Game Overview ::
By mike johnson >>
- Colts QB Daniel Jones is playing the best football of his career and RB Jonathan Taylor leads the league in rushing through three weeks.
- Indianapolis rookie tight end Tyler Warren leads the team in targets but has yet to have a breakout performance.
- The Colts have shown a much improved defense this season, but this should be their toughest test to date.
- The status of star Rams wide receiver Davante Adams should be closely monitored heading into Sunday after he missed the first two practices of the week.
- Second year running back Blake Corum has begun to take a larger share of the backfield workload in recent weeks and done well with his opportunities.
How indianapolis Will Try To Win ::
The Colts are rolling to start the season and head coach Shane Steichen has been vindicated after catching a lot of heat in the preseason for choosing Daniel Jones as his starting quarterback over former high draft pick Anthony Richardson. The Indianapolis offense is led by Jones playing at the highest level of his career, and Jonathan Taylor is also showing that he is squarely in his prime and a top-5 running back talent in the league. The Indianapolis offensive line is performing well this season as the improved offensive dynamic puts less stress on them and the Colts quietly have one of the deeper wide receiver rooms in the league, along with an ascending young tight end in Tyler Warren. Any thoughts of the Colts being a fluke after Week 1 because they had played the Dolphins should have been put to rest after they dropped 29 on the Broncos highly respected defense and went into Tennessee and casually hung 41 points on them. Only Detroit and Baltimore have scored as many points as Indianapolis through three weeks, while the Colts average a whopping 6.6 yards per play to lead the league. Make no mistake, they are for real.
This week, they face another worthy opponent in the Rams, whose defense was above average in 2024 and appears solid once again this season. However, looking deeper at the schedule, the first two weeks they played the struggling offenses of the Texans and Titans. This was followed by Week 3, when they were easily handling the Eagles in the first half as Philly played their usual conservative and vanilla style of offense. However, when the Eagles opened things up and were aggressive in the second half, they were able to light them up as their offense had 20 second half points. Philadelphia had 260 yards of total offense in the second half of Week 3 after only 28 yards in the first half. This is notable because the Rams had been giving up less than 260 yards per *game* to opposing offenses prior to that second half meltdown. Steichen was formerly the Eagles offensive coordinator and is likely very familiar with the tendencies of his former boss, Philly head coach Nick Sirianni. He should be able to look at the film from last week and pull some things that he can exploit.
As for how the Colts will look to attack the Rams, they have the 9th lowest pass rate over expectation (PROE) in the league and are playing at the 5th slowest raw pace of play (seconds per snap). Their offensive efficiency has driven their elite scoring and per play production to date, despite the aforementioned pace and play-calling statistics. The Eagles second half offensive success, however, was primarily driven by their moving to no huddle, up tempo play calling. It will be interesting to see if/when the Colts dive into that approach, as they likely will need to at some point. Either way, the Colts offense is going to be primarily driven by Taylor in a workhorse role, with him likely to see 23 to 28 touches unless things go really haywire. Through the air, the Colts like to spread things around and have not had high pass volume yet this season. Their primary targets are WR Michael Pittman Jr. and TE Tyler Warren. The Colts are also expected to be without WR Alec Pierce in this game, which should open the door for a big role for second year WR Adonai Mitchell, who drew praise all offseason.
You must be logged in to view collective notes about a game.
You must be logged in to add notes about a game.