Colts vs Titans: Futility Bowl preview

The Indianapolis Colts will host the Tennessee Titans for the regular season finale with the slimmest of chances to make the playoffs.

The Colts can still make the playoffs. If the Colts win, and eight other games go their way on Sunday, the Colts will miraculously win the AFC South playoffs and host a game in the Wild Card round.

This week has been full of turmoil as a floodgate of leaks come out of the Colts Complex. Head coach Chuck Pagano can only save his job if the Colts make the playoffs, something that is completely out of his control. He also never speaks with GM Ryan Grigson, who is apparently a meddling tyrant (depending on who you believe).

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But even with all of this finger pointing, the Colts still have to play a football game on Sunday. But calling this a football game might be generous. Both teams are going to be featuring backup quarterbacks. The Colts have numerous players injured (or recently placed on IR). And both teams have played an awful lot of bad football this season.

The Titans are in the running for the worst record in the NFL, and are assured another season with a top three draft pick. If the lose, they will get the first pick in the draft.

The Colts playoff odds? Such a long shot that it doesn’t really matter at this point. Win or lose, their draft status won’t change much.

Here’s what fans should be on the lookout for:

Who’s the quarterback again? Andrew Luck isn’t healed yet, Marcus Mariota has a sprained MCL, and Matt Hasselbeck has all the injuries (and Charlie Whitehurst was placed on IR this week). That means Zach Mettenberger will start for the Titans and the Colts will start either Ryan Lindley, Josh Freeman, or Stephen Morris. Lindley was simply terrible in Arizona (even with Bruce Arians coaching him), Freeman hasn’t played since 2013, and Morris has never taken a snap in the NFL. Every drop back is going to be an adventure for the Colts on Sunday.
1,000 yards. Frank Gore needs just 109 yards rushing to reach the 1,000 yard mark on the season. It would be the first time since 2007 a Colts player has rushed for over 1,000 yards (Joseph Addai did it then) and the first time someone has had over 100 yards rushing since 2012 (Vick Ballard). The Titans certainly don’t have a good defense, but they’ll be lining up to stop the run as the Colts will be featuring someone awful at QB.
Defense? The Colts offense is going to need all the help tomorrow. If they can manage more than 30 yards on a drive, it would very impressive. Luckily the Titans offense is bad too. The Colts will need short fields, turnovers, and possibly a defensive score or two if they want to win this game. Whichever team can run the ball better will likely come away with a win. This could easily be a game that ends 3-0 and everyone will feel worse for watching it.
- This is the kind of football Pagano dreams about. All running, punch the other team in the teeth, and hope you can out grit your opponent. It will be tough to watch.
Aggressiveness. There is a good chance that Pagano says “screw it” and pulls out all the stops this week. He’ll want to go out on top, and clearly hasn’t had any problem leaking stories bad mouthing the GM to the media. He might end up going for it on fourth down every time. Or he’ll be overly conservative as he’s interviewing for his next job.

While the Titans really want to lose this game and get the first pick in the draft, I doubt they go out and tank it. Just from the pure fact that Mettenberger has been with the Titans for more than a couple weeks gives them the edge in this “contest.”

At the same time, this game definitely feels like a toss up. Just a handful of plays will probably decide the outcome, but either way it is going to be a tough game to watch.

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