Colts Reacts Survey Results: Week 2 at Packers

The Colts travel to historic Lambeau Field to take on the Green Bay Packers, hoping for their first win of the 2024 season. How are you feeling, Horseshoe Faithful?

The Indianapolis Colts (0-1) (-3) travel to historic Lambeau Field to take on the also winless Green Bay Packers (0-1) after last weekend’s opener.

Despite last weekend’s loss, where Indianapolis was outpaced on both sides of the running game, averaging 3.0 yards per carry with star workhorse Jonathan Taylor while allowing an unsettling 5.3 ypc to Houston Texans veteran rusher Joe Mixon (for a Colts team that’s supposed to be consistently “winning in the trenches” I might add), 77% of the Horseshoe faithful still believe that the franchise is headed in the right direction.

The promising return debut of 2nd-year starter Anthony Richardson was likely a big reason why—after he made some truly special deep throws with his elite athleticism and arm talent that simply cannot be taught out there (and maybe only a few other NFL QBs can realistically make right now):

Cheeseheads aside, Green Bay will look a lot different without ascending young starting quarterback Jordan Love, who while is listed as officially “questionable,” is widely expected to miss Sunday’s game against Indianapolis with a sprained MCL injury.

That should only help the Colts chances of winning Sunday, as while Packers backup quarterback Malik Willis, who’s projected to start in relief of Love, presents a different offensive skill-set for the Indianapolis defense to gameplan for with his upgraded mobility to Love, he doesn’t appear to be nearly as polished as a pocket passer right now.

Love’s absence will likely be a sigh of relief for an increasingly injured depleted Colts secondary that will be missing starting cornerback JuJu Brents (knee) and safety Julian Blackmon (shoulder) in what was already a fairly thin group.

Still, this is the same Colts defense that lost to P.J. Walker, Jake Browning, and Taylor Heinicke as recently as last season. Not to mention, there’s been a long list of backup starting quarterbacks who’ve upset the Colts from Billy Volek to Brandon Weeden.

This is the NFL, where there’s a great deal of parity, so a team can’t let off the gas pedal on any given Sunday regardless of what opposing quarterback is behind center.

Still, 85% of Colts fans believe that the Colts will prove to be “road warriors” this weekend and get their first win of the 2024 regular season:

One of the big returns for the Colts could the regular season debut of 2nd-year starting slot wideout Josh Downs (ankle)—who was a full participant during Friday’s practice.

Downs was showing strong rapport with Richardson during early training camp before the high-ankle sprain which has sidelined him, and he should be a welcome return for a Colts passing game that could use his ability to provide a security safety valve over the short-to-intermediate areas of the field—especially with his knack for finding soft spots in zone coverage.

Despite only 45% of Colts fans believing that Downs would play (i.e, slightly less than a coin flip), he appears to be on target to play on Sunday—falling well within his initial 4-6 week recovery timeline, after missing Week 1.

Fingers crossed.