Titans go all-in for high-stakes game in Indianapolis
Either way, the Indianapolis-Tennessee game marks the unofficial start to the AFC playoffs.
‘The whole season really comes down to this one game,’ Pro Bowl defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch said. ‘They’re the world champs and are almost unbeatable at home, so we know it’s going to be tough.’
Like the playoffs, it’s win-or-go-home.
A Tennessee victory sends the Titans to their first playoff game in the Vince Young era. An Indy win sends the Browns, who blew their chance to clinch a postseason spot last week in Cincinnati, to the playoffs for the first time since 2002. It doesn’t even matter whether the Browns win or lose.
Yes, Vanden Bosch acknowledged the Titans (9-6) understand the stakes and feel the screws tightening.
‘We do have all the pressure in the world,’ he said.
It’s understandable.
The AFC’s other playoff teams will likely tune in to find out playoff matchups, while the city of Cleveland waits and hopes Indy (13-2) continues to dominate its division.
Indianapolis has won five straight AFC South titles, 10 straight division games at home and is a perfect 5-0 against a division that heads into the weekend with more wins (40) than any other.
To the Colts, the game is insignificant. They’ve already locked up the AFC’s No. 2 seed and a first-round bye, and they may spend most of the night looking like anything but the defending Super Bowl champions ‘ much to Cleveland’s chagrin.
Peyton Manning is expected to play no more than a half, giving way to little-used backup Jim Sorgi. Pro Bowl running back Joseph Addai played a little more a quarter last week, and coach Tony Dungy has already said he will take a similar approach this week. That means Tennessee can expect a steady diet of Kenton Keith and the even more obscure Clifton Dawson.
Dungy also will try to protect his injured players for the playoffs. Right tackle Ryan Diem (knee), defensive tackle Raheem Brock (ribs) and second tight end Ben Utecht (shoulder) are all likely to sit out, and Dungy is still debating who else he’ll keep out.
To those in Cleveland, Dungy understands it’s tough.
‘When you’re in that situation, you realize you had your opportunities and to depend on other people it’s not a good feeling,’ he said, recounting the tale of how his 1998 Tampa Bay Buccaneers found out they were eliminated on a plane ride home from Cincinnati.
But the Colts aren’t in a charitable mood.
They’re intent on tuning up for the playoffs, maintaining their dominance at home, where they’ve gone 33-6 since 2003, and heading into the postseason with more momentum. Indy has won six straight since dropping back-to-back games in early November.
A victory also would put the Colts in elite company. Since 1991, only two defending champs have won 14 games ‘ the 1998 Denver Broncos and 2004 New England Patriots ‘ and both repeated as champions. Only one other defending champ won as many as 13 games during that stretch, the 1997 Green Bay Packers, who lost to Denver in the Super Bowl.
There’s also the rivalry. Tennessee won the division title in 2002, the only year Indy didn’t claim it, and the Titans have viewed Indy as their nemesis ever since.
Colts linebacker Rocky Boiman, an ex-Titan, has seen the series from both sides and considers it one of the league’s best matchups.
‘There’s been a lot of great games in this series over the last five or six years,’ Boiman said. ‘There always seems to be a lot of implications, in playoff terms. On that side (Tennessee), they see the Colts have held down the AFC South the last several years, so they’ve always been after them. I think on this side, it’s always been more about maintaining our standard here.’
Tennessee is playing for more than pride now.
Four losses in five games between Nov. 11 and Dec. 9 appeared to doom the Titans’ postseason hopes. Just a week ago, their chances still looked bleak with Cleveland closing the season at Cincinnati and home against San Francisco.
But when the Browns’ stumbled against their cross-state rivals and Tennessee survived against the Jets, the Titans suddenly found themselves in control of their own fate.
Now, to finish the push, Tennessee must win at a venue where it has lost four straight dating to 2002, and in a series in which the last three games were decided by a total of six points. Indy won 22-20 in September.
‘You get ready, you have a good week of practice, you stress improvement, you heal up, you pay attention to detail and get yourself ready to play probably the toughest game of the year,’ Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. ‘It’s a game you definitely have to win if you want to continue to play.’
Dungy believes, however, that Tennessee has one significant advantage.
‘You play it like a playoff game,’ Dungy said. ‘If you win, you play the next week. If you don’t, you go home. So there is that urgency there. We’ll be a little looser, I’m sure, because if we win, we go on; if we lose, we go on.’
And that’s precisely the message Vanden Bosch and Fisher hope to instill this week with everything on the line for Tennessee ‘ and Cleveland.
‘It’s my first winning season in seven years and my first chance to go to the playoffs, so that means more to me than anything,’ Vanden Bosch said. ‘We have to be on top of our game and be ready for their best.’