On Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts failed to score after halftime and lost at home to the Baltimore Ravens, 24-10. It was a tough pill to swallow against one of the top teams in the AFC.
Four days later, however, the Colts completely flipped the script, dominating the Tennessee Titans on the road, 34-17. In fact, this time around it was the Colts who held their opponent scoreless after halftime.
“It was the exact opposite,” Colts radio play-by-play voice Matt Taylor said on After Hours with Amy Lawrence. “I thought in the second half, to a certain degree against Baltimore, the Colts kind of wilted. In this second half, they made every play possible across all three units.”
The Colts actually trailed Tennessee 17-13 at halftime but outscored the Titans 21-0 in the final two quarters. Nyheim Hines finished with a career-high 115 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving), the defense limited Ryan Tannehill to 147 passing yards, and T.J. Carrie returned a blocked punt for a touchdown.
It was dominance in all three phases.
“I thought the Colts in that second half played by far their best half of the season – and they needed it,” Taylor said. “This was a huge game for the Colts. Obviously it’s prime time, it’s an AFC South game, it’s a division game – all that. But listen, going into the game, the Colts were trying to prove they were one of the best teams in the AFC. But the problem was every time they had faced a good team kind of on equal footing – or a team perceived to be better than them – they haven’t risen to the challenge.”
The Colts (6-3) lost to the Browns in Week 5 and the Ravens in Week 9, but they have now beaten the Bears in Chicago and the Titans in Tennessee.
“This was kind of a proving game for the Colts to prove they can win against a good team on the road under the lights,” Taylor said. “It’s big.” The Colts have another “proving game” upcoming, as they host Aaron Rodgers and the Packers (6-2) in Week 11. Kickoff is at 4:25 p.m. ET.