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Colts-Titans: What we learned
INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne made sure his 200th regular-season game meant something.
Wayne caught seven passes for 119 yards Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium and was one of four Colts players to catch touchdown passes in a 41-17 win over the struggling Tennessee Titans.
Wayne moved into the top 10 on the NFL’s all-time receiving yards list, passing Henry Ellard, and moved into seventh place in all-time pass catches. He has 1,029 catches for 13,875 yards.
“When every ball comes my way, I’m going to catch the ball,” Wayne said. “I still concentrate on every ball that comes to me in practice. I still want to be one of the best when it comes to catching the ball.”
When Wayne caught a 28-yard pass from quarterback Andrew Luck in the third quarter to give the Colts a 27-10 lead, Lucas Oil Stadium exploded with chants of “Reggie, Reggie, Reggie.”
The Colts rewarded Wayne by giving him a game ball afterward in the locker room. And he was the object of some humor by Colts coach Chuck Pagano.
“The guy is 50 years old and he’s still making plays like that,” a laughing Pagano said about his 35-year-old receiver.
“I may not have blazing speed. But I still can catch,” Wayne said.
Luck completed 29 of 41 passes for 393 yards and four touchdowns. He was intercepted once.
The victory was the ninth straight in AFC South play for the Colts (2-2), dating back to 2012.
The Titans (1-3) have lost three straight games after winning their season opener against Kansas City.
Luck destroyed the Tennessee defensive secondary by completing passes to nine receivers in an offensive formation that includes four receivers on many plays plus a back coming out of the backfield.
“I think we’re blessed with a lot of great playmakers,” Luck said.
In addition to Wayne’s seven catches, wide receiver T.Y. Hilton caught six passes for 105 yards and running back Trent Richardson caught four passes for 52 yards. Luck also threw touchdown passes to tight ends Dwayne Allen and Coby Fleener, and running back Ahmad Bradshaw.
Tennessee quarterback Charlie Whitehurst got his first start since 2011, completing 12 of 23 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown to tight end Delanie Walker. Whitehurst started in place of Jake Locker, who was out with a wrist injury.
What the Titans said:
“We’re 1 and 3, we have to take ownership of the record we have. No pointing fingers. We have to find a way to get one win … get a winning taste back into our mouths.” — Safety George Wilson
–“I’m angry. Of course I’m angry. I’m embarrassed because we can represent ourselves better than this.” — Coach Ken Whisenhunt
What the Colts said
“The guy (WR Reggie Wayne) obviously has a gift. He has instincts. He practices them over and over and over again.” — coach Chuck Pagano
–“I think he has mastered the craft of being a wide receiver. For that reason I think he’s an incredible role model for any young kid, any rookie.” — QB Andrew Luck
What we learned about the Titans:
1. Tennessee needs to patch up its passing attack. Before Sunday’s game got out of control, a fumble by Titans wide receiver Kendall Wright on a decent pass play led to a Colts touchdown. And when receiver Justin Hunter failed to catch a ball that was delivered to his fingertips by quarterback Charlie Whitehurst, the ball bounced directly into the arms of Colts safety Mike Adams.
“It’s not just the receivers we got to clean up,” said Titans wide receiver Nate Washington, who had one catch for 20 yards.
2. Tennessee’s run defense held the Colts to 105 rushing yards, an average of just 2.6 yards per carry. The Colts’ longest run of the day was 10 yards by Trent Richardson. Take away that 10-yard play and Richardson would have had 37 yards on 19 carries. Titans LBs Wesley Woodyard and Avery Williamson each had six tackles.
–QB Charlie Whitehurst completed 12-of-23 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown in his first start since 2011. His only interception was caused by wide receiver Justin Hunter allowing the ball to bounce off his hands and directly to a Colts defender. Whitehurst’s solid play may have earned another start, even if Jake Locker, the previous starter, is fully recovered from a wrist injury by next week. “I’m not even going to get into that right now,” head coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “I’m more worried about what happened today and the way we played was not good enough.”
— RB Bishop Sankey rushed four times for 25 yards and caught two passes covering 23 yards in the Titans’ 80-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter. He scored the touchdown on a 2-yard run. He finished the game with 34 yards rushing, all of that yardage coming in the third quarter. Only Whitehurst had more rushing yards for Tennessee.
— The wide receiving group of Kendall Wright, Justin Hunter and Nate Washington combined for 11 catches covering 159 yards. But there were multiple drops, including one by Washington at the goal line, a fumble by Wright and a tipped ball by Hunter that led to an interception. “We know we can make plays,” Wright said. “We just have to go out there and do it.”
What we learned about the Colts:
1. The Colts have a large stable of receivers, multiple passing targets for quarterback Andrew Luck on virtually every play. Nine Colts receivers caught passes, led by wide receiver Reggie Wayne’s seven for 119 yards and a touchdown. Four Colts receivers had at least three catches. Through four games, six different Colts have caught TD passes, led by RB Ahmad Bradshaw’s four.
2. Given the opportunity, the Colts will burn an opponent with an onside kick. Ahead 7-0, that’s what happened Sunday. Instead of kicking the ball just the required 10 yards, Colts kicker Pat McAfee sent the ball high to the right side about 20 yards downfield and it was recovered by Griff Whalen. It was a play the Colts coaches had drawn up. “If we got the look we wanted, we were going to be aggressive and go after it,” Pagano said.
— While WR Reggie Wayne moved into 10th place on the NFL all-time list for receiving yards with 13,873 yards, he is just 27 yards away from moving into ninth place and past Cris Carter. His touchdown catch was his 81st career TD catch, moving him into a tie for 22nd place.
— K Adam Vinatieri’s five PAT kicks moved him past Jason Elam and into fourth place in NFL history for career PATs. He has 676.
— DE Cory Redding got his first sack of the season when he blasted into the Titans backfield and crushed QB Charlie Whitehurst with a tackle in the second quarter on what was clearly the hardest hit of the game. The play lost nine yards for Tennessee.
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