Insider: What Zaire Franklin stopping Derrick Henry on fourth-and-1 means about the Colts

INDIANAPOLIS — Fourth down. A yard to go.

Fourth quarter, and a chance for the Titans to take a lead against a Colts team that had come up short against its hated rivals five times in a row, unable to match Tennessee’s brand of physicality and resilience, its penchant for capitalizing on every Colts mistake.

Everybody in Lucas Oil Stadium knew where the ball was going.

To Derrick Henry, Tennessee’s biggest star, a frequent Colts tormentor for the past couple of seasons. For the past couple of years, that formula has almost always worked in Indianapolis.

But these aren’t the Colts the Titans thought they knew.

“However the watchers or listeners feel about how we’re playing, they can make their own opinion,” linebacker E.J. Speed said. “But I feel like we’re the most physical team in the league.”

The Colts lined up in a six-man defensive front. The ball was snapped, Henry took the handoff and a couple steps to the right, then planted his foot and aimed for what looked like an open hole.

A hole that was already closing when Henry made his cut.

Playing an inside leverage, Indianapolis defensive tackle DeForest Buckner shoved the Titans tackle inside, dispatched him with ease and then fired into the 6-3, 247-pound Henry, hitting the Tennessee running back low.

Behind Buckner, a charging Zaire Franklin burst into the hole and hit Henry.

Hard.

Henry dropped.

Eight minutes remained in the game, but for all intents and purposes, Indianapolis had taken control of a game they’d win 23-16, a game that serves as notice these Colts are no longer pushovers.

“We know what they like to do in those situations,” Franklin said. “They’re going to think players, not plays. We knew they were going to give it to 22. One on one in the hole with supposedly the best running back in the league and I won, so what’s that make me?”

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Franklin has become the soul of this Colts defense, a relentless, driving presence, impossible to block, impossible to subdue, impossible to ignore.

Ferocious at the point of attack, Franklin racked up 12 tackles against Tennessee on Sunday, bringing his season total to 69. The way he’s going, the sixth-year veteran could break the 100-tackle mark by Halloween.

But it’s not just about the tackles.

It’s the way Franklin plays, fighting until the whistle blows, refusing to give an inch, taking it to his opponent but never crossing a line.

“For every NFL player I piss off, I make five friends out there that actually respect how I play,” Franklin said. “When I’m out there, as a defense, I’m stingy. I don’t want to give you nothing. You’re going to have to earn everything. It’s just the mentality I play with, and I think it’s contagious throughout our team.”

The results speak for themselves.

Five games into the season, a Colts team few expected to make noise is 3-2, a record built by going to the middle of the ring against the NFL’s most physical teams and punching them in the mouth for 12 rounds. For years, Baltimore and Tennessee, along with Pittsburgh, have built reputations for being the NFL’s most physical teams, but the Colts have beaten the Ravens and Titans now by brawling with them.

“Coming into this year, the mindset, the culture that we wanted to establish, that (head coach) Shane (Steichen) wanted to establish from the start. … Everybody’s feeding off of that energy,” Buckner said. “You just see guys fighting a little bit more.”

On both sides of the ball.

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Franklin and Buckner lead an overpowering front seven that have dominated the line of scrimmage for the most part this season, allowing the Colts to make up for the troubles of a young secondary that gave up 140 yards to Titans receiver DeAndre Hopkins on Sunday.

But the Indianapolis offense can be just as gritty, just as bruising.

Vrabel’s Tennessee defenses have always been tough up front, and the Titans marched into Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday with the NFL’s best defense against the run, giving up just 2.89 yards per carry through their first four games.

The Colts offensive line overpowered them.

Forget about the absence of Tennessee nose tackle Teair Tart; Indianapolis didn’t have its emerging left tackle, Bernhard Raimann, and more to the point, tough teams find a way to overcome absences.

Indianapolis kept blowing holes in the Titans front, then hitting Tennessee with a back, Zack Moss, whose bruising style and no-nonsense mentality matches this Colts team. With Jonathan Taylor still only available for spot duty after rehabilitating his ankle for most of the offseason, Moss ripped off 165 yards on 23 carries, including a 56-yard touchdown and a gritty, tough 3-yard score.

The kind of game Henry is used to having against Indianapolis.

The kind of game that once gave the Colts offensive line its nasty reputation, back before the collapse of the 2022 season eroded that trust. The way Indianapolis overpowered Tennessee on Sunday, the way the Colts are playing up front under Steichen, it might be time to start thinking of the Colts offensive line as maulers again.

“When you have guys up front like we have, it’s not, ‘Hey, let’s just run this play,’” Taylor said. “It’s, ‘No, hey, let’s go run this play, let’s dominate everybody that’s across from us, and let’s go score.'’”

When the Colts signed Taylor to a lucrative three-year extension Saturday, Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay said he told Steichen that Indianapolis needed to score at least 30 points a game to win, needed to be the kind of offense that can run past anybody, and admittedly, Steichen’s ultimate goal is to build one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL.

Indianapolis might get there in the future. If the Colts can get Anthony Richardson healthy — he likely suffered a sprained AC joint in his throwing shoulder against Tennessee — the rookie has shown signs the past two weeks that his powerful right arm can throw over the tops of defenses, the way Steichen would like to play.

But in the meantime, as a resilient Colts team battles through injuries to its starting quarterback, this team has proven it can win games in another way Steichen values deeply.

By being relentless.

By playing the way Franklin does, attacking and striking and pushing teams to the brink.

By being one of the most physical teams in the league, a team that’s right at home in the middle of the ring, trading haymakers until the bell.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts beating expectations by being one of NFL's most physical teams