INDIANAPOLIS — Colts punter Rigoberto Sanchez has known Tennessee special teams coordinator John Fassel a long time. Fassel, nicknamed “Bones,” worked out Sanchez at his pro day in 2017, and by that time, Fassel had already been an NFL special teams coordinator for a decade.
Bones made Sanchez’s life miserable on Sunday.
Tennessee knocked over Sanchez on his first attempt, returned his second 58 yards and then crushed Sanchez on his third, leading to his first blocked punt since 2020 and a game-changing return for a touchdown in an ugly 26-20 loss.
“Every coordinator is really good at their job,” Sanchez said. “Bones has been around for a really long time. … He’s a wizard.”
Sanchez believes Indianapolis special teams coordinator Brian Mason is a wizard in his own right.
Mason made the leap from college to the NFL when Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen arrived in 2023, and typically, he’s provided a significant edge for the Colts in the kicking game. But Fassel clearly had something on the Colts’ punting unit.
Tennessee kept getting pressure up the middle. Titans defensive end Truman Jones nearly blocked Sanchez’s first offering, knocking Sanchez out of the air for a drive-extending penalty.
“The first one I was able to avoid,” Sanchez said. “I usually do a pretty good job of being an athlete. I can feel the pressure usually.”
Another rusher came free on Sanchez’s second punt, a 57-yard bomb that typically should result in a fair catch.
The Colts’ top gunner, Ashton Dulin, remains sidelined by an ankle injury, and the team’s two gunners were nowhere near Titans returner Chimere Dike when he caught the ball. Dike was the NFL’s All-Pro returner in 2025. The last thing he needs is space.
“Those suck,” Sanchez said. “It was a good punt. … We’ve just got to be able to cover. My job is to hold the returners, and every returner in the league is so good and dynamic. My job is to limit him from returning it like what he did.”
A tackle attempt by Sanchez slowed Dike long enough for Kapena Gushiken to make the stop, setting up Tennessee’s game-tying touchdown.
“I smoked it, but we just have to go down and cover,” Sanchez said. “I was glad I was able to slow him down, but you just don’t want to be in that position.”
The pressure on the first two punts ended up being foreshadowing for the final blow.
Indianapolis never got a handle on what the Titans were doing to get free runners in Sanchez’s face.
“It has to be (fixed),” Steichen said. “And obviously we’re going to look at that really freaking hard this week.”
Veteran Jonathan Owens is the team’s personal protector, and he acknowledged that Fassel made it hard to identify rushers.
“Good scheme rush, some late stems,” Owens said. “It’s the NFL, man, sometimes it’s going to happen. We’ve just got to correct it and keep it going.”
A “late stem” essentially means a potential blocker shifting right before the snap.
“Moving around late, trying to mess with your count,” Owens said.
The dam broke on the third one.
Tennessee running back Julius Chestnut and another Titan obliterated Sanchez, taking control of the game with one hellacious rush.
“The last one, as soon as I was going to punt the ball, they were on top of me,” Sanchez said. “All I know is I was attacking the ball, and after that, I hit the helmet.”
Initially examined for a foot injury, Sanchez ended up OK.
But the damage had been done, and a Colts' special-teams unit that is rarely the reason for a loss ended up at the center of one of the worst Indianapolis losses in a long time.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts special teams didn't fix what Titans exposed and it resulted in a game-changing blocked punt