Indianapolis Colts Can't 'Titan' Up Schemes in Loss to Tennessee

And then there were two.

The Rams made a big upset win over the Saints today leaving the Colts and Dolphins as the only winless teams left in the NFL.

Never in a million years would I have thought it would be this bad.

The Colts just find ways to lose instead of finding them to win.

The Titans capitalized on the Colts' mistakes and dropped the Colts to 0-8 on the season with a 27-10 loss to Tennessee at LP Field in Nashville. 

Curtis Painter was intercepted twice on tipped balls and the Titans scored touchdowns on both ensuing possessions.

Mix that with a blocked punt in the first half for a touchdown and that makes up 21 of the Titans 27 points.

Take those mistakes away and the Colts get their first win of the season in an ugly game.

The Colts also made way too many penalties as well. A season-high 10 penalties for 66 yards is way too much.

The special teams penalties and the holding penalties on first down in the first half affected the Colts horribly.  The bad field position left the Colts for dead.

The Colts made a good run to make the game close in the second half after trailing 20-0 at halftime, but it wasn't enough.

The Colts defense forced the Titans to punt on their first three second-half possessions while they scored on two of their first three.

The first possession for the Colts in the second half they made some big plays, but stalled out in the red zone.  Adam Vinatieri kicked a 22-yard field goal for the first score of the game for the Colts.

On the next possession the Colts scored on a four-yard touchdown run by Donald Brown to make the score 20-10.  It looked like the Colts were going to make a good run at it.  But on the next possession Curtis Painter was intercepted by Barrett Ruud on a tipped pass.

The Titans as said earlier scored on the ensuing possession on a 14-yard pass from Matt Hasselbeck to Nate Washington.

That ended the Colts hopes at the comeback bid.

The Colts made some big plays on the next possession with Curtis Painter rushing three times for 58 yards, but the drive ended with an incomplete pass to Dallas Clark on 4th-and-goal from the three.

The Titans just killed the clock as much as possible on their next drive and punted to the Colts.  The Colts drove down the field in garbage time, but once gain the drive ended on an incomplete pass on 4th-and-goal.

That was the game.

The first 20 minutes of the game was about as ugly as they get for both teams.  The Colts showed some promise on their first drive that ended up getting halted and they were forced to punt. 

The next eight possessions all had the same result.  All ended in punts with four of them three-and-outs.

One of those punts which happened on the Colts' fifth possession of the game ended with a Pat McAfee punt out of the Colts end zone getting blocked by Patrick Bailey and Titans corner Jason McCourty recovered in the end zone for the touchdown.

It was only the third punt block of the entire NFL season.

That gave the Titans a 10-0 lead.

Their first score came on the first possession with a 51-yard Rob Bironas field goal.

There was no offensive urgency and the penalties didn't help either.

The Colts were called for eight penalties in the first half with three of them occurring on special teams that cost the Colts dearly on field position.

On the Colts' fourth possession a bad holding penalty was called on a Titans punt and it put the Colts deep in their own territory.  On the first play from scrimmage on the drive, tight end Brody Eldridge was called for holding and it brought the Colts back even further.  On the next snap, the Colts were called for a false start which brought them to 1st-and-25 before they even got to do anything.

They were pinned so far back the Colts tried to run the ball three times out of their own end zone, but got no where.

On the next possession once again the Colts were called for a holding penalty on a Titans punt.  The first play rookie Delone Carter made a 14-yard run, but the play was negated by tight end Jacob Tamme's hold. 

Like the last possession, the Colts were called for a false start and the Colts once again were trying to play deep in their own territory.  A sack on third down forced the Colts to punt out of their end zone and was capped as stated earlier as the punt block by McCourty.

Those things are why the Colts are now 0-8.  They shoot themselves in the foot every game.

The defense played great for the first 20 minutes of the first half.  After giving up the 51-yard Bironas field goal on the Titans first possession, the Colts forced the Titans to punt on four straight possessions with three of them being three-and-outs.

After the blocked punt, the Colts' defense lost effort it seemed.  They gave up big plays on the Titans' sixth possession, and a bad call by the refs in calling David Caldwell on unnecessary roughness gave the Titans an extra 15 yards that put them in field goal range. 

The Colts stopped the Titans and that set up a second 50-plus yard field goal of the game for Bironas. 

He nailed the 50-yard attempt and it gave the Titans a 13-0 lead.

The Colts eighth possession of the half ended with a Garcon tipped pass into the hands of Titans corner Michael Griffin.

The Titans were stopped on the first two plays on the drive, but made big plays after.

Hasselbeck hit his tight end for a 32-yard pass on third down which gave the Titans great field position.  The next two plays were two 10-plus yard passes to running back Javon Ringer which was caused by Colts bad tackling.

The next play was a three-yard touchdown pass from Hasselbeck to receiver Nate Washington right before the half ended.

The Colts had a good running game today with Painter leading the team with 79 yards on seven attempts.  Carter had 46 yards on nine attempts while Donald Brown had 33 yards on 10 attempts and the Colts' only touchdown.

Painter hit six different receivers today with Pierre Garcon leading the way with seven receptions for 66 yards.

Painter was 26-for-49 on the day with 250 yards and two interceptions.

Matt Hasselbeck led the Titans today with 23-for-33 for 224 yards and a touchdown.

Javon Ringer was the Titans' leading receiver and rusher for the day.

Ringer had five receptions for 42 yards receiving and 14 carries for 60 yards on the ground.

The Colts held the Titans ground game in check with Chris Johnson joining Ringer in splitting carries.  He had 14 carries himself, but only had 34 yards.

The Colts (0-8) will host the Atlanta Falcons next week in Lucas Oil Stadium at 1 p.m. on Fox.