Colts chasing 4th straight win and another sweep of Titans in hopes of keeping league’s best record

Tennessee (1-6) at Indianapolis (6-1)

Sunday, 4:25 p.m. EDT, CBS

Click to Gallery

New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson (38) runs past Tennessee Titans free safety Xavier Woods (25) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) fumbles during the second half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen on the sideline during the first half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Indianapolis Colts tight end Tyler Warren (84) makes a catch for a touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Carrie Giordano)

Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor (28) runs for a touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Carrie Giordano)

BetMGM NFL Odds: Colts by 14

Against the spread: Titans 2-5; Colts 5-2

Series record: Colts lead 40-22.

Last meeting: Colts beat Titans 41-20 in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sept. 21.

Last week: Titans lost to Patriots 31-13; Colts beat Chargers 38-24.

Titans offense: overall (32), rush (31), pass (31), scoring (32).

Titans defense: overall (24), rush (29), pass (14), scoring (28).

Colts offense: overall (2), rush (7), pass (5), scoring (1).

Colts defense: overall (22), rush (6), pass (29), scoring (T-8).

Turnover differential: Titans minus-3; Colts plus-7.

QB Cam Ward. The rookie has shown progress each of the past two weeks after struggling to complete 50% of his throws the previous two games. Still, he’s thrown an interception in five straight games — a streak that started against the Colts. And this week he faces the first rematch of his NFL career, which provides a measuring stick for how much he’s learned over the first half of the season.

DTs DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart. Last week, Buckner had a big game with five tackles and two sacks. Stewart added an interception. If they play that well again, it could be a long day for the league’s worst offense and might indicate Indy’s defense is ready to take a big jump.

RB Jonathan Taylor vs. Titans run defense. Taylor has been handling opposing defenses, good or bad, all season. This is one of the league’s worst. In the first meeting with Tennessee, Taylor ran 17 times for 102 yards, had three catches for another 16 yards produced the first of his franchise-record three games with three TD runs this season. If the Titans don’t him slow down Sunday, Round 2 could be a repeat.

Titans: WR Calvin Ridley (hamstring) has missed most of the past two games and still isn’t practicing. CB L’Jarius Sneed (quadricep) was placed on injured reserve Thursday. DT Jeffery Simmons is week to week with an injured hamstring. OLB Arden Key (quadricep) has missed two straight games.

Colts: Defensive linemen Samson Ebukam (knee) and Tyquan Lewis (groin) did not practice Wednesday and their status may not be determined until closer to game time. WR Josh Downs is still trying to be cleared through the concussion protocol. Pro Bowl CB Kenny Moore II (strained Achilles tendon) returned last week after missing three games but was held out of Wednesday’s workout.

Indy has won five straight in the series and is seeking a third straight season sweep. The Colts have 13 sweeps, compared with four for the Titans, since the AFC South was created in 2002. … Tennessee won the previous five matchups, from November 2020 through October 2022. … Indy QB Anthony Richardson, the No. 4 overall draft pick in 2023, has two wins against the Titans. It’s the only team he’s beaten multiple times. … Tennessee won the first playoff game ever played in Indianapolis 19-16 in January 2000. It’s the only postseason meeting between the franchises. … Hall of Fame QB Peyton Manning played college football at Tennessee before playing his first 13 seasons with the Colts.

Tennessee is playing its fourth road game in five weeks with interim coach Mike McCoy calling the shots for the second straight game. … Ward is coming off his best game with a 73.5% completion rate and a 92.2 passer rating. He threw for 255 yards last week. … Rookie WR Chimere Dike caught four passes for 70 yards, all in the first quarter last week. It was the most yards receiving by a Titans rookie in a first quarter since Justin McCareins had 70 against Tampa Bay on Oct. 14, 2001. … Dike also leads the NFL with 1,025 all-purpose yards including a league-high 816 yards on kickoff returns. … The Titans had a season-high four sacks last week. … LB Cedric Gray has had four straight games with at least 10 tackles. … Indy has won three straight for the second time this season, holds a two-game lead in the AFC South and has a league-best six wins entering Week 8. … Indy’s plus-92 point differential and three wins by 20 or more points are both league highs. … Taylor needs two TDs to pass Hall of Fame WR Raymond Berry (68) for No. 5 on the franchise list and three rushing scores to leapfrog Hall of Fame RB Lenny Moore (63) and tie Hall of Fame RB Edgerrin James (64) for the franchise record. … Tyler Warren needs three receptions and 83 yards to post the third-highest totals by a rookie TE in franchise history (35 catches, John Mackey, 1963; 521 yards, Dwayne Allen, 2012). … QB Daniel Jones is tied with New England’s Drake Maye for the most games with ratings topping 100 this season (six). They are also the only players to throw for 200 or more yards in all seven games this season. … WR Michael Pittman Jr. has caught a TD pass in four of Indy’s past five games. … Indy’s defense is allowing 90.3 yards rushing per game and has three red zone takeaways, tied for the most in the NFL. … DE Laiatu Latu has two interceptions this season, a league high among defensive linemen. … The Colts have punted a league-low 12 times this season. Baltimore (17) has the second-fewest punts.

Keep playing Taylor. He leads the NFL in rushing scores and overall TDs (11), is third in the NFL in scrimmage yards (892) and has a favorable matchup. Plus, if the Colts are playing with the lead, they’ll continue to give him the ball.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

NEW YORK (AP) — The head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and a player for the Miami Heat were arrested Thursday along with more than 30 other people in two cases alleging sprawling criminal schemes to rake in millions by rigging sports bets and poker games involving Mafia families, authorities said.

Portland coach Chauncey Billups was charged with participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan and the Hamptons that were backed by La Cosa Nostra organized crime families. Heat guard Terry Rozier is accused in a separate scheme to concoct fraudulent bets by exploiting insider information about NBA athletes.

The indictments unsealed in New York create a massive cloud for the NBA — which opened its season this week — and show how certain types of wagers are vulnerable to massive fraud in the growing, multi-billion-dollar legal sports-betting industry. Joseph Nocella, the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York, called it “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”

“My message to the defendants who’ve been rounded up today is this: Your winning streak has ended,” Nocella said. “Your luck has run out.”

Both men face money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges and were expected to make initial court appearances later Thursday. Also charged is former NBA assistant coach and player Damon Jones, who is accused of participating in both schemes.

“The fraud is mind boggling,” FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters. “We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation.”

The alleged fraud, however, paled in comparison to the riches the athletes earned on the court. Billups, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, had about $106 million in career earnings over his 17-year career. Rozier made about $160 million in his stops in Boston, Miami and Charlotte.

Billups and Rozier have been placed on leave from their teams, according to the NBA, which said it is cooperating with authorities.

“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the NBA said in a statement.

A message seeking comment was left Thursday morning with Billups. Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a statement that his client is “not a gambler” and “looks forward to winning this fight.” Trusty said the FBI had previously said his client was not a target in the probe.

But at 6 a.m. “they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel,” Trusty said. ”It is unfortunate that instead of allowing him to self-surrender they opted for a photo op. They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case.”

Messages were left Thursday at a phone number and email address listed in public records for Jones.

The poker scheme cheated at least $7 million out of unsuspecting gamblers who were lured into rigged games with the chance to compete against former professional basketball players like Billups and Jones. The games were fixed using sophisticated cheating technology, such as altered card-shuffling machines, hidden cameras in poker chip trays, special sunglasses and even X-ray equipment built into the table to read the cards of unsuspecting players, authorities allege.

The scheme often made use of illegal poker games run by New York crime families that required them to share a portion of their proceeds with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonnano crime families, according to court papers. Members of those families, in turn, also helped commit violent acts, including assault, extortion and robbery, to ensure repayment of debts and the continued success of the operation, officials said in court documents.

Prosecutors asked a judge to detain Mafia members implicated in the case, as well as the ringleaders of the poker scheme. Prosecutors are arguing for releasing Billups and Jones but with “substantial bail conditions,” including a prohibition on any form of gambling and travel restrictions.

In the sports betting scheme, Rozier and other defendants are accused of accessing private information from NBA players or coaches that could impact a player’s performance and giving that information to others so they could place wagers. Players sometimes altered their performance or took themselves out of games early to rig prop bets — a type of wager that allows gamblers to bet on whether a player will exceed a certain statistical number, such as whether the player will finish over or under a certain total of points, rebounds or assists, according to the indictment.

In one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Charlotte Hornets in 2023, told people he was planning to leave the game early with a supposed injury, allowing gamblers to place wagers earning them tens of thousands of dollars, authorities say. That game against the New Orleans Pelicans raised eyebrows at the time. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of the game before leaving, citing a foot issue. He did not play again that season.

Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return to the game after the first quarter, with many turning to social media to say that something “shady” had happened regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.

The indictments contain the descriptions of several unnamed NBA players whose injury status and availability for certain games were the source of betting activity. Those players are not accused of any wrongdoing, and there is no indication that they would have even known what was being said about their status for those games.

Those players include LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard. Their identities are clear based on a review of corresponding injury reports surrounding games mentioned in the indictment. The indictments show that certain defendants shared information about the availability of those players in a game on March 24, 2023, involving the Portland Trail Blazers, and two games in 2023 and 2024 involving the Los Angeles Lakers.

The NBA had investigated Rozier previously. He was in uniform as the Heat played the Magic on Wednesday in Orlando, Florida, in the season opener for both teams, though he did not play in the game.

Durkin Richer reported from Washington, and Reynolds reported from Miami. Associated Press writers David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, and Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report.