Well, that game summed up the Titans' 2010 season in a nutshell: CJ struggled to find running lanes or his old burst early on, the offense fell apart without Britt, the defense was bend-don't-break and in the end stupid mistakes snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
After starting the game with a 3 and out, the passing game looked sharp with Britt, Cook and Williams snagging bullets from Collins. The offense scored points on 4 of its first 6 drives and executed the gameplan Fisher always has against the Colts: hold the ball and keep Peyton on the sidelines. And it worked well: the Colts only managed to get the ball once in the second quarter.
The defense did a solid job getting pressure and making Peyton move around and harassing the timing of plays as best they could. They didn't get many sacks to show for it, but Manning is the king of avoiding pressure. Outside of McCourty getting torched on the TD pass by Garcon and a few mind-numbing mistakes that resulted in free first downs, the defense performed as well as you can expect with a D-line that features several street free agents and practice squad guys.
The turning point was the groin injury to Kenny Britt. Once Britt left the game the offense fell apart. All of the sudden David Stewart couldn't even slow Mathis down, and the poor protection resulted in 4 straight punts and a measly 26 yards gained in the fourth quarter.
Despite all of that this team still had a golden opportunity to win the game after Michael Griffin recovered a Dominic Rhodes fumble and returned it to the doorstep of field goal range.
While it may be a new year, this is the 2010 Titans. So naturally there was a miscue between undrafted free agent/practice squad center Kevin Matthews and Kerry Collins. Peyton picks-up a few first down and we're left to officially start the countdown until a decision is made on the future of Jeff Fisher, Vince Young and several other core members of Tennessee Titans roster.
Side note: Given how good Jared Cook looked sacking Kerry Collins, maybe he was destined to be a DE... seriously though it's criminal how his talent has been wasted outside of the past month. He better be the starter in week 1 next year.
BONUS: The early guesses I've seen are that we'll be somewhere around the 8th-12th pick in the draft.