Titans beat Colts to go 7 - 0

Vince who?  With sulky star quarterback rendered a mere afterthought, the Tennessee Titans beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-21 on Monday night running their best ever season start record to 7-0.  Indy held a 7-6 halftime lead before the Titans took over the 2nd and went on to win the game with their fundamentally sound, mistake free offense and a stifling defense.

Kerry Collins was once again measured and efficient as he passed for 193 yards and no interceptions.  Short yardage specialist LenDale White ran for two TDs and boosted his NFL leading total to 10 on the year.  On the other side of the ball, Chris Hope intercepted Peyton Manning twice and made the feared Colts offense look downright inept.  Indianapolis held a slight advantage in yardage, but Tennessee controlled the time of possession battle (34:14 to 25:46).

Tennessee also added to another impressive winning streaks—the victory represented their 10th consecutive regular season triumph dating back to last season.  That’s the longest current win streak in the NFL and the second longest in franchise history.  The Titans also ended the Colts 7 game Monday Night Football winning streak, which had been the longest current run and the third longest in NFL history.

A propos to his on field style, Titans QB was measured and mistake free in his postgame soundbite praising the Colts as he celebrated the victory:

"We're trying to get where they've been. It was a big step for us tonight I think. We obviously got off to a good start, and to get one more against a division opponent is again real big at this time of year."

Coach Jeff Fisher echoed a similar sentiment, albeit relying on a shopworn “one game at a time” cliché:

"The season's still early and there's a lot of games left. Our focus was on the Colts and trying to prepare ... to try to find a way to beat them. That was the commitment that we made this week. We're not looking ahead. We'll now look ahead to next weekend. As far as the division and all that stuff's concerned, we're just trying to win ballgames right now."

Colts coach Tony Dungy, meanwhile, sounded somewhat perplexed at his team’s 3-4 start and resigned to finishing out of the postseason hunt in his own “if and but” punctuated postgame comments:

"It's going to make it doubtful for us to win the division, but ... we'll see what the last nine games bring," If we play well and get ourselves on a streak and get going, we can be a playoff team. I think once you get in the playoffs, anything can happen as we've seen two of the last three years."

Tennessee will host Green Bay this Sunday before hitting the road for games at Chicago and Jacksonville.  Indianapolis faces a challenging back-to-back game sequence that has them entertaining Green Bay at home this Sunday before a trip to Pittsburgh the following week.