Early-season struggles for the Indianapolis Colts?
Indianapolis headed to Orchard Park in Western New York Sunday as one of the favorites to land in Santa Clara for Super Bowl 50 in February. Unfortunately, Chuck Pagano and company left the field against Buffalo with many more questions than answers. More importantly, the team exited stage left with a 0-1 record on the season. And it wasn’t pretty.
Falling down 24-0 in the third quarter, Andrew Luck and company simply could match up against what was a dominating Bills defense. The former top pick completed 26-of-49 passes for 243 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in the 27-14 loss. Furthering the Colts struggles on offense, their running backs picked up a total of 44 yards on 13 attempts. Without any type of balance on offense, this is going to be a major issue for Indianapolis on offense. As we have seen in the past, a lack of balance on that side of the ball has led to Luck showing a tendency to throw interceptions. That’s one of the reasons the team signed Frank Gore in the offseason.
Defensively, it wasn’t a whole heck of a lot better. Tyrod Taylor was not hit a single time in the game, enabling the inexperienced quarterback to throw from a clean pocket. That’s one of the primary reasons he started the game 13-of-15 passing, including a 51-yard touchdown strike to Percy Harvin in the first quarter. Without any resemblance of a pass rush, the Colts pass defense will leave a whole heck of a lot to be desired. More so than the team’s sluggish offensive performance on Sunday, that has to be a larger concern.