{"id":1031224,"date":"2026-10-18T22:36:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T22:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1031224\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T22:36:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T22:36:30","slug":"titans-stage-second-half-comeback-beat-colts-26-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1031224\/","title":{"rendered":"Titans Stage Second Half Comeback, Beat Colts 26-20"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 With the Colts in control at the half here on Sunday, famed kicker Adam Vinatieri was inducted into the team&#8217;s Ring of Honor during a ceremony at midfield.<\/p>\n<p>Just as the Titans were returning to the field after intermission, Vinatieri uttered these words:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a bad day to be a Titan.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As things turned out, it was a bad day to be a Colt.<\/p>\n<p>And, it was a very good day to be a Titan.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans rallied from a halftime deficit to beat the Colts 26-20 here on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Boos filled Lucas Oil Stadium as Colts fans voiced their displeasure for how the game unfolded.<\/p>\n<p>Moments after the game, the Titans were celebrating their first win of the season.<\/p>\n<p>In the celebratory locker room, quarterback Cam Ward handed Robert Saleh the game ball for his first win as head coach of the Titans.<\/p>\n<p>It just so happened to be the 500th win of the &#8220;Titans era.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Winning in this league is relief,&#8221; Saleh said with a smile. &#8220;But it&#8217;s not about me. I&#8217;m happy for Miss Amy \u2013 I apologize to her that it took a little longer than we all wanted. The players, these kids put in so much work, and this league is hard. We&#8217;d been close on a few occasions, and to knock this one out for them, I am much more excited for them than for myself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Titans scored 20 straight points during one stretch, and after the Colts tied it, they found a way to win it despite trailing 13-0 at the half.<\/p>\n<p>Kicker Joey Slye kicked a 49-yard field goal to give the Titans a 23-20 lead with 2:03 left, and another Slye field goal accounted for the final score.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans then got a game-sealing stop at the end to win it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m proud of him,&#8221; Ward, who completed 11-of-22 passes for 102 yards in the contest, said of Saleh. &#8220;Coach Saleh, he is the same person each and every day he comes in the building. For him to get his first win in the fashion that we did, it&#8217;s awesome. We have to continue to rally around coach Saleh.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee&#8217;s defense forced three turnovers in the game, and tallied six sacks to put the team in a position to win it.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans improved to 1-5 with the win.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;d been doing the right things, working hard,&#8221; defensive end Jermaine Johnson said. &#8220;For us to be rewarded after starting 0 and 5, it feels great. This is what you do all the work for, to get that win on Sunday.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Things didn&#8217;t look great early, even after Titans safety Amani Hooker made a big play, intercepting Colts quarterback Daniel Jones while hauling in a tipped ball on the sideline.<\/p>\n<p>But the Titans couldn&#8217;t get anything going on offense, and when the Colts got the ball back, they drove 70 yards and scored on a one-yard touchdown pass from Jones to tight end Mo Alie-Cox to make it 7-0 early in the second quarter.<\/p>\n<p>The Colts extended their lead to 10-0 late in the first half on a 23-yard field goal by kicker Spencer Shrader.<\/p>\n<p>After an interception thrown by Ward, the Colts added another field goal, this one from 47 yards out, to make it 13-0 at the half. The Titans managed just three first downs and 64 yards of offense in the first half.<\/p>\n<p>Things looked pretty bleak, in fact.<\/p>\n<p>The second half looked different.<\/p>\n<p>Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, who had two sacks in the game, made a big play early in the third quarter when he forced a fumble, and then recovered it, at the Indianapolis 33-yard line.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans made it 13-3 on a 29-yard field by Slye with 13:30 left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans then created their third turnover on defense when cornerback Cor&#8217;Dale Flott intercepted Jones at Tennessee&#8217;s 11-yard line, ending a scoring threat from the Colts.<\/p>\n<p>Slye&#8217;s second field goal of the game, this one from 56 yards, made it 13-6 with 3:21 left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Then came a big punt return by kicker Chimere Dike, which set up the game-tying touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>Dike&#8217;s 58-yard return gave the Titans the ball at the Colts 23-yard line.<\/p>\n<p>On a second down play from the Indianapolis eight, Ward connected with receiver Carnell Tate for a touchdown to tie the game at 13-13 with 13:00 left.<\/p>\n<p>Then came another big play on special teams \u2013 linebacker James Williams blocked a punt, and defensive end Femi Oladejo picked it up and ran it in 14 yards for a touchdown, which gave the Titans a 20-13 lead with 10:14 left in the game.<\/p>\n<p>After the Colts capped off a long drive with a four-yard touchdown run by Jonathan Taylor to make it 20-20 with 5:32 left, the Titans found a way to win late.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a relief,&#8221; Simmons said. &#8220;The energy in that locker room \u2026 I&#8217;d been saying that dam was eventually going to break, and you have to get one before you get two. The feeling we got it, it&#8217;s big. Now we have to keep trying to stack these wins.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Titans return to action next Sunday at Nissan Stadium against the Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 With the Colts in control at the half here on Sunday, famed kicker Adam Vinatieri was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1031225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[134105,7,17420,786,6,1018,526,394,133726,2411,527],"class_list":["post-1031224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennessee-titans","tag-2026-10-18-postgame-stories-titans-at-colts","tag-football","tag-game-recap","tag-homepage-centerpiece","tag-nfl","tag-team-football-news","tag-tennessee","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-tennessee-titans-at-indianapolis-colts-2026-reg-6","tag-tennesseetitans","tag-titans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117464307011565101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1031225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}