Jeffery Simmons tells the Titans to ‘be present,’ then strips Jonathan Taylor to start the comeback at Indianapolis

Jeffery Simmons used the halftime locker room in Indianapolis to tell a winless team to stop looking at the scoreboard, then made the first play of the second half himself. The Tennessee Titans defensive tackle stripped Jonathan Taylor on the opening snap of the third quarter, recovered the ball, and finished with two sacks as Tennessee came back from 13-0 down to beat the Colts 26-20 on Sunday for its first win of the season.

Asked afterward what he said at the break, Simmons kept it short. “Be present and just dominate,” he said, adding that a team in that spot has to stay in the moment rather than think about the hole it is in. Tennessee, whose offense came into the week scoring a league-low 11.6 points per game, put up 26 points after halftime.

DT Jeffery Simmons on his message to the team at halftime pic.twitter.com/vNBRgu5kia

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) October 18, 2026

The play that flipped the afternoon

Indianapolis had dominated the first half, but on its first snap of the third quarter Simmons got a hand on the ball as Taylor carried it, knocked it free and fell on it. He had never before both caused a fumble and come up with it on a single snap, and Joey Slye turned the takeaway into a 29-yard field goal that started the rally. Simmons also dropped Daniel Jones for a 5-yard loss in the second quarter and for a 7-yard loss in the third, giving him four sacks this season.

By the end he had six tackles, a pair of sacks, two stops behind the line, the strip and the recovery, and his seven pressures matched the best on the team. No defensive tackle in the league had put together that combination of tackles, sacks, a forced fumble and a recovery in one game since Aaron Donald in September 2020. It was the fifth multi-sack game of his career.

Robert Saleh, who earned his first win as Titans head coach, called Simmons outstanding in the locker room at halftime. Cam Ward went further, saying his teammate had shown why he is the highest-paid player on the roster.

Leading a 1-5 team

Simmons said the role he played at halftime is not something he switches on for one game. “Everything I do, I do it with passion,” he said when asked about his leadership in the locker room. He also credited Oluwafemi Oladejo, who scored on a blocked punt in the fourth quarter, saying good things follow when players prepare the right way. That defense finished with six sacks and three takeaways, the first time any team had reached both numbers in a game this season.

"Everything I do, I do it with passion"

DT Jeffery Simmons on his leadership in the locker room pic.twitter.com/9pnhcnQxQD

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) October 18, 2026

The two sacks also moved him up the franchise list. Simmons now has 46 1/2 career sacks, passing Ted Washington for 10th in team history. Since the move to Tennessee in 1999, only Jevon Kearse, Jurrell Casey and Harold Landry III have more, after he passed Derrick Morgan on Sunday.

The result ended a seven-game losing streak that dated back to last season and an 11-game skid against AFC South opponents, the longest in the league. It was also the franchise’s 500th win, counting the postseason.

What comes next

The Titans (1-5) return home to face the Cleveland Browns at Nissan Stadium on Sunday, October 25, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. The matchup is in the Browns at Titans Game Center, and the full result from Indianapolis is in the Titans at Colts Game Center.