Indianapolis Colts lead the Tennessee Titans 24-7 at halftime

Can they keep it up in the second half, though?

Tennessee Titans v Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee Titans v Indianapolis Colts | Andy Lyons/GettyImages

The Indianapolis Colts are taking on the Tennessee Titans at home in Lucas Oil Stadium in a winter white-out game that they're hoping to win as a rebound against their humiliating loss to the Denver Broncos. The Colts started off their Week 15 loss with a fantastic first half, practically dominating the Broncos. Unfortunately, the offense completely collapsed in the second half, allowing the Broncos to run away with the game.

This week, the Colts are missing two of their best players - Alec Pierce on offense, and E.J. Speed on defense - and the Titans just benched Will Levis, their starting quarterback, in favor of backup QB Mason Rudolph. So far, that's worked out to the Colts' advantage, as they have kept pressure on Rudolph and got a lead over the Titans. But can they keep it in the second half?


The Titans elected to receive, but the Colts defense quickly shut them down, forcing them to go three-and-out with DeForest Buckner in particular stepping up to stop Rudolph from running in for a first down with just one yard to go. That brought in the Colts offense, which started off with the Titans getting flagged for enroachment right away.

Jonathan Taylor, who undoubtedly will want to have a big deal to make up for his egregious mistake last week, started off with a run for one yard, and Anthony Richardson followed that up with a 10-yard pass to Michael Pittman, Jr. for a first down. Unfortunately, the AR5 experience came into play with a poor pass intended for Mo Alie-Cox that landed somewhere around his feet, and then ran for seven yards. On 3rd and 4, he vastly overthrew a pass intended for Pittman, and the Titans offense came back onto the field.

With back-to-back run plays, the Titans ended up at 3rd and 1 again, and this time, went with a pass from Rudolph to Tyler Boyd for a first down. Rookie Laiatu Latu made a big play after that, tackling Tony Pollard for a loss of one yard. On 3rd and 6, Randolph got the ball away just as the defense came in with the pressure, and connected with Calvin Ridley in the end zone for a 38-yard touchdown pass, putting the Titans up to an early 7-0 lead.

The Colts came out swinging on special teams, as Anthony Gould recovered the ball and Ashton Dulin blocked for him, resulting in a 39-yard punt return, putting the offense in excellent position. Richardson got a pass to Josh Downs for three yards, and then ran for another four yards. An off sides penalty put the Colts at 3rd and 8, and while Richardson dropped back to pass, he quickly came under pressure, and ran for seven yards. Head coach Shane Steichen opted to go for it on 4th and 1, and Taylor quickly ran it in for the first down.

Richardson then got a 15-yard pass to Alie-Cox, bringing them to the Tennessee 27-yard line and a first down. Unfortunately, his next pass -- intended for Drew Ogletree -- was intercepted by Amani Hooker.

Embarassingly for the defense, when Rudolph dropped back to pass, he fell down... and yet was still able to get himself back up and connect with Tony Pollard, who got eight yards. Two more plays from Pollard netted the Titans over 20 yards, with little resistance from the defense.

The Titans ended the first quarter in the lead, and still with the ball in Colts' territory. In the start of the second half, the Titans were 3rd and 6, and a pass from Rudolph was tipped by Mason Rudolph, leading to a 53-yard field goal attempt, which veered off to the right and was no good.

Jonathan Taylor got the Colts' offense a first down with back-to-back runs for 16 yards, with Richardson following suit for an explosive 29-yard run well into Tennessee territory. Another five yards from Taylor brought the Colts to the seven-yard line. Once again, the ball was handed off to Taylor, who gained another two yards. On the next play, Richardson ran again, following Quenton Nelson into the end zone for a touchdown, bringing the score to 7-7.

Rudolph responded with a 36-yard pass to Ridley, but as he was throwing the ball, a flag was already being thrown; the referees nailed the Titans with an illegal hands to the face, negating the pass and forcing a replay of first down.

The defense stepped it up big time, with a pass from Rudolph to Ridley getting nine yards, only for Julian Blackmon to stop him just short of the first down. The next two plays were back-to-back pass attempts, but serious pressure on Rudolph forced the Titans to go three-and-out.

Taylor ran for the offense three times in a row, picking up a first down fairly easily; not only that, but he quickly broke away on the next play and ran a whopping 65 yards for a touchdown, in which he made sure to hold tight to the ball the entire time.

The Colts were now leading by seven with just over seven minutes to go.

The Titans couldn't answer at all, with the defense absolutely dominating Tennessee, shutting them out with a rapid three-and-out than took just over one minute.

Colts runningback Trey Sermon came out for the first time, and picked up five yards. Another attempt from Sermon went nowhere, however, and the Colts were facing 3rd and 5. Richardson got into the pocket, and fired off a 39-yard pass to Adonai Mitchell for the first down.

The Titans challenged the catch, saying it should be ruled incomplete. Unfortunately for Tennessee, the referees disagreed, and the call on the field was upheld.

Sermon came out again for a short run, but a shove from Jefferey Simmons against Quenton Nelson ended up with a personal foul penalty, giving the Colts the first down again.

Two back-to-back plays from Taylor went nowhere, and the Colts had a big decision on 3rd and 9; he dropped back to throw, but seeing no one open, chose to run instead -- a good decision from the young QB, as the Colts were in field goal range, and a successful attempt from Matt Gay made it a 10-point game.

With two minutes left in the half, Rudolph came back onto the field, and immediately threw an interception to Kenny Moore II. To top it off, the Titans got hit with an illegal formation penalty, too.

The Colts offense came back onto the field with just over 30 seconds on the clock, and a pass from Richardson to Josh Downs was not only complete, but the Titans missed a tackle, and Downs ran it right in for a touchdown.

Though Richardson struggled in the first quarter, he seemed to rebound in the second. And on the whole the Colts dominated, with 24 unanswered points and stats that will have the Titans cringing.

In the first half alone, the Colts had 184 rushing yards -- Taylor alone with over 100 yards already --and 90 passing yards. Of course, given what happened last week, the question now is, can they keep their massive lead in the second half?

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