The Indianapolis Colts suffered a tough loss to the Green Bay Packers, where throughout the game and in all phases, very little went right.
The Colts now sit at 0-2 on the season, a mark that, historically, hasn’t boded well for a team’s playoff chances.
With the dust having somewhat settled on Sunday’s contest, here are five things to know from the game:
The run defense is a major issue
Perhaps we could have made this assumption last week, but I think the hope of many was that it was just one game and things would get corrected. However, that wasn’t the case. In fact, it was worse. After giving up 213 rushing yards to Houston, the Colts gave up 261 to the Packers–including 164 yards in the first quarter alone.
The Packers threw a lot of different looks at the Colts, with all three running backs, a few receivers, and Malik Willis utilized in the run game. They also mixed things up with outside zone and gap scheme runs, and found ways to get their offensive linemen in space as well.
The Colts had no answers.
The trickle-down effect of this–as we saw last week–was that the Packers dominated the time of possession, holding the for over 40 minutes. With the offense trailing by two scores for much of the game and having limited opportunities, it puts them in a difficult spot.
There’s a lot on Anthony Richardson’s plate
As I just alluded to, the defense isn’t doing Richardson and the offense any favors with their inability to get off the field. With limited possessions and often trailing, it was difficult today for the passing game to get into any sort of rhythm—and dropped passes didn’t help.
A bright spot on offense was Jonathan Taylor, but he only had 12 carries with the Colts down by multiple scores for much of the game. So it’s not as if the Colts had an opportunity to truly lean into their run game. I also thought in that fourth quarter we saw Richardson’s ability to help will the offense down the field and at least put them in a position to have a chance to win.
Now, this isn’t to say that Richardson is off the hook–he struggled as well completing 50 percent of his throws at 6.0 yards per attempt with three interceptions. The Packers did a good job of taking away the downfield throws, and Richardson needs to show that he can put together sustained scoring drives.
But with that said, we knew coming into the season there would be growing pains for Richardson. What we thought was that he would have more consistent help around him on both sides of the ball to help take some of the playmaking burden off his shoulders.
Of the things going wrong for the Colts two games in, Richardson isn’t on that list for me.
Jonathan Taylor provides a spark
Like we said, Taylor provided the spark for the Colts offense. Although he had only 12 attempts, he rushed for 103 yards, averaging 8.6 yards per carry. He also finished second on the team in receiving with 32 yards, including a long of 18 yards–although that says more about the stat of the passing game for the Colts.
With Taylor running as well as he was, he needed more chances. One noteworthy stat from this game was that, according to Nate Atkins, the Colts ran 22 plays in the fourth quarter and Taylor wasn’t on the field for any of them. With a crucial dropped pass earlier and the Colts playing catch up having to throw the ball, I’ll guess that was the factor in this decision, but unfortunately for the Colts, that takes their most steady playmaker off the field.
Should we be concerned about Matt Gay?
Gay made his debut after missing Week 1 with a hernia injury. He was 1-for-2, missing a 50-yard attempt. Obviously, the dynamic of that final drive is different if that kick is made.
The potential concern here is that this isn’t only one game. During the preseason, Gay was 1-for-4 on field goal attempts. Last season from 50-plus yards, he was 8-for-13 overall, and if you include the preseason, he’s 0-for-3 this year.
Injury updates
Since the game has ended, we haven’t received any injury updates about DeForest Buckner or Laiatu Latu. What we know right now is that Buckner left with an ankle injury, and was seen being carted to the locker room. Laiatu Latu left with a hip injury.
