Can you feel the excitement? Today at Lucas Oil Stadium, the Indianapolis Colts have a chance with a win and some help to make the postseason, while the Tennessee Titans could lock up the #1 pick with a loss or wait to find their draft fate with a win. Anyway, here are the players will not be part of those huge stakes:
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: OLB Trent Cole, S Winston Guy, QB Matt Hasselbeck, QB Andrew Luck, LB Sio Moore, QB Stephen Morris, OL Kelcy Quarles
TENNESSEE TITANS: S Josh Aubrey, WR Damaris Johnson, OT Taylor Lewan, QB Marcus Mariota, DE Ropati Pitoitua, CB Blidi Wreh-Wilson, WR Kendall Wright
For the Titans, Zach Mettenberger is starting, as was known when Mariota was declared out. Byron Bell starts at left tackle for Lewan. Wreh-Wilson finishes the season as a healthy inactive four straight times; the frequency and success with which teams have targeted B.W. Webb and that speaks volumes about what they think of their third-round pick. Damaris Johnson ends the season without suiting up for the Titans, so I’m deciding it was a troll move to add him before playing New England.
For the Colts, Josh Freeman gets the start at quarterback, but it’s also been reported Ryan Lindley will play. We last saw Lindley take snaps for the Arizona Cardinals; through about three quarters in last year’s playoff game in Arizona, his passer rating with no turnovers was barely higher than just spiking the ball every single play. We last saw Freeman take regular season snaps for the Minnesota Vikings in perhaps the saddest NFL game I’ve ever see, the 2013 Monday night affair against the Giants where head coach Leslie Frazier apparently threw him out there with no preparation because he was upset GM Rick Spielman added him to the roster (unless the real story is something different).
My normal preview for Week 17 is whoever cares, wins. That should be the Colts, though of course the QB situation throws the whole thing up into the air. They’re the more talented team outside of QB and are playing at home. This is about the only possible matchup where I’d say the Titans playing Mettenberger have the edge at quarterback, if only because of better familiarity. I’d still make the Colts the favorite, by the home edge or a little more than that, and the line I found (this morning, just now) was Colts -4. Sounds about right to me for what’s likely to be an ugly, dull game that leaves me questioning my existence, not just as a Titans fan but as a football fan and perhaps as a human as well.
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