The Indianapolis Colts play their third game of the week at home against the Chicago Bears, Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EST.
Last week was nothing short of an embarrassment for the Colts. Both the offense and defense failed to accomplish what they set out to do against a Green Bay Packers team that was missing their starting quarterback Jordan Love. It is the kind of loss that we will look back on at the end of the season and remember as the possibility missing that would have clinched the team’s ticket to the postseason in what was supposed to be a very winnable game. Instead, the Colts are stuck in an 0-2 hole that they’ll have to struggle to get out of. And if Indy falls to 0-3 after today, well, I’m a pretty patient person and honestly, this season is about the development of Anthony Richardson and far less about competition. But even if that’s true, 0-3, considering where this team was a season ago and how they’ve lost games so far – well, I’m a patient person and the season is still very young even after three games, but 0-3 is almost always insurmountable and with the team they’ve built that hasn’t had any major injuries to blame so far (DeForest Buckner got injured after most of the damage had already been done a week ago, you can’t really blame that), 0-3 with back-to-back losses to quarterbacks who entered their games with the Colts with 617 total yards, 0 touchdowns, 5 interceptions and a 2-3 win-loss record is inexcusable.
To win this game, the Indianapolis Colts will need to do two things they still have to prove in 2024: 1. Force punts on defense and 2. Sustain drives before converting them into points on offense. This analysis is so simple a child could deliver it, but this season it has often seemed like the Colts run defense is really a bunch of little kids facing the grown men of this week’s opponent. Offensively, they will need to take advantage of Josh Downs’ return to the lineup and rely on his ability to win quickly to get Richardson some easy, high-percentage completions that will move the chains and hopefully find their rhythm, because right now they look like that one guy at a concert who clearly has no idea he’s clapping along at completely the wrong time.
I wish I had better news for you, but this team was bad in a completely unexpected way. We all expected the secondary to be terrible, and after the first two weeks of the season, I would love for a team to even feel like they had to pass against this Indy defense.
But I guess I should be careful what I wish for.
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This is your open thread for week three, so stick around, chat, celebrate, commiserate, and argue in the comments! Get creative (within reason)!
Let’s go, Colts!
