Week 2 Colts vs. Packers Game Thread

The Colts are on the road this week to take on the Packers in this week two match up. Get in on this open thread.

The Indianapolis Colts are on the road to take on the Green Bay Packers for their week 2 game, Sunday at 1 p.m. EST.

Last week saw our Colts lose to a Houston Texans team who dominated the game in the trenches on both sides of the ball. This week the Packers will look to do the same as they will be without starting quarterback Jordan Love (knee). In his place is former Tennessee Titan Malik Willis. Willis was traded to the Packers 20 days ago in exchange for a seventh round pick. And if you just had an alarm bell ring in your head with the realization that 20 days isn’t possibly enough to be comfortable running an offense with a new team in the NFL, well your alarm bells are working just fine. It’s not enough time.

So the Packers will no doubt try to limit the risk that Willis’ passing represents. Fortunately for the Packers they signed running back Josh Jacobs in the off season and this week a reeling Colts defense should expect a heavy dose of the 2022 NFL rushing champion.

The most dangerous aspect of Willis’ game is going to come by way of his legs. Not just his ability to scramble but to buy time, run around and let his receivers run the scramble drill and get open deep downfield- it looks a lot like backyard football and Willis has the skillset to make defending that style of play very difficult. The Colts defensive line has to do a good job maintaining rush lanes and keeping Willis bottled up. If they can force him to step up the hope is that DeForest Buckner will be healthy enough to push the pocket and force Willis into sacks and bad decisions.

For the second week in a row the Colts defensive hopes will hinge on the front seven’s ability to stop the run and rush the passer. Even though the Colts are now without CB1 Juju Brents for the remainder of the season and will be without star safety Julian Blackmon for the first time this season, on paper, the defensive backfield isn’t likely to be an issue again this week just because of the circumstances of the opposing quarterback.

Offensively the Colts hope to establish more consistent ball movement. While 60 yard bombs are a lot (and I mean an unbelievable amount) of fun, it’s tough to build an offense around them even when the quarterback is so very unique. So establishing drives in between all of the explosive plays will be paramount.

We should all hope to see Anthony Richardson begin to get on the same page with his receivers as the offense hopefully falls into a rhythm. As he and Ad Mitchell get on the same page, that pairing could be very exciting as Mitchell looked completely uncoverable in week one. While the offensive line was largely fine, the running game never got going (for several reasons and this isn’t the article for that explanation) but like the passing game, we should begin to see signs of improvement this week. On the other hand, this will just be Anthony Richardson’s second away game that he’s ever played in the NFL and it’s at Lambeau Field. We hope for progression but we should also understand that progression isn’t linear and a step back this week, while disappointing, wouldn’t be surprising.

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This is your week two open thread so hang out here, chat, celebrate, commiserate, and argue in the comments! Go wild (within reason)!