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(Photo Credit) |
Playing the Colts always presents a challenge for the defense. Peyton Manning is one of the most accurate QBs in the history of the league. They also have a pretty good running game that has the tendency to break a couple of big runs a game. Somewhere along the line Jim Schwartz figured out a way to contain their offense. They still rack up yards and score points but gone are the days of the DirecTV commercials at the Titans' expense.
Manning put up good numbers yesterday. He ended the game 28 of 42 for 312 yards and 1 TD, but the Titans kept him from hitting the home run that he does pretty much once a game. His longest completion of the day was 37 yards. The Titans secondary did a good job of keeping the Colts' receivers in front of them.
The linebackers didn't have as good of a day in coverage as I would have liked to see. There seemed to be big gaps between the linebackers and the secondary. It seemed like a little more depth from the linebackers could have cut off some of that underneath stuff Peyton was throwing.
The Titans held up pretty well against the run again yesterday. Joseph Addai had 20 carries for 81 yards. Only giving up 4.1 yards per carry limited the effectiveness of the play action. They secondary had confidence in the guys up front so they could stay back and play the pass.
The pressure on Manning was good for most of the day. Haynesworth had a huge sack that ended a drive and Kyle Vanden Bosch seemed to be in the backfield pretty much all day including the play pictured that resulted in a Cortland Finnegan INT.
This defense seems to be really coming together. They played really well against the Jaguars who feature a great rushing attack, and they only gave up 1 passing TD to Manning. It is pretty obvious to me that his unit is much better than last year's.