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- Mar 19, 2019
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INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts know what to expect out of the Tennessee Titans’ defense on Sunday.
And that’s the unexpected.
The Titans and defensive coordinator Dean Pees threw the kitchen sink at the Cleveland Browns last Sunday in their 43-13 Week 1 victory, and Colts head coach Frank Reich is very well aware of what his offense is standing up against in this Sunday’s Week 2 contest at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
“Their defense ranks high on the exotic scale,” Reich said Wednesday. “Sometimes offensive coordinators refer to it as a ‘Rolodex’-kind of defense, meaning he’s calling something different on every play. ‘Let’s just dial up the next card, the next call.’ And they do it well. And so that’s part of their DNA; that’s who they’ve been.”
Reich and the Colts were able to have their share of success in their two wins against the Titans last year, averaging more than 35 points per game in those two contests. But Tennessee has all sorts of momentum after shutting down Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham Jr. and the much-hyped Cleveland Browns offense on Sunday — a unit that certainly made its plays against the Colts at times during the two teams’ joint training camp practices last month at Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Ind.
But last Sunday against the Titans, Mayfield was picked off three times (including a pick-six late in the fourth quarter) and sacked on five occasions (including for a safety late in the second quarter).
“I think the Cleveland offense looked pretty good against us, and (we got) a chance to see those guys up close,” Reich said. “So that’s the thing with that kind of a defense; when there’s some momentum behind it, when you feel like you get behind — and I don’t know what was going through their quarterback’s mind and so on and so forth — but you gain momentum sometimes as a defense when you’re making calls and switching it up and bringing pressure and getting home, and I think that’s what happened on Sunday.”