The 2-3 Indianapolis Colts are back on the road this week for a matchup with the 1-3 Tennessee Titans, who are coming off an early bye.
Must-win games in Week 6 of a long NFL season are very rare, so perhaps this game doesn’t reach that magnitude for the Colts, but it’s an important one. A loss and the Colts are not only 2-4, but also 0-3 in the division and 1-3 within the AFC.
As we all know, the game of football isn’t played on spread sheets, but as we look ahead to the upcoming matchup, certain stats can tell us where the advantage for each team may lie.
Of course, with all of the information and stats that are out there, it cane be really easy to get bogged down in the data.
So, in an effort to boil things down to what do we need to know coming into this game, I went back to the basics. How good is each team in the run game? How efficiently do they move the ball through the air? Do they pressure the quarterback consistently? What about third downs? And what about the turnover battle?
With help from Team Rankings and Pro Football Reference, here is how the Colts matchup stat-wise in a few key categories with the Titans:
| IND | TEN | |
| Points per game | 23.8 (13th) | 19.8 (20th) |
| Points per game allowed | 24.4 (25th) | 22.5 (15th) |
| Yards per rush | 5.0 (8th) | 4.2 (19th) |
| Yards per rush allowed | 4.5 (17th) | 4.2 (10th) |
| Yards per pass | 8.1 (5th) | 6.0 (27th) |
| Yards per pass allowed | 7.9 (31st) | 5.0 (2nd) |
| Pressure rate on QB | 21.0% (21st) | 17.9% (25th) |
| Pressure rate allowed | 18.7% (8th) | 25.7% (25th) |
| Turnover differential | +1 (T11) | -7 (T31) |
| Third down conversion rate | 41.6% (12th) | 27.6% (29th) |
| Defensive third down conversion rate | 46.6% (28th) | 27.5% (2nd) |