Tennessee Titans defense dooms them against the Indianapolis Colts

The Indianapolis Colts had lost 7-straight at home before the Tennessee Titans mercifully hand-delivered a win to the young team.

It might sound hyperbolic, but the defense looked worse in their game against the Colts today than they did in their 27-3 loss against the Cleveland Browns two weeks ago.

Despite what the score says, the Tennessee Titans had to pray for a stop and more often than not their prayers went unanswered.

First and foremost, Kristian Fulton had two brutal DPI calls that put the Colts in scoring position on one drive and helped them convert a third-and-long late in the 4th quarter. People are rewriting history now, but the honest ones will tell you that Kristian Fulton was one of the most promising cornerbacks in recent team history until he got hurt last season.

Since then his career has taken a nosedive and there is a good chance that he is going to get one last chance to prove that he shouldn't be benched in London.

Outside of Fulton, the blame goes squarely on the Tennessee Titans' defensive coaching staff. It was appalling to watch a team get punched in the mouth over and over with no answer. What makes it even more embarrassing is that it happened against a team that featured their backup quarterback, backup running back, and backup left tackle.

At one point near halftime, the Colts had 8 rushes for over 100 yards on runs exclusively up the middle. The Tennessee Titans played that game like they expected their title of "best run defense in the league" to save them instead of calling or doing anything drastically different schematically or from a playcalling standpoint.

Somehow, the Titans' defense was pitful against them while also getting almost no pressure on the quarterback. It is pretty hard to be bad at everything on defense, but Tennessee showed that it wasn't impossible.

Maybe the Titans were trying to slowly ease Kyle Philips back by only forcing the Colts to punt the ball once all game.

Speaking of the offense, it is a shame that people that didn't watch the game will use this statline against Ryan Tannehill. While he went 23 of 34 for 264 yards and a pick, it was Ryan Tannehill and DeAndre Hopkins keeping the offense afloat in the game.

Tannehill and Hopkins combined for 8 receptions and 140 yards on Sunday, and they highlighted an offense that really seemed to have a great plan and great execution. Like the Colts on the other side, sustained drives peppered with explosive plays meant that the score didn't do the performance justice.

I'm sure that the focal point of this game will shift to Fulton and Fulton alone because of his late penalty, but everyone on that defense has to answer for how a backup QB and a backup RB tortured them all day long.