Tennessee Titans vs Indianapolis Colts Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 12/22/24

Two disappointing AFC South squads will meet here in Week 16 as the Indianapolis Colts host the Tennessee Titans. The Titans announced this week they were benching Will Levis, so it’ll be Mason Rudolph under center. And that’s enough for me to back the underdog here. Tennessee hasn’t actually played all that bad recently, they’ve just been undone by Levis’ turnovers. Rudolph started three games earlier this year, and while the Titans went 1-2, the two losses were road games against the Lions and Bills, arguably the league’s two best teams. The only time Rudolph got to play in a spot that wasn’t near impossible, he led the Titans to a win over New England while averaging 7.3 yards per attempt with two touchdowns.

Tennessee’ ground game has actually made major strides recently with Tony Pollard playing well, so they don’t need anything spectacular out of the quarterback position. They just can’t have Levis’ meltdowns. Pollard has rushed for at least 88 yards in 6 of his past 11 games, which is pretty impressive considering the team’s record. The Colts are in a tailspin, and just suffered one of the most embarrassing losses of the season last week in Denver. They made a series of boneheaded errors, including Jonathan Taylor dropping the ball at the goal-line, to vanquish their remaining playoff hopes.

Anthony Richardson simply isn’t accurate, and it appears that isn’t going to change. He’s coming off yet another game where he completed well less than 50 percent of his passes, and his completion percentage is now at a historically low 47.0 on the year. When these two teams played earlier this year the Titans only lost by 3, and that was despite Levis throwing for just 95 yards with an interception in that one. Getting the chance to grab more than a field goal against the Colts sounds pretty sweet right now.

Titans +3.5 available at publishing.