Opinion: Titans are on a stress-free path to playoffs — just like a Super Bowl contender

INDIANAPOLIS – More than an hour after the Tennessee Titans’ most significant and thrilling win of this season, we were still waiting for quarterback Ryan Tannehill and running back Derrick Henry.

By we, I mean the traveling media at Lucas Oil Stadium. And it was safe to assume that they were getting medical treatment. That happens after games. This Sunday more than most, it appeared. Henry ultimately didn’t show for postgame interviews.

Eventually, Tannehill did. He was apologetic about the delay as he progressed — gingerly — to the podium and took questions, including one about how he's feeling.

“I'm sore,” he said, “but I'll be all right.”

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A happy — but beat up — bunch of Titans exited the Indianapolis Colts’ stadium Sunday, and the list of bruises included the brightest stars. Henry and Tannehill were hurt during the game and kept playing. Same for defensive linemen Jeffery Simmons and Denico Autry.

Last week’s rout of the Kansas City Chiefs was the outlier.

It was uncharacteristically simple.

Most of the Titans’ wins still resemble Sunday’s 34-31 overtime saga against the Colts — just another battle of attrition, full of momentum swings, hard shots and body blows. As receiver A.J. Brown has put it, “This was a heavyweight fight, blow for blow.” Safety Kevin Byard expanded on the same theme: “We just knew going into this game that we were going to have to trade punches.”

You can tell that the Titans respect the Colts. They see a lot of themselves in the Colts — a worthy adversary that won't give in when other teams might. Each of these teams counts on wanting it more.

Games like that can be nasty and exciting and enthralling.

Who makes a play when it matters most? Who makes a mistake? The Titans — for two years now — have made these end-game moments a specialty. Whatever you say about coach Mike Vrabel, you can't say he doesn't know how to get the most out of his players. His Titans fight. They always have. Under Vrabel, they've won more of these epics than they lose.

“We've been in these tough battles before,” Tannehill said, “and we're going to be in more.”

Takes a toll, though. It’s not easy to win the way the Titans do.

They could certainly use a bye week, but that won’t mercifully arrive on the schedule for another month. 

“It's a grind,” Vrabel said. “Guys are banged up, beat up. They find a way. I appreciate them.”

Sunday's biggest play by the Titans — and worst mistake by the Colts — was an interception caused when Carson Wentz was pressured in the end zone by Bud Dupree, who is still recovering from last season’s knee injury. And you know what Dupree did? He was knocked down on the play, got up and kept coming.

Tell me that’s not a fit for these Titans.

As much as the rest of the NFL was impressed by the Titans’ wins the past two weeks over the Bills and Chiefs, the most important result of the season to date was Sunday in Indianapolis.

Beating the Colts was about an easier route back to the playoffs. That's where the Titans expect to be, repeating as AFC South champs and hosting a game at Nissan Stadium again. It’ll take a massive collapse for that to not happen with a three-game lead (and the tiebreaker) over the Colts in the division.

We know about the Titans' toughness and resilience.

But this result — more than any to date — redefined what we’ve come to accept in recent years about the Titans’ limitations.

The book on them for years has been as follows: Reliable “B” students. Good enough to keep their scholarship, sure, but don’t look for straight A’s and extra credit.

The Titans don’t necessarily get ahead. They get by.

They’ll win a division, but they’ll need Sam Sloman (remember him?) to doink in a field goal off the upright in the final second of the final regular-season game. Seriously, how quintessentially Titans was last season’s 41-38 highwire dance in Week 17 with the four-win Texans? Henry’s 250 rushing yards, Brown’s 151 receiving yards, a blown 16-point lead in the second half and last-ditch heroism all over the place.

Can't say the hard way is boring.

That brings us back to Sunday afternoon in central Indiana.

They could have lost this game and still been in control in the AFC South.

A bona fide Super Bowl hopeful, though, wins this game. Rather than spend November and December in a pressure-packed, week-to-week joust for the division, it’ll start thinking about positioning and seeding. It also might get a chance to rest up a little, making it more likely to be able to throw its best stuff when it matters most.

These Titans are forever doing it the hard way, it seems.

Thanks to Sunday, it doesn't look like they'll have to this time.

Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.