Peyton Manning picks apart NFL’s worst passing defense as Colts lead Titans 21-6 at half

Manning, Colts pick apart Titans’ pass defense

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Peyton Manning and the NFL’s best offense picked apart the league’s worst pass defense as the undefeated Indianapolis Colts led winless Tennessee 28-9 after three quarters on Sunday night.

The Colts’ Tim Jennings pulled Kerry Collins’ pass out of the hands of Nate Washington at the Titans 31, and Manning hit Austin Collie with a 6-yard scoring pass with 9:53 left in the third quarter.

Indianapolis (4-0) entered the game leading the league in passing with an average of 330.3 yards. With one quarter left, Manning was 27 for 33 for 242 yards and had thrown two touchdown passes to Collie and another to Reggie Wayne.

The Titans’ defense was tied for 31st in the league, allowing opponents an average of 282.3 yards passing. Tennessee started William Hayes at end for the first time, was without cornerback Cortland Finnegan and lost cornerback Nick Harper to an arm injury during the third quarter.

Despite two Colts turnovers, the Titans could only match Manning’s touchdowns with field goals.

Indianapolis hasn’t lost a regular-season game since playing its division rival in Nashville a year ago. The Colts’ 13-game winning streak is the league’s best.

Tennessee beat the Colts in that game on its way to a 10-0 start and a wire-to-wire win for the AFC South title. Now the Titans are searching for answers as they are mired in a 0-4 start.

Manning passed Fran Tarkenton to sit alone at third on the career touchdowns passing list with 343. He passed Tarkenton with a 3-yard toss to Wayne in the corner of the end zone on fourth-and-1, giving the Colts a 7-0 lead over Tennessee with 7:28 left in the first quarter.

Brett Favre (469) and Dan Marino (420) are the only players ahead of Manning.

Manning led the Colts on two impressive touchdown drives. He was 7 for 7 on an 81-yard drive in the second quarter capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by Joseph Addai.

Indianapolis also drove 93 yards in 47 seconds just before halftime, and Manning elicited boos from the Tennessee fans when he hit Collie in the end zone.

He was also working on another milestone: to become the third player in NFL history with five consecutive 300-yard passing games to start the season. Steve Young had six consecutive 300-yard passing games in 1998, as did Kurt Warner in 2000.

The Titans had a chance to take a lead in the second quarter. Collins tried to find Justin Gage in the end zone from the 28, but it was broken up by Jacob Lacey, who was starting in place of Kelvin Hayden. Tennessee instead settled for Rob Bironas’ third field goal of the game, a 46-yarder with 1:04 left before halftime.

Keith Bulluck intercepted Manning’s pass to Wayne and returned it 23 yards to the Indianapolis 43. Tennessee went three-and-out with a few penalties, and Bironas kicked a 43-yard field goal to cut the Colts’ lead to 7-6 with 28 seconds left in the first quarter.

Colts return specialist T.J. Rushing fumbled a punt with 6:04 left in the first quarter. Ken Amato recovered for Tennessee, setting up a 49-yard field goal by Bironas.