Quotes of Note: Colts on Facing Titans Again
The Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts will play for the second time in fewer than three weeks when they meet Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Colts used a dominant second half to win the first 34-17 on Nov. 12 at Nissan Stadium. That left the teams tied atop the AFC South, and each scored an overtime victory last week.
The return match is the only one on the NFL’s Week 12 schedule that includes two teams that are 7-3 or better.
Here is a roundup of what Colts players and coaches had to say about the Titans in the days leading up to the contest:
• Coach Frank Reich, on playing the Titans for the second time in 17 days: “It’s a balance. It’s a little of both. You have to change it up a little bit. You want to throw a few curveballs to keep the hitter off balance, but you have to throw your main pitch. If your fast ball is your pitch or your slider is your pitch, that’s your go-to. That’s kind of the way we’ll roll. We’ll continue to throw and run the plays that are core to us, but we’ll always try to have a few wrinkles here and there to complement those things.”
• Linebacker Darius Leonard, on the Titans’ offense: “They do what they do. Me personally, I’ve been playing them – I think this is my sixth time playing them, so they’ve been doing the same thing. I don’t think they are going to change anything up. You know what they’re going to do, they’re going to run the ball, they’re going to play-action and they’re going to do boot. That’s what they do well, and we have to stop the run. … But I don’t see them changing anything they are doing, so we have to make sure we’re sound on our side of the ball.”
• Reich, on having to play without defensive linemen DeForest Buckner and Denico Autry (both are on the COVID-19 reserve list): “It’s a good challenge for us. There is no doubt that this is the most formidable running attack that you face in the year. We have a lot of confidence in our guys that will step up. It’s 11 on one. We have good schemes, we have good players, we have good depth. So no excuses, we just get ready to play our best football game of the year.”
• Defensive end Justin Houston, on allowing Derrick Henry to rush for 100 yards in the last meeting: “I think they capitalized on our mistakes and they also have a good unit as a whole and that’s what they do. They focus on their run game. You can tell when you line up and go against them. Like I said, they capitalized on our mistakes, so we just have to play sound football, we have to communicate and make sure everybody is where they are supposed to be at.”
• Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, on Henry’s fourth-quarter prowess: “They are just going to stay committed to (the run) and we have to stay – we feel like we’re in good shape in terms of our perseverance, in terms of our discipline and we will want to take that in the game and being able to finish. We have to be disciplined at the end of the contest to make sure we’re executing the proper way.”
• Reich, on limiting Henry’s big runs in the last meeting: “I thought we played very good run defense against them the first time. Holding him to 103 yards, shoot that’s a lot of yards, but still in the flow of the game, it just felt like we were playing good defense. There is no doubt in my mind what the winning formula for this game on both sides has to be – it’s going to be who is the most physical and dominate up front on both sides of the ball? I’m quite sure that their plan is to feature Derrick Henry and to – he’s a big-time playmaker so they’ll try to get him going and that will be a good challenge for us.”
• Leonard, on Henry: “That’s my boy, man. We’re good friends. I always joke around with him – every time we play him, I’m like, ‘Bro, you’re huge.’ After the game that Thursday night, there was a picture of a one-on-one tackle, me versus him and he was huge and he made me look like a little defensive back, so I sent it to him. ‘Bro, look how small you make me look in this picture.’ We just joke around at it, just a mutual respect with each other. We look forward to it. I know that I’m going to get his A-game and he knows that I’m going to get my A-game, so it’s all about who is going to bring it and who is going to want it more. It’s a pride thing. If we beat them two times in a row, he can’t talk trash to me.”
