Titans' First Win Comes With Plenty of Flaws and Signs of Growth

The Titans' defense and special teams carried them past Indianapolis, while a different halftime response suggested something may be changing inside the locker room.

By PAUL KUHARSKY

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans finally found a way to win a game without playing particularly well.

Defense and special teams powered a 26-20 victory over the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium, where Tennessee showed something that had been missing through five losses: Resiliency.

A week after an embarrassing loss to Houston, the Titans responded to a miserable first half with a second-half surge that gave Robert Saleh his first victory as their head coach.

The Titans ended a seven-game losing streak and an 11-game division losing streak to get to 1-5 on the season.

“When we came in the locker room at halftime, we played about as bad as I think we could offensively, [down] 13-0,” Peter Skoronski said. “And for the first time in a while, it didn't feel like ‘Here we go again.’ No one really blinked at all … and I came in here felt like I thought we might feel like that, and no one did at all. So credit to them.”

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Skoronski said the players recognized how their frustration against Houston had affected them and made a conscious effort to approach the Colts game with a one-man, one-play mentality.

A Second-Half Revival

It certainly worked as the Titans were revived after intermission, scoring on all five second-half possessions with a special teams TD wedged in.

• A 29-yard Joey Slye field goal out of a possession created with a Jeffery Simmons takeaway
• A 56-yard field goal out of a Cor’Dale Flott interception
• An 8-yard TD pass from Cam Ward to Carnell Tate after a 58-yard punt return by Chim Dike
• A Julius Chestnut punt block returned for a 14-yard score by Femi Oladejo
• A 49-yard field goal by Slye
• A 44-yard field goal after the Colts turned the ball over on downs in desperation

Tate gets his first NFL TD! 📺: @NFLonFOX https://t.co/sQ7HfdARtC

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) October 18, 2026

Saleh had challenged his team to make a play, for people to step up and win their one-on-one matchups. And while the offense got nothing bigger than a 19-yard Ward-to-Tate pass, Dike’s big punt return, Chestnut’s punt block where James Williams was right with him, and the takeaways by Hooker, Simmons and Flott all qualified.

“When you watch games every week, you see the spectacular,” Saleh said. “…To win in this league you’ve got to make plays as individuals when you’re in one-on-one situations. I thought offensively we did a few of those things.”

Beyond defense and special teams, he pointed to Tate (six catches for 70 yards), Wan’Dale Robinson (three for 22) and Ward escaping the pocket to find someone open.

Defense Makes the Plays

Amani Hooker, who started the turnovers with a pretty sideline catch of a deflected ball where he kept his toes in bounds, said he didn’t know about the Titans going 11 division games without a win.

“Knowing that stat, it feels pretty fucking good,” he said. “We just had a great week of preparation, great week of just getting ready for what they're going to do as offense, and we had a hell of a pre-snap communication. We kind of knew what they were doing.”

The defense really put the clamps on Daniel Jones and the Colts. Four of Indianapolis' five second-half drives produced just 40 net yards combined. The other produced a touchdown.

“I think just overall, didn't execute well enough in some situations,” Jones said. “I think obviously taking care of the ball is critical to sustaining those drives and finishing with points. So, I've got to do a better job with that. Overall, we’ve got to execute better.”

The Titans got Jones down six times and hit him regularly while also recording nine passes defensed after going without their two outside corners touching a ball through five games. Flott fared better with his pick and a pass defensed. The Titans scratched a healthy Alontae Taylor. It’s unclear if he was being disciplined for something or if the move was in response to his poor play.

Cor'Dale Flott gets the @Titans' 2nd INT of the game! TENvsIND on FOX/FOX One Stream on @NFLPlus https://t.co/3MY2SGycGh

— NFL (@NFL) October 18, 2026

The Same Standard After a Win

Saleh felt the Titans were growing before the loss to the Texans.

“It was a hard week, a gut-check week in my opinion,” Saleh said. “When you’re making progress, and Houston just punched us straight in the mouth, it did not feel good this week. There was a lot of really good discussions this week, real discussions and I thought our guys answered the bell completely.

"What does it do? It gives us a little bit of joy for these next 12 hours. But we’ve got to stack up these days, continue to build on the things we did well. Fix the things that we didn’t and try to give our best on Sunday against Cleveland.”

He sees dangers in how a team can react to winning and losing. When the Titans lose, he doesn’t want them to be harder on the bad things, and now that they’ve won, he doesn’t want them to be easier on the bad things either. Monday will be about telling the truth as they dissect their performance.

We'll see Sunday against the Browns in Nashville whether that honesty helps the Titans win another game, even if they don't play with the polish we'd like to see.