FAST FACTS
• Last meeting: Titans 27, Colts 10, on Oct. 30, 2011, LP Field, Nashville, Tenn.
• Head-to-head series: Colts lead, 20-14.

TITANS’ TRENDS
• Offense: Johnson has four 100-yard rushing games, so he’s not been AWOL all year. Hasselbeck has completed 61 percent of his passes for 2,701 yards with 15 TDs and 10 INTs. He’s taken 15 of 19 sacks allowed. The Titans have 18 TDs passing, seven rushing and four on returns. They’ve lost just five of 14 fumbles. WRs Nate Washington and Damian Williams each have five TD catches. Washington scored twice against the Colts last time. The Titans are 22nd at 22.5 points per game.
• Defense: Despite being near bottom third in several statistics, the Titans are sixth at 19.3 points allowed. And that’s the most important statistic. Tennessee has 24 sacks, led by DT Karl Klug with six. Foes have scored 19 TDs passing, six rushing and two on returns. It’s rare that a CB is tackle leader, but third-year pro Jason McCourty has 87. The Titans are plus-5 in giveaways/takeaways with 10 INTs and 10 fumble recoveries. McCourty has a team-high two INTS.

TITANS’ LAST GAME
• Saints 22, Titans 17: Rookie QB Jake Locker drove the Titans deep into Saints territory twice in the final minutes but was unable to deliver the game-winning score. The sub for injured QB Matt Hasselbeck was sacked at the Saints’ 8 on the game’s final play. Locker completed 13-of-29 passes for 282 yards and one TD. He also ran for a score. WR Nate Washington caught six passes for 130 yards, including a 40-yard TD. Titans DT Karl Klug sacked Saints QB Drew Brees twice.

The beginning of the Indianapolis Colts season in 2011 has been so bad that it seems like it should be up for an NFL record. There are plenty of new fans that saw the Super Bowl earlier in the year and decided to become dedicated to the team this season. Little did we know that Peyton Manning(notes) single-handedly held this team together. Now, at the end of week 8, we realize that the worst moments in Indianapolis Colts’ history may be taking place right now.

The Colts have a brief history with losing

All teams have a few losing games. Previously, for many fans, the absolute worst Colt’s moment happened in 1995. Called one of the “Top 5 Hail Mary Plays” of all times, in 2010 we see a hint of what is to come in 2011 in the final play of the Steelers versus Colts game. In this loss for Indianapolis, were we watching history repeating from the 1995 AFC Championship or foreshadowing the future?

The Colts without Peyton Manning

The latest news is that Peyton Manning may still return in 2011 to his team. In the meantime, there have been plenty of pleas to the coaches from commentators about how to change the game for the better without him. For example, Pat Kirwan pleads with the Colts like a person that is begging for their life. His main objective? To explain all of the reasons that the Colts will continue to fail without Peyton Manning.

As usual, Kirwan says exactly what everything else is thinking in one of the most uplifting videos about the Colts this season. However, his early September advice fell on deaf ears. The Colts continued to lose every single game and soon included one tragic injury after another.

Eric Foster’s(notes) injury seals Colts’ fate

Before game eight, Eric Foster dislocated his ankle in a gruesome pile up on the field. Sadly, this is just one of many injuries that have had the domino effect on this team. According to the Rapid Reports for the Colts at the CBS.com website, Eric Foster’s nasty ankle accident has permanently benched him for the entire 2011 season. Recent injury reports have included 10 players and even temporarily captured Joseph Addai(notes) with a hamstring injury that took him out of the Titans game .

Week 8 and holding

When the NFL game highlights were posted for the Colts versus the Saints on October 23, they left a depressing comment next to the score. The 62-7 win for the Saints means that the Colts finished 0-7 in week 7 for the first time since 1997. Sadly, at the mid-point of a 16 week season, the eighth consecutive loss at the end of the Titans October 30 game means we can kiss hope goodbye for a 2011 Colts comeback. The only possibility we can rely on at this point is that 2012 will have us all cheering again.

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A week after their humiliating 62-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints, the Indianapolis Colts rebounded in Week 8, only losing 27-10 to the Tennessee Titans in a much-improved defensive effort.

I’ve grown weary of writing about the same old negative things after every game. It’s not that the same old negative things don’t stop happening—which I’d normally point out as a flaw in the coaching and team management—but how many times can we talk about how uninspiring Curtis Painter(notes) is (a passer rating of 50.6 in this one), how unreliable Pierre Garcon’s(notes) hands are (one of his stone-handed attempts at a reception resulted in an interception), or how incompetent the special teams are?

It gets old, doesn’t it?

This week, I’m focusing on something positive, and I thought the defense did a good job against the Titans. They only allowed 20 points—one touchdown was the result of a blocked punt that was recovered in the end zone—including just a single touchdown in the second half. Quite an improvement over last week’s game against the Saints.

A big difference in this one was that, despite the Colts falling to 0-8 in both the win-loss column and in time of possession, the defense was only out on the field for 31:27 against the Titans while suffering out there for 38:19 against the Saints. When you’re out there for nearly half a quarter less than in the week prior, you get a lot less tired, as evidenced by the defense allowing only 311 yards against Tennessee versus 557 yards allowed against New Orleans.

Another big area of improvement in the defense was in allowing only 96 rushing yards to the Titans after coughing up 236 rushing yards to the Saints. Not that it’s all that difficult to contain Chris Johnson anymore, but the Colts held him to 34 yards on 14 carries for a paltry 2.4 yards-per-carry average. Take away his long carry of 11 yards, and he’s down to 1.8 yards per carry. Nice job, defense!

Matt Hasselbeck(notes) only threw for 224 yards and one touchdown this week after Drew Brees(notes) unleashed 325 yards and 5 touchdowns on the Colts last week, so Indy’s pass defense was much improved, too. Ricardo Mathews(notes) sacked Hasselbeck once, and Painter even threw for more yards (250) than did Hasselbeck. You know our defense is doing a good job when the other team’s quarterback throws for fewer yards than Painter does.

The defense also forced 8 Titans punts by Brett Kern(notes) while Pat McAfee(notes) only punted 6 times. Thomas Morstead(notes) of the Saints only punted once last week.

The Colts defense limited Tennessee to 65 total plays (to our 77) and 16 first downs (to our 21). Last week, New Orleans ran 75 plays to our 46 and picked up 36 first downs to our 11.

So you see? There is a lot to be happy about following the Colts’ loss. While everyone else is complaining about the offense turning the ball over on downs twice while inside the red zone, you can gloat about Pat Angerer(notes) adding 7 tackles and 3 assists to his impressive season stats.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

The author is a resident of central Indiana and a long-time Colts fan. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIvie or on Facebook.

Also by this author:

Chris Johnson flops against Indianapolis Colts

Colts lose Kerry Collins; all hope is gone

Peyton Manning is useless to the Indianapolis Colts

Indianapolis Colts humiliate themselves on Sunday Night Football

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The Indianapolis Colts are now 0-7 on the season. After a lopsided 62-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints, the Colts are at a new low. In previous losses the Colts fought hard and were competitive into the fourth quarter before eventually losing the game. Against the Saints the Colts were defeated badly in every aspect of the game.

The Colts biggest problem continues to be the play of the defense. The defense is not doing a good job stopping or even slowing down anyone. The 62 points allowed is a new franchise record for the Colts and an embarrassment for all the players. The Colts had no pass rush, could not defend the pass and could not stop the run. Drew Brees(notes) looked and played about as good as a quarterback can play. Brees finished the game compelting 31 out of 35 passes for 325 yards and five touchdowns. Brees made everything look very easy against the Colts. The Saints also ran for 236 yards against the Colts.

The Colts offense could do nothing to move the ball and was only able to put up a meager seven points against a previously struggling Saints defense. They had only one drive that went anywhere and luckily put up one touchdown drive so that the team was not shut out. If there is any hope for Colts fans to take away from this game it may be the success of rookie running back Delone Carter(notes). Carter ran 10 times for 89 yards and a touchdown and showed a few great runs. Donald Brown(notes) even looked decent on a few carries. Brown had nine carries for 47 yards. The passing game was just awful though and were never able to get anything going at all. When the Colts run for 152 yards and average 6.6 yards per carry that is typically a good sign for the Colts offense.

As a Colts fan it’s discouraging to see the team get beaten so badly and put forth such a poor effort. The Colts are continuously out-coached on a weekly basis and are just not a good enough team without Peyton Manning(notes) to make up for deficiencies elsewhere.

Colts fans have to begin questioning if and when the team will win a game this season. At 0-7 the Colts are one game away from the halfway point in the season and face a challenging game against a conference opponent traveling to Tennessee next week.

Kyle Rapoza is a Featured Contributor for the Yahoo! Contributor Network and has been a lifelong fan of the Indianapolis Colts. He attended Super Bowl XLIV in Miami and follows the team closely. Follow him on Twitter @kyler11.

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The 0-6 Indianapolis Colts have struggled greatly in the first part of the season but may be getting one of their key offensive players back for their week seven matchup against the New Orleans Saints. The Colts have suffered several key injuries since the start of the season. Aside from Peyton Manning(notes) none may have a bigger effect on the team as the hamstring injury of veteran running back Joseph Addai(notes).

Several factors indicate that Addai is likely to play in the Colts week seven game in New Orleans after missing most of the last two games. This would be a big boost for a struggling Colts offense.

After Addai practiced fully on Friday the Colts local newspaper predicted that he would be available to play. Several other factors should lead fans to believe that Addai will be ready to go for Sunday night football.

On Saturday the Colts signed OT Mike Tepper to active roster and waived running back Darren Evans . This likely signals that Addai will play because the Colts would not go with just rookie Delone Carter(notes) and Donald Brown(notes) at running back. The Colts have had some injuries along the offensive line but fans should see this as a move because of Addai’s availability.

Wide Receiver Pierre Garcon also tweeted a picture of the team headed to New Orleans on the team plane and Joseph Addai is visible in the picture. Injured players often do not travel to away games with the team and this signals that there is a very good chance Addai will be available to play against the Saints.

Fans should be encouraged that Addai is likely to play but it does little to improve the Colts chances of winning the game. Colts fans all understand Addai’s importance to the offense and should be excited that they will appear to have one of their key players back and ready to play. The Colts are desperate for a win and are still outmatched against a good Saints team. Hopefully Addai can help the Colts offense stay competitive against the Saints and keep them in the game.

Kyle Rapoza is a Featured Contributor for the Yahoo! Contributor Network and has been a lifelong fan of the Indianapolis Colts. He attended Super Bowl XLIV in Miami and follows the team closely. Follow him on Twitter @kyler11.

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