The Indianapolis Colts have finished second to the Tennessee Titans the last two years and Jim Irsay is ready for that to change.
The AFC South has been a two-team race the last two seasons. In 2020 and 2021, the division came down to the Indianapolis Colts and the Tennessee Titans.
Unfortunately for Indy, Tennessee won the division both years. Even more unfortunate for the Colts, the Titans are 3-1 against Indianapolis over that span, winning the last three matchups.
This has been tough for Indy and its fans but it has been especially tough for team owner, Jim Irsay, who opened up about Tennessee’s domination of the AFC South at the NFL owners’ meeting.
Irsay passionately expressed, “They kick our a** and they have been kicking our a**…It’s just completely unacceptable the way they’ve dominated the division over us. It just is.”
Irsay went on to give the Titans head coach, Mike Vrabel, credit and talked about how this is a fact that he wants to face head-on so that Indy can overcome it.
Jim Irsay had a "spirited" meeting with the Colts coaches & scouts after a loss to the Titans in Week 3#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/qYk4jujFD2
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 31, 2022
Irsay says Titans’ dominance over Colts is unacceptable
Not that it will make Irsay feel any better, but the two matchups were incredibly close last season, despite the teams being in two different places.
Tennessee won the first contest 25-16 and the second game in overtime 34-31. Both games were tense fights from start to finish but the Titans were able to pull them out.
That’s what separated Tennessee and the Colts last season. The Titans were able to consistently overcome obstacles and win close games to finish 12-5.
Indy, however, started the season very slow and dropped a number of tight contests throughout the year, finishing 9-8 and missing the postseason.
Although one team was the No. 1 seed in the conference and the other didn’t make the playoffs, the gap isn’t really that large. It may be even smaller by the time the season starts.
Indianapolis is returning the majority of its roster and is also adding Yannick Ngakoue and Matt Ryan. Ryan enters the division as the best quarterback in the AFC South.
If the Colts can have a great draft to address the rest of the gaps in the roster, Indianapolis has a great chance of reclaiming the AFC South next season.
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