Winning in "crazy situations" has Colts believing in themselves
There were a lot of twists and turns to Sunday's game in Nashville.
The Titans jumped out to an early 17-7 lead on a pair of Derrick Henry touchdown runs, but the Colts scored 16 straight points to take the lead in the third quarter. The last six came on a blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown, but the Titans returned an interception on the two-point conversion for points of their own before the Colts thwarted another punt attempt to set up a field goal. Titans punter Ryan Stonehouse was injured on that play, which contributed to a missed extra point in the fourth quarter and helped send the game to overtime.
A Titans field goal put them up, but Colts quarterback Gardner Minshew hit Alec Pierce for 55 yards to set up a game-wining touchdown pass to Michael Pittman. The 31-28 win was the fourth in a row for the Colts and the last three have been one score games that the Colts closed out late. Linebacker E.J. Speed said that winning that way is creating a deeper sense of belief across the team.
"We proved to ourselves that we can stick together and we can come out on top no matter what situation we have. . . . Winning those close games in crazy situations, it does nothing but bring us closer," Speed said, via the team's website. "We're right here in the home stretch of this season and we're just going to keep riding the wave."
The winning streak leaves the Colts with a 7-5 record and a real shot at making the playoffs. That's a big change from where things stood at the end of October and the belief in what the team is capable of doing should be growing outside of the building as they head toward Week 14's trip to Cincinnati.
