get with Wentz; a high-ceiling quarterback who can play at a Pro Bowl level while sometimes making really stupid, careless mistakes. Wentz has to stop trying to do so much on his own.

I’m not going to sit here and suggest that trading for Wentz was a mistake because I don’t think it was. That being said, Wentz’s recklessness appears to be something the team is going to have to learn to live with.

• Michael Pittman Jr.’s big season continues

Michael Pittman Jr. has easily been the Colts’ best wide receiver through eight week, and it’s not particularly close. Pittman Jr. had 10 catches for 86 yards and two touchdowns Sunday, which brings his totals to 45 catches for 594 yards and four touchdowns.

Pittman talked about wanting to be the ‘go-to’ guy in key situations for the Colts this season, and he’s delivered eight games in. We’ve seen that the second-year wideout is more than just a big-bodied target. Pittman Jr. is averaging 13.2 yards per catch and continues to show why he’ll be the Colts’ No. 1 wideout for some time.

• Colts’ run defense stifles Derrick Henry

As one of my bold predictions for Sunday’s game, I had the Colts holding Titans’ running back Derick Henry to under 100 total rushing yards. While, yes, it was eventually discovered that Henry was dealing with a significant foot injury, let’s not diminish the amount of success Indy had at holding the NFL’s leading rusher in check during the times he was on the field.

In total, the Colts held Henry to just 68 rushing yards on 28 carries. Henry only averaged 2.4 yards per carry, which is his worst in over three seasons. The game may have not ended like Indy wanted it to, but their defense deserves credit defending the run rather well on Sunday.