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Winners and losers from ‘Monday Night Football’ in Week 6

Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota on Monday Night Football

The Indianapolis Colts hit the road to take on the Tennessee Titans for an AFC South-flavored “Monday Night Football” battle in Week 6.

It was a see-saw battle early, and the Colts took a 13-9 lead into halftime. They seemed to be ready to run away with it early in the third quarter but stalled badly, allowing their rival a chance to recover. Once Tennessee regained its balance, the game was on, and the Titans rolled to victory with a tremendous second-half push.

These were the biggest winners and losers from the game.

Winner: Marcus Mariota, on one leg, has fantastic game 

It wasn’t looking great early. Mariota showed some serious rust and threw an interception that turned into seven points for the Colts. At the time, the Titans weren’t running the ball well, either, and on the other side Jacoby Brissett was dealing.

However, there are 60 minutes in the game.

Mariota, who was questionable for this game after suffering a hamstring injury a couple weeks back, was clearly hobbled. He didn’t have a single designed run called for him and only took off twice, to his credit. Instead, the young quarterback morphed into a pure pocket passer and absolutely nailed it.

Mariota finished with 306 yards on 23-of-32 passing, and his 53-yard touchdown pass to Taywan Taylor was gorgeous. It was only his fourth career 300-plus yard performance through the air.

This was certainly a performance to build upon, and we’ll be watching his progress with great interest in the weeks to come.

Loser: Colts forgot about Marlon Mack

The Kansas City Chiefs have a fine young running back named Kareem Hunt. He’s been amazing in every single game, and they feature the heck out of the rookie out of Toledo. Marlon Mack has that kind of potential. He flashed it last weekend against the San Francisco 49ers, going for 91 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries.

It looked like Mack was going to have another huge game early. He went off for 22 yards in a flash of lightning on one run but was cut down on his second attempt. Still, with two carries he was averaging nine yards per tote. You have to feed a guy like that.

It didn’t happen. Mack would not touch the ball one more time on the ground and had just two targets in the passing game. He was utterly forgotten.

For shame, Colts. For shame.

Winner: John Simon comes up with amazing pick-six

In 50 career games heading into Monday night, John Simon had never had an interception. Not only did he finally come up with one against the Titans, but he took it in for six points.

Utilizing incredible anticipation, he appeared to be in man coverage with running back DeMarco Murray as his assignment. When Mariota rocked back to fire a ball to tight end Phillip Supernaw, Simon leaped up to intercept the pass and took it to the house.

This play gave Indianapolis a 10-point lead with under two minutes gone by in the second half. After a very tight contest before halftime, suddenly the Colts had their first comfortable lead of the game. Unfortunately, thanks to some awful play calling by offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, it was all for naught.

Loser: Colts offensive play calling was a train wreck

So, let’s say you have a third-string quarterback who’s done some good things but still doesn’t know the entire playbook and struggles envisioning plays while he calls them in the pocket. Obviously the best thing to do with your young passer is let him stand in the pocket in a close game while the opposing team blitzes like crazy, right?

That seems to be the general consensus of Chuck Pagano’s coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Rod Chudzinski should be ashamed of the game he called. Jacoby Brissett, who was great early as the Colts established the run, gradually regressed as the night grew longer and the running game was consistently abandoned.

The great Frank Gore toted the rock just 10 times for 49 yards. Marlon Mack, only one of the most explosive young backs in the league, had two carries and went 18 yards with them. These two backs averaged 5.6 yards per carry but only got 12 opportunities to run.

It’s not surprising that Brissett, through no fault of his own, finished with just 212 yards on 21-of-37 passes. It was truly a reprehensible game plan, and it utterly destroyed Indy’s chance to win the game.

Winner: We have an Eric Decker sighting!

When Eric Decker signed with Tennessee this offseason, it seemed like he’d be a perfect fit. The Titans had a need at the receiver position and this is a guy who’s been extremely productive throughout his career. Through his first five games, however, Decker was extremely ineffective. He caught 16 passes for 138 yards and was generally invisible.

That all changed Monday night. Decker was huge for Mariota, who wasn’t able to run much. He converted multiple third downs and ended up catching seven passes for 88 yards on nine targets.

It was his first breakout game for the Titans, and it came at a critical moment in their season. Now at 3-3, they’re tied with the Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars atop the division and appear to be trending up after some awful play early.

Loser: Jack Doyle ball security issues

Jack Doyle didn’t have a good relationship with the football on Monday night. He dropped a pass that would have kept a drive going in the third quarter, and then on the very next drive Doyle fumbled after a nice catch. He simply did not have both hands on the ball, and Titans linebacker Avery Williams stripped him.

Then when the Colts were driving in the fourth quarter, down by a touchdown, Doyle dropped another ball that was initially ruled a fumble but was ruled incomplete upon review. It resulted in a third-and-10 on the drive, and the Colts ended up failing on a fourth-down conversion two plays later.

It’s a shame we have to highlight these mistakes, because Doyle also made a nice touchdown grab in the first quarter and caught five passes But it’s worth pointing out that his first turnover proved to be the beginning of Tennessee’s comeback, and they went on to roll. His second sealed Indy’s fate.

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