Indianapolis vs Tennessee | NFL Expert Prediction

The Indianapolis Colts are one of the surprise winless teams in the NFL this season and probably will be without starting quarterback Carson Wentz on Sunday when they visit the AFC South rival Tennessee Titans, who are favored on the NFL odds.

How to Bet Colts at Titans NFL Odds & TV Info

When: Sunday, 1 PM ET
Where: Nissan Stadium
TV: CBS
Radio: http://www.siriusxm.com/nfl
Stream Option: NFLSUNDAYTICKET.TV
Opening NFL Lines: Titans -5 (total 48)

Series history

The Titans and Colts have played 53 all-time games, including playoffs. The Colts lead the series 35-18. They have split the series in each of the past two seasons. The one in Nashville last year was a 34-17 Colts victory. Philip Rivers threw for 308 yards and a touchdown, and Nyheim Hines scored twice. Rivers is now retired. The Colts outgained Tennessee 430-294, though Derrick Henry ran for 103 yards. Indianapolis is 14-5 at Nissan Stadium.

Why Bet on Indianapolis?

The Colts (0-2) lost last week 27-24 at home to the Rams and also lost QB Carson Wentz to two sprained ankles – yes, two. Wentz completed 20-of-31 passes for 247 yards, a touchdown and an interception before exiting in the fourth quarter. Wentz also rushed 5 times for an additional 37 yards. He was on the sideline for the Colts’ final two drives.

Wentz has a low ankle sprain in his left ankle and a worse high ankle sprain in his right ankle. It’s unlikely that Wentz plays this week. Even if he does, the Colts can’t afford to give up six sacks and 21 quarterback hits the way they have the past two games. Those numbers would likely be higher if Wentz wasn’t able to avoid the rush by scrambling.

Injuries have been a significant part of Wentz’s career. He has played a full season just twice in the first five years of his NFL career. Wentz missed three weeks of training camp this year after undergoing left foot surgery on Aug. 2. Second-year Jacob Eason took the majority of the first-team snaps in Wentz’s absence and Eason likely will start this week. He completed 2-of-5 passes for 25 yards and a bad interception vs. the Rams.

Wide receiver Zach Pascal tallied five receptions for 38 yards and one touchdown vs. the Rams, his second consecutive game with a receiving touchdown. Dating back to last season, he has now scored at least one receiving touchdown in four of the last five regular season games. He currently has six touchdowns in the Colts’ last five games. Since Week 15 of 2020, Pascal leads the NFL in receiving touchdowns (six).

The Colts have had eight possessions enter the red zone this season. Three of those eight drives haven’t resulted in points, including two against the Rams that ended inside the five-yard line.

“I’m just really discouraged about our red zone play in the first two games. If we’re better in the red zone, in the first two games, it could be a different story,” Coach Frank Reich said.

The Colts under Reich (2018-20) have won four of the last six games against Tennessee, with a different starting quarterback in each of those three seasons.

Why Bet on Tennessee?

The Titans had a very unlikely 33-30 OT win in Seattle last week, rallying from down 14 in the fourth quarter. In overtime, Randy Bullock’s 36-yard field goal — his fourth field goal of the game in his first appearance in a Titans uniform — gave Tennessee its sixth consecutive overtime victory and its fourth (4-0) under head coach Mike Vrabel.

Derrick Henry totaled 237 scrimmage yards (182 rushing, 55 receiving) and three rushing touchdowns while wide receiver Julio Jones added 128 receiving yards. Henry is the fourth player in NFL history with 10 career games with at least 150 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, joining Hall of Famers Jim Brown (13 games), LaDainian Tomlinson (12) and Barry Sanders (10).

Henry’s 60-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter was his seventh career touchdown run of 60 yards or longer, placing him in a tie with Ahman Green for the fifth most in NFL history behind only Adrian Peterson (15), Brown (nine), Chris Johnson (eight) and Sanders (eight). It was the 24th career 100-yard rushing game, including regular season and playoffs, in Henry’s career.

Jones recorded his 59th career game with at least 100 receiving yards, tied with Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison (59 games) for the third-most such games in NFL history. Only Hall of Famers Jerry Rice (76 games) and Randy Moss (64) have more. Jones, who has 13,053 receiving yards in 137 career games, became the fastest player in NFL history to reach 13,000 receiving yards.

Ryan Tannehill completed 27-of-40 passes for 347 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions in the comeback win. He had a six-yard touchdown to Jones called back on a questionable out-of-bounds call. Tannehill has just one touchdown pass through two games.

The offense totaled 33 first downs at Seattle, tied for the second-highest amount in franchise history and the most since Nov. 10, 1991. The 532 total yards by the Titans (212 rushing, 320 passing) were their most since a franchise-record 607 total yards in an overtime win against Houston on Oct. 18, 2020.

At Sunday’s game, Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk will lead the franchise in posthumously adding former Oilers head coach O.A. “Bum” Phillips to the Ring of Honor at Nissan Stadium.