NFL Week 1 is in the books and Indianapolis continues its opening week woes as the Colts lose at home 29-27 to the Houston Texans. The game was a roller coaster of emotions and there is plenty to analyze now that the game is complete. Many will criticize this game and nitpick the finer aspects of weakness in this game.
It was a winnable game that they potentially let slip away. However, this team traded punches and never flinched as they continued to grind well into the 4th quarter of this game. Are there areas that they need to clean up? Yes, more than one article can explain but this fanbase should not panic just yet. It’s early and there is plenty of time to rectify the issues, particularly in the run defense area. If they can, this team can be dangerous, especially if Anthony Richardson can stay healthy.
Let’s react to what I considered important in Indy’s preparation for Week One versus what we saw in Week One.
What We Predicted: Chemistry With Anthony Richardson
What We Saw: Still needs improvement
The biggest concern here was the minimal number of snaps between Anthony Richardson and the pass catchers on this roster. We did see some miscommunication errors among them as well as some missed throws, particularly to rookie Adonai Mitchell. Richardson had a few missed throws that sailed over the head of Adonai Mitchell, and we can debate whether they would have been touchdowns on the throws, but it sure looked like they would have been.
On the interception, it was too difficult to tell whether that was on Kylen Granson or Anthony Richardson, but it appears that Granson slipped. There were a multitude of field issues, as players were slipping on the new turf at Lucas Oil Stadium, so that may have played a part in it as well. These should get better the more snaps that they all get together as an offensive unit.
What We Predicted: Battle In The Trenches
What We Saw: Lackluster effort, especially on the run defense
The argument that was made before the contest was which team could win the battle in the trenches. We mentioned that Ballard has made a significant financial commitment on both sides of the ball and now it was time to start seeing the return on investment. From the eye test, it’s safe to say that Houston was able to win this battle this week but not completely.
The Colts offensive line was terrific in pass protection as Anthony Richardson was only sacked twice and had time to make his reads. The run protection could not find a rhythm as Jonathan Taylor only had 48 yards on 16 carries for a three-yard-per-carry average. The Texans defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage and never allowed a run over seven yards from the running backs.
On the other side of the ball, the Colts defensive line was absolutely dominated by the Texans offensive line as they allowed Joe Mixon to run all over them as he plowed his way to 159 yards on 30 carries. Of the 84 total tackles from the Colts defense, 66 of them came from the secondary which tells you that the defensive line struggled to win the line of scrimmage. The pass rush was the lone bright spot as we saw this unit put some pressure on CJ Stroud and added four sacks this week.
What We Predicted: Stopping The Houston Offense
What We Saw: Completely mismatched and overwhelmed
It was mentioned in our pregame analysis that the Colts were “running it back” with their untested youthful secondary, whereas Houston loaded up on new talent on offense. That new talent had a terrific performance this week with new arrivals Joe Mixon rushing for 159 yards and Stefon Diggs catching 6 balls for 33 yards and 2 touchdowns. Nico Collins led all Texans receivers with 6 catches for 117 yards. Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik used the one thing this Colts team could not stop and that was the speed of these players at the skill positions using zone blocking schemes to maximize their talents.
Overall, this defense (outside of the pass rush) was not good enough to win this game. It was too reliant on Anthony Richardson to continue to bail them out. The Texans were able to complete drives as well. They achieved 26 first downs and were 7/14 on third down and 2/2 on fourth down. Houston was the more dominant front this week and the Colts defense was on the field too often to have a productive day as the Texans dominated time of possession by a 2-1 clip (Houston: 40:00; Indianapolis: 20:00).
The Colts head to Green Bay next week as they look to get their first win of the season against the now Jordan Love-less Green Bay Packers.
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